THERE'S NO WAY ❥ JACKSON AVERY

TWENTY EIGHT

He looked up at her even though his head was still angled towards his notes just to see her reaction.

She furrowed her eyebrows, like she didn't quite get the situation.

"And you're choosing me as that person to make you comfortable—Wait, your football buddies? Are you inviting me to a bros trips?"

"N-no," Jackson shook his head, blinking his green eyes at her a few times as he tilted his head to the side a little, trying to brush off what he's about to say next, "The guys said some of the... girls... want me to come, and I was thinking they probably won't try to talk to me if... you're there."

He blushed as he said this part, looking away from her as she cackled at him.

He sent her playful daggers at the fact she was making fun of him.

"Oh, so I'm your form of protection against these other girls?" she teased him. "You have no other girl friend you can bring?"

"Girlfriend?" he questioned, putting the words together. "Why would I... have... another... girlfriend? I don't even have a girlfriend?"

Blair blinked a few times, not realizing he was saying an entirely different term than she was. "Am I not one of your girl friends?"

"I don't have any girlfriends! Wait, did I make you think you're my girlfriend?" Jackson looked semi-panicked now, and the offense on Blair's face when he said this wasn't making any of it better.

"Avery, look at me me, a girl," she deadpanned, pointing at herself when she realized the miscommunication. "Am I your friend, yes or no? The answer is yes, thank you very much, therefore: I am your girl-space-friend."

"Ohhhhh... I'm... kinda confused now," Jackson admitted, a blush on his face when he realized he was processing the conversation totally wrong.

"And you want to be a surgeon?" she questioned.

The two of them just stared at one another in confusion before the two started to burst into laughter at the same time.

"Okay, okay," Blair said with a chuckle, putting her hands out for them to pause for a bit. "Let's start this over..."

She gathered her thoughts to repeat Jackson's "brilliant" weekend plans to her.

"So there's a Halloweekend trip to some spooky cabin in the woods... your lacrosse buddies asked you to come because apparently some girls think you're just so so cute, and you want to go to said cabin in the woods, but want the girls to not talk to you, so you want me to come to scare them off, am I correct?" she spoke in her normal dramatic and sassy tone, teasing him as she spoke.

Jackson nodded to everything Blair was listing out. She nonchalantly said, "Yeah, sounds about right."

"Do you hear how stupid you sound?" Blair asked bluntly back. She pointed at him and said, "Girls want to talk to you!"

"And I don't want to talk to them," was his response.

Blair was silent for a second before she titled her head and nodded.