AVA'S POINT OF VIEW.
"Ava!!" I heard footsteps following me downstairs and someone calling my name. I tossed my backpack to the side and turned around. "WHAT!?" I burst at my father who was standing halfway down the staircase. "You aren't even going to think twice about this?" He asked. I noticed his eyes full of anger. "You want me to leave. You hate me." I spat. I was an embarrassment to him. A disgrace. Which was why I had decided to move to New Jersey where my mom and brother were now living. It'd be a much better place than this hell hole. I missed my brother, anyways. He was my twin brother for the love of God! They had separated us and I haven't seen him in years!
"Whatever. Go be with them, okay? I'm sick of your problems anyway." He walked downstairs and opened the front door. Grabbing my backpack off the floor, he tossed it out in the front yard. "Go! Now!" He yelled then pushed me out the door, then slamming it shut. I fell face down on the porch. I slowly got back up to my feet and touched my face, wondering if there was any damage. When I looked at my hand I noticed red. Blood. Pouring from a huge scratch on my cheek. "Dammit..." I mumbled and sighed. I walked down the stairs of the front porch and picked up my backpack, tossing it over my shoulder.
My father was a terribly jealous person. Whenever I'd call my mom or brother on the phone he would definitely get angry. Or perhaps whenever I'd call anyone from my family. See, they all isolated my father because he was an alcoholic and he was always abusive towards me. And he wanted me to turn out the same way, having absolutely no family and trying to drag me away from those whom I loved and cared for. He had no one and depended on me to always be there, even if he hated my guts. He put me through torture for all of these years because he claimed it was my fault.
About two hours later, I was boarded on the plane. I had the window seat, unfortunately. Everytime I'd look out the window I felt like I had to puke. Heights. One of my biggest fears. I always had this dream about falling from a one-hundred story building in downtown New Orleans. Oh, yeah. Did I mention that New Orleans was my hometown? Well, it was, until I had boarded this plane, but yes, I have lived in New Orleans for my entire life. One thing I will miss about this place is all the awesome concerts we get.
I had drifted off to sleep at about 6:30am and stayed silently sleeping for what seemed to be only an hour or so, but when I woke up it was nearly landing time. Whoa, I slept a long time, but you have to understand that I barely had any sleep the night before. I buckled my seatbelt as told and waited for the plane to land with my eyes shut the entire time. I hated and feared the feeling of the plane landing. Finally I could unbuckle and stand up. I walked over to the exit of the plane and looked down the stairs. I stepped aside and allowed a few other people to walk downstairs before me. Then I walked slowly down the stairs trying to get used to the cold New Jersey air. I knelt down and couldn't help but kiss the ground below me. "Land! I'm safe..." I laughed and walked inside the airport, humming a song to myself while looking for someone who should be there to pick me up.
I looked up walked over to a guy who seemed to be having trouble finding a certain person. I didn't even acknowledge his appearance or anything. I tapped his shoulder. "Excuse me, I'm trying to find a person by the name of Linda Iero?" I know. It sounded dumb. Going up to a random person and asking them where your mother was. But hey, it could be possible that this person knew my mother. The guy looked down at me and observed my appearance. I did the same to him. He had short black hair, a long fringe covering his left eye, green eyes, and dressed in jeans and a tight black t-shirt. "Um, no, she isn't here, but I'm her son, Frank Iero, and I happen to be looking for Ava Iero."
My jaw dropped and I froze. "Frankieeeee?!" I yelled as I snapped back into reality. I tackled him and gave him a warm hug. "Ava! I knew it was you!" He smiled. "You haven't grown an inch since the last time I saw ya." He couldn't help but laugh. He was right; I stood at four foot eleven and everyone made fun of me because of my height, but I didn't care. "Well you're pretty short yourself, Francis." I smirked. He hated being called by his full name and I knew that I could get back at him like that and because I commented his height of five foot four as well. "Oh, shut it, Ava." He said with an embarrassed look on his face. "C'mon. Mom is probably worried, so we better get going to the house, yo!" He said as he linked his arm in mine and skipped out of the crowded airport, ignoring everyone else's annoyed faces.
As we got into the car I sat in the passenger seat. Frank looked over at me. "Seatbelt." He demanded. "Oh, right..." I laughed nervously and fastened my seatbelt. Geez, I hated seatbelts. And it was like Frank read my mind, "It's for your safety, sis." He smiled and reached over, ruffling my hair. "Frankie, you are acting like a father to me, did you forget that we were twins?" I said, putting tons of emphasis on twins. "Well, someone needs to act like a father! Dad's a psycho asshole and he needs to straighten up, but I doubt that'll ever happen." He said. I nodded in agreement. I didn't want to talk about dad. I was just stating the fact that Frankie was acting like an overprotective father instead of my crazy twin brother he was supposed to be. Then I heard a gasp. I turned to Frank and gave him a questioning look.
"What happened to your cheek!?" He asked worriedly. Frank took one of his hands off the steering wheel and reached over running his hand over the scratch that was on my face. "Oh...I ran into a wall" I said in an unconvincing tone and made it sound even more unbelievable when I added in a nervous laugh. "Ava," Frank said sternly. "Tell me the truth." I sighed. "Dad pushed me out of the house as I was about to leave last night and I fell face down onto the porch." A look of total disgust overtook Frank's face. "Ugh...That stupid man, I hate him!" Frank said and punched the steering wheel. "Can we talk about something else...besides him?" I asked.
"Of course, sis...I just want you to know that while you're living here, nothing like that is going to happen, okay?" I nodded my head but remained quiet. Frank tried to think of a new conversation, but he couldn't so the rest of the ride was in complete silence. Except for every once in a while, Frankie would cough, so I assumed that he had a cold or something.
Soon enough we pulled up into a driveway, a cool blue house that was about two stories high was standing in front of us. "Welcome home, sis." Frank smiled and lead me to the front door. He put his hand on the knob and opened it up, allowing me to walk inside first. "Wow, I didn't know that my used to be annoying brother had turned into being such a gentleman." I turned to see Frank flipping me off. He must have realized that I was being slightly sarcastic. I just laughed.
Looking over at the sofa, I saw a woman who looked to be in her forties sitting there and reading a book. "Hey, mom." I heard Frank say to her. "Hey hun." She replied back. She had such a sweet tone in her voice. "Look who I've got with meee..." Frank said in a sing-song voice while nodding his head towards me. Mom looked up and noticed me standing there. I felt sort of shy because I haven't seen my mom in so long. But was there really any reason for me to be shy whenever this was my mom? She dropped her magazine down on the sofa and stood up, embracing me into a hug. I hugged her back and felt my eyes watering. Soon a few tears rolled down my cheeks and fell onto her shoulders. "Ava, sweetie...I'm so glad to see you dear..." I heard Mom say and it sounded as if she were crying as well. "You too, Mom." I replied as she finally broke the hug after nearly five minutes of her standing there and hugging me. I sniffled a bit and wiped some tears away, smiling at her. Mom was so pretty... I had never noticed how beautiful she really was. Wait, I haven't been around her much at all in my life to notice. But she still loved me, and I knew that. I was her child. And she cared about her children, unlike that loser.
--
The next morning, I looked up at my clock and noticed it was six thirty. I decided that I would lay under the covers for a few more minutes and warm up before I walk out into winter wonderland. This house was freezing, I wondered how they stood it in here. But I guess they were just used to it being cold. I'd get used to it eventually, I told myself. It surely wasn't as warm as New Orleans. I saw an outline of a person sitting at the foot of my bed. He was staring at me. And then I noticed it was Frank. "Hey sis." He said softly as he noticed I was awake. "Hey." I smiled at him but wasn't sure if he'd be able to see it or not because this room was just so dark.
He leaned towards me a few seconds later and tackled me with a hug. "I love you sis!" He said before placing a kiss on my forehead. "I love you too, Frankie." I laughed and looked up at him. How cheesy was this? I didn't care, though. I had been with Frankie for nearly a day or so though I already felt closer to him. In a way, I was sort of glad that my dad treated me the way he did. As crazy as it sounded. But if he hadn't treated me so terribly, I would have still been stuck in New Orleans away from my mom and twin. I guess everything happens for a reason.
Frank finally let go of me and giggled. "Hurry up and get dressed my friends are coming over... They want to meet my awesome twin!!" He exclaimed as I nodded my head. After that, he skipped happily out of my room, closing the door behind him. I walked over to my closet. What kind of impression did I want to make? I didn't know how Frank's friends were. They could be all preppy and dislike me because I'm sort of emo. Sort of were the keywords. I shrugged the thought off. That was stupid for me to think that. But, it could be possible. No, if they would hate me, they'd probably hate Frank too, since we pretty much act the same way. Except for the fact that I can be more mature at times, but whatever.
I walked downstairs about thirty minutes later. I had put on some makeup and finally found an outfit. To go into detail, black eyeliner outlined my eyes and I had a bit of red eyeshadow. Tight black jeans, studded belt, a black Iron Maiden tee shirt, and my beloved Airwalk shoes which were black, pink, and grey. I looked around the living room to see no one there, though I could hear voices from somewhere. I walked towards the dining room and poked my head around the door to see.
I walked inside the dining room to see Frank and what looked like to be his friends sitting at the table. "Mind if I sit here?" I said walking up behind a guy with long black hair. I must have startled him because I noticed that he jumped out of his seat a bit. "Whoa... I'm sorry dude," I say to him as he turns around and looks at me. "Nah it's fine." He smiled. I returned the smile and sat down beside him.
Frank walked back over to the table with a bowl of Lucky Charms. He took a bite and then noticed that I was there. "Oh! Guys, this is my twin sister, Ava! She just moved here from New Orleans!" He exclaimed, giggling like a crazy man. I looked at him strangely, then started to giggle as well. "Ava, this is Ray," He pointed to a guy with an afro, "This is Mikey," He then pointed to a younger looking guy with black rimmed glasses. Mikey looked up and waved at me. "Sup!" He striked a gangster pose. "Um, Mikey, don't ever do that again..." Frankie said looking as if he were mortified, but the smile quickly returned to his face as he continued to introduce. "That's Bob," He pointed to a blonde guy with a lip piercing. "And the one you're sitting next to, that's Gerard." He finally finished introducing everyone.
"Nice to meet you guys." I smiled at them. "Okay, so are we going to sit here all day or are we going to go somewhere?" Mikey asked, looking kind of bored.
"Let's go somewhereee!" Frank exclaimed with a mouthful of Lucky Charms.
"Frankie, it's not polite to talk with your mouth full." Gerard joked and laughed. I laughed along with him. "Yeah Frank, listen to Gerard, he's right."
"You two shut up." Frank glared at us.
"Nah..." Gerard and I said simultaneously.
"I see you two are going to get along very well..." Frank said then got up from the table after finishing his cereal. "Come on everyone, we're going to the mall!" And at that, all of us walked out of the house and onto the driveway. "Me and Ray have to go to work, so we'll catch up with you guys later, okay?" Bob stated as he and Ray got into Bob's ford truck. "Bye." We all said to Ray and Bob and waved at them. "Nice meeting you guys," I added in.
"I call shotgun!" Mikey said sitting in the passengers' seat. "Damn Mikey... You win" I sighed. Mikey then giggled. "Sorry Ava. You snooze you lose." He joked. Frankie got into the driver's seat and Gerard and I got into the backseat.
"So, you're from New Orleans?" I hear Gerard ask me and assumed he was trying to start a conversation since Mikey and Frank were both chattering in the front seat.
"Yep." I looked over at him.
His eyes widened a bit. "That's so awesome. They get all the awesome concerts and stuff... Plus I've seen pictures and it's beautiful there." He smiled at me.
"Yeah it really is... Though it's nice up here as well." I said and nodded my head.
"Oh, well it's okay... Not the best place ever, though." He said and shrugged his shoulders. "I've visited New York and I like it better there... Not that I'm complaining, or anything."
I smiled at him. "What?" Gerard asked and smiled as well. I shook my head, "Oh nothing..." I returned my glance to the window. I felt a chill go up my spine as Gerard moved closer to me. He placed his head on my shoulder and looked out the window as well. I could feel his breathing on my neck.
"We're here losers!" Mikey and Frank yelled from the front seat.