Tradition Comes Third

All Together

 Adrian was sitting on his porch when I got to his house. He a cup of coffee in his hands, and a pair of sunglasses on.

"Look who it is," he said as I walked up the driveway. "Where did you disappear to last night?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing," I said sitting down next to him. "We were there for only five minutes before you ditched me."

"Ditched you? I turned around and you were gone. Sounds like you had a successful night though."

"Yeah, it wasn't bad."

"Who is she?"

"Ava." I stretched my legs out in front of me. "She just started at Westwood."

"You didn't even want to go to that party and you end up hooking up with a girl."

I shook my head and ran my fingers through my curls. "We talked. Nothing else like that happened."

"Then why are you wearing that shirt?"

I looked down to see I still had on the shirt splattered with paint that Ava gave me last night.

"Some drunk guy spilled beer all over me," I told him. "Is my bag still in your room? I have to go home and start on some homework."

"Yeah, it's still there."

I went into Adrian's house, and up his stairs to his bedroom. My backpack was sitting on the ground beside his closet. I pulled out the clothes I had packed and changed into them. I threw my bag over my back. I could see Adrian's parents through his window. They were sitting on a set of lawn chairs in the backyard talking to each other. I passed Adrian on my way out and we said our goodbyes.

When I got to my house, Mom's car was in the driveway. She had the trunk open, and I could see that it was full of groceries. She had her arms full of bags. I jogged forward and grabbed the remaining bags.

"Hi, sweetheart," she said with a smile. "How was your night?"

"It was good," I said. "You got a lot of food."

I followed her into the house, and we set the bags down on the counter. Mom opened up the fridge, began digging through the bags and put the food away.

"Well, I'll need to start cooking more once your father gets out," she told me.

"Mom, what's going to change when Dad moves in?" I asked her. "Like, are we going to move a farm?"

Mom chuckled and shook her head.

"Who put that idea in your head?" she asked.

"Dad's always lived on a farm," I said. "Won't he want to go back to one?"

"Your father has been in prison for the past sixteen years." Mom folded up the empty grocery bags and stuck them under the sink. "He's excited just to be with his family. It won't matter where we are living."

I nodded my head and she reached out to hug me. I have towered over Mom since I was fourteen, and her head was on my chest. I hoped she couldn't smell any of beer from that party.

"I'm going to go up and shower, and then I have a bunch of homework to do," I said.

"Work hard, sweetie," she said. "I'll be down here anything."

I ran up the stairs and threw my bag onto my bed. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to charge it and I saw a message from Ava.

Thank you for staying last night.

I wasn't sure how to reply, so I didn't. I took a shower, and then worked on homework for the rest of the day.

--

I spent the day at scl in fear of going to calculus. Mr. Anderson always gave us back our quizzes at the beginning of class. He didn't say a word as he walked around the class. He slid them upside down on each of our desks. I peeked at mine to see that I got an eighty on it. I couldn't really complain, but I usually aim for a ninety or higher. Between the sighs and silent sobs around me, I knew I was lucky to get the mark that I got.

When class ended I weaved my way through the hall full of teenagers. At my locker, I saw Ava leaning up against it. Her hair was braided down her back, and she had on a denim dress and a pair of tights. I swallowed past the lump in my throat. She looked up and smiled.

"How'd you know this was my locker?" I asked.

"I saw you at it as I was walking to art," she told me. "You never answered my text."

"Sorry," I said opening my locker. "I had a lot of work to do last night. I must have forgot."

Ava rested her head so that it was on the edge of the locker door. I could feel the heat rush up to my cheeks as her beautiful blue eyes followed my every move.

"I know I can be really blunt," she said. "I'm sorry if that scared you off."

"No, I enjoy talking to you," I said. "I guess I'm just not used to a girl talking to me."

Ava's lips tugged into a smile.

"Hey, beautiful," a voice said. "Why waste your time by talking to Wilcox?"

I looked up to see that it was Chris Torres. He was the human embodiment of testosterone. He was on the football team, and went to the gym at least five times a week. He wore shirts that were a size too small to try to define his muscles more. He put his hand on my locker so that he was leaning over Ava. She rolled her eyes.

"How come I haven't seen you around before?" Chris asked her.

"Because I've been avoiding you," she snapped.

"Someone is in a bad mood," he said. "Let me drive you home. I'll put you in a better mood."

I had filled my bag full of textbooks and threw it over my shoulder. Ava slipped her arm around my side, and looked up at Chris. His fingers were curled into the locker, and his knuckles had turned white.

"Don't you have some protein shake you're supposed to be drinking?" she asked him.

He slammed the locker door shut, and I pulled Ava to the side so that she won't be hit by the door. Chris stormed away. I reached out and locked my locker.

"He can be quite a jerk," I said.

"Don't worry about it," she said. "Every high school has one of those guys."

Ava followed close beside me as I walked out of the school. Adrian was waiting at the bottom of the concrete stairs. He was looking down at his phone in his hands. Ava stopped when I stood beside Adrian. He looked up, and his attention was focused on her.

"This is Ava," I introduced her. "I met her at the party Saturday night."

"Oh, so this is the mystery girl." Adrian shook her hand. "Nice to meet you."

"This is my best friend Adrian," I said.

The three of us started walking towards our houses.