Along came Avery

1 4 . a p p o l o g i e s

"Have you spoken to him?" I lift my head from my phone to glance at Amber as she settles down next to me on the cement bench. I raise an eyebrow at her in question, so she sighs. "Avery. Did you ask him if maybe he likes me? Or who he likes? He's been playing hard to get lately. On Friday when we were at the cinema, he wouldn't even pay me any attention. He hardly spoke to me."

"Oh." She's still on about him? "I mean, he's just a difficult person to speak to when it comes to stuff like that."

"Did you even try and talk to him?"

"I did." I remember how I ended up sitting on his lap because of the mention of Amber. "He wasn't exactly that fond in talking about it."

"Try harder." Amber whines as she pushes her strands of natural blonde hair over her shoulders and then crosses her arms.

We're outside. It's lunch hour, and this time the group is divided into two. I happen to be settled here alone where we usually sit, where as the rest of the group is seated a good couple of steps away from me. They all wanted to sit on the dried up grass, but considering I'm wearing a knee length skirt, I thought against it and found myself settled here alone, deep in my thoughts. That was, until Amber came to me.

Avery saw me too, much like the rest of them, but he didn't greet, whereas the rest did. They are all seated comfortably, on the ground, as the boys try adjust and fix the toothpick and ice cream stick project the twin and Qailah did for one of their architectural classes. Kat and Qailah seem to be having a full on disagreement about something to do with a show they both watch, where as Avery is laying flat on his back with his phone in both hands. He isn't entertained by the group. Amber came here to tell me this.

I still have to pull Nate to the side and talk to him about Saturday. The guilt I sat with the whole weekend ate me alive and spat me out disgustingly so.

With a deep sigh, I move my braids a bit and eye her. "You want me to speak to him now? Is that it?"

"Yes. I do."

Without a second thought, and just to get her off my back a bit, I get up and head towards the group; the grass crunches with every solid step. I round them and head to Avery. I'm tempted to kick him to gain his attention, but I don't. My feet stop right by his head, so because of my presence, he shifts his eyes from the screen of his phone to me.

"Can we talk?" I mutter.

His eyes shift from my face to my legs, trailing up past my skirt and then he tilts his head a bit. "What kind of undies are you we—"

"Stop being inappropriate." I hiss at him and press my hands on my skirt to close the gap through which he can see. I even look up to ensure no one is listening to us over their conversation, but I'm not even surprised to see Kat smirking at the both of us.

She should stop encouraging this. Amber will end up hurt. Or Nate.

I shake my head at her with a disapproved look and look back down at Avery who sends me his classic smirk. "Can we please talk? It's important."

"You want to tell me what promise you made with Michaela?" I shake my head at him. He needs to let that go for now. "Then I don't think it's important."

"Just come and listen to me. If you really find it not important then you can literally walk away. Please, Avery."

He sighs a bit, eyes closed for a moment. He then places his phone on his chest, his plain white covered chest with jean jacket. "Answer my question first."

He's unbelievable. "It's... granny."

"You're not lying?"

"I have no reason to lie to you." I mutter.