Keep It True.

"Ava!" I called out after her before turning to Celeste. "Uh, sorry, she's upset we're sorry to bother you, but thanks for driving all the way out here," I said standing up too and her eyes seemed to be so hurt. She bit her lip and nodded before pulling her phone out reading something- it was safe to say she wouldn't be losing any sleep. Once I was out of the cafe I saw a skinny figure walking incredibly fast back towards the music venue.

"Ava! Ava!" I called out literally breaking out into a jog to try and catch up with her. "Ava, just stop!" but she was still fuming and kept walking until she reached the parking lot behind the venue next to the back stage entrance. I wrapped my arms around until she turned around, even though she had dry eyes they were on the brink of tears. "Are you okay?" I asked and as soon as I asked tears spilled over.

"You know why I never cried or seemed particularly bothered about Mom being gone? Because I thought when she cleaned up she would come back to us! Because I believed Dad when he told us 'Mommy had to go away, but she'd be back when she was healthy again'! I was so fucking stupid, she fucking left us," She bawled angrily.

"I always wondered why you were never upset on mother's day like I was," I mumbled as the thought popped into my head. I continued to hold her shaking body tightly as we sat down on the dirty gravel. "We're better off without her," I whispered knowing it was the truth.

"What was wrong with us? What was so wrong with us that she couldn't love us?" She cried into my arms, I felt tears prickling my own eyes. I had dealt with that question my whole life, but this was the first time reality had reared its ugly head in her life.

"There's nothing wrong with us, I mean, she's just selfish and she didn't want to take responsibility for us. I hate to say it Ava, but our mother is a huge bitch," I smiled nudging her as a tear fell down from my eye. Something about seeing Ava cry made me cry too, she let out a sharp laugh.

"What would it have been like? Having a mom?" She smiled, despite the fact tears were still gliding down her cheeks. I would never understand how she could look pretty even when her nose was oozing and she was crying like there was no tomorrow.

"You know what, I don't know and I kind of don't care. I wouldn't trade our memories for everything, remember in first grade when Dad tried to give us matching bows in our hair and we had the ugliest pictures in the yearbook because our hair was everywhere?" I laughed wiping my cheek quickly.

"Whatever, don't bunch us together, I rocked that bow," She chuckled, finally starting to feel better. We sat quietly for a while, letting Ava get everything out of her system. "Liv, I wouldn't trade anything in the world for our childhood either, because I have the best sister in the world," She smiled kindly, leaning her head on my shoulder. I unwrapped my arm from around her and we leaned our heads together listening to the sounds of the world pass us by.

"Me either, Ave," I smiled, she was still softly crying, much to her disdain. I could tell she didn't want to be so upset about something that had happened so long ago, but she wore her heart on her sleeve and right now her heart was broken.

"Yeah bro, so like I was saying; in the video the girl was all 'I'm a filthy, dirty girl-" John was laughing as he and Garrett walked out into the alley way until Garrett slapped his chest. Their smiles immediately dropped after seeing us.

"Liv, what's wrong?" Garrett propped down on his knees and tried to get on eye level with us while John looked slightly frightened. Ava immediately stood up and wiped her eyes, jogging off her hand still connected to mine. I could hear her trying to muffle her tears and taking deep breaths to mute her emotions.

"I'll tell you later," I looked over my shoulders at the two boys looking seriously confused and at a loss for words. "Ava, where are we going?" I asked, concerned that my arm was going to rip off with the pace we were moving at.

"John doesn't know anything about this and he's never seen me cry," Ava admitted quietly before she climbed into the van, wiping her eyes and her makeup quickly. She tried to clean the evidence of her tears off her face but it just couldn't be done, she groaned loudly and started silently crying all over again.

"Isn't he the boyfriend you supposedly love? I asked and she gave me a look before nodding. "So why wouldn't you tell him about it, I mean it's not the dandiest topic, but I mean it's a part of you. You should be honest with him about who you are."

"No, no I don't because he thinks I'm perfect! He thinks that I'm just the most fucking perfect girl and he tells me that everyday. He tells me how beautiful I am, but I'm not! Half the time I look like a fucking slob and I am so dangerously far from perfect! He's so perfect and he's such a kind soul, he's the one guy I've dated who looked at me and actually saw me, he's too good for me. How could he possibly love me if my own mother couldn't love me," She snapped until lowering her voice shamefully about talking about our mother.

"Av-" I began until we heard knocking and John was standing there with a handful of daisies that looked like he picked them off the side of the road. "Because you are beautiful, and you may not be perfect, but to him you are. You're human, it's alright to be scared, but don't you dare even think you're not good enough for him. You're everything he wants, so talk to him," I tried to say my last bit before hugging her. I slid the door open, climbing out and giving John's arm a quick squeeze to say 'good luck'.

I turned to see her face buried in his chest and clutching on to him in the tightest hug I'd ever seen. John didn't say anything, he didn't ask her if she wanted to talk about it, all he did was press his lips to her forehead and whisper, "I love you." I smiled know that was exactly what she needed, and maybe Ava had finally picked out a good one.

"So what was that about?" Garrett asked with his hands buried in his pockets still standing at the corner by the alley, ripping me from my train of thought. I shrugged not really sure if I wanted to talk about it with Garrett, he gave me a skeptical look and I sighed loudly.

"My mother, we just saw her," I admitted finally reaching him, we both leaned against the wall staring at Ava and John as she began telling him where we had gone and what happened all those years ago.

"Damn, Liv, are you okay?" He asked realizing what exactly that meant. Garrett was the only one I had really opened up to about how much hurt my mother's absence caused me. I bit my lip and nodded.

"I made peace with my mother leaving a long time ago, but Ava always thought that she would come back when she got sober. Turns out she's been sober the whole time since she left," I explained after we saw Ava's shaking shoulders. My mind flashed back to middle school when mother's day passed and I realized she was never coming back. Garrett hugged me tightly and made me laugh. When my whole world was crashing down, he made me laugh.

Oh shit, is she okay? She scared John really bad just walking away like that. He thought she was gonna break up with him," Garrett chuckled realizing how wrong conclusions could really be. I smiled and tilted my head until they started heavily kissing and I turned away uncomfortably to face Garrett. "Still don't like PDA?" Garrett laughed realizing why I had turned, I shook my head as my cheeks lit up into a bright pink.

"They're pretty perfect for each other, aren't they?" I tilted my head thinking about everything I had learned from just seeing them interact with each other this summer. I stole a look and saw John laughing and wrapping her in his arms and she already seemed so much happier. Garrett snickered and I raised an eyebrow, what was funny about anything I had just said.

"That's what Ava said about us, you know when we were in high school and everyone thought we were dating. My mom still to this day will not believe that we were just friends," He laughed with a fond nostalgia, I shifted uncomfortably. I was more than familiar with those days, in fact every time someone assumed we were together I loved it. Even though we would deny it saying we would never date each other, we were just friends; I wished we weren't just friends. Unfortunately Garrett didn't feel the same way.

"Garrett-" I started to protest how unfair it was for him to spring this on me. How unfair it was for him to make me love him after all these years of waiting and watching him chase after girls, he didn't even like.

"You don't have to say anything, it's just food for thought," He smiled, some hidden emotion buried in his eyes before walking away. I had known Garrett Nickelsen for close to forever, but I couldn't for the life of me tell what that look was. I stared at his figure disappearing into the venue before biting my lip, completely confused.