Chapter 0215
103. 103.
Calvin.
I wait. I wait patiently for her to come back. I didn’t know where she went, but I can take a pretty damn good guess. She was
mad; I understand that more than anything. If anyone is pissed off and hurt at what Emma has been doing, then it’s me. She has
caused me and Gunner more hurt than I’m ever willing to
admit.
I hear the door unlock, but I don’t move. I’m not even sure what the hell I am doing here. The boys are at
my house with the nanny. For some reason, I feel like I should be here.
Ava stops dead in her tracks. “Cal, I didn’t expect you to still be here.”
Her eyes were red and puffy. She has been crying: that much is clear. Words honestly fail me. I have no
F***ing idea what the hell to tell her.
“I thought I would wait for you,” I say as she takes a seat. “Where have you been?”
I knew where she went after she realized that Emma was Gunner’s mom. That was hours ago, I don’t
know where she went after. I’m sure confronting Emma didn’t take almost three hours.
“I needed to think, so I just drove around,” she whispers. “Gosh! This is so hard for me. Not only because I love Gunner like my
own and it kills me to watch him hurt, but also because I see myself in him.”
I don’t know much about Ava. I was about two years ahead of her in school. We weren’t friends back then, and I didn’t pay
attention to any girl that wasn’t Emma.
Even now, I don’t know much about her. I kept myself closed off. I felt it would be unfair to dig deep into her life when I barely told
her anything deep about mine. All I know is that Rowan hurt her pretty badly. Just like Emma destroyed.
“Why?” I ask curiously.
“Because I suffered the same fate as him when I was younger. I was unwanted. For me, it was much harder because I was
unwanted by both my family and Rowan’s family. I didn’t understand why they didn’t like me. I tried so hard to get them to love
me, but they never did. In fact, it got worse as I got older.”
I didn’t know that about her Unlike other boys who tried getting close to her so they could get close to Emma, i didn’t. I thought
their tactic was downright cruel. Using one sister to get another was utterly disgusting
I’m so sorry, Ava
There was nothing else I could say to comfort her. I don’t even know how to comfort Gunner when he asks about Emma, so how
can I comfort Ava?
“It’s okay. It was a long time ago, and I’m slowly starting to heal” she pauses. “In any case, this isn’t about me. I want to know the
truth. How did Emma end up being Gunner’s mom?”
I sigh. I was dreading this question. Not because I don’t want to tell her what happened, but because I don’t want to remember
the painful memories.
“Well, you know about my love for her from high school,” I start and she nods.
“Yes, definitely. Everyone knew it, just like everyone knew I wanted Rowan.”
This was so messed up. We both somehow ended up with the people we wanted, but in the end, it turned out to be a nightmare.
Both of us got hurt really, F***ing badly. Maybe we should have stayed away from them. It seems like Rowan and Emma were
meant to be. It’s like Ava and I got punished for getting in the
way of that.
“We’ll I tried everything to get her to notice me, but she never did. It wasn’t even possible when the person I had to compete
against was Rowan. Like you said when we met again, I was nerdy, Cal. There was nothing S**y about me,” I began, but Ava
interrupted me by chuckling.
“Have you seen yourself in glasses? You’re like a woman’s nerdy fantasy. You probably star in ladies dreams as either a hot
professor or a librarian.”
I laugh at that despite myself.
“Maybe now, but not back then. Emma was probably disgusted with me. I mean, come on, even I have to admit I looked terrible
back then. I wouldn’t have wanted to date myself” I continued.
“We finished high school, and in the summer before college, I decided to work on myself. It took a lot of effort, but I got to the
point where I was actually proud of how I looked. I even started getting appreciative
glances from girls”
It had been the highlight of my life at that age. It felt good to be attractive. It felt F***ing great.