The Avery Shaw Experiment - By Kelly Oram Page 0,11

the clock strikes twelve tonight.”

I let out a tiny squeak of fear and Grayson upped his intensity. “It’s going to happen, Aves, and you are going to like it.”

Grayson’s focus was interrupted by a small sigh. Thankfully! Because I’d stopped breathing again.

We both looked up to see our waitress standing over us, staring dreamily at Grayson. “Wow!” If she weren’t holding our plates in her hands, she probably would have been fanning herself because she looked like she was about to melt. “And I thought my boyfriend was good.” She smiled at me as she set my food in front of me. “Girl, you have got your hands full with this one, don’t you?”

Grayson flashed her his biggest smile, and she winked at him as she left.

I’d never been so grateful to see a plate of food in my life—anything to give me an excuse not to look at him and stop this conversation.

Grayson must have seen that he’d pushed me to my limit, because he went to work on his dinner and let me eat in peace.

Unfortunately, the silence let my thoughts wander back to the reason I was out with Grayson in the first place. I set my fork down, unable to eat another bite.

Grayson set his fork down too. “Avery, I promised your mom you’d eat.”

I could feel tears in my eyes when I looked up at him. “Why you?” I asked. “Why are you the one here with me? Why isn’t it him?”

Grayson’s smile was sad and full of sympathy. “I don’t know, Aves, but maybe it’s for the best. You guys are almost seventeen. If it hasn’t happened by now, maybe it’s not supposed to.”

“I can’t accept that.”

“Denial isn’t good for you.”

“It isn’t denial.”

“Now you’re denying your denial.”

“But look at you,” I said. “You always thought I was like a sister too. If you can change your mind, then he can too. He just needs a wakeup call.”

“Hey now, you can’t just go jumping in the shower with every guy you know. That’s totally our thing.”

“Oh my gosh, Grayson, we do not have a thing!” The torture was never ending. “I wasn’t talking about jumping in the shower with him,” I mumbled. “But maybe if I just tell him how I feel, if I ask him to kiss me—to just give it a chance.”

“And if he doesn’t go for it?”

“He will. Grayson, I know he will. I know it here.” I tapped my heart. “Aiden and I belong together. You’ll see. He just needs to know how I feel. Maybe he believes I think of him like a brother and nothing else, you know? What if he’s been in love with me for years, but he thinks I don’t like him that way.”

Grayson frowned and went back to his dinner. He obviously didn’t agree, but I felt my excitement growing. “That’s got to be it! It makes so much sense! What if he said he needed space because it hurts him to be with me but not with me? What if I’m hurting him? You saw how mad he got tonight when you said you were taking me out. He was jealous.”

Now my excitement had been replaced with dread. I didn’t want to hurt Aiden ever. But what else could all this have been about? Nothing else made any sense. “He asked me to talk, and I walked out on him! I’m awful!”

Grayson rolled his eyes. “You are not. He was a jerk. He deserved what you did. Worse even.”

I shook my head. “Thank you for being so nice to me tonight and trying to help me. I’m sorry to ditch you, but I need to go home and talk to Aiden.”

Grayson sat there as if he were giving the whole situation some serious thought. Eventually I saw acceptance wash over his face and he set down his fork. “I suppose you do need to talk to him, don’t you. But if you do this, you can’t hold anything back. You’ve got to give it to him straight. Tell him everything. Just be sure to use small words so he can understand.”

“I will.” I smiled for the first time all evening and jumped up to give Grayson a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you for understanding. You are the best big brother I’ve never had!”

Grayson let go a small laugh and shook his head. “Not your brother, Aves.”

“You never know,” I teased. “You could be someday.”

He smiled again, but this time it