In case you missed them I'm posting all the entries of the Avery Diaries here so that they can be easily found on my extras page. :) And a special thanks to Colorimetry, Reading Teen, I Am A Reader, Not A Writer, Book Passion For Life, Confessions of a Bookaholic and A Life Bound By Books for originally hosting these stories! You guys are the best!
"Purging"
(Grayson)
Avery is crazy. Girls are slightly insane in general, but
Avery is especially nuts. She
called me up tonight and asked me to help her purge Aiden from her life. I have been asked by a lot of girls to
do a lot of things, but never to help them purge.
Whatever she meant, I was sure it wasn’t going to be all fun dates and playing
like she’d promised me when I agreed to this whacked-out experiment.
Apparently purging
was smart-girl talk for throwing out your ex’s junk. I know this is like some
kind of sacred ritual among chicks—they have scenes about it in movies and
everything—but I don’t get what the big deal is. It’s just stupid crap.
Pictures, CD’s, lame stuffed animals, and in Avery’s case, old science
projects, reports and even a Civil War diorama that she and Aidan had done in
the 3rd grade. The thing was practically biodegrading and yet Aves
nearly had a panic attack when I shoved the old shoebox into a garbage bag.
Avery was a freaking train wreck through the whole thing. I
had to do all of the actual throwing out because she wasn’t really capable of
anything more than pointing at stuff and bursting into tears. She couldn’t even
explain why half of that crap reminded her of Aiden. (I’m still at a loss with
the Diana Ross CD.)
I thought her attachment to all of it was stupid, but I have
to admit the concept had merit. She needed to get over my idiot brother
already. The dude was not worth the emotional pain Avery was putting herself
through. If I could, I’d wipe Aiden clean from the Earth, but since murder is a
felony and I’m too hot to go to prison, purging
him from Avery’s life was the next best thing. Aves may have found the evening
emotionally scarring, but I thought it was mildly satisfying. Punching Aiden in
the face would have been more satisfying, but there was some consolation in burning his pictures.
The more stuff we got rid of, the better I felt. When I
carried the garbage bag out of the house—I had to pry it from Avery’s fingers—I
thought Aves would feel better too. I thought for sure there would be some kind
of relief for her.
Not so much.
I came back inside and found Avery staring at her bedroom
wall like some kind of mental patient.
When I walked in the room she turned to me and my heart almost broke for
her. Her tears were pouring down her face again and the look in her eyes was so
devastated that I felt her pain with her.
In a single stride I pulled her against me and wrapped her
tightly in my arms hoping that feeling her there would stop the throbbing in my
chest.
Crying girls have always been my biggest weakness. I pretty
much hate this about myself, because it makes me vulnerable to them. But I
seriously cannot stand it when girls cry. It’s like there is something in me,
some kind of physical part of me that reacts when I see a girl cry. It makes me
crazy and the feeling doesn’t go away until I’ve made them stop. I have to make them stop. I have to do
whatever it takes to put a smile on a sad girl’s face no matter what it does to
my dignity.
I’m such a sucker.
Tonight was no exception. Actually, it was one of my least
dignified moments ever. Curse my stupid hero gene.
Aves was falling apart and I had to make it better. While
she buried her face in my chest, my brain spun frantically searching for some
sort of solution. I wasn’t even sure what had set her off this time, but then I
looked up at the wall and everything fell into place.
Avery had had this lame poster on her wall of an old dude
with crazy hair. I think it was Albert Einstein or someone. I’d taken it down,
but it had been in that same spot for so long that you could see the outline of
it where the sun had bleached the paint around it over the years.
The big empty rectangle spot was worse than the poster. It
was practically jumping off the wall, mocking me in the worst way. I may as
well have painted the words AIDEN LEFT YOU in the poster’s place when I took it
down, because now it was obvious that it was gone. Just like Aiden was.
I had to fix it. I had to get rid of that spot. But I
couldn’t put the poster back. I had to put something else there. Something that
wouldn’t remind her of Aiden. More than that—it had to be something that would
cheer her up and put a smile on her face when she saw it. It was the “smile”
thought that gave me the idea.
Now, this is the part where my dignity comes into play. I
was so desperate to cheer Aves up that I’d have given her the shirt off my back
if I thought it could help. Unfortunately, in this case, my shirt wouldn’t do
any good. But my underwear…
That’s right, I gave Avery Shaw my underpants. The stupid,
dorky ones Aiden got me for Christmas a couple of years ago because he’s a tool
like that, that I kept in my gym bag. They were white with rainbow smiley faces
all over them. Ridiculous. But they would make Avery laugh.
Before I could think better of it, I strolled into Avery’s
room and tacked those dumb shorts right over that stupid poster spot. After
they were securely fastened to her wall I turned around and grinned at her as
big as I could. The trick was confidence. I had to act like I thought this was
totally normal, and the most brilliant idea ever or Avery would know how stupid
I suddenly felt and then she’d get embarrassed.
Avery looked slightly horrified and her eyes dropped to my
waist. I burst into laughter and pulled up my shirt, exposing the band of the
boxers I was wearing as proof that I was still dressed beneath my pants. Once
she was assured that the shorts on her wall were at least clean she, of course,
asked me why I’d just decorated her room with underwear.
I explained my theory of them making her laugh and think of
me instead of the Einstein poster making her cry over Aiden. It worked. She
looked up at my shorts and actually smiled. It was the first smile I’d seen on
her face since I’d arrived. I felt five hundred pounds lighter all the sudden
and my smile reached goofy status.
Then, because I’m a jerk and couldn’t help myself, I made a
comment about her dreaming of me in nothing but those smiley faces. She totally
freaked of course. I knew I shouldn’t have done it, but I love watching her
blush too much. She turned so red that I was sure she had a very clear mental
image stuck in her head.
