The Baby Project

Chapter Six

I opened my mouth to speak, but words refused to escape me. The butterflies in my stomach seemed to have robbed me of coherent thoughts, let alone a sensible response. No matter how far into the depths of my brain I searched, I was undeniably lacking on the actual answer front.

            What was I supposed to say? I mean, it’d made sense in my head at the time, but that had been under the pressure of Darcy’s expectant expression. Now I wasn’t so sure. Why couldn’t I have come up with something simpler? Saying Andrew was interested in someone else, for instance. But no. I had to open my big mouth and suddenly, I was dating my best friend.

            Whom I’d just kissed.

            “Avery?” Andrew said, and it was then that I realized I had yet to give him an answer.

            A feat which would’ve been considerably easier if my legs weren’t still the consistency of Jell-O and my head wasn’t swimming.

            I swallowed, trying to relieve my dry throat. For the first time since I could remember, I found myself at a loss for words in front of Andrew. But what could I say? How on earth was I supposed to admit the only reason I told Darcy we were dating was to stop her going after him?

            That type of thing just didn’t translate well into explanation, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to try.

            “She was trying to set me and Austin up!” I blurted out. The words rolled off my tongue before I had a chance to assess their suitability.

            “What?” Andrew’s brow creased into what could only be described as a confused look.

            “She wanted a partner switch,” I said. My brain was questioning vehemently what my mouth was doing, but I continued anyway, using my best friend’s bemusement only as motivation to carry on talking. “Apparently he has some kind of crush on me and she thought the best way to set us up was by switching partners but obviously I’m not into him like that and I was put on the spot and the only way I could think of to refuse was to pretend we were dating and-”

            “Avery.”

            “- I mean obviously we’re not really dating but you know how Darcy is, she won’t take no for an answer and so-”

            “Avery.”

            “- I just said it without thinking and I know you didn’t know anything about it but-”

            Suddenly, my words turned into muffled mumbling. Blinking, I realized Andrew’s hand was clamped across my mouth, preventing any further rambling. After a couple of seconds it was removed, and I tried not to dwell on the curious tingles that had broken out where our skin made contact.

            “Breathe.”

            For a moment I blinked up at him, realizing I was in fact lacking oxygen, before inhaling exaggeratedly. “Right.”

            “Now what were you saying?” Andrew asked. “Darcy wanted to set you up with Austin?”

            As my words caught up with me, I couldn’t help but cringe inwardly. Somehow I’d spun him the most unlikely story I could’ve come up with. Austin – the ultimate jock, who I was surprised didn’t have an official fan club – having a crush on me? I doubted he was even aware of my existence; against other girls, I was about as interesting as wallpaper. I was lucky to get noticed by the teachers, let alone the football team’s most valued player. Frankly, Andrew would have to be an idiot to believe a word of it.