Chapter 306: Chapter 306

"You have a boyfriend?... I mean, you had a boyfriend, and you broke up? Shelby couldn’t mask her surprise. Why did I never know about this?" she asked, feeling hurt. Many thoughts ran through Shelby’s head as she tried to understand why her friend would not tell her something as major as this.

Ava knew that she was wrong about this, but the timing never matched. First, it was because of Shelby’s marriage, then a whole of other issues and then Brianna’s BS, then her issues...

The list went on and on, but Ava realized that Shelby never kept secrets from her, and she, on the contrary, kept a whole lot of secrets. At that moment, Ava saw how dependent she had come to be with Rocky because Rocky knew more about her than her best friend, Shelby, did.

This sounded ridiculous to her, but that was the fact. Rocky had unknowingly wormed his way into her life without her realizing it. However, Ava was not sure that she could bring herself to tell Shelby about anything along those lines yet.

She decided then to garnish the information and present what she could. Certain things might take some time before Ava could mention them.

"I met him a while back but did not think to date him, and besides, I thought that you might be disappointed in me for going with someone like that. It turns out that I should have gone with that gut because he was a creep!"

Ava fumed as the occurrences of the past week came rushing back to her.

"Josh?" It took Shelby a while before she could piece the two together.

"You mean that creep? You can do better than that, Ava!"

"See! I knew you would say that, and I was actually hoping that I could prove you wrong, but he checked all the dickhead boxes and even more!"

Shelby sniffled her laughter and then looked around, ensuring that they were alone.

"You still cannot get away with it. How could you not tell me something this important?"

Shelby decided not to be difficult and changed her stance. She had indeed been busy and a lot had been going on. She could not just blame Ava. What had happened had already happened. Besides, there seemed to a lot on Ava’s mind too.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"I should’ve told you a long while back, and after you ’let’ me keep my memories on something as sensitive as that, I can’t afford not to tell you. It’s jus-"

Ava hesitated and then solemnly said,

She stopped again and then lowered her voice.

"I started dating him before my job at the ’Dream Menu’. At the start, he was caring and I even blamed myself for not having much time for him. In fact, I have Rocky to thank for this...."

"Even Rocky knew? Come on, Ava.... I know Rocky is close to you but, surely!" Shelby was disappointed in her friend.

"It’s not like that!" Ava quickly explained.

"Rocky helped me move houses... because I wanted to escape Marvin, and when he came to check on the unpacking at the new place, he met Josh there. I made him promise not to tell you as I wanted to tell you myself!"

Shelby studied her friend and then motioned for her to continue,

"Rocky overhead a telephone conversation that Josh was having with a friend and it was not pretty to the ears. It was disgusting! But I thought that Rocky was just doing one of those pranks so I ignored him. Until I listened to the recording that Rocky sent me.

Also, Marvin owed some thugs who tried to take advantage of me a-"

"OMG! Ava! All these happened, and you never thought to tell me about it? How could you? We are supposed to be friends through thick and thin! How could you go through all these alone?"

Shelby noted the slight terror that flickered across Ava’s face momentarily as she talked about the thugs. Ava was putting on a brave front and Shelby had a hunch that the issue may have been more dire than Ava was letting on. She understood that Ava did not want her to worry, but what were friends for if she could not even worry for each other?

"I was not alone. I had Rocky."

That statement sent a pang into Ava’s heart because she really did have Rocky as her solid rock during that time.

"TG! Rocky was there!" Shelby placed her hand on her chest as if calming herself down, unsuspecting that her friend’s face was heating up at just the mentioning of her younger brother’s name.

"Josh came to meet the scene and would have left me there to be violated...." Ava added in a whisper.

Shelby drew her chair closer to Ava and gave her a tight hug.

"I’m sorry you had to go through that. Rocky is indeed very mature for his age, and that makes me happy."

The two were separated from the rest so their hush whispers did not travel far.

"Why are you thanking me? And why are you tolerating this nonsense for this dickhead!"

"You have not heard the end of it! The duchebag dared to cheat, too!"

"Did you go soft or something, Ava? Why are you still tolerating this crap? .... And also, why is Marvin still in the picture? You tell me off when I do same with ’family’ but why are you still bearing with him? He-"

"You think this is funny, Ava? Do you want the man to get you killed before you realize that he is hazardous?"

"You sound just like Rocky when he reprimanded me on the same. Your brother is scary when he is angry..."

"AVA!" Shelby glared but her heart hurt. She had thought that she had issues, but her best friend had been suffering in silence all these while and she had been in the dark.

"I know! I’m sorry. But that is why I broke up with him. It looks like he has not gotten the memo yet."

"Are you sure that you are okay?"

Ava nodded, smiling at her friend. After telling Shelby all these, a big burden seemed to have been lifted from her. Ava convinced herself that there was nothing going on between her and Rocky and therefore there was nothing worth telling there.

She was lucky that Shelby could only mindlink Ian and Murray and no one else. Shelby could not read her mind like Ian could. This may have been the reason why Ava was as relaxed in front of Shelby regarding her thoughts.

"Actually, there is one other thing that I think you should know."

Ava turned and signalled so that a small tray of food was placed in front of them.

"I should be thanking Marvin for his mishap this time because Rocky ruffled the feathers of the thugs so much that they reached out to me in fear when Brianna contracted them to harm myself and Suzie!"

Shelby stopped short, placing her fork back on the tray. Ian had not given her these specific details, but she kind of knew something about them.

’Are you aware of what Brianna was doing in the dark?’ Shelby decided to ask Ian for the info and, for some reason, wanted the information right then and even though Brianna had done a lot, Ian knew what Shelby was referring to.

’Mmmm. Is that the same as what you said last time? Or did she do more?’

’She is more sinister than what you thought. I didn’t want to foul your ears on that. Rest assured, all the tasks she had sent out to be done to others is what she will experience herself, today!’

Shelby remained quiet as she used her link to talk to Ian. Ava thought that she had been shocked into silence and waited.

’Do not worry about such details, and I’ll handle that. You just need to wait for the results.’

Shelby felt a little uneasy, but after the attempt on her life, she did not want to think of the girl she had called friend again. Brianna did not deserve to be anyone’s friend.

"It’s okay, Shelby." Ava patted her shoulders,

"She did not succeed and that is what matters."

Shelby sighed, breaking off her mental conversation with Ian,

"Come to think of it, why did you not release her to the police like Avril?"

Ava already knew where Avril was as well. It seemed only the police did not know this info.

"Ok! I don’t want to know what Ian has prepared for her. However, whatever that is, I am sure Brianna deserves it and more!"

The two remained quiet, each with their own thoughts for a while, and then Ava said,

"Is there anything else, Ava?"

"I did something that you might not be too happy with."

"I don’t think there will ever be something like that between you and me..."

"Believe me, you will, this time."

"Ok, Shoot! What is it? What did you do?"

"Royston wanted to meet you and-"

"Ava! You didn’t... Please tell me that you didn’t"

"I’m sorry I brought him here, but he’s been pestering me for some time. I know where your heart is, and after knowing Ian, I am sure that Royston is just a tiny ant on a lake. Just talk to him right here and listen to what he has to say.... It’s better to make a clean cut-"

"Ava! I am married! That is the cleanest cut I can ever give him! What else can I do?"

"Ava? You know how I hate this, right? I am not liking you at this moment."

"I’m sorry-" Ava made a pleading gesture just as a male voice sounded behind her,

"Shelby! What a coincidence!" Shelby turned to look at her crush and wondered what she had liked about him initially. This was no coincidence, and they all knew that.

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