Status: On hold.

Anger Is a Gift

-Stranger in Town

There were far too many people at this party. The dance floor was fit to burst with hot and sweaty dancers, their bodies drinking in the blasting music as enthusiastically as they were drinking their alcohol. I was standing in the least crowded part of the venue, with my back against the wall. I looked out into the never ending sea of faces with sharp eyes. For although there were far too many people to count, I still managed to keep my eyes fixed on the one reason I was here.

She may have been a little bit too drunk for her own good, but there was nothing abnormal about her behaviour, which was good. Her loose, blonde curls of hair bounced gently around her shoulders as she danced and drank from a plastic cup. She was slowly making her way back to the center of the dance floor after getting another drink refill. At least, that's what I assumed. There had been too many people blocking my line of sight to for me to check if that's where she truly went. In any case, I knew that I wouldn't have missed any important observations. Most of her behaviour and reactions so far were due to her drunkeness, so I wouldn't be able to class them as valid observations in her files anyway.

"Watch where you are going, piece of shit!"

My ears perked up. That one small snippet of female speech stood out against the senseless babble of the crowd like a warning sign. I frowned in disbelief. I knew that voice. I knew that voice far too well. And, if the voice belonged to the person I thought it did, then something was very wrong...

I snapped my eyes back to focus. Scanning the crowd quickly, I found what I was looking for. An unnaturally angry Ava was glaring at a man that stood right next to her. His face was apologetic and his plastic cup was empty, its contents spilled all over Ava's clothes.

My stomach dropped. I had been right. That heated sentence had come from Ava.

Hastily, my brain struggled to come up with some reason for the behaviour, some simple solution to what would otherwise be a terrible problem. There was no way that Ava could have reacted that fiercely towards another person. It was highly unlikely. In fact, never mind 'highly unlikely', it should have been physically impossible! She had never acted like this before in all her years of observation. Yes, I'd previously observed her experiencing mild annoyance, but the current expression on her face was far more extreme than that. No, this was something else.

Alcohol. She was very drunk. Her reaction had to be an effect of the alcohol. It had to be. What else could have made her act this irrationally? I refused to consider the grave alternative as a serious possibility.

"I'll show you how intoxicated I am!" Her voice shouted above the blaring music for a second, worrying time. "When I smack that stupid grin off your face!"

My whole body tensed. I couldn't just stand here and let this happen. Whether the reason for her outburst was alcohol or something much worse, I couldn't just stand there. For the first time in my life, I needed to act. I needed to interfere.

Pushing myself off the wall at my back, I strode across the room to the dancefloor, pushing drunken dancers aside and ignoring slurred insults in my attempt to get to Ava. When I finally reached her, I stood facing her back. Her fist was raised in the air. She was going to throw a punch. Instantly, I wrapped my hand around her raised fist, bringing it down to her side. Resisting her struggles in my grasp, I looked to the man in front of us that had caused the spillage. Catching his incedulous expression, I gestured to Ava, making sure to speak in a calm tone that would hopefully put both the man and Ava at ease. "She doesn't mean that."

Aware of the attention that I would eventually draw by physically restraining someone, I let go of Ava, moving to stand inbetween her and the man that had spilled his drink on her. If she was going to try and hit anyone, it would be me and not random members of the public. Reaching into my pocket for my wallet, I drew out a five dollar bill and pushed it towards the guy's chest.

"Buy yourself a new drink," I told him, with a subtle glare that hopefully indicated to him that his presence wasn't wanted right now. He seemed to get the message, took the money without question, and made a beeline towards the bar.

After watching him go, I turned back to face Ava. Now that I was standing in front of her, I could feel her seething eyes taking in my appearance. Face to face, it was clear that she was very angry. She looked like she could practically burst from rage. Her breathing was heavy, and her slim stature was tense. The more she looked at me, the more her expression changed from anger to confusion. Finally, she spoke above the music.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Her words were slurred, and her tongue was edged with harsh sarcasm. "My knight in shining armour?"

"Hmm, more like a guardian angel," I remarked. I focused on keeping my body language calm and composed. On the inside, I was doing what I always did; analysing her reactions. I tried not to acknowledge that even though it had been my mission to observe her all my life, this was the first time she had ever directly spoken to me. If I thought about it too much, then -

"Well, if you're a guardian angel, then guard me." With that, she turned her back on me and quickly navigated towards the bar before I had time to react.

If I thought about it too much, I'd be caught off guard. I completed my thought with an impatient sigh. Without dwelling on it too much, I followed Ava's path through the crowd. I should have known from my past observations that she'd be a tough person to persuade. Anyway, it didn't matter. I'd just have to try a bit harder.

I emerged from the crowds to find Ava stood at the bar with another drink in her hand. Jesus Christ, that woman didn't know when to stop.

"First thing," I spoke, taking Ava's drink out of her hands just as she was taking her first sip, "no more drinks for you."

First, her face was a look of outrage. Then, she snorted. "This is why I don't go for Prince Charmings."

"Oh believe me, I know," I muttered. Years of observation had shown me more of her risky, badly behaved boyfriends than I could count.

"Huh?"

I feigned a look of mild surprise. "What? I didn't say anything."

"Sure you didn't, Prince Charming.” Her eyes lingered on her drink, still in my hands. When she realised that I wasn’t going to give it back to her, she turned and managed to walk away from me for a second time.

With the appalling way I was handling this situation, you wouldn’t have thought that I’d spent my entire life training to be a CIA agent. If I’d been persuing anyone else, I probably would have laughed at how badly things were going. But Ava wasn’t just anyone else. She was my entire life. For years, I had stood by as a silent observer, unable to alert her to my presence, frustrated at not being able to speak to the person that I knew so well. Now that the opportunity had arisen, she was melting my persuasive skills and professional persona down to nothing. For the first time in a long time, I felt powerless.

I blindly followed her through the crowd again. I still hadn’t found out the reason for her outburst. If she wasn’t going to tell me or give me any clues now, I needed to get her to a safe place where she couldn’t get herself into any more trouble.

Again, I caught up to her. Even though I didn’t say a word, she seemed to sense my presence again and turned to face me with an unimpressed look. “You still following me? ‘Cos I’m going to the bathroom. Going to follow me there too, are you?”

I gritted my teeth. “No, I’m not going to follow you there. I’m gonna wait pateintly outside, then you’re gonna come out and kindly explain a couple of things.”

She laughed bitterly. “We’ll see about that.”
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Updating this for the lovely Jessica! I hope you guys like her chapter just as much as I do!
Sure would love some comments; contructive feedback is always welcome, or just thoughts about Ava/Kayden!