* * *

"I was hoping you and Alena could come down for a weekend? I would love to see you girls."

"I was hoping you and Alena could come down for a weekend? I would love to see you girls."

"I was hoping you and Alena could come down for a weekend? I would love to see you girls."

I spent the better part of this afternoon befuddled. I kept repeating her question over and over again in my head. I was at a loss for words. I knew this was something I definitely had to talk to Alena about, there were things I could and have kept from Alena but this was not one of them. It's been a week since my mums revelation and I was left dumb founded. I had asked her to give me time to look at my school and work schedule. It was a quick cop out but no doubt the truth, some of it.

If we ended up deciding to go visit her.

I was becoming emotionally and mentally drained from all these surprises that were occurring. It was Friday and I had no intentions of going anywhere or talking to anyone, as soon as I get home I plan on having a hot shower before jumping into my pjs and binge watching TV.

As soon as we got home, Alena ran upstairs to drop her school bag into her room while I walked into the kitchen to start dinner. I was in the middle of dicing the onion when Isaac arrived home. My eyes creased in suspicion at the sight of Isaac in a suit.

'Where did he go that required him to wear a suit?'

'What does he do during the day when we are at school?'

"Honey, I'm home!" He called out from the front door. Rolling my eyes I chuckled at Isaac and his lame attempt at being funny.

"In the kitchen, dearie!" I responded, mockingly.

He laughed as he sat on the bar stool directly in from of me, watching me work as I continued to dice up the onions. When I looked up, my eyes locked with his, he had a serious look on his face that I couldn't explain.

"What?" I asked. I watched on as he blinked three times before lightly shaking his head.

"I know you missed me but ease up on the tears, baby girl." He whispered.

I pretended to laugh before flicking a few pieces of onion at Isaac.

"Hey! Easy on the Armani." He responded before taking his jacket and tie off, rolling up his sleeves exposing his tattoos.

"Dinner will be ready in twenty minutes, go put your sweats on." I said, not looking at him as I grabbed the pot from the cupboard.

Isaac, completely ignoring me, pushes me out of the way before grabbing my knife, continues to cut the onions for me. Rolling my eyes I proceeded to fill the pot with potato, we both continued to prepare dinner in complete silence. After ten minutes Isaac finally agreed to get changed because there wasn't anything left for him to do, the chicken parmigiana was in the oven cooking slowly. When he came back he took over mashing the potato and "demanded" I go have a shower and get changed.

Not arguing I did just that, grabbing a pair of black sweats and an oversized jumper I stole from Isaac, I was about to walk into the bathroom until I saw Alena standing at my door fiddling with her fingers.

"Alena, you okay?" I asked. I watched as she bit on her bottom lip nervously.

"Avi, is Drew coming over tonight?" She asked, still standing in the doorway. I just shook my head slowly at her.

"Why?"

"I wanna ask him something." She responded as she looked down.

"What did you want to ask him?" I asked as I titled my head slightly in question.

"Can I ask you something instead? Please don't be mad." She asked, completely ignoring my question.

"Okay?"

"I wanna meet dad, Avery."

I sat down on the edge of my bed with a blank stare. I wasn't ready to have this conversation right now.

"Does he want to meet us?" She asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I tried to figure out a way to start this conversation.

"Tell me Avi! I know you're lying to me!" She yelled out in anger. My eyebrows raised in challenge at her.

"Watch your tone." I responded in a clipped tone. I definitely wasn't in the mood for the attitude she was showing. I watched as she let out a sigh before walking over to sit next to me.

"I'm sorry Avi. Just tell me if he doesn't want to see us." She whispered as she looked down at the carpet.

* * *

It was at that point that I knew it was time to tell her. And that is what I did, I told her everything about what happened at the cafe and why I didn't want to tell her for the time being. I was glad that she wasn't upset with me and understood why I was reserved. Alena had asked that I take her with me the next time I met up with him, I told her the truth that I hadn't thought about a second meet up but I promised I would think about it. By the end of our conversation I felt relieved that this was all out in the open. Feeling somewhat relaxed about the situation, I grabbed my clothes and walked into the bathroom across the hallway.

I used to enjoy shower times, it was always refreshing and relaxing for me. Now, not so much. I was always on edge, always in a rush. I would have tunnel vision when I would shower, it was a repeating cycle for me;

1) Put an oversized towel over the mirror
2) Remove clothes and bandages
3) Not looking down, I'd shower in record time
4) Quickly dry up, get dressed and slap on clean bandages.

This time around though I forgot to cover the full length mirror, exposing my skin to all the marks that were now on my body. I looked at the areas that had been bruised, now fading away and the stitches where the bullet was. My fingers lightly traced over this scar back and forth as I felt over where the stitches used to me. I let out a tired sigh as my eyes flickered over to my arm which clearly had the word NOAH written on it. My eyes lingered onto the scar of his name. Looking away from the mirror I brought my arm up to get a closer view at it. It was so clearly written as well, somehow he managed to imprint his name neatly without any concerns.

The buzzing of my phone caused me to jump. I looked around until I saw my phone sitting helplessly on the vanity. Opening it I read the message, not surprised by the sender,

Fri, Apr 29, 06:25 PM
Noah: How does my name look on your arm baby? I think about you every night, I love you babe.

My breath caught in my throat at his message. I didn't want to claim defeat but I had to, it was now time to change my number. I was naive to think that if I didn't respond, he would get the hint and leave me alone. I couldn't handle these messages anymore, I had wanted to put a face on and pretend to the world that I was fine but I'm not, I'm no where near being fine and his messages were only fucking with my head more and more as each day went by.

Not responding to his messages as always, I jumped into the shower to get this process over and done with. I managed to get through with my shampoo and conditioner until I got to washing my body. I scrubbed over my arm slowly and watched as his name kept reappearing. I scrubbed over and over again until I let out a cry, I wanted some kind of miracle where if I scrubbed hard enough his name would disappear. I slid down the corner of the shower cradling my knees to my chest with my right arm, as my left arm was outstretched and exposed to the water that was innocently dropping onto his name. I let out a silent cry as I bit down onto my knee, allowing the tears to fall freely down my face as they blended in with the water. I felt free to cry without judgement or sympathy from the people around me.

"Avery?" Isaac's deep voice muffled through the door. I didn't respond, I couldn't find my voice to respond to him.

"You okay, BooBear?" He asked with worry.

I cleared my throats before speaking up slowly and as clear as possible, "Yeah, won't be long."

There were a few seconds of silence from his end, "Okay.. uh- well, dinner is ready."

"Okay I'll be right out." I spoke out. Hoping that my voice didn't sound like I had been crying, but I could hear the shakiness in my tone as I responded.

Standing up, I finished the rest of my shower before letting the water fall over my face for a minute. It was like I was washing away all trace of my tears. As soon as I finished, I quickly got dressed before placing a new bandage around my forearm. There was a high probability that I didn't need these bandages anymore, but there was no way in hell I was going to have this scar roam free for everyone to see.

Making my way downstairs, I took a deep breath in before walking into the kitchen, smiling at Isaac and Alena before joining them for dinner.

One thing I was good was hiding my emotions about what happened that night.

* * *

After dinner I went straight to bed before breaking down, letting the tears fall down quietly on my pillow. Waking up was the hardest part because I had puffy eyes from all the crying I did last night. I looked at the time and saw that it was six in the morning and both Alena and Isaac were still fast asleep. I had the sudden urge to go for a drive, so I quickly left a note for Isaac before jumping on my bike and riding off. At first I had no idea where I was going until I found myself drifting towards the house I grew up in, the house I called home.

When I arrived I noticed Henry's car wasn't at the front, my guess is that he would be at work. Looking at my watch it was almost eleven in the morning, I knew I had several hours to myself. I walked up the driveway slowly, looking around as I tried to picture all the good memories I had of this house. There weren't that many but we still had some good memories before they all turned to shit.

Unlocking the door I prayed that they hadn't changed the locks. Thankful that the door made a click sound, confirming that they hadn't changed the locks.

'That asshole isn't smart enough to think about changing the locks.'

Walking in I was hit in the face with the smell of stale cigarettes. The house looked like a hurricane had swept through, bottles and take out containers were lying around everywhere. Quickly making my way upstairs, I didn't want to spend too much time in this house.

I stood in front of my door as I stared at it, contemplating if I should open it or not. Was I ready to see if she had thrown all my belongings out or had destroyed everything that remained here. Much to my surprise, when I opened it I saw everything was in order. There were so many sentimental things here but I didn't have the boot space for them. Feeling heart broken, I went downstairs before going out the back.

The backyard was always my favourite because it connected to a river and then connected to the forest. It was the perfect escape.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

The life was sucked out of me at the sound of Noah's voice which was directly behind me. My heart was suddenly beating in my throat and all I could hear was the beat going a thousand miles an hour.

'How did he know I was here? Was he following me?'

I turned slowly until his face came to view, as soon as I saw his smirk I hit the ground running full speed. I let out a scream, in desperation that someone would hear me.

"Avery!"

Hearing him scream my name only made me scream out in fear more.

"AVERY!"

I let out a scream as my body shook lightly before my eyes sprung open, body jerking up, taking in my surroundings as my head looked around the room frantically. It took a minute for me to realise that I was in still in bed and that it was all a nightmare.

"You okay?!"

I jumped in fear at the sound of Isaac's voice, I was so caught up that I didn't even notice him next to me. He must of ran in from his room because here he sat in nothing but his brief boxers. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I tried to catch my breath. I let out a shaky breath from the fear that I felt, it felt so real. Nodding my head slowly I turned to grab my glass of water, taking a sip, thanking the stars that I brought it up with me after dinner.

He rubbed his hand up and down my back slowly as I drank from my cup, "Wanna talk about it?" He whispered. I shook my head in denial while I tried to maintain eye contact.

"Can you put some pants on?" I asked as my eyes diverted to the ceiling.

Isaac tilted his head slightly before smirking at me, "You've seen me in a lot less than this, BooBear."

My eyes widened in shock that he would bring that up again, "We made a deal to never talk about that, again."

"One day we are going to have to face it." As he got up and started to walk out of my room.

"We already did!" I responded.

"Night, BooBear." He called out. I watched as he walked out, I didn't want to sleep on my own but I definitely was not going to ask him to sleep next to me. After saying goodnight I waited until he was gone, before getting up and sneaking into Alena's room to sleep next to her.

Alena slurred in her sleep as she opened her eyes, "It's just me, Alena." I whispered as I got in next to her.

"Another bad dream?" She asked and watched as I nodded. She waited until I got comfortable before wrapping her small arms around my waist.

"I'll protect you Avi." She whispered.

* * *

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to every single one of you who voted for AQMA in The Fiction Awards! Xx

If only we had a visual of Isaac in his briefs!! Ladies, gather photos of your favourite celebrities you think would be perfect for the role of Isaac and send them to me so I can post them in the next chapter!! Haha

Next Chapter: Our favourite girl is itching to race again.