006, DRUNK IN THE CAR

AVERY VALENTINE HAD HAD enough. She had enough of the pity looks from her sister every time she left the room, enough sympathetic smiles from Nicolas and Matthew Sturniolo when she sat on her porch steps, and definitely enough of how many times Christopher had thrown rocks at her bedroom window.

After an hour of pondering the consequences, Avery decided on making her way to the local bar. She crept into Zara's room whilst Zara was napping and snatched the older girl's ID card out of her wallet. Avery quietly crept down the stairs, even though her parents and brother were out for the night (they were staying for a month now) and grabbed a bottle of water in case she needed it.

Before leaving the house, Avery double-checked her outfit. It wasn't too club-ish but it also wasn't too lazy. She smoothed out the very few wrinkles that appeared on her short, pink dress and smiled to herself in the mirror. Time to forget about any boy she ever loved, mainly just Chris, but let's party!

As Avery softly shut the door, she spun around proudly only to be face to face with Elliot Dyer. The one and only. "Avery," the blond sighed with a small smile.

"Go home, Elliot."

"I'm here to apologize," Elliot explained, biting his inner cheek and hoping for a positive response from the freckled girl.

Avery exhaled loudly hoping he would get the hint. "I'm unavailable for the next three business days, try again never. Thanks!"

She then began to storm off and down the sidewalk but Elliot soon caught up to her, softly grabbing her wrist and letting go immediately as she spun around aggressively.

"At least let me drive you wherever you're going. I don't think you should be walking in the dark alone."

Avery thought for a moment, what's the harm? "Fine. To the bar, please."

Elliot furrowed his eyebrows but didn't question her motives, he nodded and climbed into his car that Avery had already seated herself in. What the pair were unaware of was the person watching from his brother's bedroom window.

Christopher frowned to himself as he quietly observed the inaudible argument that happened on the driveway beside his, his frown deepened as he watched Avery get into the blond's car. Chris felt his chest tighten at the thought of her being with him again and just squeezed his eyes tightly shut.

"Your stop, m'lady," Elliot grinned over to Avery as he pulled up at the bar.

Avery nodded in thanks. "Thank you. Also, don't call me that."

"My bad."

She fought off the smile forming on her lips at how obedient this boy was suddenly being and shut the door, Avery made her way into the bar and just hoped that she and her sister look alike enough to get her inside.

"ID ma'am?" A bulky man asked, outstretching his hand in front of Avery so she couldn't get inside so easily.

Avery laughed in flattery. "You really think I look young? Why thank you!" She was confused as to why her fake persona had a southern accent all of a sudden but she was going to have to keep it up as long as she was inside the bar.

The man chuckled softly at her surprise and took a small peak at the ID card, glanced back up at Avery and nodded. "Have a good night, young lady."

"You too, sir."

Avery let out a sigh of relief and removed the orange sunglasses off of her eyes and onto her head. She glanced around the packed bar before making her way to the high stools where the bartenders stood, making many concoctions.

"Somethin' Bacardi and raspberry, please," she smiled up at the young-looking bartender who appeared in front of her.

The green-eyed male laughed quietly at her choice. "You're going to drink that slowly, right, darlin'?" His accent was definitely not American, it was more on the English-Italian side.

"I guess we'll find out," Avery shrugged, flashing him a pretty smile and averting her eyes to look around the bar.

The guy shook his head with a smile and turned around to make Avery's requested drink. During this time, Avery observed the boy's features. He had very healthy-looking brown hair, green eyes, and a few freckles here and there, he also had a very nice smile, along with one dimple, which was a bonus to Avery.

"Here you are..." the male trailed off, not knowing Avery's name yet to finish his sentence.

"Avery Valentine."

"Well, here you are, Avery Valentine. Gorgeous name, by the way."

"Thank you..." this time it was Avery's turn to trail off, wondering what this gorgeous boy's name was.

"Jess Romano, a pleasure to meet you, Avery," the brunet grinned, placing a kiss on Avery's hand.

Avery couldn't help but giggle at how he had tickled her hand whilst kissing it and felt bad when Jess asked if he did something wrong. She immediately apologized and told him no which then lead to them talking all night and Jess supplying the girl with free drinks — and also keeping tabs on how much she'd had, of course.

"Alright, Val, I think that's more than enough," Jess softly chuckled as he reached over the bar table to snatch the girl's fifth glass of her Raspberry-Bacardi spritz.

The pair had bonded over the last three hours Avery had been seated on that same stool, only getting up once and a while if one of her 'favorite songs' started blasting through the bar. What had felt like years of knowing each other, were really only three hours.

Avery frowned fakely, mustering up her best puppy dog eyes as she gazed up at Jess who just smiled and rolled his eyes. The girl huffed in defeat, attempting to stand up but nearly toppling over whilst still sitting down, almost sending the whole row of barstools into a domino fall.

"Have you got a ride home?"

Avery Jane pondered for a moment. "Nope!"

AJ shot Jess a goofy grin and resting her chin on her palm, she drunkenly admired the boy as he continued to shake the last drink of his shift. Avery blew air out of her lips and wiggled her finger on her lips, fighting giggles at the funny noise.

Jess Roman watched her out of the corner of his eye, he swiftly turned his head to glance at her and laughed as Avery cluelessly looked behind herself. Jess handed the older male by the bar his drink and untied his work apron, swiping his access card briefly.

"Let's go, Valentine," he smiled at Avery, hooking his forearms under her arms and pulling her off of the stool.

Avery wrapped an arm around the brunet's shoulder and swayed, clinging onto Jess tightly. "Hey, Jess?" Avery began, the ten percent of soberness inside of her was already beginning to regret this question.

"What's up, Avery Valentine?" Jess sweetly replied, opening the passenger door of his car to slide Avery into.

"Has anyone ever told you how friendly your eyes look?" Avery slurred, a cute grin plastered on her flushed face.

Jess clipped in the girl's seatbelt, patting her shoulder before he closed the door and jogged around to the driver's seat. "No, nobody has. Not until you, Val."

"Well, they are. I also think you are very friend-y..." Avery furrowed her eyebrows at the unusual concoction of words that fell from her lips. "No, what I meant to say is: you are very pretty. Not like girly pretty! You're a masculine pretty and you just— you're so— I just—"

"Avery, Avery!" Jess giggled, his cheeks turning pink from her drunken ramble. "I appreciate all of this but you're so going to regret your ramble tomorrow morning."

Avery fell quiet for a moment, which temporarily worried Jess. "Are you, like, fruity... or something?" AJ had no clue why but she suddenly felt upset, no way a boy she soberly laid her eyes on and now is drunkenly rambling to was... homosexual, right? He would have told her!

"I have a gay friend I can set you up with if you are! Wait that sounds shallow— I didn't mean to! I just mean that if you're single and looking for someone my friend Nick—"

By now, Jess had tears in his eyes from his silent laughter. The Romano boy, however, had to keep his eyes focused on the road so he quickly blinked away the tears. "Valentine!"

"...yes?"

"I'm not fruity, okay? I just don't want to cut you off by kissing you right now, as romantic as that would be, I just cannot bring myself to take advantage of you like... this!" He exclaimed, gesturing to her intoxicated self.

Avery's jaw dropped slightly, her lips curving up into a smile. "You want to kiss me!" She excitedly squealed.

Jess only shook his head, unable to wipe the large grin off of his rosy face. He pulled into the driveway of the address that Avery had given him and turned his car engine off. The green-eyed boy strolled around his vehicle to open the door for Avery.

"Thank you, sir!" Avery smiled, taking his hand gratefully.

——————

"Matt, come here!" Christopher whisper-shouted to one of his triplet brothers.

Matthew rolled his eyes but obeyed his brother's demand, squatting down to Chris's seating level and peering out of the window. He squinted his eyes, only to find Avery leaning onto some other guy and giggling. Yikes.

"Is she... drunk?"

Those three words from Matt were enough to make Chris's jaw clench. Did that stupid guy Avery is with purposely got her to drink too much so that he could take advantage of her? He had to have!

"I'm going down there," Chris stated, throwing his jacket over his shoulders and running outside.

Matt pursed his lips in worry and quietly observed from the window. He watched as Chris speedily walked up to the other guy and aggressively tapped his shoulder, Matt couldn't exactly make out what his brother had said so he opened the window slightly and tilted his head.

Jess Romano nearly jumped in fright when a hand harshly poked his shoulder, though when he turned around he noticed the person was the boy from the polaroid in Avery's phone case. Jess had earlier asked Avery if he was her boyfriend but the freckled girl only laughed loudly and shook her head, giving him a negative response.

"Hey... man, what's up?" Jess politely asked Chris, keeping an arm around Avery's waist.

Chris inhaled, his eyes flicking to Avery's widened eyes. "What are you doing?"

The corner of Jess' lips turned down as his eyes stayed amused. Jess glanced down at Chris's clenched fists and furrowed his eyebrows.

"Just taking Val home, why?"

Val? Chris scowled at the nickname, it's not like he had claimed the nickname or anything but he still got aggravated by it. "So, you're not taking advantage of her drunken state?" He lifted his eyebrows, still stuck on that assumption.

"No! God, I would never! Why the hell would you think that?" Jess scoffed, shifting his standing position slightly so he could keep Avery standing upright without her falling.

"Maybe because she's... drunk?" Chris stated the obvious.

Jess sighed, using his free hand to rub his tired eyes. "Look, man, I don't know what your problem is but I'm just trying to get her home safe and the last time I checked, you're the one who made her want to get drunk and forget."

Chris's lips parted at what the green-eyed boy had revealed, he glanced down to where the guy's hand was placed and rolled his eyes as it was firmly resting on Avery's hip.

"Chris, go home," Avery slurred, her eyes drooping slowly.

"No."

"Go home!"

"I said no, are you deaf?"

Avery huffed and unwrapped Jess' hand from her waist. "Fine, I'll go home! Let's go, Jess" Avery took Jess' hand in hers and lead him up her porch steps, nearly tripping over a couple of times.

"Avery, come on!" Chris threw his hands up, watching her and Jess stand on her porch steps. He watched quietly with squinted eyes, watching as Avery smiled up at the other guy and scrunched up her nose with a giggle.

Who is this Jess guy and why does Avery like him suddenly?

Chris calmed his breathing whilst he continued to watch, he patrolled the pair from afar. Chris averted his eyes as he saw Avery stand on her tiptoes, he did not need to see her kiss Jess. However, when Chris landed his eyes back on the pair, Jess was kissing Avery's cheek and bade her farewell.

For some reason Christopher found himself walking toward Avery and he had no clue why. Jess nodded firmly at Chris while he passed him and made his way to his car. Chris whispered the girl's name just before she could open the front door.

"What, Chris?" Avery whisper-yelled back at him.

"I wanted to apologize."

By now, they had an audience of two. Nicolas and Matthew were watching intently from the bedroom window, entirely interested in this interaction.

"'Apologize' my fucking ass, Chris," Avery rolled her eyes.

Chris kissed his teeth, trying to put words together. "I didn't mean to crash your date the other day," he breathed.

"It doesn't matter, I don't like Elliot," Avery stated, avoiding the boys pleading eyes.

"I don't care if you like him— wait, yes I do but that's beside the point. Avery, I am sorry. Now can you please forgive me so we can be friends again?"

Avery laughed through her nose. "Sure, I can forgive you now and end up being so hungover tomorrow that I forget that we're 'friends again'?"

Chris rolled his eyes at her stubbornness. He may have been a little dumb but he wasn't dumb enough to forget that Avery was not a forgetful alcoholic.

"Goodnight, Christopher," Avery nodded, disappearing inside her home.

The boy stood dumbfounded, staring at the door with parted lips. Slow applause snapped him out of his trance. Chris turned around to see both of his triplet brothers clapping sarcastically from the window.

( 💟 ) MAL SPEAKS,

hey! 🤣🤣

uhh, this update is dedicated
to jaden who yelled at me to
update but left my spoilers for
this chapter ON READ (never 
letting mak or you live that
down, jaden) 🤬🤬

i was honestly powering through
today's chapter, it was so much
fun to write!! i hope you liked it

anyway, have such a great
rest of your day/night :)

xoxo, mal