Page 52 of Reaching Avery
Chapter Fourteen
Avery
The distance I’d put between me and Maverick that week backfired. I’d thought it would help me detach myself from him and put an end to the crush, but it only made me want him more.
The times he’d approached me to talk, I hadn’t been mean or ignored him, but I hadn’t really tried to engage in the conversation either. Just simple “yeah, no, cool” responses. Soon, he got the hint and stopped trying as hard. And instead of making me happy that he’d backed off, it did the opposite. Made me kick myself for being such a coward.
My indecisiveness derived from me wanting him, but also knowing we’d never work out. It was a catch-22 situation.
That Saturday, Ben and I had made plans to meet up and study for the upcoming biology exam. We were meeting at a place with a weird name.Brewsomething. Whatever it was called, it sold coffee and books. Not that I’d be able to purchase either of those, but still. Supposedly it was a good studying area, based on what Ben said.
As I walked toward the storefronts near the harbor, I hugged my arms tighter against my torso. Fall had definitely arrived, and the chill in the air depressed me. I loved summer—the warmth of it. As each day passed and the weather shifted more and more from warm to cool, it just meant it was one day closer to winter.
My family had suffered through some pretty grueling winters. Our electricity had been shut off during one of them, and I still remembered how painful it was to be that cold. It was as if no amount of blankets could help.
When I reached Main Street, I ridded myself of those thoughts. That close to the water, the scent of the ocean was strong, and a ship horn sounded in the distance.
Voices echoed from the dock where several men were tying up a boat. There were a few restaurants around that smelled incredible, making my mouth water and my stomach grumble. One restaurant calledSurf’s Uphad a big animated fish holding a surf board above the entrance, and I smiled at the silliness of it. An art store was on the left side and a boutique sat beside it.
I scanned the store names, looking for the coffee shop/ bookstore. Seeing a group of people hovering around an entrance, I glanced at the name above them and started heading that way.
BrewEmporium. That was a mouthful.
Reaching the group of people, my nerves sprang to life, and I tried to maneuver around them to get inside. One girl snapped her head around when I accidentally bumped her shoulder, and she spouted off something about me being a gothic freak. I quietly apologized, which just egged her on to say something else.
Ignoring the jab and the laughter that followed, I finally made it inside.
Growing more uncomfortable by the second, I searched the room for Ben. I hated being so socially awkward, but I often felt everyone was judging me everywhere I went, as if they could somehow take one look at me and know my life story.
Any time someone laughed, I automatically assumed they were laughing at me.
“Avery! Over here,” Ben called, drawing my attention to the right side of the room where he sat at a small table.
Thank god. I walked that way, relieved.
“Do you want a coffee?” Ben asked once I sat down. Before I could tell him no, because I didn’t even have two pennies to rub together, he added, “It’s on me. Just tell me what kind.”
Guilt always wound through me when people bought things for me; Maverick with buying my dinner, and now Ben with coffee. I knew friends did that sort of thing for each other, but it was usually returned by that friend later on. A mutual giving and taking. And I was just taking. I hated feeling like a moocher.
“Avery…” Ben started, giving methatlook. “It’s okay. Really.”
Stop being so weird, I told myself.
“Um, sure,” I said, tapping my fingers on the table top and lightly bouncing my knee as I thought—which instantly made the cuts on my thighs ache, and I stopped the movement. I didn’t really know coffee flavors, other than the pumpkin one all the girls raved about. “Whatever you’re getting is good.”
“Carmel macchiato it is.” Ben grinned, making the light dusting of freckles across his cheeks wrinkle.
Then, I was alone again. Instead of thinking too much about how there were a lot of people around, I decided to inspect the place a bit more.
Ben had chosen the table nearest to the bookshelves. There were several of them, going from a few feet from us and all the way to the wall. They were tall too, and labeled with their genres. Since it was a used bookstore, I had assumed there wouldn’t be a lot to choose from, but I was wrong. The other half of the shop had a plethora of seating areas: some tables and some were booths. Some were those huge plushy chairs that you could curl your whole body up in.
Our area had all the books, and I smiled. Ben loved reading, so it made sense he’d chosen this spot.
“Avery?”
I blinked, confused. My name had been said so much in the last five minutes that I felt like I was in one of those alien movies where I was the outsider and everyone was suddenly coming for me, trying to convert me into one of them. And yeah, perhaps my imagination was a bit out there.
When I shifted my body to the right more, my face heated when I saw who’d spoken.
