Page 119 of Reaching Avery
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Maverick
This is it.He’s finally about to tell me his secret.
I held him, hoping my arms weren’t shaking. Yeah, I was nervous even though it was silly. I mean, it couldn’t bethatbad. I’d known Avery for three months. If he was, like, a serial killer or something, there would’ve been some signs.
“You’ve probably figured out that my dad abused me,” Avery said, tilting his face away from mine. I was behind him with my legs sprawled out alongside his, and he leaned his side against my stomach. “I don’t remember much from when I was really little, but the one memory that’s as clear as day is when I was around four.”
When he stopped talking, I kissed the side of his head, letting my lips linger in his hair.
“I was playing with some toys on the carpet,” Avery continued, placing his hand on my forearm. His long hair tickled my cheek, and I nuzzled it aside. “Dad came home and tripped on one of the action figures. That’s when he backhanded me across the face and screamed that I needed to keep my damn toys out of his way.”
A knot formed in my gut.
“Then, when I was five, I was crying—can’t remember why—and he jerked me up by my arm and dislocated it.” Avery’s voice became cold. “The years after that were all just a shitstorm of abuse and his rages. Dad didn’t hate Declan as much, I guess because D looked a hell of a lot like him. When Daddidtry to hurt him, I always took the hit. I’d jump in the way or run up and push him. Just anything to get his attention off my brother.”
I was glad he was talking to me about the topics he usually avoided, but actually hearing it all? I felt sick.
Avery turned his face to me. “I’m sorry if this is too heavy. I’m just tired of holding it all back.”
“Don’t be sorry,” I said, slowly gliding my hand along his arm, offering as much comfort as I could. “Where’s your dad now?”
“Hopefully in prison,” he answered with a snap. “Or dead. I don’t really care. Just as long as he’s nowhere near us. Mom left him for good years ago, and he keeps finding us. Each time he does, Mom moves us to a new town in hopes of escaping him. It’s why we moved here.”
“Well, as selfish as this is gonna sound,” I said, resting my chin on his shoulder. “I’m glad your mom uprooted your life to Port Haven. Because it brought you to me.”
“Me too,” Avery said, leaning more against me. A moment passed, then another, before his small body shook with a laugh. “You’re such a cheeseball, Mav.”
“But you love me. Cheese and all,” I said, wrapping my arms tighter around him and attacking his neck with overly enthusiastic kisses.
He laughed. “Maybe.”
Even though we were being silly, I wondered if he was being somewhat serious with themaybe.I had told him I loved him, and he’d never returned the sentiment. Not that I expected him to or anything. I’d rather him say it when he truly meant it than to be pressured just because I said it.
I let the topic drop, instead of asking him outright. It wouldn’t be fair to put him on the spot.
“So the stuff with your dad is why you don’t like people?” I asked.
“Well, I likesomepeople,” he admitted, looking at me. “But yeah, I guess. It’s why I don’t really trust them anyway. Kids at my other schools didn’t help that either. Even before I started dressing like this, I got bullied. Bullied for being poor, for being too skinny, too lanky, too quiet. Everything.” He bumped his shoulder against my chest. “It’s why I was a jerk to you in the beginning. I assumed you were just another bully.”
I smiled, remembering how he’d glared at me and tried so hard pushing me away. It’d almost worked too. Good thing I was persistent.
As we sat in silence—me holding him while he laid his head beneath my chin—I got to thinking.
What he’d told me had been awful, but it’d been a little anti-climactic. He’d made it seem like he’d had this horrible secret that would make me scream and run for the hills, and yet, what he’d told me was more what had been done to him. Definitely nothing that was his fault.
“That’s not your whole secret, is it?” I asked.
Avery stilled, and I felt his heart beat faster. “No.” After exhaling, he sat up and rubbed at the back of his neck. “That was more the backstory to my secret. So you’d understand it. Not like I expect anyone tounderstand it, but it might make a bit more sense.”
I waited for him to say more, but we were then swallowed by a torrent of light.
Headlights. Gravel crunched under the tires and the car drew closer. I had pulled my car off the road and more into the ditch area, so it was out of the way of traffic—not that there was much traffic all the way out there anyway.
The car stopped, but the headlights remained on. The driver’s side door opened, and a man stepped out. It was then that I saw the marking on the car.
“Crap,” I said under my breath. “It’s the cops.”
