Page 88 of Reaching Avery
Maverick stayed busy, but he’d glance my way every so often, and every time our eyes met, a fluttering would happen in my chest, as would an ache. Seeing him greet everyone with such kindness was great too. He was genuinely a good guy. No fronts. I’d known that already, but it was still awesome to have the reminder.
The other guy he worked with seemed nice, and they made a good team as one took the order, wrote on the cups, and then the other made the drinks.
Once I finished my coffee, I stood and discarded the cup in the trash before walking around the store. I left the sitting area and went to the bookshelves on the other side of the room.
Just like last time, the shelves were overflowing, and I made my way down one aisle, running my fingertips along the spines of the books.
Since I discovered my love for reading—all thanks to Ben—a weird excitement went through me at seeing the huge selection. I’d never known how incredible of an escape reading could be until recently. It helped get my mind off my own problems and let me have another reality to live in for a while.
And sometimes I really needed that.
The shelves were labeled according to genre, so I passed Classic Literature, History, and Non-fiction before finally getting to the Young Adult Fiction section. I still needed the fourth book in theHouse of Nightseries, so I scanned the books, hoping I’d find it. With it being a used bookstore, I highly doubted it, but I still looked just in case.
No luck. Book one was there, but none of the others were.
Not like I could afford it anyway, I thought in an attempt to make myself feel better. It worked. A little.
After looking at a few other books and flipping through some of them, I gave up and decided to go back to the front to see if Mav was still busy. As I left the aisle and rounded the corner, my foot caught on a bag on the floor, and I stumbled into someone sitting at a small table.
“Shit! Sorry!” I exclaimed, regaining my balance. My hands had gone right into the guy’s shoulder blades, so I hoped I didn’t hurt him.
The guy flipped around and looked at me with wide, brown eyes. He was wearing black-rimmed glasses, and he was cute in a nerdy way. Two textbooks were splayed on the table, as was a notebook and a venti latte.
“Are you okay?” he asked, and his tone sounded a bit off. That’s when I noticed the hearing aids, and I instantly felt awful.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I spoke in a louder voice, which was probably dumb because if he was deaf, he wouldn’t be able to hear me anyway. Could he read lips?
Another guy then walked up, and I froze when I saw him. He had spiked aqua-blue hair, an eyebrow piercing, and he was wearing a Black Veil Brides T-shirt—which of course made him freaking awesome right away.
He looked at the guy I’d bumped into and he began signing to him. Blue-hair guy’s face was filled with nothing but concern as the other guy signed something back to him. Then, Blue-hair looked at me.
“You cool?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. I’m sorry. I wasn’t really watching where I was going. Is he okay?” I didn’t like talking about him when he was sitting right in front of me, but if he couldn’t understand me, I guess we needed a middle man.
Blue signed to his friend before looking at me. “He’s fine. I’m Noah, by the way. And this is Bastian.”
Bastian smiled. “Nice to meet you.”
Something about their names rang a bell, but I couldn’t place it.
“Cool,” I said, making sure to face Bastian as I spoke. He seemed to read Noah’s lips earlier. “I’m Avery.”
“Wait,” Noah said as he scrutinized me. “Maverick’s Avery?”
“Yep. That’s me.” It was odd to be referred to like that. Odd… but also kind of amazing. “How do you know Mav?” Right after I asked the question, it sort of came back to me.
Maverick and Sarah had talked about a guy named Noah before.
“We went to school with him,” Noah answered, placing his hand on Bastian’s shoulder.
Bastian leaned in and pressed his cheek to Noah’s forearm before pulling back. So subtle of a movement. But sweet.
“I remember him mentioning you guys before,” I said, putting my hands in my hoodie pocket. Conversations with people I didn’t know always triggered my awkwardness. “Aren’t you in college?”
“Yeah,” Noah answered. “We both had free time this afternoon, so we came to see family. And Bas wanted to study like the nerd he is, so then we came here.”
Bastian grinned before signing and speaking simultaneously, “My nerdy way is what helped you get into college, so have some respect, Blue.”
