The Avery Shaw Experiment

Grayson


I’m not going to lie, punching Aiden in the face felt really good. I hadn’t meant to break his nose, but I didn’t feel sorry for it either. Not even when I got grounded.

I don’t think my mom actually wanted to ground me—I think she knew Aiden deserved what he got—but it’s not like she could condone violence, so I received a month of house arrest. No friends over and no leaving the house for anything except family- or school-related activities, which, now that basketball was over, pretty much meant science club meetings. Oh freaking joy.

At least when I told Owen about it—I’d come clean to him about having to join science club—he offered to tough it out with me. I was a little shocked, but I wasn’t going to complain.

“What kind of geek stuff do you guys do?” he asked as we wandered into Mr. Walden’s classroom after school.

“Well, usually we work on our experiments for the science fair.”

“Dude. Do you seriously have to go to that?”

“Unfortunately. But it really hasn’t been that bad. Mine and Avery’s experiment mostly consisted of me taking her on dates. For that, I got extra credit and didn’t get kicked off the basketball team. One time I even had to kiss her as part of the experiment.”

“You got extra credit for kissing?”

“Pretty much.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“I believe those were Grayson’s exact words when he learned about the experiment,” Mr. Walden said as he came in the classroom with his standard cup of coffee. “Ones that almost earned him detention.”

I laughed as Owen’s face went pale. “Sorry, Mr. Walden!”

“Don’t let me hear anymore of that language, Mr. Jackson.”

“I won’t.”

Mr. Walden sighed but then smiled at me as he sat down. Actually, Mr. Walden is a pretty cool teacher.

“How is your experiment coming along, Grayson?”

The question made me want to be sick. Avery and I had worked so hard these last few months, and it was all for nothing.

I fell into a chair near Mr. Walden’s desk and frowned at him. “We tried everything we could think of, and Avery’s just not better. We were wrong. She’s, like, broken forever or something, so I guess we failed the experiment.”

Mr. Walden’s face fell. “That’s not your fault,” he said.

He must have seen the guilt in my expression, because he got up from his desk and put a hand on my shoulder.

“It’s nothing that you did, Grayson, and you couldn’t have prevented it. You have been wonderful with Avery. Don’t blame yourself, and don’t blame your experiment.”

“But I gave up on her. I was so frustrated. I didn’t know she was really sick. Her mom made her see a doctor.”

“She’ll be fine. She’s getting the help she needs now.” He gave my shoulder one last squeeze before going back to his desk. “I bet she could really use a friend right now, though. It’s not too late for you to help her get through her depression.”

Mr. Walden was wrong. It was too late for me. I’d called her house Saturday night after her mom came to see me, but she was out with Aiden. Her mother told me he’d dragged her to the museum. I wanted to break his nose all over again. I told the jerk I was in love with her, and he turned around and took her on a freaking date.

It was my own fault. I knew he wanted her, and I was the one that told him how much she was still in love with him. Of course he went to her. I would have done the same thing if I thought I had a chance with her.

“Maybe she will get better,” I said. “But if she does, it’ll be because of therapy and medication, not the seven stages of grief. We were both wrong.”

“Don’t get discouraged, Grayson. Trial and error is a big part of science.”

“Whatever.” I didn’t really want a bunch of teacher mumbo jumbo right then.

Mr. Walden sat there looking at me like I’d just told him I was dropping out of school to make a living selling drugs or something. He seemed sad, and for the first time in my life, I hated that I’d disappointed one of my teachers.

“I’m sorry I let you down, Mr. Walden,” I mumbled. I felt the back of my neck get warm and reached up to rub it before Owen noticed my embarrassment. “I really did try, though. I swear! I told you I wasn’t good at all this science stuff.”

Mr. Walden’s face went from sad to shocked. “Is that what you think? That you’ve failed and you’ve let me down?”

I shrugged uneasily. “Well, we did. The experiment was a bust. What happens now anyway? Do we get kicked out of the science fair? I suppose I don’t get my extra credit, either, right?”

Mr. Walden jerked back in surprise, nearly spilling his coffee all over his desk. “Good hell, Grayson!”

I was surprised to hear the curse after all his lectures on the subject of foul language. Owen seemed pretty stunned too.

“Of course you’ll get the credit!” Mr. Walden said. “You did the work, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, but we can’t go to the science fair now.”

“Why not?”

“Because we don’t have a finished experiment. We failed!”

Mr. Walden sighed. “Do you know how many times Thomas Edison failed before he had a working lightbulb?”

“Uh . . . no?” Why would I know something like that?

“They say it was over a thousand, Mr. Kennedy.”

“No way!” Owen said.

Mr. Walden smiled. “Indeed. Allegedly when he was asked about it, he said, ‘I have not failed one thousand times. I have successfully discovered one thousand ways to not make a lightbulb.’ Failure is a part of the process, Grayson. Of course you can still take your experiment to the fair this weekend. Yours will not be the only unsuccessful project there, and you may even still place.”

“What? How?”

“The project itself is intriguing. I believe people will be fascinated with your efforts despite the negative outcome. All you have left to do is write up your conclusions, and you will be ready for Saturday.”

Showing off a lame failed experiment didn’t sound like much fun to me. “Maybe we still shouldn’t go, though. The nerds are already embarrassed having to take a dumb jock like me to the fair with them. This experiment just proves them right. I don’t want to ruin their day when they’ve all worked so hard.”

Suddenly Mr. Walden had the look on his face that he always had when he was about to start doling out the detention slips. “You are not a dumb jock, Grayson.”

“Right.” I scoffed.

Mr. Walden leaned back in his chair and rubbed his head like it hurt. I knew I exhausted the guy on occasion, but I thought we were past me giving him migraines.

He sighed and pulled his grade book out of his desk. He walked over and plopped it in front of me. After finding my name on his class list, he ran his finger down the line and stopped it on a B.

I was a little shocked. “Is that the grade from my test last week? Did I seriously pull a B?”

“No,” Mr. Walden said gruffly. He scooted his finger back to a different column. This time he pointed at an A minus. “This was the grade you got on the test last week. The B is the grade you will see on your report card for third quarter when they’re handed out this Friday.”

Scratch being a little shocked. If I hadn’t been sitting, I’d have fallen over in a dead faint. “You’re totally shitting me, Mr. Walden!”

Mr. Walden frowned at me, but before I could apologize, he cracked a smile and said, “I assure you I am not shitting you, Grayson.”

There was a round of laughter in the room. I hadn’t realized that the science club geeks were all standing behind us, listening to the conversation.

Mr. Walden smiled at everyone and then met my eyes again. This time his were shining. I couldn’t believe it, but the man was proud of me.

“I haven’t added in the extra points from the science experiment yet, Grayson. This lift in your grade is purely from you actually turning in your homework assignments and studying for your tests. If you attend the science fair this weekend as we agreed on, and if you continue to apply yourself as you have been, I have no doubt you will graduate with an A in my class.”

At that everyone broke out into a round of clapping and cheers. I took an exaggerated bow, pretending like it was no big deal, but it actually felt kind of awesome knowing I’d done so much all by myself. Well, it wasn’t completely on my own. I totally owed the science squad.

“I think this calls for a celebration. What do you guys say to some applied physics for science club today? My treat.”

“Applied physics?” Owen asked.

Now I understood why everyone laughed at me the first time I’d heard that term. The horror in Owen’s voice was hilarious.

I slung my arm over his shoulder. “Don’t worry. It’s not as scary as it sounds.”

“Sounds like a party in here.”

Avery’s quiet voice broke the scene like a sledgehammer through a window. She stood in the doorway to the classroom, blushing from the way she’d brought everything to a stop. She’d been so nonresponsive lately that she’d faded into the background both at lunch and here in science club. We weren’t used to her speaking up anymore, and I wasn’t the only one surprised when she’d interrupted the conversation.

Of course, we were also shocked because of who she’d dragged with her to science club.

Libby was the first to snap out of it and answer her. “It is,” she said. “Today a miracle has occurred, and we are celebrating.”

“Miracle?” I laughed. “Gee thanks, Lib.”

“Grayson’s going to get an A in physics!” Tara blurted, then promptly turned bright red.

“An A?” Aiden gasped. I rather enjoyed his shock. Jerk.

Avery wasn’t shocked. Actually, she shocked me when she said “I’m not surprised,” and her face lit up with a bright smile. I hadn’t seen her smile like that since her birthday. It made my stomach get all fluttery. I had to look away from her before I blushed like some stupid tween experiencing his first crush.

“It’s not a sure thing,” I mumbled, looking anywhere but her eyes. “We still have to finish our project before the science fair this weekend.”

“Well, then it’s definitely a sure thing.”

Surprised by the excitement in Avery’s voice, I looked up and found her beaming at me. “We’re done!” she squealed. “I’ve reached the final stage!”

I didn’t know what to say. My eyes fell to her and Aiden’s clasped hands. Whatever happened between them at the museum on Saturday obviously went well enough to pull her out of her depression and find acceptance.

I wasn’t sure it counted as acceptance if she simply got what she’d wanted in the first place. Did she really get past the heartbreak, or did he just un-break it when he asked her out? There was a difference. But she looked so happy, and she’d clearly forgiven him for everything he did to her, so I didn’t point that out.

I swallowed back bile and forced myself to smile at her. “That’s great, Aves. I guess we have more than one reason to celebrate today then, huh?”

Avery nodded enthusiastically. Then she glanced at Aiden, and her smile died as if she’d just remembered my brother and I were not exactly getting along right now. She mustered up her courage and then asked the entire group, “Do you mind if Aiden comes with us? Debate is over, and I’ve been trying to convince him to come back to science club for the rest of the year.”

I felt everyone’s eyes turn to me, waiting to see what I thought so they could follow my lead. I was surprisingly touched to have earned the geek squad’s loyalty.

I wanted to say no. Aiden didn’t deserve to be welcomed back with open arms when he’d abandoned everyone in this room. I also wanted to tell him to get lost because I couldn’t stand the sight of him and Avery together. I’d told myself this was coming, but seeing them standing so close to one another with their hands woven together was way harder to stomach than I’d anticipated. I wasn’t sure I could survive them being a couple, but I had to find a way because Avery needed someone right now, and as much as I hated it, that someone obviously wasn’t me.

“Sure,” I forced myself to say. “If he wants to come.”

Avery asked me to ride in Brandon’s van with her, but I hopped in Owen’s car with Libby and Tara. Was I avoiding them? Hell yes. I needed the ride to mentally prepare before I had to spend time with Avery and Aiden, The Couple.

At least no one else seemed to be having such a hard time with Aiden’s presence. It helped keep the awkwardness to a minimum. Everyone was laughing and joking around as we all laced up our shoes.

“So you geeks want to explain to me how bowling is physics?” Owen asked.

Everyone laughed and Levi started spouting off words like velocity and inertia until Brandon interrupted. “No! No physics today. This is a celebration. Today we just play and have fun.”

“I get Avery, Grayson, and Owen on my team,” Levi said. “Losers buy the pizza!”

Libby stopped entering names into the computer and said, “No way. It’s boys against girls. Winners get to kiss a boy of their choice.”

“But I don’t kiss boys,” Owen argued.

Libby rolled her eyes at him. “Duh. But you won’t be winning, so it doesn’t matter.”

I smiled to myself, feeling a “friendly wager” coming on. “Whatever the stakes, it can’t be pizza. That’s on me today. I really do owe you guys for my grade.”

“Hey, yeah. Speaking of that, do you guys do math at all or just science?” Owen asked. “I’m getting a D in calculus.”

Brandon sighed—probably because Owen looked like another dimwitted jock living up to the stereotype.

“Libby tutors calculus,” Levi offered.

I snorted. It had to be Libby.

Owen cringed. “Does anybody else tutor math?”

Everyone laughed, and the game got started while I went to order the pizzas.

Just as I finished paying, someone walked up behind me. I knew without looking who it was. Besides the fruity smell that always followed her everywhere—today it was a tart apple smell—I could just feel it. I could feel her. My body was aware of hers on some sort of chemical level. Is that even possible? Someone should do a science experiment on that.

I knew Avery well enough to recognize that her tiny voice was on the verge of breaking when she said, “I’m sorry, Grayson.”

I took a second to slam a poker face into place before I turned around. “It’s okay,” I lied. “I just want you to be happy.” Well, that much was true anyway. I did want her to be happy. I just wanted to be the one who made her happy. “We’ve all been worried about you, Aves.”

Avery cast her eyes down in shame. “I know. I’m sorry I let things get so out of hand.”

“That wasn’t really your fault.”

Avery clearly disagreed, but she shrugged it off. “I went to see someone. She gave me medicine. She says it could take a week or so before I start to notice any differences, but I already do feel a little better.”

I had a feeling it wasn’t the meds making a difference. I didn’t really want to have this conversation right now, but we needed to hash it out or else things would be awkward between us forever, and I didn’t want that.

I gestured toward a couple of stools at the food counter, and Avery nodded. “Are you feeling better because of Aiden?” I asked once we sat down. I kept my voice as neutral as possible, but it still sounded a little strained.

Avery nodded again. “We made up.”

“I noticed.”

“He actually had this great hypothesis about finding acceptance. I was trying to forget about him, but people don’t forget about their deceased loved ones. They make peace with them being gone. I needed to make peace with Aiden. I needed closure.”

Closure? It didn’t look like closure to me when they showed up holding hands, but whatever. If it made her feel better. “I’m happy for you.”

Avery frowned at the false note in my voice. She put her hand on down on my arm. “I’m sorry I pushed you away.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I started folding my pizza receipt into a tabletop football.

When I didn’t respond, she apologized again. “I’m sorry, Grayson.”

“I know, Aves.” I sighed and kept my eyes trained on the paper football. I couldn’t look at her. If I did, all of my resolve would crumble.

“I’m too late, aren’t I?” Avery whispered in a trembling voice.

The guy behind the counter slid three large pizzas in front of me, but I totally ignored it.

“Too late for what?”

Avery stared at her lap, and I barely heard her next words. “You said you’d wait for me.”

“What?” I was so shocked I almost fell off my stool.

Avery mistook my question for confusion and started to ramble out an explanation.

“I know that was a long time ago. I know you usually have a short attention span where girls are concerned, and I know I lasted longer than all the girls before me, but I was sort of hoping you meant what you said about giving me another chance once my heart was all fixed.”

“But . . . but . . .”

I’d never looked so incredibly un-cool in my life. I couldn’t pull myself together. I just sat there sputtering words like a stammering idiot. I’d been so sure things were done between us. She had Aiden back! How could she be standing in front of me right now asking for a second chance when the guy of her dreams was right across the room and totally interested in her?

“But I thought you and Aiden were . . .”

Avery processed that and then gasped. “Is that why you’ve been acting so strange? You think Aiden and I are together?”

“You guys went out on Saturday.” It was dumb to feel jealous about that, but I did anyway.

“It was part of our science experiment.”

I resisted the urge to scoff at her. “I’ve got news for you, Aves. When a guy says he wants to take you out in the name of science, he’s totally full of it. He really just wants to take you out.”

“But you’ve taken me out like a million times for the experiment. You kissed me once in the name of science.”

“Exactly.”

Avery scrunched up her face. She was so adorably clueless I almost kissed her again right then and there. Instead, I crossed my arms and said, “Aiden likes you. He didn’t take you out on Saturday just to help you finish your science experiment.”

Avery’s face smoothed back out. “I know.” She sighed. “We had a good talk. He apologized. He explained a lot of things to me that I really needed to hear.” She shrugged her shoulders and held out her hands in a gesture of surrender. “I forgave him.”

“And that’s all?” I had a sneaking suspicion there was more to it than that. Aiden was too pissed at me Saturday morning not to have tried anything.

“We kissed,” she admitted. A soft layer of pink rose in her cheeks, but it wasn’t the normal overwhelming red that usually overtakes her face.

I didn’t realize my jaw was clenched so tightly until Avery brushed her fingers across it. “We had to Grayson. At least I did. Otherwise I never would have known.”

I caught her fingers and laced them in mine. “Known what?”

“That you were right,” she said simply. “I’m not in love with Aiden. He’s my best friend, and I love him, but I’m not in love with him.”

I was half tempted to say “I told you so,” but that would have been rude. “So what you’re saying is there’s hope for you after all.”

Avery chewed her bottom lip. I was going to have to talk to her about that habit because every time she did it, it got harder and harder for me not to kiss her. One of these days I was not going to be held responsible for whatever actions I was driven to.

I watched her mouth and felt myself starting to crack, but then she lifted her big blue eyes and looked up at me completely vulnerable from beneath her lashes, and I forgot about her lips. I forgot to breathe.

If it had been any other girl besides Avery, I would have known she’d done it on purpose in an attempt to kill me on the spot. The fact that she was completely unaware of the effect she had on me made the moment that much more maddening. I was done for.

“No,” she whispered. “I’m saying that I hope there’s hope for us.”

The only way to describe what happened next is the word attack. I totally attacked her. Hands and arms and lips and tongue. I fused us together so fast she probably didn’t even know what was going on until the first time I let her up for air.

Her face was all flushed, and I was panting hard and smiling like an idiot, but I didn’t care. “I’d say there’s more than hope for us, Aves.”

I brought my lips down to hers again—with slightly more self control this time, thankfully—but we were interrupted before I could kiss her. Levi and Brandon were standing there, all scowls and rolling eyes. “I thought we came here to bowl. Are you guys coming or what?”

I tightened my grip around Avery. “Bowling is overrated.”

“Seriously?”

Avery laughed at the annoyance in Levi’s tone. “Bowl our first frames for us,” she told him, never letting her eyes leave mine. “We’ll be there in a minute.”

“And take these pizzas with you,” I added, so glad that Avery and I were on the same page at the moment.

Brandon sighed and picked up one of the pizzas, but Levi groaned. “It’s not even your turn! Owen and Libby have both disappeared too.”

“Wait.” My hands finally fell away from Avery’s waist. “Owen and Libby are missing?”

I glanced at Avery in shock, but she didn’t seem as surprised. She had an amused gleam in her eyes that told me everything I needed to know. “No way!” I said. “This I have got to see.”

I jumped off my stool and dragged Avery with me, completely forgetting about the pizzas I’d ordered. Hopefully Brandon and Levi could manage all three of them.

“Check the arcade. Libby has a thing for photo booths.”

I stumbled to a stop and blinked down at Avery. “Are you serious?”

Avery laughed and then pointed toward the entrance to the arcade. There was a photo booth there, and it was definitely occupied by someone—or someones—very enthusiastic about getting their picture taken.

“No way,” I said again when Avery and I came to a stop in front of the booth.

The heavy breathing and slurping sounds had to have been somebody else.

“Okay,” Owen said, releasing a low moan that made my mouth fall open in astonishment. “You can tutor me in math. But absolutely no clothes with cats on them when you come over. It’s creepy.”

“Clothes are irrelevant,” Libby rasped. “And unnecessary.”

Just then something hit the curtain, and Owen’s shirt fell to the floor. The kissing sounds increased. When I heard the sound of a belt being undone and another deep groan from Owen, I looked at Avery and said, “Shouldn’t we stop them?”

To my surprise, Avery shrugged. “If anyone can handle Libby, it’s Owen.”

She reached for the strand of pictures that were being spit out of the machine and raised her eyebrows so high that I felt compelled to rescue my best friend. I snatched up the shirt off the floor and then pounded on the side of the booth. “Yo, Owen! Did you want me to go ahead and bowl for you or what?”

I laughed at the panicked string of curses that came from my friend’s mouth.

Libby emerged then, somehow managing to look completely dignified, even as she straightened her shirt and ran her fingers through her messed up hair. She smirked at my shock and plucked the string of pictures from Avery’s hands. “Yummy,” she said, heaving a shudder, and then walked away without another word.

I stared after her until I heard the curtain slide open. Avery had pulled it back. Owen was sitting there flushed red, lips swollen, hair mussed, with an odd look of both awe and horror frozen on his dazed face.

I tossed him his shirt. “You okay there, tiger?”

Owen blinked at the sound of my voice, and after he slipped his shirt back over his head, he looked up at Avery. “There is something seriously wrong with your friend.”

We both laughed as he scrambled to his feet and practically ran away from us.

I tugged Avery to a stop when she started to head back to the group. At her questioning look, I made a suggestive nod toward the now-vacant photo booth.

Avery turned the most adorable shade of red yet. “I really think we need to get back to the group.”

“Fine.” I sighed so dramatically that Avery laughed. “But if I win, then you have to agree to be my girlfriend.”

Avery took my offered hand and gave me a very knowing smile. “And if I win, then I get to be.”