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With wide eyes, I followed her out of the kitchen and up the stairs. She was actually going to go in there, I couldn’t believe that she was doing this. I’d wanted to do it, but to be honest, I didn’t think I was strong enough mentally. Yet.

She knocked on the door and pushed it open, the room was so dark that I had to wait a couple of seconds before my eyes adjusted.

“Ava?” she asked softly, walking into the room. “Time to get up now, honey.”

She walked over to the windows, pulling open the curtains and looked at the bed. I followed her eyes and saw Ava lay in the middle of the bed, the blankets wrapped around her tightly as she stared at the wall. Her eyes bloodshot, making me wonder if she’d had any sleep at all over the past couple of days.

“Let’s get you showered and changed. You’ll feel much better.” Elena sat down on the bed, lifting her hand and stroking some hair out of Ava’s face.

“I’ll never be clean again,” she whispered, her voice so raw that I winced. I could see that she was in pain, not just physically, I recognized that look in her eyes. The one that said she’d never be the same again.

Elena looked back at me, silently asking what she was talking about. I shrugged, having no idea. She still hadn’t told any of us what had happened, I had a feeling that Corey knew but even he wasn’t saying anything.

“Let’s at least try though, honey.” I watched as Elena kept trying to coax her out of the bed, Ava not moving at all, not even her eyes moved from the spot on the wall that she was staring at.

I leaned back against the wall, waiting her out. The longer I stood here, the more my resolve grew, she couldn’t stay in here forever. If I had to be cruel to be kind, then that’s what I’d do.

“What are you doing?” A voice growled from behind me.

I startled. “Corey! Jeez you scared the life out of me.” My hand was clutching onto my chest as I looked over at him stood in the doorway, his body filling the whole frame.

“What are you doing?” he asked again.

“Ava needs to have a shower and come out of this room,” Elena answered. Standing up she gave Corey the ‘mom’ look and dared him to tell her any different.

He looked at all of us in turn, his eyes finally landing on Ava.

Moving forward, he sat down on the other side of the bed, his hand touching her arm. “Ava? Elena’s right,” he said softly.

I’d missed Corey so much and we still hadn’t had a proper talk since he’d been back. Not that I minded, I still had to talk with Ty. He may have thought that I wasn’t going to bring Serena up again but he was wrong. I wanted to know everything, not just what she had told me.

Corey reached forward and helped lift Ava up off the bed slowly, she didn’t move, her body limp. He carried her to the bathroom, her head going to his chest, with Elena following right behind her.

“You can go now,” she said to him when they were in the bathroom.

I waited for Corey to come back out and walked down the stairs with him. “She’ll be okay,” I said when we were both in the kitchen and sat at the table.

“I know,” he huffed. “She won’t last in the system though, sis.”

Nodding, I agreed. She needed to be around people who understood her, not with people who didn’t care.

“Anyway, what do you say that me and you go out and get something to eat? I’ll ask Elena to watch Ava,” I asked, hopeful.

He grinned for what felt like the first time in forever, his hand slid across the table, grasping mine and squeezing slightly. “Yeah,” he replied. “Let’s catch up. Just the two of us.”

I didn’t want to go out anywhere so we went to a drive through, got some burgers and then drove up to the spot that Corey always used to take me. Moaning at the first taste of my burger, I couldn’t help but close my eyes at the taste.

I’d never missed food so much in my entire life and I savored every bite. I moved my eyes to Corey, grinning wide with a mouth full of food at his chuckle.

“Some things never change.” He bit into his own burger, moaning at the taste just like I had.

“See,” I said once I had swallowed my bite, and raised my brows at him. The burgers at that place were the best and it was all I could do to stop myself from eating one after another.

We sat and ate in silence, both of us just gazing out of the window. It was nice, to just be sat with someone and know that you didn’t have to say anything.

“So…” he sa

id, breaking the silence after ten minutes. “You and Ty, huh?”