Songs:
Flaws - Bastille 

Stubborn Love - The Lumineers 

| fifty - nine | 

The door shut, leaving Ava broken, in a tear-stained mess, on the floor. Her heart sped rapidly as she stared at the empty space in front of her. He was gone. He left. The only evidence that he once stood in the now empty apartment, was the lingering scent of his musky cologne. 

Ava leaned against a nearby wall, falling down slowly. She wrapped her trembling hands against her bare legs, pulling them up to her chest. She looked down at her semi-bare body, realizing that she was still wearing his t-shirt. 

His scent engulfed her. It slowly hypnotized her, bringing her farther and farther away from reality. Her mind wandered away as the tears streamed down her cheeks. 

This was not her fault. 

This was not all her fault. 

Right? 

Her mind was a sea of lost confusion. Something was once so clear to her was now a blurred mess. It had become clouded by all of the events that had just occurred. 

Ava knew that Harry was right. She shouldn’t have snuck around and spent alone time with Mack. By doing so, she had overstepped her boundaries. He didn’t like Mack. He had made that clear to her countless times. Yet she allowed her own naivety and loneliness to make the one decision that had only left her even more lonely and broken. Instead of being happy, she was left alone, sitting on the cold hard floor, in a mess of tears and smeared mascara. 

Idiot - was all that her subconscious said. She knew that her subconscious was right. She was an idiot to think that it would be okay to lie. When did lying ever do someone good? Lying only ever brought heartache, loss of trust, and loneliness. 

The more that she thought about her actions, the more she hated herself.

They had just gotten back together. Everything was okay. In fact, their relationship had grown stronger since their previous break up. Harry had learnt to trust again. The walls that were solidified around his heart had been bulldozed through, creating space for Ava’s heart to lie next to his own. 

But now - now everything was a mess again. Harry wanted space to think. To process everything that had happened while he was gone. “Space.” Ava muttered to herself. “I’m so sorry, Harry. I’m such an idiot.” The tears that she had subsided a mere moments ago, began to pour down her cheeks. 

- 

The next few days were a blur. A blur of broken emotions and meaningless conversations with coworkers. It wasn’t that Ava didn’t trust Stevie and Jax. In fact, they were the closest people she had in LA. But, as close as she had grown towards them, she couldn’t find it in herself to open up about the mistake that she had made. She knew already what Stevie will say. She will scream “I told you so!”, then go on and on about how dumb it was for Ava to even think it was okay to sneak around Harry’s back. 

Both Stevie and Jax knew just how much Harry disliked Mack. Ava had told them countless amount of times. With that in mind, they didn’t understand why she was hanging out with him in the first place. They didn’t know, however, that Harry didn’t know. From what Ava had told them, he was fine with her hanging out with Mack. Little did they know that Ava lied to them about it all. 

Ava was sitting in her joint office with Stevie. They were both preoccupied with their own assignments. Neither one were talking. The only thing that could be heard, was the clicking sounds of the keyboard, the quick sips of coffee, and the occasional grunt of frustration from Stevie. More or less, they were too focused on their work to address the elephant in the room. That being Ava’s terrible attitude and distance. 

The day went on. Their conversation was limited. Stevie kept her distance from Ava. She wasn’t sure what was going on with her, but she didn’t want to find out. Stevie was the type of person that would listen if you talked, but would not bother to be up front and address the situation. It wasn’t like she didn’t care about her friends. It was that she didn’t find the need to but in where she clearly wasn’t wanted. She figured, if Ava wanted to talk about whatever it was that was bother her, she would come to her. It was as simple as that. 

- 

The next day, Ava continued to be in the same funk as before. She couldn’t shake it. As much as she tried to, she was still stuck in the same depressed funk that she fell into the moment that Harry had declared space. 

“That’s it!” Jax yelled, walking into Stevie and Ava’s office. His arms were flown up into the air and an exaggerated expression was plastered on his face. “You’ve been acting weird for the past week. What the hell went up your ass?” 

Ava looked up from her computer, her brows scrunched together. “Me?” 

“No shit Sherlock.” Jax grunted, obviously frustrated. “You have not been acting yourself. I thought you’d be jumping off the roof excited since Harry should be home for the week. Why are you not happy?” 

Ava’s hands began to sweat. She knew that they were going to ask her sooner or later about her attitude shift. She had been suppressing all of her emotions and Harry to the back of her mind. The mere thought of him would send her into a frenzy of broken tears. But, she knew that Jax would say something. Unlike Stevie, he didn’t care about peoples emotions. If something was off with one of his friends, he would call it out. He was always like that. Ava was not an exception. 

“Uh,” Ava coughed to clear the lump that was sitting in the base of her throat. “We got into a fight.” 

“Again?!” Jax screeched. “You two just got back together! You should be fight free right now. You should be having hot shower sex, singing in the streets, jumping each others bones whenever you see one another. Not fighting! What the hell happened?” 

“Me. I messed up.” She quickly turned away not willing to meet eyes with Jax. 

“What did you do?” He asked carefully. 

“I’d rather not talk about it.” Ava said. She began to type up her story completely ignoring Jax’s pestering stare. 

“No.” Jax put his hands in front of Ava’s computer and quickly turned her around. His curls brushed across her face bringing a familiar feeling. It’s not the same as his curls. “You are talking about this. If you don’t, you’re going to eat yourself up inside. We need to figure out how to right your wrong.” 

Ava signed. She knew that he was right. She was just too stubborn to agree. 

“Come on Ave.” Stevie spoke this time. Ava looked up and over to where she sat. Her eyes were full of concern and sympathy. She gave Ava a small smile in which she returned. 

“Ugh, fine. But Stevie - promise me you wont say I told you so.” 

“Promise.” 

Jax leaned against the desk. His arms folded on top of his chest, his eyes softening as he watched Ava’s small body begin to shake slightly. Her eyes began to gloss over - the tears that she had fought to hold back over the past few days threatening to fall out. 

“Mack kissed me.” 

Jax’s eyes widened. Stevie let out a small gasp. They both looked at her like they had just seen a ghost. “That bastard.” Jax said. 

“Did he kiss you after you went out to dinner?” Stevie asked. 

“No.” She whispered in response. “We- Uh. We’ve been hanging out over the past few weeks. I thought everything was normal. I thought we were back to being friends. Turns out he was just using me to get back at Harry for sleeping with his cousins girlfriend.” 

“Asshole.” Jax’s declared. “Both of them. Assholes!”

“Harry isn’t an asshole.” Ava quickly defended. 

“He is for sleeping with someone else’s chick.” Stevie piped in. 

“I guess. But, he ended all ties with her.”

“Then Mack is an asshole for kissing you deliberately for Harry’s mistake.” 

“Yeah!” Stevie agreed, throwing her fist into the air in a pumped up action. “To hell to Mack and his douche bagery!”

“Bagery isn’t a word, Stevie.” Ava chuckled. 

“Oh shut up!” She laughed back after throwing a small wad of crumpled up paper at Ava’s desk. 

A comfortable silence fell across the office. Everyone lost in their own thoughts. “So, what are you going to do now?” Jax asked. 

Ava looked up from her hands. That was the one question she had been asking herself from the moment Harry declared they needed space. 

“Harry doesn’t want to talk to me right now. He needs space.”

“Space, shmace. You need to fight for this guy. You’ve let him walk away once already, Ave. You can’t let it happen again! Over something that isn’t even your fault.” Stevie gave her a reassuring smile, hoping to ease the heartbreak just a tiny bit. 

“But we wouldn’t even be in this mess if I just listened to my conscious and not hang out with Mack. Or, at least told Harry about it and not hid it from him.” 

Stevie sighed. “Fine. Over something that is partially your fault. Not fully! Better?”

“I guess.”

“We’re serious Ave. You need to pack up your bags and fly to wherever Harry is now and win his sexy British ass back” Jax piped in once again. 

She sat back in her chair thinking about the pros and cons of this situation. She knew that flying into Oregon to find Harry would be crazy and could potentially jeopardize their relationship even more. Yet another part of her, the voice that was standing on top of a chair yelling at the top of her lungs, was now screaming to just go. To not think about the outcome. To only think about the right now; to for once think about her and her heart. 

You could also see your dad! He lives in Portland, Oregon you know. The small (rather sassy) voice, the one that was still hung up on her father, subtly sneaked in. That was right, Ava thought. If all goes wrong with Harry, she might as well kick herself while she’s down and see her dad. 

“Okay.” She whispered.

“What?” Jax yelled, his hand cupping his ear. “I swear to god, you speak like a frightened mouse sometimes.” 

“I said okay!” She rolled her eyes and yelled.

“Really?!” Jax screeched. His voice going up a few octaves higher. “Oh my god! This is amazing. Ave! I’m so happy!” He squeezed her into an awfully tight hug. Ava’s hands flung from her sides and she quickly returned the hug. 

“And- I’m going to see my dad.” 

-

The time that it took to get a last minute red eye ticket to Portland, on a friday night, was a lot easier than expected. 

Right after work, Stevie drove Ava home and helped her packed a carry on bag for the weekend. “You need to pack this, and this, and this!” Stevie threw a red lacy panty set, a black lacy pantie set, and the infamous floral dress inside Ava’s small duffle bag. 

“Why?” 

“For all the hot make up sex you two will be having. You have to make sure you look extra sexy. Remind him how dumb he was for wanting space. Duh!” 

“You’re ridiculous.”

“And you will be thanking me later when Harry is at his knees drooling over you.” 

The flight was quick. Two hours later, Ava was walking towards a cab. “Where to?” The cabbie asked. 

Shoot. The decision to come to Portland was so quick and last minute, that Ava didn’t even think about where she was going to stay. She couldn’t remember which hotel Harry would be at, so surprising him at his hotel room was out of the question. She figured she could just go to any vacant hotel and stay there for the night. But she didn’t want to do that either. She was confused. The cabbie was quickly becoming impatient. 

“Listen lady. It’s twelve o’clock on a friday night. I’ve got places to go and drunk people to pick up. Hurry up and tell me where you got’s t’a be.” 

“Um, hold on a second.” Ava scrambled for her purse. She searched frantically as she looked for the thing that she needed. “Right, here it is. Um, 215 Albert Street please.” 

“Geez. Finally.” He mumbled something under his breath and quickly pulled out from the curb. His driving was fast. Ava sent a quick prayer up that she wouldn’t die before she got to destination. 

Quickly, the cab pulled into a quiet suburban neighborhood. The cookie cutter houses were all dark. The only light on the street being from the lamps that lined the clean street, and the fluorescent glare from the half moon above. 

The cab slowly pulled up in front of a medium sized home. It was hard to tell what colour it was but it looked homely and welcoming. An uneasy, queasy feeling erupted inside of Ava’s stomach. She already regretted her decision to come here. She should have just went to a hotel instead. Too late now. “Um, how much do I owe you?” 

“15 bucks flat.” Ava quickly grabbed a twenty dollar bill from her wallet and gave it to the cabbie. 

“You can keep the change. Sorry for making you wait.” 

The cab driver gave her a half smile and a quick nod. “Thanks lady.” Ava nodded in return, grabbed her duffle bag, and stepped out of the car. As the cab drove away, Ava suddenly felt very alone. 

She stared blankly at the house. The tall door seeming more intimidating with each step that she took. The windows were all dark making it clear to her that everyone was already in bed. No shit, Ava. Her snotty subconscious remarked. She mentally shushed it and continued her slow walk up the steps. 

She took a deep breath and smoothed down her hair and cardigan. “Here goes nothing.” She said quietly to herself. 

With a few short knocks and a ring of the bell, Ava stood awkwardly as she waited for someone to answer. A few minutes later the porch light turned on. Ava held in her breath as the person behind the door began to unlock it. 

As the door opened, a short woman who looked no more than thirty answered. “Can I help you?” She asked. Her voice was croaky- evidence that she had just woken up.

“Um, is this the Hastings residence?” Ava asked, her voice shaking with each word. 

“Yes. May I ask why you are here at midnight?” 

“I’m looking for Flint Hastings?” 

The woman’s eyebrows furrowed and she took a step back. A hint of jealous rage flashed behind her eyes as she looked Ava up and down. “Why are you looking for my husband?” She asked, her voice slightly harsh. 

“I’m-” Ava coughed, clearing her throat. “I’m his daughter. Ava.” 

The harsh expression that was once painted across the womans face was now completely gone at the mention of Ava’s name. Guilt was now written across as her cheeks began to flush. “Oh, I’m so sorry! You’re Ava?” She stared at her in slight shock. 

“Yeah.” She whispered in response. 

“Sweetheart? Who is at the door?” At the sound of Flint’s voice the anxiety that Ava tried she pushed away began to flutter back up. She took a step back, debating wether to make a run for it or not. But unfortunately she was too late. Flint opened the door wider his eyes widening in shock. 

“Ava?” 

Ava laughed awkwardly as she bit the inside of her cheek. “Hi dad.”

-
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Let me know what you think so far! This story is almost coming to an end. Sorry it took forever to post. J xx
A/N: 50+ Votes for an early update.