Page 56 of Reaching Avery
Huh?
“Um.” I cleared my throat. “I don’t drink. Thanks, though.”
What I really wanted to say was, “Dude, I just said I was seventeen.Are you daft?”But I kept that to myself, not wanting to make him mad. If I’d known this was going to turn into an uncomfortable flirtation thing, I would’ve never come up there.
“We’re leaving anyway,” the grumpy one said before shooting me a glare. His dark hair fell into his face, giving him that edgy look. If he wasn’t so hateful, I would’ve thought he was hot.
Couldn’t Mr. Flirty see how much his friend was into him? By the way he kept looking at the shorter man and smirking, I realized that yes, hedidknow.
What a jerk.
“Well, my boyfriend will be here soon,” I blurted out, instantly asking myself what the hell I was thinking. I guess the tension with the two older guys just made me want to have an escape and not being single seemed to be the key to that.
It worked. The grumpy one relaxed, and the smoke stopped pouring from his ears.
“Mav!”
I looked to see Ben waving at me.
Avery was trailing beside him with his head angled down and his dark hair hiding most of his face. When he looked like that, I wanted to pull him into my arms and take away his nerves. The pool hall was overly crowded that night, so I should’ve known he’d be uncomfortable. Hopefully he’d still have fun.
A thought hit me and my insides cringed. I’d just told these guys that my boyfriend was on his way, and now I was stumped as I tried to form a solution if they asked which one he was.
“Hey,” I said once they were beside us. “Found us a table. Lucky I caught these guys just as they were packing up.”
Mr. Flirty eyed Ben before moving his gaze to Avery. “Have a good night, kids.” His voice was harsher than before, and the wordkidswas sneered.
Wow. The tables had turned. I guess me ‘having a boyfriend’ pissed him off. Oh well.
Once the other guys left, I turned to my friends. They didn’t seem to register that an awkward thing had just happened, which was great, because I didn’t really feel like explaining it.
“Glad you could make it,” I said to them before reaching into my pocket and grabbing a few dollar bills from my wallet. “I’m going to get some quarters for the table. If the waitress comes by while I’m gone, you guys can order whatever you want. Tonight’s on me.”
“Cool!” Ben unzipped his light jacket and shrugged it off. “You want anything to drink?”
“Yeah. A Coke would be great,” I said, nodding to Ben. Then, my gaze moved to Avery. His shoulders slumped more, and he made brief eye contact before looking away. “Be back in a sec.”
***
Ben and I played the first game, while Avery sat at the small table behind us, watching. I kept looking back at him in between my turns, and he’d seemed to loosen up a bit. He wasn’t as visibly nervous at least. His face was no longer hidden behind the dark curtain of his hair, and his amazing blue eyes studied the pool table, as if he was curious about how the game worked.
And yeah, an idea hit me.
I’d seen so many other guys teach their girlfriends how to play, and the girls had always acted so ditsy and clueless. “Where does my hand go? Here?”Then, they’d bend over the table and intentionally do it wrong, so that their guys would get behind them and show them how it was done. The guys hadn’t minded, of course.
Avery wouldn’t act like the girls, but maybe I could still show him how to play.
“How are you so good?” Ben asked after he scratched. His brow narrowed as he scanned the table. “Crap, man. You only have one ball left. And I have, like… four.”
Grinning, I grabbed the cue ball and sat it back on the table. “I’ve played pool for years. I guess I have the advantage.”
My last ball was a yellow stripe, so I mentally lined up the ball with the closest pocket before lowering my body flat to the table and aiming. The strike would need to hit the yellow ball on the far left for it to go the direction it needed, so I focused on that area before giving the cue ball a gentle tap.
Ben groaned when the ball was pocketed.
For the eight ball, you had to call where it’d go before you made your shot, so I looked at my options before saying, “Eight ball in the bottom right pocket.”
When I glanced up, I saw Ben roll his eyes. I smirked before hitting the ball just right and winning the game.
