Page 149 of Heartache Duet

We spend the rest of the class listening to Miss Salas talk and talk and talk without ever really saying anything. When the period’s over, I turn to Ava, motion to Roy. “That was impressive.”

Ava shrugs. “I’m sick of the world dictating how I feel or how I act or what I do,” she says, her brow furrowed. “I’m over it, you know?”

“Why do I feel personally attacked right now,” I say, half-joking as I pick up my bag and ball.

“Don’t feel like that,” she assures, walking out of the room with me. “It’s not about you, Connor. You just gave me a hell of a lot of perspective.”

We stop just outside the room and turn to each other. “How so?”

“I don’t know,” she murmurs. “I feel like… like my mind is a mess right now, but I’m seventeen, and I’m going to have that same mind for a long time. And that mind is going to make a lot of bad decisions before I learn from them and start making the right ones.”

My eyebrows lift.

She shrugs. “I’m not like you. I don’t have one goal set for the rest of my life. There is no end game for me. But there are two things that I know I want, and the first is to find a way to get out of this shitshow of a town.”

“And the second?” I ask.

With a sigh, she shakes her head. “I gotta get to class. I’ll see you around, okay?”

* * *

Today’s pep rally is the same as all the other ones prior. We watch the cheerleaders’ new routine, and then Coach calls us all up one-by-one while we listen to the cheers of our peers. The only thing different with today’s is that Ava is here.

In the stands.

Standing out.

Out of place.

She doesn’t clap or shout or do much of anything. Still, I can’t seem to take my eyes off of her. “She promised Trevor she’d make the most of her last semester,” Karen says, waving her pompom all over my face.

I swipe her arm away, my eyes finding Ava again. “So that means pep rallies?”

“School spirit, you know. Rah! Rah! Rah! Goooo, Wildcats!”

“Huh.”

Karen laughs. “Did you think she was here to support you?”

“No.” Maybe.

“You sure look butthurt for someone who doesn’t even want to be friends with her.”

My eyes snap to hers. “She told you that?”

Karen nods, a twinkle in her eye.

“It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s that I can’t.”

“Uh huh.”

Coach calls out Rhys’s name and Ava smiles, claps for the first time. “See that?” Karen says. “She dumped his sorry ass, and they became better friends.” She pats my head as if I’m a dog. “You should be more like Rhys.”

I roll my eyes. “You should be more like Ava.”

Karen laughs. “That’s one uphill battle I’ll never climb.”

I face her.