6 Memories

Ava completely ignored her mum and brother that night. She eventually fell asleep after the long, confusing day she had. The next morning, she dressed up and went downstairs to have her breakfast. Her mom and brother were in the kitchen, they all looked at each other and went back to what they were doing. Ava took an apple and sat on a chair minding her own business.

Suddenly the doorbell rang. Ava's mom weirdly looked at Ava as a sign saying to go check who was at the door. Ava dragged herself to the door just to be met by Noah.

"Hey...Noah."

"Hey Ava" Noah said with a bright smile on his face.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to walk to school together?"

"Uhh-"

"Ava! Who's at the door!" Ava's mum yelled through the kitchen.

"It's just the mailman mom!"

Ava turned around to look at Noah with one eyebrow raised.

"Mailman?"

"I'm sorry. Uhhh... let me go get my bag."

Noah quickly nodded. Ava ran to go get her bag and walked out the door not saying a word to her mother.

"So... What made you want to walk with me to school?" Ava questioned.

"There's no reason. Can't friends just walk with each other to school?"

Ava's heart throbbed when she heard him say 'friends'.

"Yeah...friends," Ava said, a little bit of disappointment in her sentence.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, of course. Thanks for walking me to school."

"No problem. Any time."

They both cheerfully walked to school laughing at each other's jokes.

The school day went by fast and Ava couldn't wait any longer to go see her psychologist. As she was leaving the school, she saw Noah and his group of friends. Noah turned around to see her and ran towards her.

"Hey Noah"

"Hey, Ava. Where are you off to?"

"I have an appointment with my psychiatrist in about 30 minutes or so."

"Oh, alright well I hope everything goes great. See you at school tomorrow."

"Bye," Ava said.

Noah went back to his group of friends and Ava walked to her psychologist, as a smile crept up on her face. When Ava reached the clinic, she knocked on her psychologist's door and she hears a voice.

"Come in."

Ava walked in and walked towards the sofa to sit down.

"Hey Brooke"

"Hey Ava, how have you been doing?"

"I don't know. I haven't had a proper conversation with my mom. I still hate my brother and I just want to see Annie. I want to talk to her, I want to laugh with her, I want to hug her. I just want everything to go back to normal."

"You and Annie were really close right?"

"Yeah... We met when we were 6 and since that day, we were inseparable," Ava stated with a sad smile on her face.

"What's your favourite memory with her?"

Ava smiled at her thought.

"There are so many great memories. There was this time, me and Annie were 10 and we wanted to go to the mountains to see the view. We asked my dad whether he could take us there and he agreed. My mom or brother didn't come so it was just the three of us. The drive was an hour and a half. We were playing karaoke and laughing at my dad's horrible, horrible jokes," Ava explained as she chuckled.

"We were having so much fun on the way there. We eventually reached the place. I don't really remember what the place was called but there were many mountains of different sizes. Me and Annie begged my Dad to go to the highest mountain. We looked at him with puppy eyes and he finally gave in. Me and Annie ran to the top of the hill while my Dad followed us behind. My Dad met us laying on the grass at the top of the mountain and just laughed at us. We took some pictures and then we decided to go get some ice cream and then head home."

"As we were walking down the hill my Dad slipped and rolled down the hill. He laid down groaning at the bottom while me and Annie laughed at him. We both ran to him and also ended up rolling down the hill. We laughed at each other while laying on the floor and just stayed there talking. Then we went home."

"Well that was a fun day wasn't it?" Brooke asked.

"It was," Ava said a happy smile on her face.

"How did you guys meet?"

"Well, when I was 6 years old some girls a little bit older bullied me. I was a bit underweight because my Dad would get drunk sometimes and he wouldn't get employed because of it so it was only my mom working and she has to pay for other things so there would be barely any food. Anyways, one of the girls punched me and I fell to the ground. Annie came over and told them to go away or she'll tell her parents that it was them and they left. Ever since that day, we stuck together."

"That's an inspiring story," Brook said.

"I guess it is."

"You never really told me what Annie looked like. Do you feel comfortable telling me?"

"Yea, yea. Annie was really beautiful. She had long, straight, sunflower blonde hair. Deep green eyes, with long dark eyelashes. She had full lips, and a dimple on her left cheek. She has a playful and slightly high-pitched voice. She wears natural makeup. She's around my height which is 5"6 and she has an hourglass figure. She always had fashionable clothes and we would always go shopping for makeup or clothes."

"So, you guys look a bit alike?" Brooke questioned.

"People say."

"So, at the moment. Do you have anyone you talk to or hang out with?"

"Yes. There's this one guy..." Ava whispered.

"Have you guys been recently friends?"

"No. We've been friends for a few years we just didn't talk to each other much. We would just talk when he came to talk to Annie."

"Oh ok. So how come you started talking now?"

"Well he came to me to apologise about what happened with Annie and he said that he and his friends wanted to sit with me because I was alone,"

"How did you react?"

"I just ran away. Later that night I went to the place where I and Annie would always hang out and a few minutes later he was there. I apologized to him and we hugged. He told me everything would be alright, and he walked me home."

"Was that the last time you saw him?"

"Oh, no-no. We are better friends now. Last night we talked, I had an idea of investigating what happened to Annie since no-one else cares."

Brooke raised her eyebrow at Annie.

"You know that's dangerous. Especially when all these things are happening in this town."

"Yea I know. He and I talked about it and he's right. I have to get better first. He walked me home again. And this morning we walked to school together. We hung out a bit but otherwise, that's it."

"He seems to care about you."

"Yea I care about him too."

Brooked looked at Annie straight in the eyes with a smile on her face.

"What?" Ava said as she giggled.

"He's just a friend."

"If you say so..."

Ava laughed it off.

"Ok, it's 6:30 now which means you have your next appointment right?"

"Yea. Ok, Ava, I'll see you on Saturday. I hope you are enjoying these sessions more and more."

"I am, Brooke. Bye!"

"Bye."

Ava picked up her bag and walked out. Relieved she was able to explain her problems to someone.