Page 54 of Reaching Avery
“Yep,” Ben answered before I could get the words out of my mouth.
I’d once seen a quote that I didn’t quite understand until then. It was something along the lines of how the brain worked all the time, all day every day, and only stopped when you talked to someone attractive.
That’s how I felt around Maverick. He turned my brain to mush.
“We were just taking a break before looking over chapter six,” Ben stated, opening his textbook to the marked page. “I don’t want your lunch taken up by studying, though. That’d suck.”
“Not to me,” Maverick replied before sitting down with his lunch—a coffee and a blueberry scone. His leg brushed mine under the table, and I didn’t know if it was intentional on his part or not. “Chapter six is over microorganisms, right?”
Ben checked. “Yep.”
It was difficult not to envy the ease at which Ben spoke to Maverick, but then I had to remind myself that Ben didn’tlikeMaverick inthatway, so of course it was easy.
There were moments where I could talk to him too, but lately, it’d only become harder—when I wasn’t avoiding him anyway. It was as if the admittance that I liked him rearranged all the chemicals in my brain and made me see everything differently.
Like those black and white pictures that were dual images. You saw one thing but when the other image hidden within was pointed out,itwas the only one you could see and it was difficult to see the first again.
Maverick was like that: the only image I could see.
Mrs. Brown had given us a sheet with terms and cycles to know for the test, so we went through the chapter and quizzed each other over the ones we found. It impressed me that Maverick got every question correct. He’d told me before that he loved science, but seeing him in action was different.
What impressed me even more was when I answered a question wrong, Maverick explained the correct answer and gave examples. He knew material that wasn’t even on the freaking study sheet.
“Crap,” he said after glancing at his phone. “My lunch is over. What are you guys doing later?”
Ben shrugged. “Probably just gaming. I never have much planned on weekends.”
Maverick looked at me. “What about you?”
“Nothing,” I answered, feeling self-conscious again as I looked at him.
The mark on his cheek from where I punched him was still visible, just a little more faded. I wondered if anyone had asked him about it, and if so, what had he told them?
“Do you guys wanna hang out after I get off work?” he asked with a hopeful gleam in his sapphire eyes. “We don’t have to study. We can go out somewhere or you guys can come over to my place. It’s whatever.”
I didn’t miss the way his stare lingered on me before moving to Ben.
“Sounds cool to me,” Ben agreed.
Then their eyes were on me. How could I refuse without sounding like a jerk?
“I’ll have to talk to my brother, but sure,” I said, thankful my voice was steady. “It shouldn’t be a problem.”
Right after I agreed to hang out with him, differing emotions went through me. Excitement to see him later, but also nerves because of what happened the last time we hung out. A left hook to his face. However, Ben would be with us that night unlike the last time, so it wouldn’t be one-on-one.
Hopefully that’d prevent things from getting awkward.
