Popularity Rules

Chapter IX

       Avery’s lip curled in disgust and she grabbed my hand and pulled me up the deteriorating staircase that creaked dangerously under our weight. There were closed doors lining the walls and she stopped at the second door and flung it open, shoving me inside and closing the door behind her.

       I looked around the room and noted the way it was arranged, it was clean and crisp, a comfortable difference from what I’d just seen. I looked over to Avery and noticed she was wringing her hands nervously.

        “You weren’t supposed to see that,” she muttered, almost inaudibly.

         I rolled my eyes. “Why not, I feel like I’ve just had my daily dose of druggie soap opera.”

         Avery sat on the bed and looked up at me. “Shut up. I still want you to get out.”

         “One of these days I’m just going to stop caring and – “

            She pulled in a shaky breath. ”What are you going to do? Hit me?”

         There was silence while I tried to process what she had said. “What?” I just meant I hated the feeling of rejection and was aware of how those girls at school probably felt, not that I’d become violent.

        “Go ahead, hit me. If it gets you to leave then fine.”

         I stared at her in shock, still wondering if I’d heard right. She appeared to be awaiting whatever blow I was going to deal out. I raised my hand to run it over my face and she flinched noticeably, there was no going back now.

         “I’m not going to hurt you,” I said, a short distance away.

           Avery shook her head furiously. “Don’t say that because you will.”

       I rolled my eyes to the ceiling in frustration. “At first you’re all ‘I hate Jason’ and now you’re afraid of me? Make up your mind, crazy.”

        She sighed. “It’s a bit of both actually. I’m trying to convince myself that liking you is a bad idea.”

        I grimaced, all resolve to find out what her problem was had vanished; now she just needed a friend, someone wouldn’t judge her for being dark-haired or who wouldn’t mind her being a murderer. Her craziness was starting to rub off on me.

        “As a friend,” she continued, eyeing me weirdly. “Don’t be getting googly eyed over me now, I’m over popular guys.”

        I smiled at her. “I don’t mind that. So, do you take part in their drug run?”

       Avery nodded seriously. “Yeah, there’s a new one that I can’t get enough of.” As soon as she saw my expression she laughed. “You take me far too seriously.”

       “Oh yeah,” I muttered, finally remembering something. “Someone asked me if I knew you today.”

        Avery looked confused. “Who’d ask for me?”

       I decided to choose my words carefully from then on. “A guy, he had hair like yours and…,” I trailed off, seeing how drastically her face had changed. Something bigger than I could comprehend was going on I could tell.

       “Oh my God,” she said staring off into the distance. “Did you tell him you did?”

       I shook my head slowly. “I didn’t, why? Is something wrong?”

        “He’s just very bad,” she said, staring off into the distance. “He’s close, I can’t run anymore.”

       “What did he do?”

       Avery shot up from the bed and rubbed her hands together nervously. “Listen, I’ve got to go make some calls. I’m sorry.”

       I watched as she flung open the door so forcibly it banged against the wall roughly. I stared after her in bewilderment. For a moment I was partially paralyzed, although I was expecting her to react that way I was still surprised. The room seemed bigger, more spacious now that she’d left. Her sheets were clean, her floors were spotless and her books were well-arranged. I took that to mean Avery was an organized person.

        I knew I shouldn’t snoop around in someone else’s belongings but the temptation was mostly overwhelming since the house was quiet. The first thing I noticed was the heaps binder notebooks on a side table. I glanced toward the open door and headed over to them. The first one I picked up read ‘Case Notes’. I frowned in confusion and flipped through it. The elegant script breezed in front of my face.

       A page caught my eyes and I stopped abruptly reading the heading:

                                           ‘June 16. 2012. Day 5 ’

       My eyes scanned the page and noted more than a couple times the name Forbes. I flipped through until I got to the 20th. A brief citation was at the bottom

                    ‘Although this is for actual notes, I must say Forbes is going down.’

          My brows furrowed as I tried to decipher what this all meant and why my last name was written all over the book. Before I could flip to the next page, I heard footsteps coming toward the room. I slammed the book shut and threw it on the table. It was practically hard to look natural with all the surprising developments. Did that mean she came here for a reason? Or maybe that’s why she hated me that much. Or perhaps I was next on her ‘hit list’.

       Avery entered, chewing her thumb nail nervously and cradling a phone between her shoulder and her ear. She actually looked surprised to see me. In fact she jumped so fiercely that the phone fell and the contents spilled out onto the floor. I didn’t get a chance to offer my help because she already was on her hands and knees, clambering to take up the pieces.

       I wasn’t sure about her anymore and I hesitated for a moment before kneeling beside her. “It was a long distance call,” she wailed, miserably.

       My heart sank, was she getting reinforcements to take me out? “It just takes a minute to boot up, don’t worry.”

       Avery looked up at me and her brows smushed together. “Your niceness is annoying me.”

       If I wasn’t sure of anything, I was sure she always surprised me.

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Trivia time, it helps with commenting if you don't know what to say, so dig in.

1. What do you think crawled up into Avery's ass and died?

2. What do you think of the new mysterious guy?

3. Do you think Avery needs to start treating Jason better now?

4. Where do you think this story's going?

5. Do you think Jason and Avery are ever going to get together?

Bonus question: are you completely disgruntled by my sporadic updates? You can tell me!

Thank you all again!

P.S. I saw this idea on either MonsoonB's story or LonesomeTear's but those girls are awesome, so check them out! (The idea for the questionaire I mean, haha.)