Avery’s POV
I looked out the window to see none other than Thomas Silvers sitting on the branch that led from Toby’s bedroom window to mine. “What do you want, Thomas?”
“To be 100% honest, I want to come in before this branch breaks” he said with a laugh, “you know we aren’t eight anymore, we can fall off branched because we are too heavy.”
“Oh, get in here you old fart.” I laughed as I opened my window for him to crawl in. He climbed in and sat on my bed. “So, no offense or anything, but why are you here, in my room, at like 1am?”
“Well, Connor asked me to spend the night over at his house tonight. So, we were playing video games and we hear Toby run up the stairs crying while Riley is yelling at Tob.” He began. “We both went up to see what had happened, and we got both sides of the story. Toby said that he thinks he had lost you forever. Clearly, since you live next door to each other and have a tree branch connecting your rooms for crying out loud, I couldn’t see the two of you ever breaking up.”
I started to cry a little, “That’s great, Thomas, but back to my question: why are you here? In my room? At 1 am?”
“I’m getting to that part,” he said. “I clearly was of no help over at the McDonough’s, and I knew you would be a mess, so I came here to comfort you in your time of woe.” As he said this, he crawled under the covers with me and said, “So what movie are we going to watch? Chick flick? Or some serious action?”
“How about you either stay or go, but I need some sleep I have a morning practice tomorrow and a dual meet that afternoon, plus Coach entered me in the 500 at the meet. Will you count for me tomorrow? Thanks!” I said before giving him a chance to answer.
“Sure, I’ll count, but only if I can stay tonight.” He said.
“Knock yourself out, just don’t keep me up!” I retorted. With that, Thomas snuggled up to me putting his arms around my waist as I relaxed into him and fell asleep.
I woke up at precisely 4:45. The alarm went off, but I had to struggle out of Thomas’s arms to get to my phone to turn the alarm off. I drudged over to my drawer and grabbed a swimsuit. I pulled it on and threw on some sweats. I grabbed my swim bag and walked out the door. I never wake my mom for morning practice; I just walk to the pool. It’s only about a ten-minute walk. I continued walking until a strange Toyota Corolla pulled up next to me. I began to walk a little faster breaking into a jog. The car continued to follow me. It caught up to me and the driver’s side window was rolled down. “What on earth are you doing, Ave?”
“I’d like to ask you the same question. It’s like 5 in the morning. Plus you don’t even have your license!” I told the boy in the car, trying to talk to me.
“I’m here, he doesn’t have to! Plus he has a permit!” Thomas called from the backseat with a wink. That cheeky little boy.
“Fine, what do you want, Toby?” I asked.
“I want to talk to you about last night,” he said.
“There’s nothing to talk about.” I began. “You made it very clear that you didn’t want to talk to me or Riley ever again.” He stopped moving the car as I continued to walk along the
I heard the car door open and close, but I didn’t turn around. I wanted to so badly, but I didn’t. I heard footsteps running up behind me, but I still didn’t stop. I felt him wrap his arms around me and whisper in my ear, “I love you, Avery. Please talk to me.”
“I’ll have to think about it. But right now, I have to go to practice.” I told him.
“Fine, but call me after no matter what, yes or no,” he told me and kissed me on the cheek before he let me go. I walked away to practice where I would have nothing better to do than stare at a black line for two hours while I think about what to do.
