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227: By the book
publish date:
2026-05-25 22:59:51
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Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 386: Careful
Avery's POVThe week continued to be strange.Gerald mentioned something before I had even taken my apron off, his voice lower than usual, the kitchen quiet around us at that hour before the evening rush began."Someone was asking about you yesterday," he said, wiping down the counter without looking up. "A man. He did not give a name. He asked if I knew you, whether you still came in on Thursdays."My stomach dropped."What did he look like?" I asked."Rough," Gerald said. "Thin. Like someone who had not been eating or sleeping properly in a while, the kind of thin that comes from stress rather than choice. I did not like the way he asked. He was too specific. Too interested for a stranger just making conversation about a girl who works here.""What did you tell him," I said."Nothing useful," Gerald said. "I told him I did not discuss staff with people I did not know, and he left without pushing it, which honestly worried me more than if he had argued. But I wanted you to know, in c
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 385: Small things
Avery's POVThe first week at the new job settled into an easy rhythm, and for a few days that was the only thing on my mind. I learned the calendar, learned Denise's preferences for tone, learned which posts got engagement and which ones sat there quietly ignored. It felt good to be learning something new that had nothing to do with survival for once.Owen, another staff member, showed me how to schedule posts in advance. He was sitting close enough that I could see his screen, walking me through the same steps twice without making me feel foolish for needing them repeated."You will get faster," he said. "Everyone does after the first couple of weeks.""I hope so," I said. "Right now everything takes twice as long as it should.""That is normal," he said. "Denise still remembers her first month here. She talks about it sometimes, mostly to make new people feel better."Then my mom mentioned something that nearly stole my joy again."There was a car parked across the street last nigh
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 384: the job
Avery's POVThe interview was in a small office on the second floor of the athletics building. A woman named Denise was behind the desk with a laptop open and a folder with my application printed inside it. The room smelled faintly of coffee, and a framed photo of a football championship team from some year before mine hung on the wall behind her."Tell me about your captain position," she said, once we had gotten through the basics. "What does a typical week actually look like for you?""Practice four times a week," I said. "Competition prep, choreography, managing squad dynamics, which is its own job on top of the physical one. I also handle a lot of the communication between the squad and the coaching staff, scheduling, that kind of thing, keeping twenty people pointed in the same direction.""Communication," Denise said, writing something down. "That is most of what this role actually is. Social media for the athletics programme, some copywriting for the newsletter, coordinating
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 383: The opening
Avery's POVVega caught me after practice. She waited until the rest of the squad had cleared out before she said anything, the gym quiet around us except for the hum of the lights overhead and the distant sound of someone's trainers squeaking on the far end of the court."You are still struggling with your hours," she said."Always," I said. "Why?""The athletics department has an opening," she said. "They are looking for a marketing assistant, part time. It came up in a board meeting a few days ago, and I thought of you the moment I heard it, given how long you have been trying to make your finances work on scraps this whole semester."I put down the water bottle I had been holding."What kind of hours.""Ten a week, maybe twelve," Vega said. "The pay is decent. And it is on campus, which removes a lot of the distance problem you have been dealing with.""And the scholarship review," I said."Your scholarship wants something the university recognises directly, on their own books," s
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 382: Out of my hands
Avery's POVCarrie submitted her statement three days later, and by the end of that week two other squad members had come forward as well, quietly, one after another, the way one honest thing sometimes gave other people permission to stop feeling like their voice did not matter. I heard about it through Vega rather than through the squad gossip, which felt right somehow, like this was finally moving through the proper channels.I did not know exactly what either of them said. I had not asked, and I did not think I was owed an answer even if I had. This was not mine to sort out anymore.My plan was to let it be someone else's problem to deal with, instead of another thing I had to carry on top of everything else this year had already asked me to carry.Vega told me later that the board had opened a separate misconduct review into Brianna specifically, distinct from the original hearing, built around the sabotage allegation and the statements now supporting it."How long will that take?
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 381: the verdict
Avery's POVThe board took four days to reconvene.Four days where I went through the ordinary motions of lectures and practice and tried not to check my phone every hour for a message that was not coming any faster. Mia and Priya kept telling me not to spiral. I kept telling them I was not spiraling, and we all knew that was not entirely true.The message came on Tuesday morning. Vega wanted me back in the same meeting room at eleven. I read the text three times before I put my phone down, my hands unsteady and shaking a bit.I sat in the same chair, and the same three board members sat behind the same long table, and the woman in the middle spoke first this time, without any preamble she had used before."We have reached a decision," she said. "Miss Nash will retain her position as captain. In reaching that decision, the board reviewed statements from members of the cheer squad, coaching staff, and support personnel. What those interviews confirmed, consistently and without a single
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 081: Pharmacy visit
Avery's POVI looked at the message on my phone for a long time before I did anything with it.'Are you home? I have been trying to reach you all afternoon.'He had sent it forty minutes ago, and my phone had been on silent in my pocket since the lecture hall that morning, which meant there were pr
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 076: Next class
Avery's POVI sat in the campus carpark with the engine off and tried to talk myself into going inside.It was Tuesday. Eleven in the morning. Business Management was at half past in lecture hall three. I had not been to class in two weeks. I had told myself last friday that I would go this week. I
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 074: Practice
Avery's POVPractice was in the gym today instead of the track and I was glad of it because the gym had walls that could make me feel grounded a bit. Besides, the weather was a bit chilly.I got there ten minutes early and started stretching in the corner. Priya arrived a minute later with two coff
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 066: He left
Avery's POVHe stood there for a moment after I said it.He was looking at me and I could see him deciding what to do with what I just said to him. It sounded ridiculous even to me, but it was the truth. I couldn't tell him the truth as Avery and I didn't want to lose him as Scarlett.Then he spoke
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