While her dad, brother and Brianna were keeping secrets from her, she had secrets of her own and she was never going to tell them. This particular week was very hard on her because Eric's father had been in another dating scandal. He was really zeroing on all her insecurities which she never had until she met him.
Apparently Eric's father was photographed on a very passionate date with a slightly old theatre actress all the way from France. Eric's father was a mid-forties widow. His wife- Eri's mother, had died when Eric was sixteen. Mr Blackstone being Eric's father, went back into the dating game two years later. He was a notorious playboy. Featured in magazines for being one of the most handsome men in the country, while also being featured in magazines for winning businessman of the year award and the scandals of his dating life.
Every woman in his life always think they are going to be the one who changes him but they are always left heartbroken. He dates very famous people, very publicly and he dates outside of the country. When asked why he never dates women in the country he answered by saying that he didn't want to date someone who knew his son or his wife by mistake.
Eric didn't care for the explanation though because it always pissed him off when his dad was in another dating scandal. And when he was beyond pissed he took out all his emotions on poor Ava.
"I TOLD YOU TO RUNN!!!" Eric was screaming at Ava while she was looking down unmoving.
He had dragged her to the running track and just commanded her to run so that she can 'reduce all the fat' in her body.
She had been humiliated enough that she didn't need his unstable ass on her back. She refused to obey the command and on the note that he was yelling at her, she shook her head in a very tiny manner and didn't say anything. Mia who was the mean girl and had fucked Eric a couple of times before his college football career crumbled was deeply offended when she saw Ava saying no to Eric.
She took a step forward to be close to Ava and pushed her back with full force causing her to stumble. Seeing Ava trying to balance herself, she lifted her arm and was about to slap Ava. She closed her eyes and tried to toughen up for the blow.
"I told you I will deal with this!" Eric exclaimed through gritted teeth while holding Mia's arm, stopping her from swinging at Ava.
She was furious and she tried to snatch her arm from Eric but Eric gripped her hand very hard, almost crushing her wrist.
"You're hu..hurting m-" she couldn't even finish the sentence because Eric was so angry that he kept squeezing and squeezing and his gaze had completely darkened.
"Eric." Fritz put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed lightly. Ava looked at Fritz and he pointed at Ava using his eyes to show Eric that Ava was afraid.
Eric let go and adjusted himself and stood up straight. He stretched out his arm to receive something and Ken handed him his phone.
"If you don't run, I will share this video of you STUFFING your face!" He played the video of her eating the food that he had forced her to eat. Ava was about to shake her head again but then she remembered that his brother had social media and the minute that she starts trending he will know and it will create many troubles for them.
Ava cleared her throat. She took off her oversized hoodie that she used to hide her belly rolls. She threw it on the ground and looked at Eric trying to draw attention away from her belly rolls.
"Let's start with a lap and see how you do." He looked smug and Ava wished she could spit on him.
She started jogging from the starting point and ran slowly around the track. The track was huge but she could do it because although she didn't participate in sports anymore she actually was part of the track team back in high school and even won a bronze medal three times and one silver. She would have continued being an athlete in college had her mother not fallen sick and eventually died. After that she just didn't have passion for sports anymore.
Her thoughts including the nostalgia had consumed her so much that by the time she reconnected with her body she was close to being done with the lap. Her body though could tell that today she did something different and she needed to take a breather.
"Not bad." Eric rested his hand on her back while she was bent on her knees, catching her breath.
"Do you feel like you have ran enough?"
"Make her run some more!" Mia was still bitter about what Eric had done to her and she was going to punish Ava for it.
"Shut up!" Eric scolded and that just ignited the fire of fury inside of Mia and her face wasn't hiding it either.
"One last lap." Eric commanded in a breezy voice. Ava didn't argue, she stood up straight and started jogging again. While she was jogging Eric caught up to her and ran with her.
"Keep up." He was trying to smile or was he just planning something more sinister Ava didn't actually know. Ava didn't want him near her so she increased her speed, when Eric was catching up she increased it even more. Her body was screaming for her to take it easy but she figure she will finish fast and she really just didn't want to be near Eric while she was running out of breath. Eric finally caught up with her.
"You can actually run? I'm proud of you." He sounded really genuine and he was but Ava didn't believe him.
Ava didn't say anything to him, she was about to let him eat her dust again but her body decided that it wanted to stop.
"Can you please run slowly, I have an injury and I wanna run with you." Ava stopped running and gave him a confused look.
"Do you want me to run or do you want me to babysit you while you run?" Ava didn't even know what she was saying, she was just trying to look strong but she was so nervous that her brain was just putting random words together and making them a sentence.
"Can we please not fight?" Eric begged in a soft tone, "at least not in front of people." He looked at his entourage referring to them as 'people'.
"Wha-" Ava didn't have the energy to ask the question she wanted to ask.
She began jogging again and Eric followed her and ran side by side with her. As they were near finishing the lap, he turned to her and asked, "you glad we did this right?"
Ava wanted to curse at him but she said nothing. Seeing her quite Eric said, "I feel happy, we just spent time as a couple, you know couple things." Ava shook her head and then they finished their lap. Ava bent down again and was breathing in and out heavily that she thought she was about to collapse.
Fritz handed Eric a bottle of water and he drank from it, "do you want water fatty?" he laughed along with his squad. Ava reached out her hand gesturing that she would love some and Eric looked like he was about to hand the water to her but her then took the water bottle back.
"You really look bad fatty, how about you collapse?" After he said that Ava stood up straight snatched her hoodie from Fritz who had picked it up from the ground after she had tossed it there. She walked away from them and prayed that Eric didn't have anymore plans to torment her today. She ended up collapsing behind the bleachers and just welcomed the breeze that was hitting her.
Ten or so minutes had passed and Ava was woken from her peace by water being poured on her face.
"Get up! Get up!" Mia was busy kicking her on her sides while yelling at her. "Get up you whale!!" she sounded furious so Ava immediately stood up.
Mia dragged her back to the track, "Run!" She commanded. Ava was take by surprise, they had already done this bit and she looked around and found it was only Mia and her girl squad that had nothing to do with Eric.
"Who are you looking for?" Mia was aware of something between Eric and Ava that she wasn't sure was what, but her intuition told her that Ava needed to be reminded that she was a fatty that Eric was bullying for fun. She was also still pissed about earlier, how could Eric embarrass her like that?
Ava shook her head, she didn't want to mention his name as that might sermon him.
"RUN!" Mia screamed but Ava remained where she was. She didn't care about Mia, as long as Eric wasn't present she wasn't going to do shit.
"Fine, you forced me to do this." She said it in a relaxed tone but it was laced with a poisonous surprise. Mia was
Two of Mia's friends came holding a basket that was a little big and it had some ballons inside that were filled with what Ava thought was more water. Mia took the first shot and that is when Ava discovered that the balloons were filled with Paint.
"It's not washable!" Mia sounded very happily evil as she threw another one. Ava started running and the mean followed her throwing the balloons at her. "Run you Buffalo!" They laughed as she was trying to duck the balloons thrown at her.
They let her go after their balloons had ran out which was thirty minutes later and she was beyond exhausted and she was covered in paint. She couldn't go home like this and she was crying her eyes out trying to understand why they had to be mean to her.
She went to the ground floor bathroom very quickly, she as messy and she was a mess herself. She couldn't control her tears and she couldn't stop crying. Tears and snort mixed together and she had a few lumps on her throat that she had clear from time to time. She wanted to use the girls bathroom but she heard some voices coming from inside so she didn't go in. A lot of people had seen her this messy today and she was beyond embarrassed she didn't need any more people giving her stares.
She opted to go the handicap bathroom because she knew it was barely used plus it sounded real quite right now. She opened the door and collided into someone's hard chest. After that she didn't dare look up instead she buried her face into her palms and cried so hard that she started to shake.
She was crying hard and loud, one more person had seen her like this and she just couldn't stand it anymore. She was just thinking about she might have accidentally just gotten paint on the poor stranger's sweater. The tears kept coming and she laid her forehead on the stranger's chest and continued sobbing. Her tears and some of her snort were getting everywhere but she just couldn't stop herself. She just felt broken at that moment.
"I….I'm…so…sor….I'm so…sorry." She was finally able to form words, but she continued sobbing and she hadn't looked up at who the stranger was, she was just hoping for understanding from him.
"Shhhhhh…" The stranger enveloped her into a warm hug. He was tightly holding her.
Ava felt some comfort from his embrace. To her as he tightened the hug, it felt like he was promising her that he wouldn't let her break and it was comforting her so much that she felt herself getting better.
She hugged him back impulsively and he started alternating between rubbing her back in circular motions and brushing her head in the back, pushing her hair back.
"You're okay…" The soft voice spoke and then the unexpected happened, the stranger gave her a deep peck on the forehead, "I got you…" he whispered after the peck.
It took a while for Ava's mind to register what had just happened but when it dinged in her mind she immediately looked up and even through the heavy tears that were clouding her eyes but she could never mistake that sharp jawline and chin, the black straightened and slicked back hair and those grey eyes.
She pulled back from the hug in a blink of an eye and her eyes widened as slow tears streamed down her face.
"So tell me, Who Made You CRY!?" His tone had went from soft and sympathetic to being very deep and cold when he said the last two words. His gaze had also changed but only Fritz could tell the difference.