Page 20 of Reaching Avery
Lost in my thoughts, I hadn’t been paying attention to how fast I was going until I hit the raised railroad tracks and heard a god awful popping sound. The car swerved to the right, and a tree came into my line of vision.
Dammit!
I turned the wheel in the other direction as fast as I could and managed to miss the tree by a few feet before I slammed on the brakes. At the sudden stop, my head smacked against the steering wheel before flinging back again to the seat.
Holy crap. My pulse raced with adrenaline, my body shook, and a pain in the side of my head had me squinting.
“Hey! Are you okay?” a voice shouted, drawing closer.
Disoriented for a moment, I just sat there, trying to make sense of what just happened.
Then, someone was at my window.
“Hey, man. You good?”
A bit sluggishly, I turned and came face-to-face with the last person I expected to see.
“Avery?” I asked, not sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me.
“Shit, Maverick,” he said as realization lit his face as well. “You hit those tracks way too fast. I think you popped a tire.”
“Probably,” I said with a slightly pained chuckle. “I’ve needed new tires for a while ‘cause they were starting to bald. Guess that’s what I get for procrastinating with it.”
I opened the door, and he backed up to let me out of the car.
I noticed he stayed close by, and I wondered if it was so he could try to catch me if I toppled over. Which was endearing if it was true because the guy barely reached the middle of my neck, and I had probably forty or more pounds on him. I’d crush him.
“Take it easy, big guy,” he said, putting out his hands.
Just as I’d thought.
I smiled at him right as I started to sway, and I slapped a hand on the top of my car to steady myself. “I’m okay. I just need to walk it off.”
“Walk it off,” he repeated in a mocking tone. “Stop being such a freaking dude and sit your ass down before you fall and shake the earth.”
I quirked a brow. “Was that a fat joke?”
“No, it was a ‘you’re a big mofo and will go down like a tree’ statement,” he answered before pointing to the ground. “Sit. I need to see if your head is bleeding.”
Doing as he said, I sat on the grass and reached for my head, but he slapped my hand away. I bit back my laugh and let him do his thing. It was the most comfortable I’d ever seen him, lacking all of the shyness and leeriness.
Avery leaned forward and studied my head, gently moving his long, pale fingers through my hair. “Good news is it looks like a small cut. It bled a little, but it doesn’t look too bad.”
His fingers pressed a little around the area. He said something, but I didn’t catch it.
“Huh?”
I’d been too focused on the pounding of my heart against my ribcage and the feel of his hands on me.
“Does this hurt?” he asked again, probing a bit more.
“Not really,” I half-lied as he touched a tender spot. His unamused gaze told me he didn’t believe me. “Okay just a little. But I’ll live.”
“Let me see your phone.” I did as he requested, and he moved in front of me, looking intently into my eyes. He clicked the light on, and asked, “Where do you go to school?”
I was about to scoff at a question he obviously knew the answer to, but then I realized what he was doing: checking the dilation of my pupils and asking me general questions I should know but might have trouble answering if I had any kind of concussion.
“Port Haven High,” I answered, focusing on him. The light from my phone lit the side of his face, and I watched the way his features changed as he examined me.
