THREE--OFFENCES

It was a little past 6am when Ava suddenly jerked awake, with the subconscious reality setting in.

She didn't know why his face appeared in her dreams again, but she was grateful he did. Else, she'd sleep past her wake-up time and then get caught red-handed, her body wrapped in her boyfriend's arms and with his hands on her chest. On her bed. Under her strict parents' roof.

She didn't know which was worse- his nonchalance or her own tolerance.

"Get up, Ethan!" She yelled.

"Now!" She tried not to yell. If Emma found out her daughter had smuggled a young man in for the night, she'd either be grounded or not stop hearing her preaching every morning and evening. And Jason? The sick middle-aged man would be disappointed in his only 'cherry'.

Emma was a religious woman who taught her daughter to avoid temptations and besetting sins, disregard for elderly people and stealing. Her preaching was based on those. Her neighbours thought she was being a little too overbearing and Ava sometimes caught them shaking their heads whenever their eyes met. If only she could hear them. She was so certain the 'Oh poor girl. She can't even do her thing' is what was on everyone's lips, concerning her. But, only her, and her father knew why Emma was a little harsh on her daughter.

She had not always been that doting. It began the night after Tyler, her older son died. She didn't trust any boy in that city and literally warned her daughter to stay away from all of them, including her classmates. Her annoyance and sternness were therefore plausible.

Besides, her ailing husband would be really disappointed in her because Ava sucked at explaining. Her guilt-stricken face and small voice betrayed her all the time . It had happened before, when Tyler was still alive. She didn't want that episode now.

"Come on! You have to leave now!" She whispered, tapping him violently. He yawned and stretched before getting up. Ava helped him to the window, letting down the short ladder he brought with him the previous night. Her hands refused to clutch tightly on the wooden ladder.

"Go now! My mom is awake!"

"What about ..."

"We'll meet at school, okay? Now bye" she shushed him, slamming the window shut, not bothering to see if he got down the steps safely. The air carried Blooming Fire's scent round the crevices of her room. His cologne was strong and different. Emma didn't need to be told how her daughter smelled; she advertently made an effort everyday, to know everything about her only living child.

Ava knew that her mother was already up, because she had heard her talking to Jason, up in the attic. She started to spray her own cologne to cover up Ethan's Blooming Fire.

And sure enough, a knock resounded on her door almost immediately. She breathed in and out twice, before dragging it open.

"You okay, cherry?" Emma questioned, sniffing around sinisterly

"Good morning mam"

"I heard you yell, so I came downstairs to check. Had a bad dream?"

"No" . Well, she did have one but none of her family knew she always did, especially the fact that it was always a particular episode on repeat.

She shoved her daughter aside carefully and trudged into her privacy. "You got a new pair?" She asked, giggling, bending down to pick up something on the messy floor.

"What?"

"This" she said, lifting up one of a pair of black boots in her face. They were Ethan's.

How did I not notice that? She thought.

One must have fallen off when she was shooing him out of her window. Sadly, Ava sucked at lying. She shivered within her.

"I'm sorry mam" she hung her head low, realizing she had nothing to hide anymore. She had to face the music.

"The young man slept here huh?"

"I'm really sorry m...we didn't do anything. I was..."

Emma walked out of her room, slamming the door shut behind her. Ava didn't like it when her mother was silent on her misdemeanor. She preferred the scolding and yelling. But not the grounding anyway. She wasn't even allowed in the yard during these times.

School was a temporary cover for times like those, but today, school was not all that encouraging for Ava, as she had to necessarily do some things she hated to do.

First, she had to exchange words with her foe, the Mistress Penelope artist in person of Kath.

It happened that Ethan refused to sit a test in class that day because he was in a sour mood. He went out to the school canteen to stay on his own while a test was going on in class.

Five minutes into the test and he was not yet back,Ava had to go find him. Sometimes he stressed her like that.

Fine, she knew he didn't like school. He was just attending mainly because she was there too. He didn't want to return to school after staying on the streets for six years, on his own, but she couldn't just let that slide.

He was her boyfriend now, and she had to protect him, take care of him.

Sleeping dogs should not be allowed to lie all the time. Sometimes you should wake them up to occupy or guard the night, whatever. That was her policy.

As soon as she stood up, Kath and a couple of students whistled.

"Excuse me ma'am, could you please help pause this test for a while?" She politely demanded, ignoring her classmates.

"Why should I?" Mrs Charlotte asked painstakingly. Every student turned to face the defiant Ava.

"Because a student is absent here. I'll go find him but please spare me an extra three minutes ma'am."

Mrs Charlotte gave Ava the up and down look, took off her glasses and swallowed, her gaze never leaving her defiant face.

"Your time starts now" she finally muttered.

Ava rushed out of the class, darting towards the empty, abandoned library in the back of the school, the only place she was certain she could find her boyfriend.

Despite warning him severally to avoid that part of the school building, he kept going there to help his mood. She was afraid only because it was a potential hideout for the snoopers.

Surprisingly, she did not find him there. She looked around and finally found him squeezed into a corner in the empty canteen.

"Ethan, Mrs Charlotte needs you in her class right now. We are taking her test. I need you to follow me now please"

He was silent. Ava thought he was lost in his thoughts again. So, she yelled her words again, but he did not budge. She stormed out of the hall, cussing under her breath.

"I'm going to break up with you, Ethan. I'm going to, because you're hurting me" she whispered to herself, wiping the tears that had started to dim her eyelids with the back of her palm, as she walked back to her class. She didn't mean those words.

"I am so scared" she repeated under her breath. "I don't know what to do with him" she cried, soliloquizing. All of a sudden, she felt someone following her. So she stopped in her tracks and called, without looking back, "Ethan, I know that's you" but when she looked behind her, there was no Ethan. Instead, a tall figure walked past the block where Ethan was in, and straight into the woods and that sent innocent Ava scurrying down the road back to her classroom.

Her three minutes were over and everyone was back to making their pencils dance on their sheets.

She sniffled throughout the exercise especially when she realized that she should have run back to him when she saw the figure. She sobbed, wishing she could run out of class to find him. No one cared that she did.

After the test, the snooty Kath walked up to her seat, her countenance loaded with sheer poignance. "Your boyfriend is so cute but why so tough? I bet he whoops your ass every day. Like this. Right? Like this, look." she said, slapping her own butt loudly, smirking and snickering all along.

"You know you can do better than dating him"

Ava was spent. She got up and cursed her, her teeth visibly gnashing against one another. "Bitch, get outta my face!"

With that, she barged her on the shoulder and escaped the crowd immediately. She could see more students gathering around her seat, booing and pointing fingers.

Even after changing her seat, Kath would not stop bullying her, and it was all because of Ethan- the boy she badly wanted- no, badly needed to protect.

When the bell was rung for lunch break, she heaved a restrained sigh of relief.

Just when she thought it was all over, she was dragged into a truth or dare game, one of the external activities done on Fridays in Valley Tulip high school. It was one of the reasons she so badly couldn't wait to leave high school.

It was her final year in high school but it felt like it was taking forever to end.

It might as well not end.

She loathed all the games. She loathed her mom's overbearing attitude, that mostly appeared whenever she committed an offence.

She also hated her teachers' i-dont-care attitude towards Ethan's misery, loathed how everyone in the school thought her boyfriend was a mean and rude and tough and nonchalant freak, because she knew he was very soft inside of him.

When she was dared to lick Kath's feet, she knew the day couldn't get any worse. Even home couldn't be worse. So, she darted straight home, with her bag clutched firmly on her shoulder, before hearing the closing bell, and without Ethan.

It was going to be something she'd regret; leaving him behind- but she didn't care.