The Avery Shaw Experiment - By Kelly Oram Page 0,31

Owen, Libby. Never make the mistake of badmouthing cats in front of her. I think she used to be one in a past life.”

We started to laugh again, but then Libby cleared her throat. She sounded more than a little agitated. “Are you coming after school today?”

I stopped laughing. A wave of panic surged through me. The science geeks had promised they’d never rat me out, but who knew how loyal they were? If Libby told these guys where I spent my Monday afternoons, I’d never live it down.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Libby rolled her eyes and said, “Are you going to hang out with Avery after school today?”

At the mention of Avery’s name, I realized Libby must know what happened to her. “Why? Do you know where she is? What’s going on with her? I tried to call her this weekend, but she wouldn’t answer her phone. I was planning on going over to her house after school to check on her.”

“Relax, lover boy, she’s here. She’s doing a make up math test right now since she missed school on Friday. She’ll be around after school.”

I was relieved, but at the same time I was a little hurt. “Do you know what happened? Why she won’t answer my calls?”

Libby’s face flushed with anger. “Your jerk brother is what happened! She was feeling all crazy guilty after last weekend, so she dragged me to his debate on Thursday.”

Again, I was stung. She hadn’t said a word to me about it. “Why didn’t she ask me to come?”

“Something about not wanting to make Aiden feel bad. She doesn’t want him to think she’s replaced him with you.”

Libby rolled her eyes again as if Avery’s feelings were absurd. It actually helped to know that I had the little firecracker of a geek’s approval.

“Anyway, we went to his debate because she felt bad that she hadn’t talked to him in weeks. She was going on and on about how he’d said they were still friends and that she hadn’t been supportive enough since he got a girlfriend. She was determined to be nice to Mindy and prove that she could be friends with them both.” She snorted. “Please. As if anyone could be friends with that witch.”

“So what happened?”

“What happened?” Libby laughed, but there was no humor in it. “We get there and the first break the team gets, Aiden comes over, and instead of saying hello, he asks what we’re doing there.”

I pulled in a long breath through my nose.

Libby nodded in agreement with my anger. “Avery almost cried right then and there,” she said. “But instead she was all, ‘You said this was important to you, so I just came to support you.’ And then Aiden said, ‘Aw, that’s real sweet, Aves, but you shouldn’t have come. I think it’s upsetting Mindy, and you’re kind of distracting the whole team.’ The douche actually asked us to leave! Avery had a massive meltdown on the way home. She was so upset her mom called her out of school on Friday. They went to Vegas for the weekend just to get away.”

“I’ll kill him!”

“Please do,” Libby said. “And put a foot up his ass for me while you’re at it.”

Next to me, Owen laughed again, but I couldn’t appreciate Libby’s colorful personality at the moment. I was way too pissed off. I was also worried about Avery. I couldn’t imagine what that must have done to her.

“No wonder she didn’t return my calls this weekend. I can’t blame her if she never speaks to anyone in my family ever again.”

I earned another eye roll from Libby, this one laced with a don’t-be-an-idiot undertone. “Oh, please! Avery’s not answering your calls because she thinks having you around right now will make her feel worse, but that girl has never known what she needs.”

“What does she need?”

Libby looked like she was going to smack me upside the head. “She needs you, moron! She needs you and all your glorious manly perfection to come and make her forget that that loser ever existed. She’ll be in the science lab after school today, so come and get her and do not let her shut you out no matter what she says.”

“Okay, but—”

“No buts! She needs you. You go. End of story. I will not let another Kennedy brother let her down.”

By now I was trying to hide my smile, but I wasn’t succeeding very well. “I got it boss,” I said, giving Libby a