Chapter 12: Honte
The pair exited the room and Avery observed as Alex locked the door with a small, golden key. The brunette glanced at the freckled girl and she looked away, giving Alex privacy to stash the key wherever she kept it. She didn't expect, though, for the girl in question to place her fingers under her chin, bringing Avery to look at her.
"I trust you," Alex said simply, before stepping backwards. Soon her touch was gone as quick as it came, but the sensation was left lingering on Avery's skin. Alex carefully placed the key inside a small grey chest and pushed it under the large chest of drawers that stood next to the right corner of the room.
A loud noise followed by boisterous shouts made Avery visibly jump in her spot. She put her hand on her chest and exhaled deeply in an attempt to slow her quickening heart rate.
"Relax, it's just the boys. I need to remind them not to slam the doors," Alex crossed her arms. "You'd think Kaden would care more since it's his house."
Avery let out a nervous chuckle.
Why did she agree to this again?
The brunette exited the room, prompting Avery to follow in her footsteps. She found herself doing that a lot lately. The trip down the stairs to the common room felt short as she started to dread the formal introduction that was yet to come. 'Formal' in the sense that when she met the boys, it was at the party almost two months ago and she barely even caught their names before Carson was whisked away from her.
She tried to distract herself from the anxiety welling in her chest by admiring the way Alex's silky and voluminous, dark hair bounced about her waist with every confident stride she took. The sweatpants she wore accentuated her hips and their movement and the observation brought a blush to Avery's cheeks. Maybe her thoughts went a bit too far there.
As they approached the common room, Alex ran her hand through her hair before swiftly catching it into a ponytail as if she could sense Avery's eyes on it. The freckled girl knew that that wasn't the case, but she couldn't help but wonder why she was putting her hair up now that her guy friends were here. When they were upstairs, after Avery's request for her to leave it down, she seemed so comfortable with her hair spilling over her shoulders and down her back.
Too caught up in her thoughts, Avery hadn't realised that Alex had stopped in her path at one of the many entrances to the room, causing the freckled girl to walk into her back. If Alex was bothered she didn't show it as she cleared her throat to gain the attention of Kaden and Sam who were bickering over something minuscule and Jason whose eyes were trained on his pocket knife.
"How many times do I have to remind you about slamming the fucking doors?" Alex narrowed her eyes, her hands now on her hips. If it were any other person, Avery would find herself giggling at the stance and tone of voice as she had only ever seen her mother scold that way. But with Alex, it was intimidating and with the silence that travelled around the room, Avery could sense that she wasn't the only one affected.
"Hey sis," Kaden broke the silence with a large grin.
"I told you not to call me that," Alex responded, rolling her eyes at her step-brother.
"Who's that behind you?" Sam asked, pointing towards the shorter, more freckled girl who at that point wished she could blend in with the surroundings.
"Oh," Alex stepped to the side, ridding Avery of a hiding place, "Guys, this is Avery. Avery, that's Sam Earwood, Jason Long and you already know Kaden Aldridge."
"Is that Freckles?" Kaden wiggled his eyebrows at Alex in a teasing manner.
"Shut up."
"Hi," Avery waved sheepishly, her voice coming out in a squeak. Her eyes bulged when she saw the knife in Jason's hands, but the smiles on Jason's, Alex's and Kaden's faces brought a soft smile to her own.
"Cute," Jason smirked, before looking down at his blade once more. Avery brought her eyebrows together in confusion. Wasn't he supposed to be the scary one that doesn't talk?
"Take a seat, Freckles," Alex gently pulled Avery's hand as she walked towards a sofa then she sat down, patting the seat next to her. Avery obliged, with a slight blush.
****
Avery couldn't understand how the school had dubbed Alex and her friends as the 'bad kids'. Sure they did some risky and illegal things from time to time but they were sat in the living room playing Mario Kart and Avery believed that no bad person would ever play Mario Kart. Avery could see why others would be intimidated by Jason and Alex. Sam, from the way he sent her glares every five minutes, could be perceived as cold or mean. But, Kaden was just a ball of fluff.
His go-to Mario Kart character? Princess Peach.
In normal circumstances, Avery would feel uncomfortable and out of place from the looks Sam kept giving her and maybe it was the fact that she shared a sofa with Alex and the way their arms brushed together each time they moved, but she couldn't care less. Now, Avery had never had a crush before, but if she had, she imagined it would feel just like the way it did when she and Alex made physical or eye contact.
"So, Freckles," Sam added an emphasis to Avery's nickname which rubbed her the wrong way, "Does Number Five know you're here?"
She let her eyes leave the screen briefly to glance at the boy's cocky smirk. He knew that he had struck a nerve by the way she tensed up. Villager's motorcycle fell off the track on Avery's section of the screen.
"No, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind. I saw him this morning," Avery tried to speak up confidently, smiling softly.
"Why not invite him to the party then?"
Avery's heart jumped in her chest. If she were to call Carson, he would ask what she was doing at Kaden/Alex's house. Then, she'd have to explain that she was invited over and there was no way it would just happen randomly. So she'd have to tell him that she and Alex had been friends for the past month or so and she just never told him. The two had never lied or omitted information from each other before. It would be the start of the end of their friendship and Avery couldn't bear to lose her best friend.
"He has football practice and this game only allows four players. You're already sitting out, it wouldn't be fun if another person had to too," Avery's voice gradually became shaky.
"Soccer? It's snowing outside, Freckles-"
"Can you please not call me that," Avery's voice was strained as her hands tightened around the remote.
"-Plus we can always switch to a different game," Sam continued, ignoring Avery's plea.
"Samuel," Alex warned in a low tone.
"Why don't you want to call your best friend, Freckles?" Sam pressed.
Avery could feel the clenching of her chest and the previous atmosphere of the evening had shattered as she started to hyperventilate. She pressed the 'plus' icon on her console to pause the game and sat back in the sofa.
"Does he even know you're friends with Alex?"
Kaden's face was set in one of confusion as he looked between his friend and the small girl now hugging herself on the couch and Jason sat with a deep frown on his face. Neither knew or understood what was going on at the moment. Sam could be judgemental or insensitive at times, but they had never seen this side of him before.
Avery felt as if her blood was running cold. If Carson left, she'd have no one. Carson was a part of her now, a part of her family. She didn't deserve him. She knew she didn't. He was always her better half. Everyone loved Carson, nobody knew Avery. People had always wondered why such a popular guy would be friends with such a nobody, but Avery and Carson had never questioned it. They were just them.
She was afraid that if Carson found out she had been lying to him, it would break him. She had always been protective of him and his heart; she gave Marigold hell because she believed that the redhead would break his heart but now it was herself who would be doing the deed. She would break him and this time it would be Marigold putting back the pieces. But who would keep Avery together?
"Are you ashamed of us? Ashamed of Alex?" Sam continued.
Avery couldn't feel the tears running down her face, couldn't feel the protective arm Alex had thrown around her, couldn't hear Sam's last comment. All she could feel was emptiness surrounding her, it was like it had swallowed her. She wanted to escape the skin that enveloped her. She felt like she was dying.
"Avery?" Alex dropped to the floor in front of the girl, holding her face with both her hands in an attempt to get her to look her in the eyes. Instead, it was like the freckled girl looked right through her.
"Why the fuck would you do that, Sam?!" she shouted back at her friend. Her heart broke as she kept her eyes trained on Avery who was now trembling in her arms. She needed to calm her down. She needed to help her breathe, but she didn't know how to.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit," Alex repeated as she rubbed circles on Avery's cheeks with her thumbs, occasionally wiping her tears away. "Kaden, call Carson."
At the sound of her best friend's name, Avery broke down into hysterics. Throughout everything, Carson had always trusted her and she had never done anything to break that. She didn't know what it was about Alex. She didn't know if it was that she thought Carson would disapprove or if she just didn't want to share what she had with Alex. She didn't even fully know if she had anything with Alex to share in the first place.
But Avery wasn't stupid. She had a sense of how Alex felt for her. She caught the few times that Alex had flirted with her, calling her cute. She noticed how Alex had kept the flower in the hair after Avery had placed it there, how agitated she was at the ice cream store when the employee asked her for her number, how Avery was the first person to ever see Alex's secret room. She wasn't sure of Alex's feelings, but she had a clue. But then again, her own feelings could be clouding her judgement. Then she would've kept a secret for nothing.
Avery couldn't breathe anymore. The small amount of oxygen going to her lungs due to the hyperventilation had now decreased to none. It was like her throat closed up and she was suffocating. Her vision was going and she attempted to look into Alex's eyes now that she was holding her up, but she couldn't. She couldn't focus, she couldn't think, she couldn't breathe. Her chest was racked with her sobs as she grew more hysterical. She wanted to scream, but nothing could come out.
"We're losing her! Goddammit, Kaden, just fucking call Carson," Alex was shouting now. In a desperate attempt to help the freckled girl regain consciousness, the brunette placed a chaste kiss to her damp forehead.
"Come on, Avery. Please stay with me? I don't know what to do and I can't get out of this situation by stabbing you," she joked.
"I called Armani," Kaden rushed up to Alex, his smartphone tightly clutched in his hand. "Also, I'd advise you not to look back."
Alex's head snapped to the side and she tilted her body to better see what Kaden was referring to.
"Are you kidding?" Kaden muttered at his stepsister, before standing up and heading to the kitchen. "I'll go get some ice for Freckles."
"We seriously don't need this right now," Alex sighed at the sight before her. Sam was on the floor and Jason was on top of him, beating him to a pulp.