aviana and tavana –– the afterparty.
there was an empty red cup sitting on the floor next to vana, he himself was positioned sideways in a small armchair, legs draped over the edge with his head hung on the opposite side. he was holding his phone right above his face, scrolling mindlessly through someone's twitter feed. as he moved his thumb up to to swipe again, the phone came tumbling out of his hand and onto the floor. with a groan, he tilted his head back even farther, "could you get that?" he asked to the person nearest, without even seeing who it was.
at the question, aviana mindlessly reached down to help the person. it was when she turned the phone over in her hand that she recognized the case. she paused, and then moved to sit on one of the arms of the chair and toss the phone into vana's lap. "you're welcome."
once he saw aviana, and actually registered that it was her, he sat up a little straighter. a smile naturally popped onto his face. "hey avs," van greeted happily before stopping himself. "i mean, your highness," he corrected, spreading his arms out wide in a welcoming gesture.
hesitant, the brunette barely looked at vana, eyes trained to the reflections of the light against her dress. when he mentioned her winning queen, though, she turned and shoved him, shaking her head. "oh, shut it," ava said, rolling her eyes.
he instantly began giggling, holding his arms up over his chest in a pathetic form of self defense. "no, no, it's cool. of course you would win, i voted for you and tommy voted for you – like, everyone did." his ramblings hardly made any sense aloud, but in his head he was constructing a perfect argument. "where are you gonna keep your crown?"
ava couldn't help but snort at the sound of his giggles, a small smile working its way onto her features. "my mom will probably make a fucking shadowbox for it, i don't know," she said, running her hands along the now exposed part of her thighs anxiously. "but thank you. for voting for me. even when i iced you out."
figuring ( and hoping ) that the girl would stay for longer, vana started to get more comfortable, sitting up right and looking directly at ava. "that'd be so fucking funny," he laughed more, eyes closed for the moment. van opened them slowly, moving a hand to rub the bottom and side of his chin. "well, yeah. a queen deserves to get her crown. plus i know you wanted it."
aviana looked around for the dance team girls she had been doing shots with and they had ghosted, so she figured she might as well just sit with vana until they came looking for her. she wasn't tough to find, perched awkwardly on vana's arm chair. "it's whatever," she said, smiling at him. "did you have a date to the dance?"
"i guess tommy was," his speech was a little slurred yet he cleared his throat, putting his focus into talking. "but even he ditched me after a while," vana laughed. "i just kinda talked. danced." with a shrugged, he took a moment to look away from her face and look at the details of her dress, moving down to gazing at her legs before bringing his sight back up. "you?"
she chuckled at the thought of tommy and vana rolling up to homecoming together, fond and warm as compared to how she had been feeling about her friends lately. "that's nice," she said simply. "the dance team girls who don't have boyfriends all went together," she answered, pulling at one of the sequins on the bottom of her dress. "it was nice to just dance with my girls."
"aren't you always dancing with those girls, though?" he questioned, half as a joke, half with actual interest. "i don't think i actually really danced with anyone. mina for like, a second or two, but that's it." his voice sounded a little defeated, though he still had a grin.
"that's what makes it fun," she said, but amended, "dancing at homecoming is different though. you can't grind on your teammates during a competition or game, that's a little much." at his words, she nodded, looking at him for a moment and then back down towards the ground. "you should have snagged one of the cute dance team girls. they're great, i'd know," she said, voice amused.
his grin grew into a smirk, looking at ava mischievously. "would you?" he perked up at her last comment, giggling again after. "nah. i mean, they're all great, i can tell," vana explained slowly, "but... i mean, if i did that, it'd be pretty shitty."
she didn't answer his question, just swung her legs around and poked him in the stomach with her bare foot, crinkling her nose at him. "nah, they were all excited to do a 'girl's night' think when hoco started, but all of the straight ones got bored after an hour or so," she explained. "also, a group of them talk and ask about you all the time. you have a fan club."
as gently as he could, he swat her foot away, keeping it pinned to the back of the chair so that it didn't come swinging back at him. "a fan club?" he repeated, wondering if he was too drunk to be hearing her correctly. "when do you want me to come in a sign autographics?"
"i mean, it's /your/ fan club, and i'm not even a part of it," she said, voice lilting. "but i've heard them talk, and it's definitely not autographs that they want from you."
"i can't believe you're exposing your friends like this," the boy laughed. "can i have some names? let me see what i'm working with here," vana asked, obviously joking.
giggles erupting from her body, ava shook her head at his words. "you know how many times they've asked me to set them up with you? it's not exposure if they ask," she said, eyebrows raising. "i could make you an alphabetized list."
seemingly pleased with her answer, vana gave a light pat on the girls' leg with his free hand. "i'll have that list on my desk first time tomorrow morning, please." he was grinning from ear to ear, trying to maintain his composure. "if you can get some pictures attached to that file as well, that'd be lovely."
she barely noticed that she was gazing at him with an almost dreamy expression, her chin propped up by her hands. "i'll include instagram and twitter handles," she said, winking at him and pointing a finger gun at his face.
"damn," he breathed out, taking a second before continuing, "look at you." vana had meant it in a playful way, but once the words left his mouth he realized the tone he had taken was more suggestive. he went from looking at her eyes to the barrel of the pretend gun made out of her fingers.
aviana's expression fell at his words, one of almost annoyance slipping onto her face in its place. "don't say shit like that," she said, tone more desperate than angry. she pulled her hands in to sit in her lap, eyes fixed on the matte black polish.
tavana was drunk enough to have some courage – he pulled ava's hand back towards him, running his thumb over her fingers. "i mean it, though. you're way too good looking. way out of my league. why would i want another dance team girl when i've got the captain sitting right here?" he asked, his tone going up in pitch towards the end of his question.
ava faltered, a humorless laugh breaking through her lips. "you do own a mirror, right?" she asked, her eyes raking over his face. she didn't move her hand, but she didn't move any other part of her body. "you're only saying this because you're drunk," she said, bitter, "you haven't curved any of the other dance team girls beside me, now have you?"
"i'm hardly drunk," he began with a lie, one not even believable to someone who knew him like ava did. his smile flatlined for a moment until he started talking again. "none of them gave me the chance to. didn't even know they liked me." the last couple sips he had of straight vodka and sprite were truly starting to hit his system.
rolling her eyes, ava looked at tavana and said, "you're drunk. i'm hardly drunk, and i did three shots of fireball." she gripped onto his hand lightly, eyes locked onto where he was holding it. "but you still curved me, so you're not allowed to say any of that 'out of my league' shit," she said. "i put myself out there. i said my piece. and you were never into me, so it doesn't matter. now i can hook you up with one of my teammates and not feel weird."
"my tolerance is lower than yours." vana's thumb was still rubbing against the girl's soft skin, his elbow rested on his own chest as he held their hands up. "i'm not interested in any of them," van's voice was softer as he shook his head subtly. "if i ever go for a dance girl, it's gonna be you."
aviana nodded, not about to argue about the fact he had just stated. she could feel herself relaxing due to his touch and wanted to wake herself up somehow, but couldn't help it. "guys like you are really good at leading girls on, aren't they?" she said.
"girls like you are really good at seducing guys, aren't they?" vana retorted, almost laughing with a grin so wide his cheeks were hurting.
"that's not funny," ava said, eyelashes fluttering and attempting to pull her hands away from his. "you'd never actually 'go for me', and i know that now. so can we not talk about it?"
when he felt her pull her hands away, vana let go, but frowned. "i never thought you would 'go for me' either," he responded, obviously still wanting to talk about it despite her wishes. "and i never said i'd never go for you – i just never thought it would happen."
"you're so full of it," she said, shaking her head and glaring at the palms of her hands.
"you can't drop a bombshell on me like that and except me to be chill about it." there was some annoyance in his voice that vana didn't even mean to put there. he paused for a second, collecting himself. "i'm not good with surprises." he stated simply. vana stopped talking enough to see the look on the girl's face, and guilt began to wash over him. "i'm still a dick, i know."
"what was i supposed to say?" she said, almost laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. "everyone knew. even tommy knew, and tommy's an idiot," she paused, mulling over the thoughts rushing through her head, "any way i could've told you would've been a surprise, but i still don't get why you would pity kiss me and then avoid me."
vana made a note to yell at tommy later, but quickly moved on from the fact. "because you looked beautiful." tavana couldn't stop himself from saying it, and after a short pause, went on to elaborate. "you looked beautiful, and then you started to get sad. i didn't want to see you sad. it wasn't a pity kiss – i kissed you because i wanted to try kissing you." staring at the girl in her green eyes, vana licked his lips once. "and i'm glad i did."
aviana couldn't help but scoff at his words, an uneasy feeling moving through her body. "but you still don't feel the way that i do, so it doesn't matter," she said, emphasizing the second part of her sentence.
the boy was silent for a moment, watching her body movements carefully, moreso than he was actually listening to her. "well... how /do/ you feel?"
viana looked at him, her facial expression falling. "i like you," she said softly, voice more delicate than she'd probably ever let it get.
vana's expression practically matched hers, his eyes softening and hands falling to his sides in the chair. "still? even after... that whole thing?" his question was just loud enough to be heard despite the other people talking around them.
"i don't know, you avoiding me reminded me how much i actually like having you around," she said, trying to force humor into her voice with a slight laugh, but she felt extremely uncomfortable talking about these things and it showed. she was fidgeting with her hands and with her dress, and she didn't even get upset when she tugged one of the sequins from her dress.
seeing her distress, vana hesitantly took her hand again, holding it until she met his gaze. "i hate not having you around. hate it." he emphasized his words the second time. "i want things to go back to normal. just you and me and tommy... last night was the worst fucking night of my life." vana said, hardly exaggerating. "i need you."
ava wanted to agree, to tell him that everything was gonna go back to normal. "everything was normal before you knew how i felt about you," she said, defensive, "i don't want to be that person but i don't think i can do it."
even the alcohol couldn't stop the wave of anxiety that took over him. "ava – you can't say that without trying it. we gotta just try."
the uneasiness in ava's stomach kept turning over, and she began calculating an escape plan. her eyes locked on a pair of her teammates that were chatting nearby. "i have to go, vana."
practically bolting upright, vana started shaking his head. "aviana, i'm sorry. can we just – you can stay for a second, can't you? we just have to talk and figure it out." his rushed words were slurring together unlike anything else he had said previously.
aviana hadn't had much to drink, at least for her, but she felt dizzy when tavana spoke. "i can't do this," she said, words watery, "like i really don't want to do this right now and i don't know why you're not understanding me. i don't want to figure it out, i'm /humiliated/, and i want to go home."
at her words his chest seemed to tighten around his heart and lungs – he felt it drop into his stomach, and at once he stopped taking deep breaths. in no position to help her, he moved his legs and looked at ava, a worried look in his eyes. "ava, i'm so fucking sorry," he said, though he could already tell that the damage was done. "i'm – i'm done. i'm sorry. i'm not gonna say anything else. i didn't mean –" he stopped himself from saying anything more.
aviana hopped off the arm of the chair and mumbled out a small "i'll see you monday, vana" before almost running to her teammates, who intercepted her, worried expressions on their faces.
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