The Babysitter

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Ava was at Billie's place. Again. She thought distantly that she should consider spending more time at home, since as it stood right now, her dad was under the impression that she'd pretty much moved in with the fictitious Rachel. She felt guilty about that. She really did.

Billie poked his head in the den and she looked up from her copy of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. “Hey kid, you hungry? Tre and I are callin' in Chinese.”

Ava considered, then tossed the book on the sofa. Fuck honors classes, “Sure. Where from?”

“Woo's.” He hooked a finger through her belt loop as she passed him and Ava let him pull her to him. He smelled like guy and she grinned, suddenly struck with the thought that they were actually together. It hit her sometimes at odd moments and made her go all blushey. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

Tre Cool sat, straddling a bar stool in the kitchen, the end of the cordless held to his temple as he scrutinized a battered menu. Billie ordered from Woo's like twice a week when he was in a Chinese mood. “Okay, so like, when they say combination what they mean is two kinds of chicken. What if I want beef too?”

“Then you're S.O.L., buddy. Ava's in too.”

“Cool, what's it gonna be, sugar-butt?”

Ava rolled her eyes, “I'll have the General Tso combination platter with fried rice instead of white, egg drop soup, and a pork egg roll.” She got the same thing every time they ordered from the place.

Billie laughed, “You know they do make other things.”

“But I like General Tso. He was a very spicey man.”

He gave her a look, then reached around Tre for his beer. “What about tofu? You know it's actually pretty good.”

Ava crinkled her nose, “Damn tree-huggin' grass eaters are ruining this country, you know that right?”

“You should try some of his grass sometime, great shit,” Tre said, winking, he ran his finger down the menu and apparently came to a decision. “Okay, I'm ordering. Do we want appetizers?”

“Crab Rangoon.” Ava answered, not missing a beat. Billie rolled his eyes heavenward.

“And a side order of Lo Mein.”

“Right, okay,” Tre turned his attention to the phone, “Yeah, I want to place an order for delivery...”

Billie waggled his eye brows at Ava and she couldn't stop the laugh at the expression on his face. He looked like he would have said something else but the door bell rang. “I'll be right back.”

Ava shrugged, walking around the island to the refrigerator for something to drink. While she was contemplating the contents Tre hung up. “So just because I couldn't understand a word she just said doesn't mean she's going to totally screw my order, right?”

“You talked to Youki, didn't you.”

“How'd you know?”

“She's only been in this country for like a week. Billie usually asks to talk to somebody else.” Ava finally settled on a bottle of water and closed the fridge with her foot.

“Good God, how often does he order from the place?”

Ava smirked, “You don't want to know.”

“So how goes it with you two?” His look was open, but Ava couldn't help that she was almost immediately on her guard. She shrugged, staring into his eyes for one beat, then another. Tre laughed, deciding to let the subject go he stretched, turning on the stool. Billie was walking through the kitchen's archway, somebody behind him. Tre laughed outright. “Dude, what're you supposed to be?”

Ava shrieked, “Ohmigod! When did you get the piercing?!” She was around the counter and on the blonde faster than Billie could move out of the way, practically. She jumped the girl and they spun together. “You look great!”

“You look like a skater kid.”

“Is that a new tat?”

“I take it they know each other?” Tre muttered, his arms crossed over his chest.

“That's Cara, Ava's known her since like, before she was born apparently.” Billie's hands were shoved in his back pockets. He wasn't sure how he felt about this girl showing up on his doorstep. From what Ava'd told him about her, she got different when she was around Cara. The girl was-- he didn't want to say mental. But from what he'd heard...

“When'd you get in town?”

“Couple of hours ago. I got dropped at your dad's house. I got the address from him.”

“Excuse me?” Billie's voice cut in and Ava couldn't blame him. If dad found out she were over here-

“Relax, dude. Their house is networked, I hacked into his address book from her computer,” Cara turned to her friend, “Incidentally, you really should tell him that if he's going to keep your computers linked like that he should consider a password harder to crack than 'Emma' for the root folder.”

“Dude, he's got mom's name as the root password?”

“Yep. Oh, and did you know your dad was a freak? I found some porn that-”

“So how long are you here?” Ava couldn't believe Cara was here. In California was one thing, she sorta figured eventually Cara'd make it out here, but in Billie's kitchen was just surreal. She glanced over her shoulder. Her boyfriend didn't look particularly pleased. Probably had something to do with whenever she stayed over they usually fucked like bunnies and it looked like now that was pretty well shot. She shook off the feeling of bitterness quickly.

“At least a week.” Cara rolled her eyes, “Mom did a pretty good impression of a whooping crane when she found out I got my hood pierced and kicked me out.”

“You've got to be kidding me,” Tre muttered under his breath. Ava commiserated completely.

“Yeah really, didn't you get that done months ago?”

“Yeah, I know right? So anyway, I got my latest come-stain to drop me off at your place. Your dad said you were at some broad named Rachel's, and yeah, like I can't smell the bullshit in that like it was day old tampons-”

“Okay, so how'd you get from my place to here?” Ava leaned on the door jamb and Cara grinned, flicking her already short skirt and managing to look incredibly pleased with herself.

“Hitched. Never underestimate the stupidity of the penis. No offense,” She called to the two men in the kitchen.

“None taken, you manic-panic ridden fre-”

“So are you hungry, Cara? We just ordered Chinese but I can call them back,” Billie cut in quickly with a pointed look at his friend.

“Nah, thanks,” she laughed and tugged on her ear, giving Ava a look. Ava rolled her eyes, smirking. “Anyway, fuckwad's fronting this emo-core band called Fuck for Free. Pretty shitty, but it's the genre and when I told Jimmy I was coming out here to see you he gave me the best coke for half what he usually charges and I was thinking-”

“Ava, I need to talk to you.” Billie pushed off the counter, arms crossed over his chest.

“What?” She mirrored his stance, arms crossed over her chest, hair tossed back. She'd dyed it black again.

“I don't think you two going off somewhere and getting wasted is the best idea.”

Ava raised her eyebrows and stared at him. Was he serious? She shrugged, “Why? Did you want some?”

“Yeah, man, I've got plenty.” Cara cut in, total amusement on her face.

Billie looked at Tre. Tre laughed, holding his hands wide, he got off the stool and walked across the room, “I'm not in it, man, come on freakshow,” he grabbed Cara's wrist and started off toward the front of the house, “Cigarette break.”

Tre slammed the front door behind them, but not before Billie caught Cara's last comment. “Hugs not drugs, man!”

“I don't like her.”

“I can tell.” Ava shoved her hands in her back pockets, “What's your problem?”

“What's my problem?” Billie shook his head. “I'm not the one who's all of a sudden acting like-”

“Like what? A teenager? Guess what, dude.” Ava ran a hand through her hair. “Look. Cara's family situation is totally fucked up, okay? This kind of thing happens all the time. Give it a week and then her mom'll be tearing up her cell phone begging her to come back and she'll be back in Chicago and I'll be back to that cute little mature Ava that you're missing. Okay?”

“It's not about that Ava-”

“So what then?”

“I've got a problem with you planning to go off somewhere and get wasted with a girl you haven't seen in months.” Inwardly Billie winced, he sounded like he was fifty.

“Who said I was going to go get wasted?” He gave her a look and she laughed, “Can you honestly tell me that you wouldn't do the same thing? Come on, Billie, I've heard the stories about your mispent youth, okay? Are you really going to go off on a righteous anger riff about this?”

“It's dangerous, Ava.”

She laughed, kissing his lips quickly she turned, “I'm going to go hang with Cara. We'll talk about this later. You know you're really bugging out about this,” she called over her shoulder. He made a frustrated noise and grabbed her wrist.

“If you go off with her, I'll-”

“You'll do what, Billie?”

He floundered, not sure why he was upset about this in the first place. “I'll call your dad.”

Ava laughed outright. “Yeah, let's call daddy. G'head. Right now. Tell him I'm going off with Cara to get absolutely trashed at some show in the Valley. But hey, don't forget to tell him how we fucked last night, huh? He'd probably want to know about that too, don't you think? Or about how I've been lying to him for months to come stay over here-”

“Ava, listen-”

“No, you listen! You're not my dad, Billie, you're my boyfriend. And yeah you're older, but you've got no fucking right to go all parental on me,okay?” She jerked out of his grasp and stormed out of the kitchen. Billie followed her, pissed off.

“Look, I may not have a right to go parental on you, but I'm telling you this is a bad idea. I'm worried about you, okay kid?”

“I'm not a fucking kid!” Ava grabbed her bag off the side of the couch. He'd used that nickname for her since she started babysitting. It was an endearment now, but for some reason, just now it grated on her like hell.

She jerked open the front door and Tre looked up from his seat on the steps. Cara was leaning against a pillar, a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin on her face. She shot Tre a triumphant glance before pushing off and stubbing out her cigarette. “We going?”

“We're going,” Ava slung her bag over her arm and sidestepped Tre, heading for her 'Vette.

“Ava!” She pointedly ignored Billie and he cursed under his breath.

“Billie, man-”

“Back off, Tre.” He stormed to the car. Cara was just now getting in, with that damn shit-eating grin. Ava glared from the driver's seat. Billie stood in front of the car, hands on hips. “Ava if you start that car right now-”

Something galvanized in Ava's face and she went completely still in the car. Cara looked shocked. Ava's eyes narrowed to slits and she pointedly started the car. Then she waited.

The engine rumbled. Billie's breathing was fast. To fast. He wasn't angry anymore, he was livid. He stalked to the driver's side and stared at her through the closed window. “Get out of the car, Ava, we need to talk about this.”

She didn't move.

“Now!”

She jumped at the vehemence in his tone and then glared at him over her shoulder. Ava's hand strayed to the gear shift and she put the car in reverse.

“If you leave then that's it, Ava!”

She spun the wheel the tires spinning out on his driveway. Slamming the car into drive she sped off. The last image he saw of her was her left hand shoved out of the opened driver's side window, middle finger standing straight up.

Tre had left his post at the front door. “And don't come back, young lady,” he murmured softly, hand reassuring on his friend's shoulder.

Billie felt vaguely sick.

This was definitely not good.