by Kelly Oram
Avery’s mom scrunched up her face in total confusion. I love Kaitlin dearly, but sometimes I wonder how Avery ended up with so much intelligence. “Is Avery home?” I asked again, too impatient to wait for her to catch up on her own.
Kaitlin smiled. “I’m sorry, Libby; she’s at work right now.”
“Work,” I grumbled. “Of course she is. Because the universe couldn’t possibly cut me some kind of break.”
Avery’s mom’s face fell into a look very similar to the one both my parents had given me when I left them this evening. Her pity and concern only fueled my rage. “Avery mentioned that you two were having an argument,” she said. Argument was a bit of an understatement. “I know she feels terrible about whatever is going on between you. She’s been very upset all week. I’m sure she’d love for you to stop by her work.”
I could only imagine how bad Avery must have felt this week. She was only trying to help me, and I knew she blamed herself for the Science Squad abandoning me. “I’m sure you’re correct, Kaitlin,” I admitted. I thought about what I needed to do next and sighed. “And I suppose that, in these particular circumstances, Mr. Uptight Coffee Jerk is probably a wiser option than Scrum-didly-umptious Jockstrap.”
Though she clearly had no idea what I was talking about, Kaitlin smiled as if she found me amusing. “Whatever’s going on, I’m sure you’ll work it out.”
. . . . .
I did a small happy dance when I saw that Avery was not working with Adam—though the other person at the counter was the shop owner, and had the potential to be worse than dealing with Coffee Man.
I thought about forgetting everything and going home, but then Avery spotted me. She said something to her boss, who nodded, and then she came out from behind the counter to meet me.
I spared us the small talk. Hard conversations were best treated like Band-Aids; better to rip them off fast and feel the short sting than try to pull them off slowly and torture yourself with the pain longer than necessary. “You were right about Owen.”
Avery’s face could have been identical to her mother’s, when it fell into a sad, understanding smile. “Do you want some cider?”
Did I want some cider? What a question! “Do bonobos like to hump?”
Avery laughed and threw her arms around me in a tight hug. I didn’t realize how bad I needed it until my eyes stung. I squeezed her back as hard as I could. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too,” Avery said. “Go steal us one of the couches, and I’ll get you some cider. Josiah said I could take a break for a while, since we’re not that busy tonight.”
“Good. Because I need your scientific brain.”
Avery returned with a wonderful caramel apple cider and a bright smile. “So what can science do for you today, Libby?”
“Fix me,” I said.
Avery frowned. “What do you mean?”
“It fixed you, right? Last year, when you were all messed up because of Aiden, you did your experiment and it worked. Do your seven stages of grief thing, and fix me.”
Avery laughed, but I wasn’t joking around. “I’m serious. I see what you mean about Owen not being good for me, but I still want him. He pisses me the hell off and drives me so crazy that I sometimes envision running him over with my dad’s Escalade, but I still want him. He said he wouldn’t take me to prom. He thought a party was more important than going to my dad’s last competition with me. I’m a freaking blonde because of him, and yet I still want to drive up to his dorm right now and apologize to him before he gets too mad and never speaks to me again.”
“No!” Avery shook her head so hard half of her hair fell free from her ponytail. “Don’t do that.”
“Then fix me. Make me so that I don’t need him anymore. You’re right. He’s my crack. My tall, hard, scrumptious, irresistible crack with magic lips and a—”
“Okay, I get it. You’re addicted to him.”
“YES!”
Avery sighed and took a sip of hot chocolate. “The old Libby wasn’t dependent on anyone except herself,” she said. “So we just need to find the old Libby and bring her back.”
It would be nice to start feeling like myself again, but that wasn’t going to solve my problem. “The old Libby didn’t know Owen. Owen is what killed the old Libby. Old Libby jumped aboard the Owen train faster than the new Libby does. If I couldn’t resist him then, how am I supposed to be able to do it now that I know all the different ways he can take me to planes of ecstasy only reached by women in fiction novels? How am I supposed to say no to that? Why would I say no to that?”
Why, indeed? This conversation was supposed to be helping me get over Owen, but my hand was on my car keys and I was calculating the time it would take me to get to his dorm if I left right now.
“Okay, okay, so finding the old Libby won’t be enough. What we really need to do is find a way to cure you of your Owen dependency, so whether New Libby or Old Libby, it won’t matter.”
Sure. That’s all we had to do. It seemed a hopeless case to me. “How are we ever going to do that? Even if you don’t drive me up to UVU anymore, he’s going to come home for the summer very soon. He’s Grayson’s best friend, and I’m your best friend, so we’re going to be pitted together all the time automatically, and then I’ll be up at school with him in the fall. Dorm rooms…no parental supervision…how will I survive?”
“We’ll just have to get you over him before school is out. We’ll have you cured by graduation.”
“That’s only a month away!”
“Just stop panicking, and give me a second.”
Avery’s eyes fell shut and bounced back and forth beneath her eyelids as her brain kicked into gear. I sat back and let her do her thing. I was every bit as smart as Avery, but numbers were more my game. Numbers and equations always had rules to follow. Everything worked in a specific order. Science was different. Science was about thinking outside of what we already know. It was about expanding possibilities beyond the rules in order to find a solution. Avery was good at thinking outside the box.
We sat there long enough for me to finish off my cider. I was just about to give up all hope, when Avery’s mouth curved up into a wide smile. Her eyes snapped open and focused on me with so much surety it was hard not to feel her excitement. “You figured it out,” I said, trying and failing to squelch my hope.
“I’ve figured it out,” Avery agreed.
“What?” The anticipation was killing me. “What are we going to do?”
“You’ll see. Just give me a few minutes to talk to Josiah.”
Avery’s grin was devious. Whatever she was up to, I had a feeling I wasn’t going to be as excited about it as she was. She jumped up, clapping her hands together. “This is going to be so great!”
Adam
I’m not the greatest reader in the world, but I still enjoy a good book every now and then. My favorites are crime novels. I think it would be cool to be a detective. I was just about to figure out who the murderer was when my book was plucked from my hands. “What gives?” I asked my sister as she tossed the book across the room onto the kitchen counter.
Kate threw my hoodie at me. “It’s Friday night, and you have the evening off work. You’re not spending it reading a book.”
I eyed my sister, unable to help my suspicion. She didn’t look particularly dressed for company, but she’d never tried to kick me out of the apartment before. “You don’t think you’re going to get me to leave and then have some guy over, do you? ’Cause that’s not happening.”
Kate rolled her eyes. “I know better than to get my nookie at home.” Smirking, she added, “I hear that’s what the break room at Jo’s is for.”
A surge of rage rocked my body, even though I knew it was completely irrational. “Kate, I swear! If I find out you’re getting any nookie, I’ll bring the bastard who touches you a world of pain. And if you ever even think about doing something like that in public—”
I stopped when Kate burst into obnoxious l
aughter.
I loved my sister, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t the most annoying person in the world sometimes. She’d just given me my first heart attack, and I wasn’t even twenty yet. “You’re not funny.”
She grinned. “I’m hilarious. You’re just a grump. Get off your depressed ass before I have to kick it, and come to the skate park with me.”
Like the mature, grown-up man that I am, I grunted my disapproval and headed for the fridge. “I’m not depressed.”
“Yes, you are. You’ve been pining over the absence of your favorite Jo’s coffee junkie all week.”
“What?”
Kate’s accusation caught me off guard. In an attempt to avoid looking at her, I grabbed all the stuff to make a ham sandwich. I hoped she would leave me alone, but I knew she wouldn’t. She grabbed me a plate and a knife, then leaned against the counter and watched me make my dinner. “You’ve been moping since Libby’s intervention,” she said. “I know you’re kicking yourself for what happened, but you did the right thing. She needed to hear everything you said.”
“She still hates me,” I muttered.
“Maybe,” Kate agreed, “but someday, when she gets over Owen, she’ll realize what a great thing you did for her, and she’ll finally be ready to notice you.”
Startled once again, I squirted way too much mayo onto a piece of bread. “What are you talking about?” It was obvious that I knew exactly what she meant. And that I was totally guilty.
Kate took the knife out of my hands and took over spreading mustard on my sandwich before I smashed the whole thing to inedible bits and had to start over. “I am well aware that Avery Shaw getting hired at Jo’s was no coincidence. I know you had several applicants—all of whom had experience, when Avery didn’t.”
“None of those people had Avery’s temperament or work ethic,” I argued. “She was the most qualified for the job.”
Kate finished making my sandwich and handed it to me with a big, fat smirk. “You hired her because she’s Libby’s best friend. I’m not dumb, brother. I know you’ve had your eye on Libby Garrett since you were fifteen and she punched Joey Stinson after he said fat girls couldn’t skateboard.”
I didn’t need to look in a mirror to know that my face turned bright red. I opened my mouth to deny it, but there was no point. Kate was on to me, and the truth amused the hell out of her. I gave up the denial act and let out a disgusted sigh as I shook my head. “Busted by my kid sister…”
Kate nodded. “That is pretty lame. But then, you are sort of a loser.”
I pretended to be hurt, and then grabbed her in a headlock. She tried to break my hold, but in all the years I’d done this to her, she’d never been able to escape. “What is it that has you so hot for Libby Garrett, anyway?” she asked as she tried to punch me in the stomach.
“Nothing I’m going to explain to my kid sister.”
I used my free hand to give her a wet willy. She shrieked and managed to land an elbow jab to my thigh that was going to leave me with a charley horse the size of the moon. I dropped a curse and let her go. “That’s going to bruise, you brat.”
“But I won!” Kate picked up the plate with my sandwich on it and grinned as she held it out to me. “Peace offering?”
I grudgingly took the plate, but was unable to keep the glare on my face. “Make me some chocolate chip cookies, and we’ll call it even,” I said as I hopped up on the counter and started eating my dinner.
Kate snorted, and I cracked a grin. As if either of us had any idea how to bake a batch of freaking cookies. We lived off of sandwiches, cereal, Top Ramen, and mac ‘n’ cheese in our house. If we were ever feeling really ambitious, we cooked a frozen pizza.
Kate gave me a minute’s peace before she leaned against the counter next to me and nudged my leg. “Why don’t you just go for it?”
I groaned internally. Kate could be relentless when she wanted to be, and I knew she wasn’t going to let this drop. Figuring it was better to tell her what she wanted to know and let that be the end of it rather than have her harp on me for months until I eventually gave in and talked to her anyway, I said, “Because it would be pointless. What do I possibly have to offer her?”
I glanced around our tiny apartment and eyed the sofa I slept on every night with a hint of bitterness. I was grateful enough to be free of my mom and have a roof over my head, but I couldn’t exactly bring a girl back to my place when I didn’t even have my own bedroom. I’d never be able to take a girl on a proper date or give her something nice on Valentine’s Day.
Kate knew exactly what I was thinking and got pissed off. “Don’t be a jackass. You have way more to offer her than that douchebag she dates, and you know it. Libby doesn’t need a guy with money; she needs someone who will love her the way she is. I mean, let’s face it, there aren’t a lot of guys out there who are going to overlook her appearance and give her a chance.”
“There’s nothing wrong with her appearance,” I growled.
My outburst only made Kate smile. “You see?” she said. “She needs you. You should go for it.”
My bitterness kicked into full gear and I laughed without humor. “Libby’s not interested in me. We’ve been using the same skate park since we were kids. She’s been ordering her caramel apple ciders from me for years. She’s talked to me a hundred times, but she never knew I existed until last weekend.”
Kate snorted. “Well, she definitely knows you exist now.”
“Not helping.”
“Hey, you never know. Libby likes obnoxious pricks that treat her like crap, right? Maybe she was turned on when you called her a cheap whore.”
I laughed despite myself, and shoved my sister hard enough to knock her over. “You know, you really suck at this touchy-feely stuff, Kate.”
Kate stole the last bite of sandwich off my plate and shoved it in her mouth before I could stop her. “Yeah, well, I only ever had my big brother to learn from, and he’s kind of dense.”
“Thanks a lot.” I was referring to both the insult and her eating the last of my sandwich.
She grinned at me with her mouth full and muttered, “You love me.”
I rolled my eyes, but cracked another smile. After I rinsed my dishes and wiped away any crumbs, I chucked the dish towel at Kate, because she was still standing there watching me. “Go do some homework or something.”
“No way. It’s Friday night.”
“So? If you’re not going to get lost and stop annoying me, then you should be studying. I got a call from your math teacher this week, you know. She said you failed your midterm. What’s up with that? Do I have to, like, ground you or something?”
Kate groaned, and I gave myself a mental pat on the back for remembering that we needed to have this conversation. The subject of Libby was finally dropped and there was no way Kate would be able to turn the attention back on me now.
“It’s not my fault.” Kate slumped down onto the couch. “I pay attention in class. I do the homework. I swear. I just don’t understand it.”
I joined my sister on the couch and sighed. “I know, but if you get a C in math, you might not be able to get a scholarship.”
“I know I have to get a scholarship if I want to go to college, but I don’t know what else I can do about it. I have straight A’s in every other class. Mrs. Dressler is the worst teacher I’ve ever had. She doesn’t explain anything clearly. I don’t understand half the things she says. She may as well be speaking Japanese.”
I hated that I couldn’t help my sister with this, but she was a junior this year, meaning that she was two whole years further in school than I ever got. I opened her math book once just out of curiosity, and, quite frankly, I think Japanese would have made more sense to me. I reminded myself of all the ways I did help her and tried not to let this get me down. “Maybe we can get you a tutor.”
Kate shook her head. “Those are really expensive.”
Of course they were. “Doesn’t your school have some kind of
tutoring program?”
“I don’t know. I can ask my guidance counselor, but I don’t think so. I think Mrs. Dressler would have mentioned it.”
I leaned back and closed my eyes. Having to worry about Kate’s future always exhausted me. Sometimes I wondered if I’d made the wrong choice keeping her with me. I hated to think about the alternatives, but I was hardly someone who should be raising a teenager. Technically, I still was one myself. Sometimes I wondered if she’d have been better off going to a foster family that could have provided for her more than I could. I knew Kate was happy with me, though. In fact, she’d probably punch me in the face if she ever knew I had doubts. But it was still hard not to have them.
“I could get a second job,” I suggested. “Tutoring can’t be that expensive, and Josiah would let me rework the schedule if I needed to.”
“Or I could become a stripper. I hear they make sick cash.” Kate threw her hands up in surrender when she saw my glare. “Kidding! But I could go get a part-time job. You work too much already, and I’m the one who needs the tutor.”
“No.” I hadn’t meant to sound so sharp, but I didn’t want my sister to have to work right now. “Your job is to go to school, study hard, and get into a good college.”
“I can do that and still help out a little. Lots of kids have jobs in high school. Avery does just fine working and going to school, and she’s taking a bunch of AP classes.”
I hoped my sister wouldn’t hear the emotion in my voice when I spoke. “Look, there aren’t many things I can give you, but I can give you this. Just do school right now and spend the rest of your time being a regular teenager. Go out and have fun. You deserve a few years of a normal life.”
Kate glared at me—a genuine glare that let me know how mad she was. “And what about you? When do you get to have fun? When do you get to have a normal life? You deserve that more than I do. Why do you have to make all the sacrifices?”
“Because I’m the big brother. That’s my job.”
I gave Kate an arrogant smile, knowing it would only make her madder, but I refused to back down on this. It was too late for me, but she still had a chance. I wasn’t going to let her screw it up. “I won’t get a second job,” I promised, hoping that might calm her down. “We’ll figure something else out.”