Page 29 of She Used to Be Nice
“Great setup, girl!” Blair called out to Avery, hovering next to the gift box.
Emma peeled herself off of Morgan, her eyes skimming past Avery’s without a word.
“Thanks,” Avery replied with her mouth full. More people crowded into the restaurant, joining other guests sitting at the small tables along the perimeter or congregating by the bar for a drink, which prompted Avery to crane her neck in search of Noah again.
“Did you get those ‘love’ balloons, by chance?” Blair asked.
Avery ignored her and continued scanning the crowd, only to see more of her ex-best friends arriving. Viraj came through first and gave Charlie one of those dude-hugs with an aggressive slapon the back. He was on the lacrosse team with Charlie and Ryan, and now he was a groomsman and wouldn’t even glance at Avery, considering what he thought he saw her doing in Ronald’s bedroom. Behind Viraj was Parker Stein, Viraj’s bio lab partner from sophomore year. Everyone had become close to Parker through Viraj, and now he, too, was a groomsman, exchanging more dude-hugs with Viraj and Charlie. Emma and Morgan joined in the circle next, and soon it was a full-blown Woodford reunion, complete with shrieks and cries andoh my Gods andit’s been so longs.
Avery snorted. Her friend group was always loud and commanding in college, bulldozing like a bunch of Kool-Aid men through parties and tailgates, but today they seemed more obnoxious than ever. Or maybe it was just that Avery was watching them from the outside, excluded.
Blair repeated her question, now tinged with impatience.
Avery heaved a frustrated sigh. “Yes, I got the balloons.”
“Where are they?” Blair asked.
Viraj’s eyes flicked to Avery as he made his way to the buffet. A lump formed in Avery’s throat.
“There were problems with the delivery.” Avery did her best to keep her voice even. “They’re coming.”
Blair frowned sympathetically, but her eyes were empty, like she didn’t mean it, because she didn’t. “Bummer! You should’ve said something. I would’ve picked them up on the way here.”
Avery’s nostrils flared. The balloons were such a fucking ordeal. Avery had arrived at Sel Rrose as they were getting delivered, and it turned out some idiot at the balloon place brought “Happy Birthday!” balloons instead, so Avery had to send them back. Not that Blair would care about this. She would only use it as proof of Avery’s incompetence.
“I’m sure we’ll survive without the balloons,” Avery said flatly.
Blair gave Avery a look like she was the stupidest person alive, like how could Avery possibly think Morgan could have a good engagement party without the balloons. Sometimes Avery wasn’t sure how much of Blair’s attitude toward her was actually the resultof Blair’s mom’s affair. The fact that Mrs. Montgomery cheated on Mr. Montgomery with a twenty-five-year-old she met at work certainly did not help Blair’s feelings about Avery’s alleged infidelity.
“Fine,” Blair nearly spat.
Avery suddenly realized she had no drink in her hand and went to order a whiskey. Neat.
She leaned against the bar and sipped her drink, the smooth brown liquid warming up her insides. She knew she needed to keep it together tonight, but after graduation she’d genuinely thought she would never see these people again. But it was inevitable now with this wedding. For any other normal friend group, this would be a happy occasion, a chance to laugh and reminisce about the fun times they had in college and make new memories as adults. That wouldn’t happen here. Everything was tainted by Avery’s actions senior year, a dense awkwardness looming over everyone like haze. But Avery would just have to deal with everyone’s version of events of that night. It was the dominant narrative she had no interest in rectifying. Let Blair be sickly sweet to Avery’s face but call her a ho behind her back, tell everyone that Avery was a horrible person who wasn’t to be trusted. Let it all happen again and again, a million times over. All of it was better than admitting what Noah did to her was real.
Morgan flitted by again, the loose waves in her hair perfectly intact, and stopped when she spotted Avery. Avery smoothed down her flyaways.
“You should go grab some pasteles before they’re all gone,” Morgan said. “Titi Julia sort of only made enough for family since it’s a big undertaking, but I told her you count.” Then she eyed Avery’s drink. “Since when do you like whiskey?”
“Since now.” Avery took another swig and winced. She hated whiskey.
Suddenly her pulse flared at the sight of Noah. There he was, tall and broad-shouldered with a head of blond hai—
Nope, that wasn’t him. That was Morgan’s cousin.
“Come with me.” Avery needed a distraction. “I wanna show you something.”
She led Morgan to a long table by the front door, where she’d hidden her gift inside a white and pink striped bag. She dug into the bag and took out a collage of photos of Morgan and Charlie pinned to a corkboard inside a glass box. They were Morgan’s favorite pictures from their relationship: Charlie giving Morgan a piggyback ride by the reservoir near Woodford, Charlie and Morgan holding hands on a beach in Turks and Caicos, a selfie of Charlie kissing Morgan’s cheek. Avery had sprinkled gold sparkles on top and written “Future Mr. and Mrs. Durham” in swirly pink script.
Morgan gasped. “Did you make this?”
Avery smiled. She was proud of the gift. It was necessarily cheap but also thoughtful, the latter of which, Avery hoped, counted more. It was fun to bring out her creative side again, too. Since she wasn’t writing anything meaningful at the moment, she figured she would try scrapbooking as an alternative. It scratched the itch sufficiently enough for now.
“You bet,” Avery said. “I was gonna include that picture I have of you guys making out at that bar junior year, but I didn’t want Joe to flip.”
“You know he would have. The WASPiness is strong on my dad’s side.” Morgan ran her fingers over the embossed text, admiring it. “I love this. But you already got me an engagement gift!”
“I couldn’t show up empty-handed today.” Tears burned Avery’s eyes. “I’m so happy for you and Charlie.” The homemade gift was a little cheesy, but if there was ever a time for cheesiness, it was today. Her best friend was gettingmarried. No matter the stress it brought into Avery’s life, this wedding was a big deal, and she was honored to be Morgan’s right-hand woman, that Morgan still saw the good in her when nobody else did.
