loving you is a losing game - avery x jameson

chapter 5 - never lose your heart to a hawthorne

I WAS RIGHT. I was dead. 

Oren blamed himself for letting me wander around by myself, and said that he would go back to trailing me if it came to it, but Alisa was a whole other story. 

"You could've been taken Avery! You could've gotten lost, injured, you could've collapsed." She took a second to breathe. "What came over you?" She asked in a gentle voice. 

I looked her dead in the eye and leaned back, crossing my arms. "A Hawthorne." 

She turned to me sharply. "What did Jamie-" she started. 

I held my hand up to stop her. "Not Jamie. Grayson. He sat me down and told me he loved me, but that Jameson and I deserved each other." I said, my voice breaking slightly. 

"Oh honey." she said. She sighed. "I know what getting over a Hawthorne is like, and lemme tell you, it isn't easy." 

I tried picturing her with Nash, laughing carefreely on the back of his motorcycle. I wanted to ask more, but Alisa looked vulnerable, an expression that I'd never seen on her before. I just reached out and gave her a hug. She startled at my touch, like she forgot that I was there, but embraced it.

The next day, I was out shopping. 

On purpose. 

That was unusual. 

Xander was there with me, and we were trying to get Max a present for her birthday, which was the day after. I had spent ages planning the perfect gift for Max; a beautiful necklace with a little kangaroo symbol on it, followed by first class tickets for her and her family to go to Australia during the holidays. I had checked it with her mom and gotten the go ahead, so the first stop was the travel agent.

It was actually quite simple. There was one staff member there, who had been forewarned of our coming and knew what I wanted, so she had them all ready and printed out for me to pick up. 

As we walked in, she stared at us in shock, like she didn't believe that it was us, but handed over the tickets immediately and shook our hands. 

We walked straight back out, as we didn't want to stay too long. I had already been on the receiving end of a lecture from Strict Alisa about what would happen if we took too long and how paparazzi would get word of where we were, so we sped up. 

I was ready to leave when Xander pulled me aside. "I need to get Max a really bad present." he said. 

"What?" I screeched. 

"Shh!" he whispered back, "I need to get her something with no meaning, something cheap." 

I looked at him like he was crazy. 

"Oh, come on!" he whisper-shouted, "Do you have no recollection of the little toy I was playing with when you walked out of Landon's office a couple of days ago?" 

I thought back to then, to the faint tinkle of Happy Birthday. "Ohhhh! That's her present!" I remembered. "Wait, then why do you need a bad one?" I asked, still confused. 

"I need a decoy!" he said, "Your best friend is incredibly smart, and I know that she's caught onto the fact that I'm normally in my lab working on something that she's not allowed to see. I need something to throw her off."

 I flashed back to when I was held captive by Sheffield Grayson, and how when Harry- Toby -arrived, he told me a chess move. His secret way of letting me know that he was going to distract Sheffield, or misdirect him. 

That memory flashed me back even further. I remembered a story that Jamie had told me, about a riddle with a glass ballerina, and how it had to be shattered to be used. I remembered him talking about how he, Xander and Grayson were misdirected, but Nash didn't fall for the misdirection. 

"Avery? Avery?" I heard a voice calling me back to the present. 

"Yes?" I replied. 

"Umm, are you alive there?" 

I looked around. Somehow, in the midst of the memories, I had slid down the wall and was sitting with my knees up against my chest, my hands shaking. 

I jumped up. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just remembering some things. Anyway, you need a bad present for Max." 

Xander nodded. "You have any ideas?" I smiled at him. 

"Oh, don't worry. I have plenty."

We arrived back at Hawthorne House about twenty minutes later. 

Alisa was standing there, looking at her watch, her foot tapping. When she heard the car door open, she walked towards up. 

"Why on earth did that take you guys so long?" She asked, notes of anger lacing her voice.

 "Traffic was pretty bad on the way back." Xander said and then shrugged. 

"Traffic?" Alisa asked, looking at myself and Oren. 

"There was an accident on the highway." I added. "It was pretty crowded." 

Alisa looked tersely at me, and then flipped her gaze to Oren. "You couldn't have gone around it? Or drove past quicker?" She asked impatiently. 

Oren simply replied "It happened a couple of cars in front of us. We weren't aware of it until it happened, and I didn't want to cause a scene by driving past at high speeds. People didn't need to know that there was someone of importance there." 

Alisa, seemingly satisfied, looked at the three of us, turned on her heel and left. We all let out a deep breath. 

Xander clutched his shirt. "I thought we were being interrogated for a second there." He said, gasping. 

We let Oren know that we were buying something extra via text, and then raced back home, but Alisa was already going to kill us, and Oren didn't feel like being killed as well, so he helped us "flip the truth". Xander and I raced inside to wrap everything before the celebrations began the next morning.