“Kerrie is the mafia,” Avi pointed to her friend because she saw her green eyes shift slightly. Her friends were all seated around the kitchen table at her house playing the mafia card game trying to figure out who was the right people to “kill” to win the game.
“Why do you think?” Daniel, her boyfriend of three years asked her.
“She has pretended to be guilty every round so we would suspect her, and now she is doing the same thing again but I can tell it’s a different feeling,” she ran her fingers through her lavender purple hair.
“What kind of a feeling?” Sam, Daniel’s best friend asked.
“It’s just something I just feel and can pick up on,” she shrugged.
“You do have a keen sense. Let’s kill her off and see if she is,” Daniel looked over to Sam and gleamed proudly for his girlfriend.
“Oh fine, I usually can win this game because constantly seeming guilty always works, I don’t know how you do that, Avi.” Kerrie admitted while revealing the Ace card she was holding.
“Well what a game then,” Sam set his sheriff card down, “I was thinking it was Avi."
“Nope, I am just a citizen,” Avi waved her 3 in front of his face and set it down.
“Crap, I will miss your keen instinct when we all separate out for college soon,” Sam admitted, his dark eyes getting sad.
“Was that a flirt on my girl?” Daniel asked while wrapping his arm around Avi.
“Oh please, never,” Sam waved his hand.
“I feel we all know each other too well to play this game, would have to be around classmates or members of a club we can’t read as well,” Kara, Kerrie’s sister who was a year younger than the rest in the friend group, pitched in.
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“I feel like Avi would still know who even if she had never seen them before in her entire life,” Sam laughed, “It’s the same reason why we can’t play BS either. We are better off playing UNO or another game where you play by chance and not by reading situations."
“We could pop on a movie now?” Avi darted her blue eyes over to the T.V.
“No, it’s too late for tonight, everyone has to go now,” Avi’s mom came busting in the door.
“Awe, sorry guys the boss has spoken,” Avi stood and smiled at her inseparable friends.
“Yep, better wrap it up, it is getting late and tomorrow is a big day,” Avi’s mom started cleaning the kitchen.
“Right, well thanks for coming over everyone! See you guys at graduation,” Avi escorted them all out of the door and turned back to her mom. “Couldn’t you have given us a little bit more time together?”
“No, you will soon be away from all of them. No need to drag it on further. Get ready for bed, Avianna. Need to be refreshed looking in those pictures for graduation tomorrow,” she barked back, not even turning to look at her. Avi groaned and grumbled on the way up the stairs about how frustrating and strict her mother was.
She sat down on her bed and pulled out a picture of her father. He had the same dark blue eyes that she did. Her mind flashed back to the day he left to say he needed to “take care of something” and never returned just right before she met Daniel. Her mother always shut off when she tried to ask about it and clung to her more than ever afterwards, constantly acting paranoid about every situation and keeping Avi so close it was suffocating. She always wondered if her mother was mad or if there was something she was really to be protected from. She dreamed of him through the night in several different ways. As a cowboy rescuing the town, as a sailor making his way to new lands, and as a superhero. All of these having to sacrifice not seeing his daughter for the sake of saving others.
When Avi pulled on her graduation gown the next morning she cried thinking of how her father wouldn’t be there. Seeing her friends always made the day better when she thought about her father. The ceremony was outside so it was a hot May day in the state of Kentucky. She was sweating when she walked up to grab the diploma from the principal and shake his clammy hand when she turned and saw a dark tinted car with the window slowly rolling down where she saw her father’s smiling face. There he was, Dirk Trumann father of Avianna Trumann. The car speed off right after she started ascending the stage. Automatically she thought she had imagined it in the heat, but there was no way. He was right there looking. She turned to Daniel after the ceremony was over and avoided her mother while running off with him.