Chapter Text
how she wished life had a backing track. she could almost hear the bitch is back playing as she stood behind the front desk and watched the bane of her existence walk through the double doors of her school. a cold gaze and artificial smile came to the faces of both the women as the bitch strolled to the counter, standing all of a slim 5'10, with her hands clasped and shoulders squared.
"ava coleman as i live and breathe."
"vaughn jeffery. could you not? would make my day much better." vaughn chuckled darkly, all 32 alligator teeth on display.
"now that isn't any way to greet a sorror now is it?" ava rolled her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest, hoping to convey every ounce of annoyance she felt. "and it's vaughn bradley," vaughn said extending her left hand. vaughn hummed and looked down at ava's hand, noticing the vacancy of a ring. "glad i haven't missed a wedding on your end though. you always were voted most likely to die alone in our chapter." ava felt her ears get hot, an unwelcome sting hitting her nose as the words cut a part of her heart that had been dormant for years. college girls could be very cruel.
"actually you did." the words left her lips before she could stop them. what was she doing? she didn't know but vaughn looked properly startled and now she wanted to see just how far she could throw her.
"you" vaughn scoffed, "are married?" ava gave a smirk and a tilt of her head, assuming that was going to be the end of it. "how come you didn't change your name? if i remember correctly, dear old frankie has that last name and you wanted far away from it." ava's throat felt like sandpaper as vaughn pressed deeper.
vaughn knew things about ava's relationship with her father that ava never told anyone else, so for her to bring him up- she was trapped. the walls were closing in and there was no way out. amidst the panic, white hot rage bubbled in her stomach and spread through her veins. she was going to rip this lady's head off.
"who says my partner didn't take my name?" ava said through gritted teeth, grasping for straws. vaughn's eyebrows raised quickly, a wildcard being thrown but recouped within milliseconds. she slinked her way up the edge of the counter, resting her hands on top of it. ava hadn't been this close to vaughn in years and the almost perfectly concealed wrinkles at the corners of her eyes weren't there the last time she had.
"my my. partner. hm. interesting choice of words. who knew the sorority slut was a big ol' lesbian, hm?" vaughn stopped for a second and tapped her finger on the edge of her chin. "oh wait," she exclaimed with fake surprise, "i did."
"why are you here?"
"oh no no no, we're not going to skip out on this conversation," vaughn said with a little too much amusement in her tone. "so who is she? where is she? what's she like? what's her name?" ava balked on the inside, panic that was subsiding coming back forcefully. she was about to crack and just start cussing vaughn out when the blessed sound of shoes approaching greeted her ears.
"ava?" solace. oh she'd have to pay big time for this lie, but she hoped the paying started later. ava turned up the sides of her lips and prayed this would work.
"oh wait," ava mocked vaughn's earlier quip, "this is her now. how lucky for you." vaughn turned her head towards the person coming into the space and her mouth hung open slightly.
"ava," the teacher repeated, drawing ava's full attention to her, "can you text o'shon and tell him to come and set up a new site i heard about for the kids?" she had crossed behind the counter, not paying attention to their guest and stood next to ava.
"i will," ava nodded dutifully and grinned. "vaughn," she turned back to the woman who had regained her composure, "this is barbara. she's our best teacher here and one of the kindest souls you'd ever meet." ava added in a small hand gesture up and down to prompt vaughn to scan barbara's features. even at her age, barbara's shape was nothing to scoff at, and the flash of approval in vaughn's eyes was enough to make ava puff up her chest a bit.
barbara smiled and extended her hand out for vaughn to shake, "hello."
"barb this is vaughn bradley. she was the chapter president of my sorority i'm college. she was just asking about my partner when you walked up," ava threw barbara the 'please just play along' eyes. ava leaned on one hand against the counter with the other she looped a finger through one of barbara's belt loops and tugged gently, "at the perfect time. better to let her experience you herself, hm?" without missing a beat, barbara's smile sharpened a bit, turning up her charm and gave a polite laugh.
"yes. nice to meet you vaughn." ava sighed internally, ready to promise barbara the world for her tony winning performance so far.
"i just had to know about the woman to managed to marry the campus mattress," vaughn breathed with much venom dripping from her tone. barbara went stiff beside ava, a surge of fear hitting ava that her whole front was about to be blown. but when barbara shuffled closer, her hand finding ava's on the countertop and covering it, ava knew she was still safe.
"i'm not sure i appreciate my wife being referred to in that manner in my presence, mrs.bradley." barbara furrowed her brows, her tone laced with firm warning. vaughn almost reeled back at being put in her place and gave an apologetic nod.
"of course. i apologize, mrs.coleman." never had ava actually seen vaughn surrender before, and as much as she wanted to celebrate barbara's 'i've got the biggest dick' win, she wanted to know what was causing her biggest headache to stand in front of her.
"why are you here, vaughn?"
"right. well as you know our chapter's founders' day always coincides with the university's homecoming. with this year being the 75th year of our chapter, the university wants to shine a spotlight on us and make us the focal point of homecoming. what i need from you, as one of the chapter's best step-masters, is to organize and oversee the step-show. i can put you in contact with some of the other step-masters both before you and present if you would like to help. i was just requested by the current president to ask you." oh, it wasn't as bad as she thought... and what was this? was vaughn admitting that ava was the best at something?
"sure, email them to me," ava said scrawling her information on a corner of the sign in sheet and tearing it off. "i will see you in september."
vaughn took the paper, putting it neatly into her purse and sighed, "i will see you in september." vaughn started her walk towards the door and stopped just shy of it, slowly turning on her heel. the ice in her state was back and a mischievous grin had settled back in her cheeks. "oh and ava? make sure to bring the wife. i'm sure everyone will be happy to meet her." and before either of them could respond, vaughn was out of the door. ava felt like a brick had been dropped in her stomach.
"what did you do?" it was quiet and it held no tone for games, but ava could tell she wasn't supposed to respond. barbara turned her head and met ava's eyes, "you owe me. big." ava nodded frantically with relief that barbara didn't seem as angry as she expected. "i'm coming to your house at 7pm to figure this mess out. have the chardonnay chilled when i walk in the door." all ava could do was nod more, committing the instructions to memory. the hairs on ava's arms stood up as barbara reached down for ava's hand, unhooking herself from ava's grip. she squeezed it gently before dropping it and walking back to her classroom.
what in the hell did she get herself into?