AN: Finally, new chapter! I hope you enjoy :)

CHAPTER 10

Ava wakes up with her mother's voice softly calling her, coming from someplace near. Upon opening her eyes, she realizes that the older woman is sitting down on the bed, looking down at her with a fond smile. As Ava follows her mother's line of sight, she understands the reason of the fondness on Cindy's face. Her little brother, Caleb, is sleeping peacefully, his semblance unusually relaxed.

"I missed seeing him like this," Ava admits and her mother's eyes shift to her. "I know honey, I've missed it too."

Both women stay in silence for a couple more seconds, simply admiring the peace on the young boy's face as he is lost in the land of dreams. Cindy sighs before running her left hand through Ava's hair, gently cupping her cheek. "What do you say you help me with breakfast? I was thinking about making some chocolate chip pancakes."

Her daughter's face breaks into a bright smile. "Yes, please. I would kill for some of those right now."

Cindy laughs at the young woman's excitement. "Let's go then. We can wake up your brother when they're ready."

After ten minutes Ava has the first portion of batter in the pan, waiting for it to solidify. Her mother is leaning against the counter next to her. She is looking at Ava with a knowing look, seeing that her daughter does not seem alright.

"Darling, tell me what's wrong?"

Ava moves her gaze away from the pan to face her mother. "What do you mean?"

Cindy raises her eyebrows before speaking. "Ava, you're wearing a deep frown and have been awfully quiet since last night. Clearly something must have happened?"

The blonde clenches her jaw, recalling the conversation at dinner. Her father's words keep playing over and over again in her mind, which prompts her to ask the question. "Did you know that Dad was homophobic?"

Now it is her mother's turn to frown. The older woman adopts a straight posture, her body no longer leaning against the counter. "Nonsense, honey, your dad isn't homophobic. He's just old-fashioned," she says, trying to dismiss the subject.

Ava feels a small hint of rage forming in the pit of her stomach and turns to her mother. "Old-fashioned? That's a very lame excuse, mom! As soon as Caleb mentioned Rachel's moms he immediately criticized them."

Her mother waves her hand. "No, he was just quick to judge. He didn't really mean it."

At this point, Ava's anger is going through the roof. "He didn't mean it?!" she scoffs, throwing her hands in the air. "Well he sure has a very strange way of showing it, doesn't he?" she says before turning to the stove again, shutting it off.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going for a run, I need to clear my head," Ava grumbles, stepping out of the kitchen towards the stairs.

"What-" Cindy follows after her through the hallway. "Sweetheart, come on! You're overreacting. What about breakfast?"

"I've lost my appetite!" Ava shouts before entering her bedroom to change into a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie. She closes the door carefully behind her, trying not to disturb her brother's sleep.

When she is back downstairs and on her way to the front door, her mother stops her. "Ava, please stay for breakfast. You shouldn't go running on an empty stomach."

Ava looks at the older woman, sighing before making her way to the kitchen. She grabs a banana from the fruit bowl and turns on her heels once more, quickly making her way out of the door.

Meanwhile at the Lance's Household

"Sara!" The blonde groans at the loud voice calling for her. She turns to lay on her stomach, placing her pillow on top of her ears in a vain attempt to muffle the noise. A second later there is someone climbing the stairs in a hurry, walking towards her room. Her door is opened in a rush and the sudden noise almost gives her a headache.

There's an extra weight on her bed not long after and right after someone is pulling the covers from her, leaving her warm body exposed to the cold.

"C'mon Sara! You slept all morning, time to get up!" Her sister's voice sounds more annoying than usual.

Sara groans once again, turning around to look at her with one eye open. "Go away…" she asks, waving her hand at Laurel.

The older woman snorts at that and insists. "You promised you would go shopping with me!" she insists in a whiney voice.

Sara sighs, rubbing her face. "Laur… please take pity on me. It's Saturday and my first weekend off college."

Laurel pouts, laying down next to her sister and placing her head on her shoulder. "Please? It's no fun going alone. I'll buy you lunch wherever you like. Oh! We can go to that new sushi place you wouldn't shut up about."

Sara ponders on that for a couple of seconds. "Hm… Sushi does sound good," she says out loud before turning to her sister. She sighs at her pleading eyes before finally replying. "Fine. I'll go shopping with you."

"Yas!" Laurel celebrates, jumping off the bed. "Don't take too long getting dressed! And bring comfortable clothing because we're going to be walking, a lot. I want to check every store."

Sara can already imagine the boredom, but she tries to focus on lunch. Besides, it will also be nice to spend some time with her sister. She has missed it ever since Laurel started college two years ago, and now that she has also started college, she knows that it will be harder and harder for them to hang out.

They had been going around for two hours already, talking about everything and anything, when Laurel finally asked, "So, how is it going living with a roommate?"

Sara shrugged her shoulders. "It's going well, I guess. Not that much different than living with you," she tells her, eyes focused on a bomber jacket she grabbed from the rack.

Laurel stops looking at some jeans so she can look at her sister. "Ahm… I think it's a little different, sis. We both always had our own rooms."

"Yeah, but… I don't know. Ava and I respect each other's space. She doesn't make noise, I don't make noise. We clean up our own messes and we don't disturb study time."

Laurel's lips tug into a smirk. "It seems that you got lucky with your roommate."

Sara can't help the little smile that appears on her face. "Yeah, guess I did," she says, her cheeks reddening at the thought of what almost happened between them. Or what she thinks almost happened.

Laurel's curiosity suddenly peaks, but she knows that a clothing store isn't the best place to get something out of her sister. She needs to keep her distracted so she changes tactics.

"Hey, I'm pretty hungry already. What do you say we go for that sushi?"

"Finally! I thought you'd never ask," Sara tells her, making them both laugh.

Fifteen minutes later and they are seated at the restaurant, each enjoying their meals.

"Mhm… I hadn't had this good of a sushi in a while," Sara tells her, a happy smile on her face as she munches on a piece of california roll.

"I have to agree with you, this is delicious." Laurel nods before adding, "So… Tell me about Ava."

"What about her?" Sara asks before reaching for her glass of lemonade, taking a sip of the fresh drink.

"Has something happened between you yet?"

Sara barely avoids choking on her drink, placing the glass back on the table before clearing her throat. She reaches for her napkin to clean her mouth before speaking. "Do you have a crystal ball or something?"

Laurel's eyes go wide at that, smiling like a Cheshire cat. "Ah! So I was right! Oh my gosh, tell me everything!"

"Well-"

Laurel lifts her right hand up. "Wait! Not everything. I don't need to know all the details of my little sister having sex."

Now it's Sara's time to be shocked. "What- what the hell are you talking about, Laur? Nothing happened between us, nothing like that," she says, running a hand through her blushing face.

Laurel frowns at that. "Okay, I'm lost here. What exactly happened?"

Sara sighs before letting her hand fall to the table. She fidgets with her fingers nervously while she tries to find the words. "Well… I don't even know where to start."

Laurel immediately realizes that the subject is weighing on her sister so she reaches a hand out to Sara's, squeezing softly.

"Hey, you don't need to tell me if you don't want to, but I can tell that it's bothering you, so maybe it would be good to tell someone."

Sara gives her a thankful smile. "No, I want to tell you. I just feel stupid about it."

"Sara, come on, you're my little sister. We've been through a lot together, whatever it is I'm not gonna judge you. You know that, little bird."

Sara's chest warms at the pet name and it gives her the courage to open up to her sister.

"I know Laur, thank you." She squeezes her sister's hand and lets out a deep sigh before starting. "Okay so, here it goes. There's a boy I met called Nate. We chatted for a little bit and he was nice. So on Thursday when I was having dinner with Ava at the cafeteria-"

"-Wait, what does that have to do with Ava?"

"Just let me finish, will you?"

"You're right, sorry."

Sara smiles at her, unable to be mad at her sister. "As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, I was having dinner with Ava at the cafeteria and Nate showed up, so I invited him to join us."

Laurel simply nodded at her, not wanting to interrupt once again.

"Ava and him got along pretty quickly once they found out that they have some classes in common. He even suggested they exchanged numbers so that he could lend her some notes from a class she had to skip this week due to being sick."

"Oh, is she okay?"

Sara waved it off with one hand. "Yeah, she's fine now, just a minor cold. Anyway… While they were chatting I kinda felt weird about being there and suddenly left."

Laurel frowns at the information. "Why would you leave out of the blue? I mean-" realization suddenly dawns on her face and a second after her face turns into an apologetic one. "Oh no, Sara, you felt jealous didn't you?"

Sara sighs before slowly nodding. "I did, but that's not even the worst of it. Once Ava returned to the dorm, I completely ignored her at first and then when we spoke I went crazy on her and we ended up fighting."

Laurel traces her thumb on Sara's hand, trying to offer some comfort. "And then what? How are you now?"

"Well, the next day - yesterday morning - I decided to stop being a stupid idiot and talk to her. I apologized for the way I behaved and then we got to talking about what we were going to do on the weekend."

Laurel smiled brightly at that. "That's great!"

"Yeah, it is." Sara agrees, giving her a little smile.

"But why do I feel like there's still more to it?"

Sara blew a raspberry, letting herself sink into the chair. "Something happened - or almost happened - I think. I was telling her about our dinner with mom, how I wasn't sure I should go and then suddenly she put her arm around me and pulled me to her. And then a moment after, I don't how, Laurel, but we both started leaning in and I think…" Sara stops, swallowing her nerves. "I think I almost kissed her. I think I would have kissed her if it wasn't for her mom calling her on the phone and interrupting."

"Wow, okay. Did Ava say something after that?"

Sara let out a dry chuckle at remembering exactly what happened. "She acted like nothing happened and was out of the door as quickly as possible."

"I'm sorry about that, Sara. But maybe she just needs time to get her head around it. I mean, you barely know each other, just try to go slower, okay? Have you talked since?"

Sara smiles at the question. "We did, actually. We talked on the phone last night and she even asked me about my sexual orientation."

"Oh, interesting…" Laurel says, a smirk on her lips.

"What?"

"Nothing, I just think it's interesting that Ava is asking that after you almost kissed. But… it can also be a bad sign."

Sara frowns at her. "What do you mean?"

Laurel sighs. "It might mean that she's not sure about her own orientation and if so, I would hate for you to be part of an experiment and come out of it hurt."

Sara feels a pang in her heart at her sister's bluntness, but she has to agree with her. "Yeah, you're right. I'm really not up to going through that again."

"Exactly. You have to protect yourself."

Sara nods but adds, "Although, the fact that Ava is wondering about her orientation doesn't mean that she's straight. She might like women too."

"Yes, but while you don't know that for sure, please remember to be careful. That's all I'm asking."

Sara smiles fondly at her sister. "I know Laur, thank you."

Ava returned from her much needed run two hours later. It was not enough to completely shake the rage out of her body, but it did help a little bit. She took a shower before she decided to occupy herself with her studies. Even though she was home for the weekend, she still liked to maintain her usual routine. She still had to go through the notes Nate had been kind enough to share with her, so that she would be prepared for her next class.

She only stopped when her mother came up to her room to let her know lunch was ready.

After that, they decided to go for a walk in the park after Caleb's request and that's how they now find themselves at the ice cream parlour.

She cuts a piece of her crepe and mixes it with a bit of her mint and chocolate chip ice cream before bringing it to her mouth. "Mhm… My God, how I missed this."

Her mother chuckles at her daughter's reaction. "That's good honey, but maybe you shouldn't have ordered ice cream. You were sick just a couple of days ago."

Ava waves her off, taking another piece of her crepe. "I'm fine, it was just a little cold."

"Well, at least your roommate was kind enough to take care of you."

The blonde blushes at that, lowering her head to try to hide it. "Mhm-mhm."

"Ava was dreaming about Sara last night," Caleb suddenly says, making Ava snap her head at him, eyes wide-open.

She dips her spoon in his ice cream and smears a bit of it on his nose.

"Ava!" he whines, immediately cleaning his nose on his napkin. "Mom! Look at what she did!"

Her mother suppresses a chuckle, but Ava can hear it in her voice when she reprimands her. "Ava, honey, stop messing with your brother."

"That's what you get when you can't keep your mouth shut. Besides, as I already told you, I was dreaming about college, not Sara."

"You said her name while you were asleep."

"Because she is my roommate."

Their mother sighs at that before deciding to intervene. "Kids, come on, let's enjoy our desserts without fussing around."

"Fine," they both say, focusing on their food.

"And Ava, sweetie, you haven't told me yet you're enjoying college life so far? Last night we didn't get the chance to continue the conversation."

Ava shrugs her shoulders at that, the memories about the infamous dinner making her upset. She tries to shake it off and replies, "I don't know mom, so far it's way more relaxing than high school, and people seem to be more open-minded and mature, which is great. But it has only been one week, so I don't think I have experienced it fully yet."

Cindy nods at her daughter's words. "I see. Well it's good that you're enjoying it so far and that you're already making friends. It's important to socialize and build relationships."

"Mom…" Ava rolls her eyes, already knowing where the conversation is going.

"Let me finish sweetheart," her mother asks, placing her hand on top of hers. "You're a teenager, it is important for you to bond with other people. Now, I know you had a hard time doing it in high school - for several reasons - and I don't blame you. But you have a chance to do different now, Ava, so please don't waste it. I know it's scary at first, but you have nothing to be afraid of. You are a wonderful young woman, intelligent, kind-hearted and interesting. If people can't see that, it's their fault, not yours." Cindy reaches her hand out to cup her daughter's cheek. "Never forget that."

Ava smiles at her, reaching for her mother's hand. "Thanks mom, I won't."

"You're also very good at playing Pokémon," Caleb adds, making Ava and Cindy laugh.

"Why are you laughing? Did I say something wrong?"

Ava reaches across the table to ruffle her brother's hair gently. "No, buddy, quite the opposite," She assures, smiling fondly at him. He returns the smile before turning his attention back to his ice cream.

Ava settles down on her chair to finish her crepe. Once they all finish their desserts, the blonde decides to ask the question that has been on the top of her tongue since morning. "Is dad working today? I thought he would spend the day with us, seeing as I'm home this weekend…"

"Well yes, your dad was supposed to spend it with us but he isn't away for work. Something personal came up-"

"-personal? What can be more personal than spending time with his family?"

Her mother sighs, her face serious before she speaks. "I was waiting to tell you when we returned home, but it doesn't make much of a difference now."

Caleb is looking at his mother with a frown matching Ava's, and Cindy knows she has to tell them.

"Okay, do you remember Uncle Damien?"

Ava raises her eyebrows at the name, crossing her arms. "Dad's good-for-nothing brother? Yeah, I remember him."

"I don't," Caleb says, shaking his head.

His mother scratches his head. "You were too young to remember, honey."

"Mom, can you continue?"

"Yes. Okay, well, something bad happened and he had to go away. Far, far away."

Ava looks at her mother in surprise before leaning in and whispering, "You mean, like, 'far, far away to prison' or 'far, far away dead'?"

Caleb's eyes go wide at his sister's words. "He's dead?!" he asks loudly, making a few heads turn their way.

"Shh! Caleb, keep your voice down!"

"No! Kids… Ava, stop saying those things. He's still very much alive, but he's going to be away for a while, indeterminately."

Ava nods. "Okay, but I still don't know what Dad has to do with this?"

"Well, your cousin Nora, remember her?"

Ava scratches her head at that, trying to recall. "Yeah, I remember her from when we were kids. We were good friends but stopped hanging out all together when we ended up in different schools because she moved away."

"Okay, honey, the good news is you will get to make up for all those years because she is moving in with us and actually enrolled at your College."

"What?!" Now it was Ava's turn to raise her voice.

"Shh! Ava, we have to keep our voices down. Remember?"

Ava tries to ignore Caleb, but cannot help the blush on her cheeks when she notices a few weird looks thrown her way. She tries to refocus on the conversation at hand and turns to her mother. "I didn't even know she wanted to apply for College. I remember that everytime the topic came up, she was never one to show much interest in it."

"Well, honey, it's just like you said, many years have passed since then. People change."

Ava shrugs her shoulders at that, still not very convinced. "I guess. So, Dad went to pick her up?"

Cindy nods her reply. "That's right. They should be arriving right before dinner."

"And I take it she will be sleeping in my bedroom?" Ava asks, raising her eyebrows.

Her mother sighs at the question. "Ava, I know this is a lot of new information at the same time, but you don't need to be anxious. It's your cousin, sweetie, not a stranger."

"Might as well have been," the blonde shoots back with an eye-roll.

"Was she mean to you?" Caleb finally intervenes, finding his sister's reaction to the whole situation a bit strange.

Ava shakes her head at the question, sighing before replying. "No… it's just, I don't know. What if we don't get along? What if she doesn't like me?"

"Sweetheart, of course she's going to like you. You were inseparable as kids."

"Were being the operative word."

"Come on, don't be so negative. I actually believe it will do you some good. Maybe you can even introduce her to your new college friends!"

Ava purses her lips at that, finding the idea to not sound too bad. "Yeah… I guess I could."

A couple of seconds later Cindy's phone starts ringing. She picks it up, immediately lighting up when she reads the caller's ID. "Hey honey! We were just talking about you… No, no, all good things. I was actually letting the kids in on the news… Yes, of course they're excited! We can't wait to see you… Half an hour, okay. We're just finishing our ice creams and we'll be heading home… I'll see you soon. Love you too, bye!"

After arriving home, Caleb goes straight to the living room, busying himself with his Nintendo Switch while Ava goes to help her mother with dinner.

They have just finished setting up the dinner table when they hear the front door open.

Ava looks up at her mother who puts on an encouraging smile. Both women make their way to the living room, asking Caleb to join them in greeting the new visitor.

Ava's father appears with Nora by his side, a shy smile on her face. "Hello," she says firstly to Cindy, before her eyes move to Ava and then to Caleb.

"Nora! My Gosh, look at how much you have grown!" Cindy says as she steps closer to give her a hug. Nora stands awkwardly for a moment before hugging her back.

"You've turned into a beautiful young woman."

Nora blushes at the compliment, lowering her head with a sheepish smile on her face, "Thank you, Aunt Cindy."

"She's right, you're so tall now!" Ava tells her, trying to make her feel at ease. Nora actually chuckles at that, retorting, "Me? Have you seen yourself in the mirror lately? You used to be smaller than me."

Ava laughs at her cousin's comment. "I had totally forgotten about that," she says, memories of the both of them flooding her brain.

Nora then turns her attention to Caleb, "You are the one who grew more, though. You look so different Caleb. You probably don't even remember me."

"No, I don't. Sorry…"

"That's okay. We'll have plenty of time to get to know each other," she reassures him with a smile, making him feel better. "Cool!"

AN: See you in the next chapter. As always, any reviews are more than welcome!