Page 6 of Sure, Pal

3

Evan

One month later, Ava sat on the floor of my garage while I worked on my Camaro. My dad was at work, but he’d given me enough pointers to do some minor repairs on my own.

Ava always wanted to hang out — constantly, really. But if I wasn’t playing soccer, I wanted to work on my car. That meant that Ava spent an obscene amount of time on my garage floor. It annoyed the hell out of her when I didn’t pay attention to her, so Ava usually brought Sienna to keep herself entertained.

I had to admit, it was more entertaining for me when Sienna came, too. When Sienna was there, I got to overhear conversations about bra cup sizes and kissing techniques.

Also, Sienna was funny. She had this unique ability to make Ava laugh so hard that she snorted. Ava never allowed herself to be “unattractive,” except for when she was with Sienna. I honestly liked my girlfriend better when her best friend was around.

But Ava was on her own today, scrolling through her phone with a bored expression. Suddenly Ava’s eyes grew wide, and her mouth dropped open. “Baby! Let’s go camping next weekend!”

I raised both eyebrows at my girlfriend. “Do you even like camping?”

Ava laughed. “I’ve never tried it before, but I’m sure with you, it would be fun.” She bit her full bottom lip. “We could snuggle up together all night. And you could protect me from wild animals.”

I laughed. “Sounds fun.”

“Yay!” Ava clapped her hands and jumped up. “I’m calling Sienna. She has to come, too! It can be like our last fun little trip before we start our senior year!”

“Uh…” I stood up straight and wiped the grease from my hands with a rag. “I don’t think Sienna loves being the third wheel.” It didn’t escape my notice how Sienna got annoyed, border-line angry, every time Ava kissed me in front of her.

Ava shrugged. “So get Rob to come, too. Maybe they’ll finally hook up.”

That thought seriously annoyed me. “Uh, I’ll ask him. I don’t know if everyone’s going to go for this, though, Aves.”

???

Neither Rob, Sienna, or I remembered actually agreeing to go camping with Ava, but eight days later, we were setting up a tent near the Washington coast. Ava got what she wanted. I both admired my girlfriend and was annoyed by her tenacity simultaneously. Lately, I was annoyed more often than not. That was normal, though, wasn’t it? I’d been with Ava for a little over a year. Couples went through weird phases where they irritated the hell out of each other, right?

Only I didn’t seem to be irritating Ava.

“Fuck! Rob! You just hit me in the face with that tent pole!” Sienna picked up a pinecone and chucked it at Rob.

It bounced off his back, and he laughed out loud. “Sorry. I meant to hit you in the face with a different pole.”

Ava squealed and burst out laughing. She turned to me and wiggled her eyebrows. She desperately wanted our best friends to start dating. But I mean, they’d had so many chances. If they hadn’t started dating by now, they weren’t going to.

Sienna laughed and shook her head. “You perv. You better keep your other little pole in your pants tonight.”

Ava winked at me and said, “Baby, you don’t have to keep yours in your pants.”

“Whoa! Ava!” My eyes were wide. This was exactly what was starting to drive me crazy— Ava’s need to parade our relationship in front of everyone and her inability to empathize or care that she was making others uncomfortable. “You realize we’re going to be sharing a tent with other people, right?”

Ava threw her head back and laughed. “They don’t care!”

“Yeah, we do!” Rob and Sienna said at the same time. Rob abandoned the tent and turned back to the car to keep unloading our shit.

Ava pouted at them and pulled up her camp chair. She sat down and tugged off her shirt, revealing a hot pink bikini top.

“Oh, your highness, please work on your tan while we set up the camp.” Sienna pretended to bow to Ava. She pulled her backpack out of the back of the car and stuck it under Ava’s feet. “Would you like me to feed you grapes now? Or finish assembling your canvas palace?”

Ava threw her head back and laughed again, swatting at Sienna. “You little asshole! I just got my nails done! And I don’t know how to do any of that anyway!”

I grinned at Sienna. She was the only one that was allowed to call Ava on her bullshit. Ava would get mad at anyone else.

Sienna burst out laughing. “Why the hell did you get your nails done right before a camping trip that you planned?”

---