A/N: Here ya'll go, a nice long party chapter for you, hope you like :)

Chapter 19: Your Third Lock

The group follow Mitch and his nose for parties. He leads them to a house with pulsing music and singing and shouting radiating from it.
     "Call me crazy, but I think there's a party here," Kirstie nudges Avi's arm.
     "Oh no it's not obvious at all," he chuckles. Kirstie liked it when he wore his leather jacket, and he was wearing a leather jacket so she couldn't stop staring at him. She needed to check herself though because before her and Avi could get back to the way they were she needed to find out what his problem was.
     "Kirstie!" Esther calls out, and Kirstie spins around, glad to her friend had come to the party.
      The blonde runs effortlessly in her heels over to hug her friend, at least she assumed they were okay now. "You look amazing, and you're actually in heels," she smiles, admiring Esther's tight jeans and halter type top.
     "Yeah but you," she gestures back at Kirstie. "I'm really happy you invited me out, I needed it and I needed to see you," she pulls her in for another hug. "Now important question, is Kevin here tonight," she points over at the house.
     Kirstie breaks into laughter, "Yes, yes he is," she smirks. "He won't be drinking though, so does that mean you're not?"
     Esther gives her an are you kidding me?' looks and they both laugh. "I need something for courage, so come on," she links her arm through the shorter girls and they walk quickly over to the house.
     "Is the music too loud of has it just been too long since I've been to a party!" Esther shouts just loud enough for Kirstie to hear over the music. The blonde is too busy leading them to the drink table to answer. She is successful and immediately pours two shots and hands one to Esther.
     "Kevin's in the corner, over there by the brightly dressed Marley," she points to the girl in a yellow lace skater dress and sure enough Kevin is standing next to her, Beauden had kept to his word, where he was though, they didn't know.
     Esther glance over at Kevin then back to Kirstie and they take their shots, both grimacing at the sour taste. "So when I'm talking to Kev what are you going to do?"
     Kirstie pours them each another shot, "Find your brother and make him tell me what his problem is. To our second shot of courage," they tap their glasses together and throw them back.
     "God I hate Tequila," Esther gags.
     Kirstie nods in agreement, "It's not great, I thought it was a bottle of vodka," she coughs and places her and Esther's shot glasses aside. "See you on the other side soldier," she jokes, patting      Esther on the shoulder before they went their separate ways.

Esther walks up to Marley and Kevin with a buzz in her head and confidence in her steps. She gets pulled in for a hug by Marley and bright smile from Kevin.
     "Hey Marls, can I borrow Kev for a moment?" she asks.
      Marley's smile falters just a little; the last thing she wanted was to be left alone a party full of people she didn't know. "Uh, sure," she speaks hesitantly.
     "Do you know where Beauden is?" Esther asks when she picks up on the hesitation, she knew Marley well enough to know why there was any hesitation at all.
      Marley shakes her head, "It's okay, I can just stand here, if he sees me he'll come over or vice versa," she nervously chuckles.
     "Scott and Mitch are just at the drinks table, you know them right?" Kevin asks, pointing them out.
     "Yeah, but they always try and make me drink... it's fine, just go, I'll be fine," she gives them a more realistic smile this time, and they take their time but eventually they walk away.

It took Kirstie a while to find Avi, but eventually she did. He was just outside with a beer in his hand watching Beauden take on Darrien in a beer sculling contest. And from what Kirstie could see they were neck and neck until Darrien spluttered and got a face full of beer that made Beauden the winner. Kirstie was glad Marley hadn't witnessed it, Beauden drinking like that would have scared the girl for life, picturing the face Marley would have made makes Kirstie laugh. Hearing her laugh, Avi turns around.
      "Hey," he smiles.
      "Hey," she smiles back, suddenly wishing she had a drink in her hand like he did. She could feel the slight buzz of the shots but it wasn't enough, she wanted a bigger buzz. "Come with me to get a drink?" she asks.
     He nods, "Sure," and follows her back into the house. "I'm gonna have a headache before the night is through," he chuckles before taking a sip of his beer.
       "Why?" Kirstie asks.
       "The music is just so repetitive, you can barely tell where one song ends and the next one starts."
      "It's called hip-hop," Scott jokes from beside them. "Has anyone seen Kevin because he's probably having some sort of panic attack from all the sear words," he laughs.
     "Kevin's with Esther," Kirstie replies.
      "Oooo, doing who knows what," Mitch smirks, biting on the straw that was in his drink.
       That's when Avi takes off, so Kirstie, Mitch and Scott run after him. Kirstie was the first to run, but ended up last because she couldn't run as fast in her shoes as the other two.
       "Oh my god there's mad on my shoes!" she complains when they're back outside and onto the grass, she pulls a face the no one really sees and starts again more carefully because for some reason this patch of grass was really muddy. "Ew the fucking mud," she mumbles to herself, glad when she finally get back to solid concrete and can no longer sink into the ground. She rounds the last corner of the house and almost runs straight into the back of the three men she'd been following.
     Avi was just slightly in front of Scott and Mitch, all looking ahead to where Kevin and Esther were quietly holding hands, just staring at each other and smiling, maybe saying something but not that these four could hear.
      Kirstie takes a hold of Avi's hand, pulling him back. "Let them be happy yeah?" She raises an eyebrow. She knew how weird he felt about his sister and best friend, and how he'd reacted when he'd found out that Esther had a crush on Kevin, and it turns out it was mutual. "Remember you were the one who said you couldn't possibly think of a reason they can't date. You know Kevin better than anyone and you know he won't hurt her," she runs her hand comfortingly down his arm, down that leather jacket that she really liked. And that expression wasn't lost on Mitch who tries his best to get Scott to move, but Scott as always was clueless.
       "Let's go get another drink," Mitch finally tells, almost yells, but with a hint of laughter, at the tall blonde. And they walk back off up into the house.
       "I just think of him like a brother, so you know my brother dating my sister... it's weird to me," he reaches up to scratch the back of his head.
      Kirstie shrugs, "But that's not how they see each other, that just how you see them. To anyone else looking at them, or knowing that they're a couple, it wouldn't be weird."
      "How do you always know the right thing to say?" Avi asks with a warm smile.
      She just smirks, "Just because." She takes his hand, leading him back around the corner and out of sight of Kevin and Esther. She pulls him to a stop and pauses for a long moment before speaking, "Are we okay?"
       Avi frowns, "What do you mean?"
      "You know what I mean, you've been avoiding me, and when we do talk you snap at me, especially when I bring up-"
     "What we've been doing, yeah okay, I do know what you mean," he sighs.
     "Then can you explain to me why you're being weird, I thought the whole thing was working but now I just think you're mad at me and I don't know what I've done wrong."
       Avi shakes his head, "I'm not mad at you, at least not as mad at you as I am at myself. I'm only mad at you because you're getting exactly what you want, which pisses me off because you getting what you want means I can't have what I want. Then I'm mad at myself for letting it get this far and not sticking up for what I want like you do."
       She frowns, "Avi I'm confused."
       "Me too, that's the problem," he runs a hand down his face.
       "Then tell me what you want and maybe I can help you unconfuse us both."
       Avi shakes his head, "I can't."
      Kirstie was getting frustrated now, "Why can't you?"
     "Because I told you I was okay with it, I can't go back on what I said."
     "Sometimes people change their mind and that's okay, but what are you talking about?" she stresses a little, grabbing his shoulders as she talks to him.
      "I don't like what we're doing, just having sex, I'm not that kind of guy, I don't do that and it makes me feel like shit being a part of that," he shouts then takes a deep breath to calm himself, hoping like hell no one had heard him.
     Kirstie takes a step back in shock, "You don't like me?" she asks, tears welling in her eyes.
     Avi's eyes widen, "What? Shit no, I mean yes... I mean I like you so damn much that this is why I can't do this. I don't want just sex, I want a relationship with you Kirstie. That's what I want and can't have because of what you don't want that," he sighs.
     Kirstie squeezes her eyes I shut. "No I do want that Avi, we just can't, it-"
     "It's not good for the team? The team we're not on anymore?' He raises an eyebrow, "I think you're just making excuses because you don't want to be with me, but you don't want anyone else to have me either."
       "No but Avi we'll be back on the team next week and you know it and then it'll be back to how it always is, I want to be respected by the team and that just won't happen if we're in a relationship Avi, I'm sorry," she cries.
      With his hands rested at the top of his jeans, he turns away, he didn't want her to see the tears welling in the corners of his eyes.
       "But when the season's finished, then, then we can be in a relationship, start one over the summer then come back next year with cemented spots and team respect and be the team power couple, because we're better players that Scott and Mitch," she chuckles through the tears.
       "Kirstie, I'm a Senior. How could a relationship just over the summer be enough to keep us strong when we're apart? It's not, it's not nearly long enough. So really it's a relationship now, or never."
       Any hint of a smile Kirstie has disappeared, she hadn't known he was a senior and now when he turned back to face her she could see how truly upset he was.

A/N: Totally wasn't gonna write that scene until later but when it fits it fits so there you go, really upset myself during this one DX

Hannah.