I Can Make You Dance All Night.

Luckily for her, Ava's parents offered to drop off and pick up Logan until they had to go back to work on Friday. During the two days she had off from looking after her little brother, she managed to get a buttload of writing in. The way her work pattern was going, she'd have the manuscript done within a month. He hadn't even called those days, though he managed to leave 3 texts that previous night.

The only downside of being off from babysitting duty for those two days was not being able to see Jack. Ava got butterflies when she thought of him, and the nineteen year old even had a dream about him.

When she saw him Friday morning, her mouth formed instantly into a wide grin. "Hi, Jack," she said.

He stood next to her like he had done before, and stuffed his hands inside his gray hoodie. He wore black framed glasses - who knew he wore glasses? "I saw your parents yesterday and Wednesday. You look exactly like your mother, minus the Cabo tan," he said.

Ava waved goodbye to Logan as he entered the building before replying to Jack. "I know. I've lost my summer glow," she said with a soft laugh.

"Same here,"

Ava looked back at the street where her house sat, even though she didn't know why she was looking at it. Truth was, she was avoiding eye contact with Jack. A thought lingered in her mind, and she wasn't sure if she should speak. What the hell?, she thought. "You know, I'm not really doing anything this morning or afternoon. Does your breakfast offer still stand?"

Jack's cheeks instantly went a soft shade of pink as he beamed at her. "Yeah! Would you want to go now? I'll drive," he said.

She parted her lips, and paused. "I should go put some better clothes on. And makeup."

"I don't care about that stuff," he chuckled softly. "Come on."

Hoping her cheeks weren't red, Ava followed the man to his red Chevy Malibu, and climbed into the front seat.

"Do you like music?" Jack asked, turning the car on. When Ava nodded, Jack pointed to the glove compartment. "There's some CDs in there that you can put in if you want."

"Sweet," Ava hummed, opening the compartment. She pulled out a stack white paper CD sleeves with silver discs that had sharpie written on them inside. Some of the CD sleeves had things written on them too, like 'Summer of '04'. She flipped around the back around read the list of artists: Yellowcard, Blink 182, Good Charlotte, The Killers, Three Days Grace, etc.

She grabbed a random CD titled 'I MISS YOU', skimmed the back and popped it in. She sent a smile to Jack, who did smile back, only it looked forced. His eyes quickly averted back to the road, hands firmly placed on the wheel.

"I haven't listened to this in years," he mumbled, barely audible.

Winter by Bayside spilled through the speakers, calming down Ava. She looked out the window, watching the Autumn trees zoom past as the car moved forward. She looked down at the CD sleeve and read the rest of the tracklist. I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab For Cute was up next, and after that was Hear You Me by Jimmy Eat World... all obviously about death. Either Jack was secretly an emo teenage girl, or he had lost someone.

Ava dared a glimpse at Jack, who looked somber as ever, and bit her lip. She flipped through the CDs quickly, and found one titled 'Emo Girl'. Maybe her first guess was right. Maybe Jack was an emo girl. She pressed EJECT on the car radio, and pulled the CD out. She popped the other one in, and instead of depressing acoustic music, Tell That Mick He Just Made A List Of Things To Do Today by Fall Out Boy came on instead.

"You have great music taste, Jack," she said over Patrick Stump's vocals. "But Jesus, was that CD depressing."

He glanced at her, a certain type sadness in his eyes, and hinted smile on his lips. He didn't couldn't respond. Ava's mind started to explode with questions that she had to bite her tongue to not ask about.

Two minutes later, Jack pulled into a small diner's parking lot. He turned the car off, turning down the radio. "Are you ready for the best pancakes of your life? Crystal guaranteed,"

"Let's see if she's right," she laughed.

The two were led to a small booth up against a window without menus. She already knew she was trying the Crystal-guaranteed pancakes.

She sat down across from Jack. She gave her drink order, black coffee, to the waitress and waited for her to leave before talking. "I really didn't mean anything mean by saying that CD was depressing," she said.

"It's alright. It is pretty depressing," he spoke.

Her tongue twitched to ask the question she was itching to ask.

"Are you wondering who it's about?" Jack asked, looking up at her through his glasses.

Ava's blonde head slowly nodded up and down.

"I'm glad you're wondering. It's easy for me to talk about it," he gave a breathy laugh, folding his hands into a ball on the table. He stared at the jelly tray before speaking. "It's about Ava's mom, long story short. I'm not going to give you the whole story, because it's not exactly needed. When Mary was giving birth to Crystal, she lost a lot of blood. The doctors tried everything but there was just too much. She died an hour after having the baby. I made two copies of the disc a week later. One to put on her grave, and one for me."

Ava gaped at the man across from her, slowly shaking her head. "I'm..."

"Don't be," he said quickly. "It was years ago. I've moved on."

"It's just... Wow. Does Crystal ever ask about her mother?" she asked before putting her fingertips to her lips. "Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude."

"Don't worry, Ava," he said. He stopped talking, allowing the waitress to set their drinks down. He quickly ordered two sets of pancakes before continuing. "She asks about her, yes. In a way, I guess you can say she misses her too. She just never really knew her or met her. I show her pictures of us every once in a while, but she gets bored."

"I can't even imagine what you went through." she said slowly.

"It's all good. Anyways, let's not make this all about death and stuff. Is writing your job?"

"That's what I'm going for. If this publishing thing goes well, I'll be making a few bucks off of the books, yeah. Besides that, I'm just going to classes up at the community college. I still live with my parents and stuff, so," she finished. "What about you?"

"Awesome. Uh, me. After Crystal was born, I graduated high school. I ended up taking some classes for business at the community college. After I got my associates degree, I stopped taking classes so I could be with Crystal more. Currently, I work at the office my dad manages it. It's going well," Jack said.

"That's cool. What type of office is it?" she asked.

"It's a paper mill company. It's like The Office, only Michael isn't there, and neither is Pam. I, however, am definitely the Jim."

Ava giggled at Jack as her phone buzzed in her pocket.

"Do you have to get that?"

She pulled the phone out, frowning at the number. Can't He leave her alone? She pressed ignore, and shoved the phone in her pocket. Before she could even get a word out, the phone buzzed with a new text from Him.

It's been two weeks, Av. Can't we at least talk like adults?

"Must be important," Ava heard Jack say.

Ava deleted the message and shook her head. "Not at all." She'd enjoy this morning with Jack without having anyone bother her. Even if it was her ex-lover.

Notes

WOW HEY
so ya i had an idea last night and i really think it'll fit this perfect!!
in other news poor jack and crystal