I nudged my sandwich away with the tip of my finger. My appetite had disappeared when I went to the library to check on Avery and found it empty. I knew she had left school after our third period, but I thought she would be back by now.

Pushing Avery away was never the goal. If anything it was my biggest fear. Hanging out with her these past few days reminded me just how well we went together. She made me laugh like no one could. There was a glow about me that I had been missing.

Not to mention the sparks.

Every time we shared the same air, every breath I took was charged. There was lightning in my lungs and a storm in my heart. The best type of disaster though. There were torrential winds underneath my feet that were taking me to new places. And I wanted nothing more than for Avery to join me.

But with the way I was handling things now, it would never happen. I needed to be able to trust Avery and her ability to tell me in her own time. It's just that it was hard when her body was littered with bruises.

"Sophia! Is that a yes or a no?" Crystal pestered, giving me an annoyed look.

Crystal was one of the friends that came with dating Chris. She didn't have much of a personality and was a tad annoying in all honesty. Her favorite past times included making people cry and trying to take what wasn't hers. The latter never bothered me because Chris was loyal to a fault.

However, what if she was the one responsible for Avery's injuries. She would never do the dirty work herself, but she was influential and homophobic enough. I whipped my head around to face her to find her already staring at me. I had forgotten she was trying to get my attention.

"Can you repeat the question?" I asked, resting my chin on my fist. I could at least try to look interested.

She groaned dramatically, throwing her hands in the air. She made various unnecessary hand motions before eventually giving me a look that matched my current mood.

"Are you coming to my party tonight? Chris said he was coming," she sighed dreamily.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Chris would never pass up anyone's party; especially if there's going to be free alcohol. She shouldn't feel too flattered.

"I'm actually not feeling too great, so I'll skip out on this one." Translation: I dislike you and your parties, so no. I don't want to go.

Crystal's face lit up. "That's too bad. Don't worry, I'll have enough fun for the both of us," she said at an offensively high tone of voice. I was even more offended that she thought I actually believed that.

"I'm sure you will," I responded, forcing a smile. I stood up from the table, collecting my things. "I'm actually going to head to the nurse. Get checked out."

I didn't wait for anyone's response before walking away and I'm sure no one spared me a glance. Even if Avery isn't there, the library was still much more appealing than listening to Crystal drone on about her party.

I still made my way to Avery's section of the library and made myself comfortable between the bookshelves. I stared at the ceiling as if it knew something which could help me talk to her. Even the carpet stain knows more about her than I do. This wood stain would probably be a better friend than I am.

"Sophia, why are you talking to the bookshelf?"

I let out a startled squeak and my head snapped up in alarm. Avery stood in front of me with her backpack hanging from her fingertips. Her hood was still pulled around her face, most likely hiding the reason she came to class late earlier. My brain whirled with a flurry of thoughts and Avery looked down at me expectantly.

"I-I wasn't," I stuttered, rubbing the back of my neck. "I was talking to myself while staring at the bookshelf. Definitely not as weird as talking to the bookshelf. Not that there's anything wrong with people that speak to bookshelves. I mean I guess there is something wrong with them but nothing wrong, you know?"

I ended my nervous ramble with an awkward laugh. Avery showed no signs of amusement and didn't make any move to respond. Her face was kept neutral and her body language gave nothing away. Despite how buried all of her emotions were though, her aura of pure exhaustion still seeped through. She didn't need to say anything for me to feel that.

I cleared my throat and pulled myself together. "What are you doing here? I thought you left for the day."

She shrugged, leaning against the bookshelf. "I needed to grab some things from my house." She responded so quietly I almost didn't hear her.

We stared at each other for a few beats longer, before Avery broke the eye contact; she decided the computer lab behind me was more interesting. Was she afraid I'd find the truth hidden in those cloudy eyes? Or is it possible she could feel the storm in her heart too?

"You can sit Avery," I spoke gently, breaking the silence.

Avery's eyes snapped back to mine, this time with a slight glare.

"Can I?" she asked, allowing just enough bitterness into her tone to make her point clear. She wanted to know if I was going to continue my interrogation. If I was going to dig into places I had no business disturbing.

I wanted to tell the truth. Tell her I was going to continue searching until I figured out who it was. Tell her I cared about her too much to just watch. But I knew if I did that she'd stop coming to me. She'd find another hiding spot and disappear into the shadows again.

"You can," I said in a tone that was full of promise but would sound suspicious to anyone listening hard enough.

And on any other day, I know Avery would be the one to hear it. But her exhaustion didn't allow for it. After a few more tense seconds of staring, she slid onto the ground across from me and took an apple out of her backpack.

Δ

By some magical force, I was able to convince Avery to skip the rest of the day with me.

Admittedly, it was not an easy feat. It took me about 15 minutes for me to even get the courage to ask her. Of course she said no the first dozen times, so it took another 30 minutes of begging and pleading for her to finally give in. She agreed with a frown, but nevertheless she agreed.

Luckily for her, we were skipping and heading over to the Meyers' household. Home of the most fun and relaxed family in the entire universe.

"Wait a minute," Avery started, buckling her seatbelt. "If we're going to their house, does that mean Seth and Ethan are skipping too?"

Avery sounded so baffled with the concept and I had to force myself not to laugh at her. It was a little mind-blowing that the person who needed off days the most never took them.

"Drake too actually," I added in a matter-of-fact tone.

Her jaw dropped before she turned to face the window, mumbling to herself something about delinquents. We preferred to call ourselves strategic relaxers. Besides, Ethan was smart enough to miss the whole week if he wanted to. And when Seth heard Ethan was skipping with me, he and Drake jumped on the bandwagon. It's Friday, it's not like any of us would've been paying attention anyway.

"What are we even going to do over there?" Avery muttered grumpily.

I was slowly starting to realize that Avery had agreed to come along, but I was going to have to pay the price of listening to her complain all day. I could live with that. It wouldn't matter anyway because by the end of today, she's never going to want to leave that house.

"Surprises, surprises," I sang teasingly as I backed up from my space in the parking lot.

She gave an over-exaggerated groan before throwing her hands in the air. She made a futile attempt at ignoring me by turning up the radio to a deafening volume. I chuckled at her behavior and laid a hand over her thigh without even thinking about it.

My body stilled when I processed what I had just done. I'm not quite sure where the idea came from. But maybe that's what mattered. I did it because it felt right. Touching Avery this way feels like what's supposed to happen.

However, when Avery picked my hand up from her leg, I felt my heart drop to my stomach.

Did I just fuck this up? Is Avery going to ask Drake to drive her home as soon as we get there? Was she never going to talk to me again because of this? Have I been reading everything all wrong?

My palms grew clammy on the steering wheel, as the loud music and silence dragged on. At a red light, I swallowed my fear and risked a glance to the right to look at Avery's expression. As my eyes dragged over her face, my panic morphed into confusion.

She was smiling. Not just a happy smile, but one laced with delight. She moved my hand to tease me.

Suddenly invigorated, I moved my hand back to Avery's thigh with confidence. She let out a burst of laughter before immediately moving my hand back to its previous spot. I scoffed in mock hurt, getting caught up in the moment.

"Avery Leon if you move my hand one more time I will kiss you."

A piece of me wanted to take it back as soon as I said it to save myself the embarrassment. The threat was so bold I know my voice cracked towards the end, but that didn't matter so much to me as to what Avery was going to do next.

I saw her turn towards me out of the corner of my eye. I cursed the roads for being too chaotic for me to get a proper look at her and prepare for the rejection. Maybe that was too far too fast. The moment lit a fire under me and I couldn't control it.

A few heated beats passed. Then gently, with a ghost of a touch, Avery's hand held onto mine, guiding it over to her.

And although the loss of contact had caused a break in the heat, now my heartbeat kicked up enough notches to fill the void. A slow exhale of relief was pulled out of me and I was able to relax in my seat for the first time since this drive started.

After a few moments, Avery's hand returned over mine and my hand was back on her thigh. I didn't have to say anything. I let my smile tell it all.