Page 81 of Reaching Avery
Chapter Twenty-One
Maverick
“You’re super smiley today,” Sarah said, walking up to me that morning and looping our arms. She’d scrunched her hair, so it hung in short, brown curls around her heart shaped face. “What’s up?”
“I did the thing,” I said, still grinning like a fool. I didn’t think I’d stopped smiling since the night before when it’d happened.
Her eyes grew to saucers. “Likethething? The thing you’ve only texted me about for, like, ages that you were gonna do? Ohmygosh! Give me all the details and leave nothing out, or I’ll withhold all fries from you until the day you die.”
So, I told her about asking Avery to date me—giving her everything, including all facial expressions, internal thoughts, and location because you know, I loved my fries. However, I left out the part toward the end of the night when we’d had that weird moment between us. No point in mentioning that.
It’d do nothing but send her into a question frenzy, and I didn’t want Avery walking up during the attack—wherever he was.
“He should be here by now,” I said, more to myself than to her.
Normally, he was at school before me because he took the early bus. After checking his tree and not finding him sitting under it, I scanned the cluster of people for Ben. Maybe Avery was with him. Spotting his red hair, I looked over everyone’s head to see him better.
Ben was standing alone, looking around, as if searching for Avery too.
Before my mind could start coming up with a million and one scenarios of what could’ve happened to Avery, I saw him, and the breath I’d unintentionally been holding was released.
He and Declan got out of an old car and were walking toward the courtyard. His brother instantly veered off in the other direction without so much as a glance at Avery. Neither of them looked happy.
Avery glanced at his brother and the sadness on his face was like a knife to my chest.
What’s wrong with him?
Not having the patience to wait for him to find me, I ambled through the crowd until I was in front of him.
“Good morning,” I said, reaching to touch his arm but withdrawing it on second thought.
It took a moment for his light blue eyes to focus on me. And even when they did, it still didn’t feel like he really saw me. His already pale skin was even whiter, and dark circles were under his eyes. He was wearing eyeliner too, so combined with the shadows beneath his eyes, he kind of looked like a corpse.
A sexy corpse, but one nonetheless.
“Hey,” he greeted, adjusting the backpack on his shoulder. “Sorry I’m late.”
Why was he apologizing?
“It’s cool,” I said before thinking ‘screw it’ and taking hold of his hand. He didn’t pull away, which was a good sign. Together, we walked back the way I’d come. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah,” Avery answered once we were with Sarah. “Just didn’t sleep well. Tossed and turned all night, and I guess when I finally fell asleep, I slept hard and Declan had a hard time waking me up.” He stared at the ground. “We missed the bus, so our Mom had to wake up after a long night shift and bring us. I just screw everything up.”
Sarah’s brown eyes met mine, and she looked as worried as I felt.
“Oh, honey,” she said. “We all have those rough mornings. Try not to let it get to you too much.”
Avery looked up at her before looking away. “Maybe.”
I gently squeezed his hand. Seeing him so down made me want to do everything in my power to make him smile. Avery’s loose hold in mine bothered me too. Lifeless.
Remembering how concerned Ben had looked earlier, I got his attention and motioned for him to come over.
Relief flickered across his face upon seeing me, and he jogged over to us. That relief waned a bit when he saw Avery, though.
“Jesus, man,” he said, scrunching his brow. “You look like you’ve just walked out of the basement of my mom’s funeral home.”
Although it was a weak one, Avery smiled. “I appreciate that, Ben. Like, it’s always been my dream to look like the walking dead.”
