Chapter 6

I head back to where I last saw Stephanie and Taylor which was where the fight was.

"What happened?" Stephanie ask me once I saw them.

"Is Aiden okay?" Taylor asked, concern evident in her tone. I give her a weird look before ignoring the fact that she's worries about my brother.

"He's fine apart from being such a dick." I respond once I'm calm down. "Anyway, I got to pee."

"Okay. We'll look for a place to sit down." Stephanie tell me. I smile and nod my head then head to the bathroom.

Once I'm done doing my business, I wash my hands and get out of the bathroom.

"That took a while." Brent came out of nowhere. I look at him in surprise.

He smirks, grab my hand, and drag me away. What is it with boys and dragging me away today?

Brent drag me to the parking lot and stop when we reach his car. I look at him, totally confused. He unlocks his car and open the passenger seat. I watch as he takes out a first aid kit from the car.

"Help me." He orders, handing me the first aid kit.

I scoff, "Why me?"

He points at his swollen face, "My face is like this because of your brother."

"And plus, he's going to get angrier if he sees you with me," he mutters under his breath. I shake my head in disbelief and grab the first aid kit from him. I open it and grab the alcohol wipes and a few bandages then hand him the first aid kit. He happily accepted it and put it in the backseat then sit down on the passenger seat so I can clean his wounds.

I take out the alcohol wipe and carefully place it on a cut on his forehead.

"Why do you have a first aid kit in your car? Does this happen to you a lot or what?" I ask so it won't be so quiet.

"What can I say, I'm a badass." I roll my eyes at his response and rub the wipe directly on his cut. He let out a groan.

"Not so badass now, are we?" I raise an eyebrow. He looks at me and shake his head.

After I finish cleaning up a few cuts on his face and his bruised knuckle, I bandage it. "There. Happy now?" I finish and turn to walk away.

"Wanna go somewhere?" I stop in my track and turn back to him.

He raises an eyebrow and smirk. I was about to say no but he grabs my hand and push me to get in his car. He quickly closes the door to the passenger seat and run to get in the driver's seat.

"I don't want to go anywhere with you, especially after what just happened." I tell him but he ignores me and turn on the engine then he quickly drives out of the parking lot. I look at him with my mouth slightly open in disbelief.

I cannot believe this.

"You know, this is basically kidnapping, right?" I tell him.

He ignores me again.

"Jerk." I mumble.

"Bitch." He retorts, clearly hearing what I just said.

"Son of a mother trucker." I remark.

He glances at me and say in a playful tone, "Kind of hard for that when I don't have a mom."

"Oh. I-"

"It's fine." He quickly dismisses it.

The entire drive was filled with silence.

-

"What are we doing here?" I ask Brent while looking out to the ocean on the edge of the cliff.

"For this." I hear him say before I feel a strong hold on me then I am suddenly falling and being submerged under the water. The familiar feeling comes rushing back and it felt like it was just yesterday.

"Avani, sweetie, the water is not going to hurt you. Just try, please."

I open my eyes and start gasping for air under water. I quickly swim up to the surface and back to shore. I start coughing and hyperventilating.

"Why the hell did you do that!" I yell angrily at Brent as he swims up to shore too.

I gasp and gasp for air but it's not helping.

"The water won't hurt you."

"Avani-" Brent try to calm me down but I can't.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know you were scared of water." He held out his hand to touch me, but I step back from him. Breathe, Avani. Just breathe.

"I- I'm not scared of water. I just-" I say in between breathe.

"Hey... Hey, just breathe. Everything's fine." Brent hold me still, so I won't pace around. I look at him and worry is clear on his face. I breath in and out and continue doing so until I feel better.

"Sorry, I just- I didn't know you were going to do that and it surprised me and I- I had a bad experience with water when I was little and it took a few months for me to get back in the water again." I babble.

"I'm sorry too." Brent apologizes.

"It's okay. You didn't know."

"I should've told you first instead I practically forced you into it."

I don't know why but seeing Brent apologizing to me just brings a smile to my face. He notices my sudden change of behavior.

"Hey! We were having a moment and you ruined it." He says.

I laugh at his response and say sarcastically, "I'm sorry. You're right. That was one of the most heartwarming moment I've ever had."

He shakes his head, "Whatever." He walks away from me and I follow behind him laughing.

We reach the cliff that we were earlier, and Brent sit down close to the edge, looking out at the ocean. I sit down beside him and watch him watch the ocean.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" He asks.

"Yeah, beautifully ugly." I say and he turn to me, chuckling. He knew I was looking at him.

"Please. You know you want all this." He gestures to his body.

I sigh and look out at the ocean, for real this time. "Why were you guys fighting?" I blurt out.

"And don't say it's because of me." I warn him.

He slightly smiles and focus on the waves of the ocean. "During freshman year, Aiden went out with a girl name Samantha," Brent began and I look at him in surprise. I didn't actually think he would tell me the real reason.

"I liked her too. She had a way of making you feel... like yourself. We began to talk more and before I knew it, she was leaving Aiden for me. Aiden was mad at me and still is. But I didn't care because I got the girl. Until one day, she left me too. So, when Aiden saw me with you, I guess he thought I would take you away from him too or something. He warned me to stay away from you and all of a sudden we started fighting."

I look at Brent, dazed. "In love with me yet?" He asks with a smirk, snapping me out of my reverie.

"Never in your wildest dreams." I spit out and get up from my comfortable spot.

"Take me back to the beach. Stephanie and Taylor are probably looking for me." I tell Brent.

-

"Oh my god Avani!" Stephanie run to me. "I was worried sick! Where the hell were you?"

"I'm fine, mom." I roll my eyes at Stephanie overreacting. She sneers.

"Okay, we got to go. My mom's waiting for us." Stephanie say and we walk to the parking lot.