Page 50 of This I Know
I laugh again. “Obviously.”
She stops what she’s doing and looks at me again. “Why are you talking to me?” she says.
My smile disappears.
“It’s just that…” she goes on. “We don’t exactly move in the same circles.”
“So I can’t talk to you?”
She shrugs. “Most people wouldn’t.”
I look at her and hold her eyes. I’m not going to allow her to look away again, Mr. Miller be damned. “Why?”
She’s still whispering, but now she’s acting like she doesn’t want to answer at all. Maybe I should just leave her alone.Remember your gut, Ethan. What did it tell you at the hospital? You have no business with her, that’s what.
“Don’t you know?” she says.
“Know what?”
“Well,” she says as works with her hands, “it’s not like it’s a secret.”
It’s time to go. Avery dumps her vials into the sink in a hurry.
“Ask around,” she says.
Then she’s gone.
And my heart can finally calm at her absence and begin to yearn for her return.
Ethan
“So did you find out what you did wrong?”
Avery’s walking through the hallway to her next class, and I’ve caught up to her. She’s fast for what she’s been through.
And in true Avery fashion, she doesn’t answer me. Can she make it any more obvious that she doesn’t like me?
“Mr. Miller almost got you,” I continue. “I could have sworn I was about to see you cry. I’m not sure I’m prepared for that.” Jokes. All jokes.
This time, her answer is immediate. “No.”
I look at her. “No?”
“As in, no, you weren’t about to see me cry,” she says. “It’s one of those things.”
“One of what things?”
“One of those things about having been through hell. Everything else feels minor in comparison.”
“Ah. I see.”
“And I didn’t figure out what I did wrong. I don’t think Mr. Miller cared much. All he did was double-check everything for me so I could try again, and then gave me a lecture.” She eyes me. “What would you have done?”
I look at her. “What do you mean?”
“If I’d cried.”
I turn so I’m facing her and walking backwards. “Well, if you cried, I’d have to make you feel better.”
