12. Avery #2
Gray forced on a smile. “This is my boyfriend we’re talking about,” he pointed out. “And Avery’s hanging out with us.”
Spencer snorted while Cole nodded. Cole’s gaze met mine and something that looked a lot like sympathy pooled in his eyes.
“What?” Gray demanded. I’d have expected more patience from him, but Spencer’s snort had rubbed him the wrong way.
“Nothing,” Spencer said, then moved to his bed and kicked back. Cole spun one of the office chairs and sank into it, ready to watch the movie, but Spencer wasn’t done. “It’s just that you could have warned us.”
“Warned you?” Gray asked, incredulous. I grabbed his upper arm to pull him back, but he stiffened his muscles. “Why the hell would I have to warn you about bringing my boyfriend to hang out in my room?”
“Our room. And our marathon. You could have given me a heads-up that I’d be third-wheeling, so I don’t come here thinking it’s a friends’ night.” Spencer was nonchalant about it, although he still ignored my entire existence. What the fuck had I done to this guy?
Right now, I truly wanted to fall through the floor and get lost underground. I wanted to say something, to make things less awkward, but I didn’t know where to begin. On top of that, I was starting to get annoyed with the fucker.
But so was Gray. More than I wanted him to be. “Listen, I put this thing together. You keep complaining I’m not around anymore and I’m not gonna apologize for having a life. I wanted to include you. Not the other fucking way around.”
“Is that right? You didn’t have to bother, buddy. I don’t need to be included.” Spencer’s eyes flared with anger, but I could see some hurt in them too. Not that I would let myself feel even a shred of sympathy. My ears were beginning to burn with embarrassment.
“It’s not like that, asshole. Why can’t you be happy for me?” Gray asked, his voice cracking. “Or am I only allowed to do things you tell me and date the people you pick for me?”
“I picked this one, didn’t I?” Spencer said.
“Hey,” Cole snapped.
I had thought the movies had been Gray’s idea, but I didn’t have time to think about that. Gray went crazy. “Are you even my friend? Huh? I can’t fucking believe you’re having a fit over me bringing my boyfriend to our movie night. What’s with the exclusivity? Do you feel this way, too, Cole?”
“No,” Cole said. He looked at me with a sorry expression. “I really don’t.”
“Thank you,” Gray said, emphasizing the words. “See? That’s what friends should be like. Seriously, Spencer, you’re making it impossible for me to remember why I was even hanging out with you. What the fuck’s your problem?”
“Gray,” I said in a dry, tight voice. “Gray, stop. I’ll go.” I tugged his arm.
Gray turned to me, fury ablaze in his eyes. “You’re not going anywhere, Avery. I want you here. Whoever’s got a problem with that isn’t welcome to stay.”
Spencer snorted with pure contempt. “It’s my room, too. And you can drop the act, asshole. You won the bet. You don’t have to keep rubbing it in.”
Cole jerked violently at those words. “What the fuck?”
“Shut up,” Gray shouted. “Shut the fuck up.”
“Wh-what?” I asked. All warmth abandoned me. Blood was leaving my limbs and cool tingling set in. My head hurt with how tense the muscles in my neck grew. “What’s he talking about?”
“Nothing,” Cole supplied.
Gray turned to me. “Nothing, baby. I swear. It’s nothing.”
Spencer wore a smirk as he sat up. “You didn’t tell him?”
Gray rounded on him. “Get out. I swear to god, Spencer, if you say another word, I’m going to…”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Spencer said as he got up. “If you need to talk to your target, maybe you can take it outside.”
Gray’s fist tightened and my heart dropped. He pulled his arm back as if he was about to strike Spencer, but I grabbed his wrist before he could move. “What does he mean?” I demanded.
“You’re such an asshole, Spencer,” Cole muttered.
“I’m not done with you,” Gray threatened while he slowly turned away from Spencer. When his scared gaze met mine, I knew he had done something horribly wrong. I let go of his wrist like it was a viper’s neck.
“What did you do?” I asked, barely keeping my voice flat and emotionless. The storm was picking up inside of me and I wiped my palms against my pants. The fear I felt in the seconds of silence, Gray’s face struck with horror, was immeasurable. I had never known such dread.
“Avery, baby,” he whispered, “it’s nothing. It’s nothing.”
“If it’s nothing, just tell me.” I tried for a hopeful smile, but my lips were hardened like stone. I couldn’t control any of my facial muscles. My heart was skipping every other beat, sinking lower into my stomach, and I wanted to get away from the audience.
“I can’t believe you’d say that,” Cole hissed in a low voice. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“He deserves to know,” Spencer said.
Gray’s frightful expression changed to anger. “Oh, you let your mouth run wild because of some moral high ground.”
He wasn’t going to tell me. He wasn’t going to admit whatever it was, but his anger dug the hole deeper. It was important. Something was very wrong here.
I stepped back from Grayson, walls rising around my heart.
He’d won the bet? Spencer had “picked this one?” I was starting to see.
My resolve hardened and I took another step toward the door.
Grayson looked at me pleadingly but then turned to Spencer again.
“This friendship is over, Spencer. You are nothing to me.”
Grayson stepped after me, but I was quicker. I opened the door and walked out. His footsteps followed me quickly as I rushed down the hall and turned to the staircase. Echos filled the stairwell as my boots stomped each step quickly. His sneakers followed me just as fast.
As I barged out of the building into the freezing night, Grayson grabbed my arm.
My speed was such that once he gripped me hard I spun around.
Pain shot through my shoulder and I snapped my arm free of him.
“A bet?” I demanded, my voice as emotionless as I could make it.
I never should have lowered my guard. I never should have laughed or smiled or allowed emotions to guide me.
“Tell me,” I said. “Was I just a bet you had?”
“No,” he insisted. “It’s not…it’s not like that. Avery, please. Come back inside.” He shuddered, his fine sweater not thick enough to keep him warm against the winter’s bite. “I can explain everything.”
“Go on,” I said flatly. “Explain how this was all some bullshit frat dare.”
“It wasn’t a frat dare,” Grayson said. “I swear, Avery, I didn’t mean any harm.
It meant nothing. Just a challenge. A dare.
Nothing. I was boasting that we were on a winning streak and Spencer dared me to take you on a date if we lost.” Words poured out of his lips and I was disgusted with myself.
All those times I had wondered why someone like him would be interested in someone like me and it had never crossed my mind that I was the butt of a joke.
I was the shame he had to carry for losing a game.
“Avery,” he said, his voice increasingly higher pitched, thinner, weaker. “I was so glad when we lost. I swear. I was almost tempted to botch the game just so I had a reason to…”
“To get a consolation prize,” I finished for him.
He stepped toward me, but I pulled back. Nothing about my body language signaled that he could approach me. Nothing about my words encouraged him to keep trying.
I wanted to say things. I wanted to tell him that I had trusted him. I wanted to tell him that he was the first person I had ever truly opened up to. But why would I? Why would I waste my breath on this trickster?
My heart clenched hard. I didn’t know such pain was possible.
It was a discomfort that exploded through my chest and it hurt everywhere.
It hurt in my throat and in my stomach. It hurt my lungs to breathe and my heart to beat.
“I’m done,” I said in as empty a voice as I could muster.
Soon, it would crack. And I didn’t want to be here when it betrayed me.
I didn’t want Grayson Reed to see me crumble.
I pressed the empty mask onto my face. I clenched my teeth and pursed my lips. I deadened my steel gray eyes.
Every little thing that made no sense to me finally fell into place.
Why had he been so eager to score a date?
To win a bet. Why had he asked my friends for my number like it couldn’t wait?
To win a fucking bet. Why had he shown any interest in me at all?
Easy. He hadn’t. I was a dare he had wanted to win.
I had never been important. I had never been special in any way except that Spencer had picked me as a challenge.
I swallowed the thickening knot in my throat. “Don’t call me. Don’t text me. Don’t send shit to my place or I’ll kick your ass, Grayson. And don’t fucking ask my friends about me.”
“Avery,” he whispered, his eyes brimming with shining tears. Good. He felt the sting.
How far would it have gone? When would he have revealed that everything was a lie all along? On our fucking wedding day? On our fiftieth anniversary?
But my anger erupted in a different direction as I turned away from him. I was the stupid one. I was the idiot who daydreamed about our future. I had let myself fall in love with a liar and a playboy. He was no different than his treacherous friend.
I crunched the snow under my boots as I crossed the middle of the lawn, cutting the distance to the road in half.
“Avery, please,” he whispered, voiceless.
His feet shuffled through the snow as he surged after me, but I spun around.
My eyes stung with the cold air biting me.
I couldn’t explain why I tasted salt every time I swallowed.
But I growled at him as he leaped after me and I grabbed his wrists as he stretched out his arms. The six-pack dropped out of my hand as I grappled with him.
“Don’t fucking follow me,” I shouted at him. “Go away.”
“No,” he yelled back. “Avery. Avery, I’m begging you, just listen. It’s not what you…”