Ava’s computer pinged. She groaned from her bed on the other side of the room. That was the worst possible thing that she could have heard as she sulked. She didn’t even know why she hadn’t muted or blocked Moore yet. Even thinking about the copy-paste story made her feel uneasy.
Ava begrudgingly dragged herself out of bed and into her desk chair. She might as well see what Moore had to say. Maybe she’d even apologize. Ava clicked on the notification to their chat.
SomeMooreOnTop: hey! ur one of the top stories right now!
SomeMooreOnTop: Greenest Skies is third on the whole website!
Ava cackled.
Really? The balls on this woman. She had the gall, the audacity to blatantly copy Ava’s story as a subplot, then she turns around and congratulates Ava on her story doing well.
Ava was speechless. What even was there to say?
VaguelyPoetic: Thanks
Ava couldn’t muster the ability to say anything more or less. Just a simple thanks. If not for Moore’s recent behavior Ava would have been ecstatic, That was the most popular that any of her stories had ever been, and it was tainted by the fact that she knew Moore would be ripping the new chapter from it’s home and haphazardly jamming it into her story. For all Ava knew she already had. Ava hadn’t bothered opening their shared fiction hosting website since publishing her most recent chapter a week prior. Moore wrote fast, it was more than enough time for her to recklessly twist and contort whatever her “planned” plot had been to accommodate the stolen addition.
SomeMooreOnTop: im really proud of you!!
SomeMooreOnTop: my friend made that!!!!
The message came with a screenshot of Ava’s story ranking third in the popular stories showcase.
Ha. Friend. Moore was not a friend. Not anymore.
VaguelyPoetic: Yes. I made that.
Ava did her best to keep her answers cold and distant. She couldn’t just blow up at her. Eventually Moore would catch on and stop messaging her.
SomeMooreOnTop: you ok?
SomeMooreOnTop: i thought youd be more excited about this
Ava frowned. She wanted to be proud of herself, she really did, but Moore was making it really hard to feel any sort of positive emotions. Ava closed the messenger application and backed away from her desk. She needed to get ready for work.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ava impatiently tapped her foot on the pavement as she waited for Paige’s car to round the corner. She wanted to go home. She’d been looking forward to game night, but Benjamin had to cancel, leaving Ava’s evening frustratingly free. She’d been looking forward to another distraction, but things didn’t always work out the way she wanted.
As it always did, the engine of Paige’s car announced its proximity as it approached, slowly rolling to a stop in front of Ava. She climbed inside without much in terms of a greeting.
Paige cleared her throat slightly as she pressed on the gas. “So Ava.” She glanced at Ava for a moment before returning her focus to the road in front of her. “I was thinking. Sure Benji had to cancel game night, but we can still hang out… You know, If you want to.” Paige sounded uncharacteristically nervous. Was she planning something? Ava understood her hesitance when it came to the gym, but she and Ava spent time together all the time. Had Ava made things weird between the two of them by not walking her home from the gym?
She needed to patch things up between her and Paige. “What did you have in mind?”
“Well… I haven’t actually managed to think it through, Benji only canceled an hour or so ago.” She shrugged, keeping her eyes on the road. “We could just hang out at my place. My roommates are all out visiting their families for thanksgiving.”
“You wanna have our own thanksgiving then?” Ava guessed. “I know you don’t have… the greatest relationship with your family.” Ava tried to say it in the nicest way possible, but she couldn’t help but feel bad about it.
Paige snorted weakly. “That sure is a gentle way of putting it.” She rolled her eyes and her mouth fell into a slight frown.
Ava wasn’t on the best terms with her own parents, but Paige’s situation was much worse. Ava took a breath to apologize, she shouldn’t have brought up the touchy subject, but Paige’s face lightened up before Ava could apologize properly.
Paige looked Ava in the eyes as she stopped the car at a red light. “You want to do our own little thanksgiving?”
“Well I just–” The light turned green and the car lurched forward. “I thought that’s what you were implying when you said your friends were out for thanksgiving.” Ava frowned. “Sorry, thanksgiving probably brings up bad memories for you. It was a bad idea.”
“No it’s fine!” Paige assured, keeping her eyes fixated on the road, Ava appreciated how diligent a driver Paige was. She was always so focused on the road, a very good trait for a delivery woman. “I actually like the idea. It sounds fun.” She smiled sadly for a moment. “I could use a reason to enjoy this time of year.”
Ava’s heart broke. She immediately decided that, yes, she and Paige would be doing their personal thanksgiving celebration. Ava’s relationship with her own family may have been strained, but they tried to celebrate the holidays together, the important ones at least. This was the first time in years that she hadn’t made the cross-country trip to visit the rest of her family for thanksgiving since they moved away.
“Fuck it. Yeah, let’s do it.” Ava said. “I don’t have anything else to do today.”
Ava carried the last of the groceries into Paige’s apartment. It had been a struggle to go shopping for regular groceries on Black Friday. Thankfully, it was late enough in the day that she and Paige avoided the most feral of the shoppers.
Paige had already begun unloading the grocery bags. None of the food they had gotten was fancy in any sense of the word. It was late enough in the day that making food wasn’t really an option so the majority of their haul was pre-made thanksgiving dishes. If they ever decided to do this again they would have to start planning earlier than the day-of so they could actually make their own food and not just scrounge up the entire meal an hour before.
Paige sighed as she placed the rotisserie chicken-It was the closest thing to a turkey that they could find-on the table. “Sorry about the… everything.” She looked at the scattered mess around the room and cringed. “I can’t seem to get my roommates to clean up after themselves.”
Ava had noticed the apartment’s state of disarray but hadn’t thought much of it. “No worries!” Ava tried to keep her own spaces clean, but she couldn’t hold anyone else up to her own standards, especially with three people sharing a space together. “At least it doesn’t smell bad” She laughed. Back in college, Ava had some very hygiene-adverse roommates, discarded clothes and a few neglected chores were nothing compared to that year of olfactory hell, even if it was unsightly.
Ava began tidying up the place what little she could. Paige was setting out the food, so she figured that she could at least make the area a bit more comfortable. Ava obviously didn’t know what items were who’s, but she could at least throw trash away and tuck the various belongings scattered throughout the room into a little pile. It wouldn’t fix much, but it could at least make Ava a little more comfortable.
By the time Ava had finished tidying up as best she could, Paige had taken care of the food. Ava did catch Paige giving her an interesting look as she worked. Maybe it was weird that Ava had just cleaned her house like that.
Paige shook her head, almost like she was trying to hide that she was watching Ava. Ava didn’t think much about it, she often found herself inadvertently staring at people, it happens. She stepped into the kitchen and began portioning out some food for herself.
“So…” Paige started as she nervously scratched the back of her neck. “I realize that I don’t actually know what we should do now. Isn’t Thanksgiving when people catch up with each other? But we don’t need to do that cause we hang out all the time.” Paige grabbed her own plate and served herself a spoonful of mashed potatoes.
“Sure that’s what a lot of people do, but who cares about that.” Ava definitely wasn’t a holiday purist. Holidays could be anything you wanted them to be. “We can do whatever.” She stabbed a shred of the chicken with a fork. “I was thinking we’d just hang out and snack on food together.” She took a bite out of the chicken. “Unless you have any other ideas?”
Paige bit her lip in quiet contemplation for a few moments. “You wanna sit on the couch and watch some movies?”
“That sounds wonderful.”
Ava and Paige nestled into some blankets on Paige’s couch and began debating on what sorts of movies to watch. Eventually they decided on some awful horror movies that were more funny than they were scary.
The food was alright but it wasn’t ever really about the food, it was about the company. After the second movie they were both stuffed and had to put the leftovers away.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Sometime during the third or fourth movie when she and Paige were sufficiently drowsy and slightly delirious, a thought popped into Ava’s head. “You know… if we’re doing Thanksgiving I guess I should say this.” Ava sat up, disentangling herself from Paige, somehow managing to not freak out about the fact that they had practically been laying on top of each other. “Thanks.”
Paige looked up at Ava, confused.
“For taking care of me when I was sick.” Ava clarified. “I didn’t say it back then, but I really appreciate you doing that… And for everything else.” Ava frowned and shrank into herself. “Sorry for being so stubborn sometimes. I’m bad at accepting help. Other people won’t always be around to help me, so I need to be able to take care of myself.”
Paige playfully punched Ava’s shoulder. “I know you’re thankful, you dork.” She blinked slowly, clearly fighting to keep her eyes open. “But it’s nice to hear you say it.”
Ava relaxed, releasing the tension that she hadn’t realized had been growing in her neck.
“And thank you too, Ava. For being so good to me. You make me feel so accepted and comfortable, more than any other cis person I know.” She took a deep breath. Ava couldn’t tell if it was a sigh or a yawn, possibly both. “You’re great, Ava. I hope you know that.”
Ava snorted. “I’m surprised you put up with me to be honest. You support all my… unique weirdness. You go out of your way to make sure I’m okay, even when I tell you not to. Despite my protests, I do appreciate it. Sorry for being so weird about it.”
“Put up with you? I don’t ‘put up with you’, Ava. I want to support you because I–” Paige faltered, seeming to struggle finding the right word. “Because you’re my best friend and I care about you. I do wish that you’d at least consider asking for help when you clearly need it.”
Ava frowned and sighed in defeat. “You’re right. I’ll try to be better.” She needed to be better. Being the way she was was unsustainable at best. She was literally pushing people away; it didn’t take a genius to figure out how that would end up. “Thank you for saying so. I… I know it’s a problem.”
“Hey.” Paige’s voice was soft, almost a whisper. “It’s okay, we all have meaningless hangups about shit. Nobody is truly independent, there’s no shame in accepting help when you need it.”
Ava begged to differ. She took care of herself. She had a good job, she was confident and capable. She was supposed to be able to do this.
Paige must have noticed Ava about to object, because she cut her off as soon as she opened her mouth. “And no. You’re not ‘supposed to be able to do everything alone’ everyone needs help. You are not an exception.”
Ava deflated. She didn’t want to believe that, but deep down she knew it was true. It was why things didn’t work out with Sasha. All she ever did was take. She needed so much from Ava: attention, favors, love, time, money, she demanded everything she could from Ava but she hardly ever did anything for Ava. Ava had thought that’s why she was good for her, she was someone who didn’t make Ava feel incompetent by doing things for her, in reality she was just being neglectful.
Ava surprised both them by leaning forward and hugging Paige. “You’re right.” Paige returned the hug, squeezing Ava tightly. “Thank you… again.” She giggled into Paige’s shoulder, the need for sleep digging its claws deeper into her brain. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Paige made a hum of approval. “Same here.”
Ava released Paige and fell back to her side of the couch. “Next movie?” She asked.
Paige nodded.
They fell asleep less than halfway through the movie.
Ha. Friend. Moore was not a friend. Not anymore.
Avaaa,,,,,,, you are getting this so wrong xD