My
Mom once said that silence is divine.
I
really don’t know why that is considered a piece of wisdom right now.
I
held my breath, bracing myself for the eruption that would ensure my tragic
death. Oh, Lord. What will they do to me? Pretend I don’t exist? Throw me out
of the friendship circle? Despise me?
“Wait,
wait, wait.” Cassie said, chuckling. But her chuckle seemed to be more out of
disbelief than amusement, “Travis Warner, asked you, Avery Allton, to be his
girl, knowing that you don’t at all like him. Is that right?”
“Yes.”
I answered as quietly and meekly as possible.
“And
you didn’t tell us this piece of information right away because you were
speculating that it was probably a tumor on his brain, or possibly a problem in
his genes or it can be alternate dimensions or – what was the other one again?
I always forget that one.”
“Time
travel?” I repeated.
“Yes.
Or you thought it was time traveling. Is that right?”
“Yes,
Case.” I said faintly.
“Right,”
she said, nodding her head, “And this just happened today on Bio.”
“Yes,
Case.” My responses were getting lower and lower.
“And
he wanted to talk to you just now because…?” she lifted an eyebrow an question
and I know when this is the case, she expects a straight answer. My mind scrambled
frantically and an answer came swooping out of nowhere.
“The
– he said on Bio that we should – you know. Go somewhere nice. The – to that –
ridge park this weekend. Just so, you know. That, yeah.”
Damn.
I suck at lying.
“Ave,
you’re blushing.” Edward said faintly. It’s because I’m so bloody conscious that
I am lying so bad and that Travis – Warner! – should decide to go the – the bloody
ridge park with me! Like, me, me. Nicole looked at me with her lips parted in
surprise, like the others. She said incoherently, “You…you and Travis. You and Travis
are dating?” OH, GOD. I don’t like
that word! I don’t do damned relationships and aaargh. This. Is. His. Entire.
Fault.
“Yes.
We are…yeah, we are.” I shrugged my shoulders.
“I
don’t believe you.”
My
head slowly turned to Cassie Isabel Sierra. Why the hell can she read me so
easily?! As best as I could, I changed my expression of utter helplessness to
questioning, and just a little bit of hurt, “Case, why don’t you?”
“I
just don’t Ave.” She smoothed her hands on her lap and then faced me with the
most serious face I have seen her with, “Prove to me what you just said to us.”
Oh, no.
“Uhm,
what do you mean ‘prove’?”
“I
don’t want to push, Ave. You know I don’t but I want to know if you’re telling
the truth,” she bit her lip and continued, “You see Warner over their table?”
Uh-oh.
“Yeah,
I do.”
“Look,
he’s getting up.” She fixed her gaze on me again, “Everything’s up to you. Just
do something that would convince me – convince us. Anything will do.” I want to
cry. Like, seriously. I do. I can’t do anything now; I just fed them nonsense about
me and Travis – Warner – and if I
refuse, they’ll suspect and then he would find out that I messed up and he’s
going to ruin everything.
That’s
it.
Slowly,
I stood up from my seat, “I’ll be right back.” I dodged other people and walked
to him briskly before he could leave the place. He was just taking his first
steps to the exit when I grabbed him by the arm. He whipped his head around and
he faced me, smiling.
“Why,
hello there, Avery. Changing your mind?”
“You
had me cornered.”
“Hey,
you okay?” his brows creased over his perfectly sculpted face, “You look upset.”
“I
am not upset – I am fucking upset. I
don’t even curse, but I don’t care. I don’t know what the hell could you
possibly want from someone like me – for all I know, after you used me for your
benefit, you’re going to treat me like trash. I’ve been there before, and I
have no intention of having that repeated over and over like a stupid, broken cassette
player. Just get the fuck away from me and my friends. They’re all I have and I
hate – no, I loathe you so much that
I couldn’t even breathe and I don’t even hate on someone.” I can’t help my
hands turning to fists from rage.
“Avery,
you’re crying.”
“The
fuck I am. I hate you so much. Get the hell away from me; I don’t need you in
my pitiful life. You just add to my mound of problems and I don’t even – ”
He
stepped forward and kissed me.
His
hands came up to my head and my back to keep my frozen body in place and he
pressed his body to mine. I was beyond petrified, the sensation and movement of
his lips on me blinding and suddenly, he stopped what he was doing and pulled
away.
His
wide eyes were sending me a sincere apology and he said quietly, “I had no idea
that you had problems, Avery. I am so sorry for my – are you okay?”
“Did
you just kiss me?”
“Come
again?”
“You
kissed me.”
He
rubbed his hand at the back of his neck sheepishly and bit his lip, “Sorry
about that, too. I, uhm, it looks like you were never going to stop and I had
no idea how to shut you up.”
“That
was my first kiss.”
Pause.
“Sorry?”
“That
was my first kiss.”
Pause.
He
swore. He opened his mouth but it was a few more seconds before he actually
said anything, “I had no fucking idea. Sorry, I – ”
“It
is fine.” I said, in a trance.
“You
sure? Do you want me to help you back to your – ” We both heard my phone ring
and I got the vibrating little thing from my pocket and I instantly answered it
with my hand shaking.
“Case?”
What
she said was delivered incredibly fast, “You really, really, really didn’t have to do that, Ave – I believe
you wholeheartedly and absolutely and it was just the little fact that you suck
at explaining things and we were doubtful because frankly, I didn’t ever think that I would live to see – tell
me, did he really kiss you or am I insane?”
Without
declining the call, I turned around and saw their faces struck by lightning and
– oh, no. Oh, hell. This is not good. People were looking at me, at Travis, at
his hand on my waist and oh, fuck.
They
saw. They saw it.
I
heard someone on my left whisper audibly, “I think they’re together now; I saw
them on Bio and they were really sweet and everything…” she told it to her
friend, and then the friend of her friend joined in and now everyone resumed
what they were doing as if they’ve just been paused.
“You
know,” I said, looking at Travis, “I would really like to punch you.”
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