Endlessly

One

“Time out, but keep the tapes rolling, just in case I say anything brilliant.”

Avery groaned and muttered profanities under her breath as she groped her bedside table blindly in an attempt to find her ringing phone. When she got a grip on the damn thing, she tapped the screen to answer the call, without even bothering to check who it was that was calling her, and brought the phone to her ear.

“What?” she mumbled groggily while she struggled to keep her eyes open.

“Let me in?”

Thinking that perhaps she was hearing things in her half-asleep state, Avery brought her phone close to her face to check the caller id. She wasn’t hearing things.

Despite the possession of the knowledge that she wasn’t imagining his voice, Avery was still confused. But after being woken up at nearly two in the morning, she decided that she had the right to be confused.

So when she repeated her previous inquiry and her boyfriend chuckled, her confusion (and annoyance) increased.

“I’m at the front door, but I forgot my key. Let me in.”

Avery slowly sat up in her bed, clutching her phone tightly in her hand. “You’re here?”

“Yeah, Ave, lemme in.”

Hearing this, Avery was suddenly wide awake. She rolled out of her bed, slipped her glasses on, and hurried out of her bedroom.

“What are you doing here?” she asked as she undid the deadbolt on the front door of the apartment that she shared with her best friend. “And at two in the morning, might I add.”

“I wanted to see my woman.”

Avery could just imagine the huge grin that her boyfriend had on his face at that very moment. Which, of course, made her smile, as well.

“You’re silly. I’ll be down in a couple of minutes,” she told him before hanging up.

Since she lived on the top floor of the building, Avery had to travel down five floors to get to the main lobby. Too impatient to wait for the elevator, she opted to sprint down five flights of stairs. When she got to the main floor, she tried to slow down a bit to avoid looking like a madwoman to any early morning stragglers who might have been roaming the lobby. But at the sight of her boyfriend standing at the lobby door with a huge smile on his face, all intentions to appear semi-normal went out the window. She ran to the door and quickly unlocked it. As soon as it was open, she attacked her boyfriend with a hug.

“Vic!” she exclaimed happily as she clung to him. “Baby, what are you doing here?”

Vic lifted Avery off of the ground and spun her around a few times before he set her back down. “I told you, I wanted to see my woman,” he said, pressing a kiss on Avery’s forehead.

He leaned in to kiss her lips, but she took a step back and shook her head.

“What’s wrong?” Vic asked her.

A slight blush crept across Avery’s cheeks as she mumbled, “Morning breath.”

“I don’t care,” Vic assured her as he took a step toward her. “C’mere.”

“I care.”

Avery slipped her hand into Vic’s and the couple made their way to the elevator. Once inside, Avery cuddled into Vic’s side and he wrapped his arm around her. The short ride was silent, with the two content with just being in close proximity of each other.

When the elevator arrived at Avery’s floor, Vic scooped her up bridal style and took off running down the hall. Their laughter probably woke up quite a few of Avery’s floormates, but neither of them could be bothered to care enough to put an end to their obnoxious laughing.

“My neighbors probably hate us now,” Avery giggled once Vic set her back down, in front of her apartment’s door.

Vic waggled his eyebrows. “They’re going to hate us even more once we get to your room.”

“We can’t,” Avery warned as she opened the door and entered the apartment. “Nat’s sleeping and she has some thing at work later today that she has to be 'refreshed and well-rested’ for. If we wake her up, she’ll murder me.”

“Actually, she’d probably murder me, and I’m willing to take the risk, so...” Vic said as he followed Avery into the apartment.

When Avery was rolling her eyes at him, he stole a kiss from her lips and grinned victoriously.

“Vic!” Avery yelled, pushing him away. When she realized just how loud she had been, her eyes widened behind her glasses and she paused to listen for any signs of movement from Nat’s room. Hearing none, she turned her attention back to Vic. “Go wait in my room, okay?”

“Yes, ma'am!” Vic saluted Avery before heading back to her room.

Rolling her eyes again, Avery padded down the hall to the bathroom. Overall, Vic was a rather serious person, but there were times when he got so ridiculous that all Avery could do was roll her eyes at him.

Once in the bathroom, Avery caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror above the sink and cringed. She looked an absolute mess - her eyes resembled a raccoon's, thanks to the eyeliner she had neglected to wash off before going to bed, the beginnings of a zit was surfacing on her chin, and her hair had gotten a mind of its own while she had been asleep.

“Dear God...” she mumbled as she tried to tame her hair into a bun. “I’m surprised he didn’t run away screaming when he saw me.”

With her hair under control, Avery’s next order of business was to get rid of her raccoon eyes. Once that was done, she was able to get to the original reason for her even coming to the bathroom: brushing her teeth.

She was in the middle of brushing her bottom row of teeth to minty perfection when Nat, her best friend and roommate, shuffled into the bathroom and perched herself on the edge of the bathtub. Through the mirror, she and Avery locked eyes, and before Nat even uttered a word, Avery knew where the conversation was headed.

Another argument about Vic.

Nat couldn’t stand him and made sure Avery knew it. She thought everything about him was wrong for Avery. She didn’t like the fact that he was in a band, that he lived nearly six hours away, that he was four years older than Avery, or that he was Vic Fuentes. Avery, of course, defended her boyfriend. He wasn’t perfect, but he was good to her and loved her. That was all that she could ask from him and she was happy that he was able to deliver. She didn’t understand why Nat couldn’t just accept that and be happy for her.

“Fuentes is here, isn’t he?” Nat asked, then sighed loudly. “Looks like all hopes of me getting any more sleep are out of the window.”

Avery averted her gaze from the mirror, to avoid shooting daggers at Nat, and tried her best to keep her composure by not responding to her friend’s comment. If she spoke now, she would most likely end up bitching Nat out.

“Why didn’t he come during the day like a normal person, instead of showing up at our door at two in the morning?” Nat continued. “Ave, I really do not understand what you see in him. He’s so...stupid.”

Slamming her toothbrush down on the sink’s counter, Avery whipped around, her eyes narrowed in a glare. “Did you seriously just call him stupid because he got here at two in the morning?” she snapped. “Please, Nat, explain to me how him driving six hours to come see me is stupid. Because to me, that is extremely sweet.”

“Of course it’s ‘extremely sweet’ to you,” Nat said, rolling her eyes. “You don’t realize how much he neglects you, so any attention he does show you, you just lap up.”

“First of all, I am not a dog, so I would really appreciate if you didn’t use the expression ‘lap up’ to describe my actions.” Avery held up one finger, ticking off her first point. A second finger was raised as she took a threatening step toward Nat. “And second of all, don’t you dare say that Vic neglects me ever again, or so help me God... You may be my best friend, but I have no qualms about kicking your ass if need be. And you saying shit like that about Vic would be a pretty good reason for me to need to kick your ass.”

Nat raised an eyebrow and twisted her face up into the most unattractive expression Avery had ever seen. When she was mad, Nat was not the best-looking girl.

“Are you hearing yourself right now, Ave?” she asked. “You’re actually threatening me, your best friend, because I said something about Fuentes that is true, but hard for you to hear. Don’t you see how he’s manipulating you?”

It took every ounce of self control within Avery not to tackle Nat into the bathtub and start wailing on her. Everything about Nat at that moment was disgusting Avery - the look of fake concern on her face, the accusations she was spitting out about Vic, and the fact that she was the one doing the manipulating. She was being a completely different person than the one Avery knew and loved because of a boy.

Realizing this, Avery actually felt bad for Nat. She still wanted to bash her face in, but along with the urge to beat the crap out of her, Avery wanted to hug Nat and remind her that Vic wasn’t the enemy in the situation. He wasn’t trying to steal Avery from her or replace her.

“I can’t stand that stupid boy,” Nat muttered under her breath.

And then all desire to comfort Nat disappeared.

Avery didn’t even realize what she was doing until her open palm came in contact with Nat’s face. Luckily, she hadn’t put much force into the hit, but holy shit, she still smacked Nat.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Nat screamed as her hand flew up to her now-red cheek. “Jesus Christ, are you fucking mental? You actually smacked me!”

Still in shock, Avery stared at her friend dumbly, her hand clapped over her mouth and her eyes the size of quarters.

“You see what Fuentes is doing to you? He’s turning you into a crazy bitch who goes around smacking people when they say something you don’t agree with. Oh yeah, Ave, you picked a real winner,” Nat hissed before she stormed out of the bathroom.

Just as she was leaving, Vic was entering the bathroom. On her way past him, Nat muttered something that sounded like “fucking Fuentes” under her breath and bumped her shoulder into his.

“I’m an idiot,” Avery groaned. She leaned back against the sink and held her head in her hands, mumbling under her breath about how much of an idiot she was. This went on for a few minutes until she remembered that Vic was in the room with her. She lifted her head, looked to her boyfriend and sheepishly asked, “How much of that conversation did you hear?”

Vic sighed and when Avery’s eyes met his, she could see that the usual happy twinkle behind his dark eyes was gone. “Enough,” he said quietly, his voice cracking a bit. He cleared his throat and made a sad attempt at a smile. “I think that maybe I should go.”

“No! Vic, baby, don’t...” Avery reached out for Vic, but he stepped back from her. Her face fell as a feeling of rejection washed over her. “I don’t understand...”

“Natalie’s right. I am stupid, so stupid, and selfish for thinking that I could make this work.” Vic sighed again, shaking his head and running his hand over his face. “I put my feelings before yours for my own selfish gain. I knew that the distance between us was going to make things even more difficult...goddammit, I knew it, but I didn’t care. I wanted you so badly that I ignored the fact that I would just end up causing you pain. I lied to myself and said that if I loved you enough, it wouldn’t matter that you didn’t get the relationship that you deserve. I am so fucking stupid and selfish...”

Avery’s glasses were spotted with tears as she reached out for Vic again. Like the time before, he wouldn’t let her touch him, which made her cry even harder. “Don’t say that! And don’t you dare think I was too stupid or naive to realize what I was getting myself into when we first started out. I knew exactly how things were going to be, but I was willing to go through all of it because I liked you. If I was willing to go through all of this when I just liked you, then I’m sure as hell not changing my mind now that I love you.”

A heavy silence filled the small bathroom. Avery took off her glasses and rubbed her hands over her eyes harshly, wiping away her tears. When she slipped her glasses back on, she saw that Vic was watching her with a pained expression on his face.

He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly before speaking again, “It’d probably be a good idea if you did change your mind, Avery,” he said in a barely audible voice. “Because I’m done. I can’t do this anymore.”

With that, he turned to leave the bathroom.

“What do you mean you can’t do this anymore?” Avery demanded as she followed him out of the bathroom and into the hallway. “You can’t have a mind of your own and ignore stupid comments made by my stupid friend? You can’t have the balls to stay with me, even though it’s a bit difficult sometimes? Tell me, Vic, what is that you can’t do anymore?”

Avery wrapped her hand around Vic’s wrist and pulled him back when he tried to walk away without giving her an answer. He tried to avoid turning around to look at her, but she tugged his arm until he forced himself to face her. When he did, Avery saw that his eyes were shining and she realized that he had tears in his eyes.

“I can’t lie to myself and say that I’m what you deserve,” he said, his voice shaky. “I can’t keep you from finding that person who’s perfect for you. Because as much as I wish I was, I’m not that person.”

Avery tightened her grip on Vic’s wrist in an attempt to keep him with her. She needed to keep him with her so that he could realize that he was that person. But he was able to pry her hand from his wrist and after he had, he was headed for the apartment’s door, Avery hot on his heels, crying her eyes out and begging for him not to leave.

“Vic, you are that person. I don’t understand why you can’t see that. I love you...I love you so much. Fuck what Nat says. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” she blubbered as they got closer to the door. When they actually did reach the door, her panic level rose because she feared that if Vic walked out of it, she’d never see him again. “No, don’t leave, Vic, please don’t leave. Dammit, Vic, don’t walk out of that door. If you leave-”

“I have to, Avery. I have to, so just let me. Stop trying to change my mind because I’ll listen to you and I’ll stay and then I’ll end up hurting you more. Don’t make this harder on me than it already is.” Vic turned from the door to face Avery. Though Avery could see a few tears trickling down his cheeks and he knew that she could see them, he had a small, forced smile on his face, trying to appear strong and brave. “Go out and find that person who’s perfect for you, Ave. Promise me that you will.”

Avery wanted to say that she already had found that person and that he was about to walk out of her life, but the words caught in her throat and came out as a small, strangled sob. Vic took one last look at her before he turned back around, pulled open the door, and stepped out of the apartment. When the door clicked shut, Avery’s sobbing got louder.

He was gone. He left her.

“Ave...”

Avery turned around to find Nat standing on the other side of the living room, near the hallway. She had a frightened look on her face as she watched her friend cry.

“Oh, you wanted to see the show, huh?” Avery hissed as she stormed to her bedroom. When she passed Nat, she bumped shoulders with her, much like Nat had done to Vic earlier. “Your wish was granted, Nat. Looks like Fuentes won’t be showing up here at two in the morning anymore to be stupid. I hope you’re happy.”

Nat said something, probably some bullshit to try and comfort her, but Avery couldn’t hear it over the sound of her bedroom door slamming and the sobs that racked her body.
♠ ♠ ♠
When I first started writing this, I planned for it to be a cute, fluffy one shot. Somehow, it turned into this and I have no idea how. Oh well.

I still have to write the second part to this, and I'm not entirely sure when it will be finished. It should be soon, though.

Leave me some feedback? Comments make me smile. :D