Page 135 of Reaching Avery
“Did practice go okay today?” Avery asked. “You were awfully sweaty in those pics.”
I cracked a smile. “Yeah. I’m so ready for the game tomorrow. We’re goin’ to kick some hawk ass.”
Avery cocked his head. “What?”
“Your knowledge of sports hurts my soul,” I said before sighing dramatically. “The hawk is the mascot of the school we’re playing.”
“Too bad it’s not a parrot,” he replied, staring out the window.
I chuckled, knowing exactly where he’d gone with that. Our mascot was the pirate.
After snagging a parking spot on the street—which was close to a miracle on a Friday night—we went into Brew Emporium. Garrett wasn’t his usually cheerful self when he greeted us.
“You okay?” I asked him after ordering our iced lattes.
Garrett shrugged as he made the drinks. “I guess.” Then, he slammed the cup down and pinned me with a stare. “I lied. I’m not fine. You remember thecasualfling I mentioned like a million years ago with the dude you called my sugar daddy? Well, we started dating. I thought things were going great, until he texted me this morning wanting to break up.” He scoffed and flicked his blond bangs out of his face. “A text! Months of dating, and he dumps me via freaking text message.”
“Ouch,” I said with a cringe.
“Right?”
Dang. I felt bad for the guy. We stayed and talked for a few more minutes before leaving. Back in my car, I pulled out of the parking spot and continued toward Avery’s place.
With Monica’s pay added with his, they were doing pretty well. They were still living in the same house, but there was a house closer to mine where they wanted to move—a three bedroom, two bathroom home with a fenced in backyard. It wasn’t in my same neighborhood as mine, but it was close.
We’d also started looking into local colleges. I didn’t need a huge, fancy school in order to enroll in a great science program. The university Garrett attended had a nice campus and a great community. It also had a great program for me and an architecture one for Avery. I’d done a lot of research back in December over them and then pitched the idea to Avery.
One of the nights he’d stayed with me, we had researched what was needed to become an architect, and he’d need a Bachelor of Architecture degree, which took about five years of schooling to get.
I’d also looked into scholarships for him, since he had the assumption he wouldn’t be able to go. We—aka me—had signed him up for a few of them, but we wouldn’t hear anything back until mid-May.
“Mav?” When I looked over at him, he arched a brow. “If you ever dump me through text, I will hunt you down.”
“No worries.” I laughed and focused on the road. “It’d be through a note, not a text. And I’d tape it to your door.”
He slapped my arm. “Jerk.”
“That sucks for Garrett though,” I said. “Break ups suck.”
“Maybe he’ll find someone else,” Avery said, and something about his tone made me shoot him a quick look. He shrugged. “What?”
“Like who?”
“Ricky,” he said, and I almost hit my breaks. “Seriously, Mav? You’re one of the most observant people I know, and yet you don’t see it?”
“See what?” I asked, still trying to wrap my head around his implication.
“Ricky has a thing for Garrett,” Avery explained, grabbing my hand. “I saw it the night we first went to the pool hall with them. And I saw it again, like, the dozen times since then.”
I thought on his words, wondering if it could be true. Now that he mentioned it, Rickyhadseemed a little weird around Garrett.
The light mood trickled away once we got to his house and walked through the door.
Monica sat at the kitchen table with a glass of wine in front of her. She was visibly shaken. Her dark hair was pulled back into her usual messy bun, and she hadn’t changed out of her work clothes yet.
Declan was on the couch, staring at the TV, even though it was turned off. He had a faraway look in his eyes.
“What’s goin’ on?” Avery asked, letting go of my hand to approach his mom.
