099: Another apology

Avery's POV"Come inside," I said.Liam caught my eye over the roof of his car. He gave me a small nod that said he would leave us to it, and he went to his own front door. I let Jade into my house.My mum was not home. The living room was empty and the hallway was dark. I turned the lamp on and we sat at the kitchen table the way we had done a hundred times since we were eight years old."Tell me," Jade said.So I told her. Most of it. The first visit to Cross' office after I got my project partner assignment. What happened there. The slap. The threat. The missed lectures. The emails. The recording today and the incident at the dean's office and the suspension. I did not rush it out exaggerate it. I just told it the way it had happened, and Jade sat across from me and listened.When I finished she was quiet for a moment. Her fingers were intertwined with each other and she was looking at the table."I want to kill him," she said."He has been suspended pending investigation.""That i

100: Moving on

Avery's POV Jade was quiet for a long moment after I finished. Then she looked up at me and her eyes were wet. "You are right," she said. "About all of it. I know you are right." I did not say anything. I was still too close to the anger to be generous with my words. "I am sorry," she said. "Not the kind of sorry where I explain myself. Just sorry. For this semester. For tonight. For all of it." She pressed her lips together. "I am really sorry, Avery." I looked at her. I thought about whether I believed her. I did believe her. She was my best friend afterall for thirteen years now. Even though I was still super angry at her, that wasn't going to change. She had been a total selfish ass to me for weeks, and even now through her apology, she was doing it again. "I hear you," I said. She looked at me. She had been expecting something warmer and she knew she had not earned it and the knowing was on her face. "I am not ready to just be fine," I said. "I am not saying that to puni

101: More secrets

Avery's POV"You look like you can breathe again," Liam said."I can." I stopped in the corridor and turned to face him properly. "You waited out here just to walk out with me?""Of course I did. I needed to be sure that you're fine with the new Professor.""Liam.""I thought you might want someone in the corridor to walk with you after," he said. "That is all."I looked at him for a moment. I thought about how much I had enjoyed his company so far. "Coffee?" I said."Already planned for it."We walked to the cafe. He ordered without asking because he already knew what I took, and we went to the corner table. I put both hands around the cup the way I always did and looked at him."I want to tell you some things," I said."Okay.""Other real problems I have. I guess we solved Professor Cross' problem so well that I think it's only wise to tell you about other issues I have." I looked at the table. "I have been thinking about it all week. Even when you cannot help fix something, telling

102: Back off

Liam's POVJade stood in the kitchen doorway with her bag on her shoulder and her face doing something complicated.She looked at me. She looked at Avery at the kitchen table. She looked at the two cups on the counter and the kettle that had just stopped boiling. She looked back at Avery."Hi," she said. It came out flat."Hi, Jade," Avery said. She said it easily, no edge on it, which was more than Jade deserved after the conversation I had heard about from Friday."I thought you were at the library until seven," I said."I finished early." She put her bag down by the door. She pulled out a chair at the far end of the table and sat down. She was doing the thing she had been doing for weeks, the carefully polite silence that was louder than anything she could have said. I watched her do it and I was done with it."Jade," I said.She looked at me."Stop."She blinked. "I am not doing anything.""You are sitting at this table with that face and you are doing it very deliberately and I a

103: Dean is gone

Avery's POVI went for a run on Tuesday morning before anyone in the house was awake.I needed to move. The conversation with Liam the day before had given me something I had not expected, which was a clean feeling, the feeling of a weight that had been shifted from one set of shoulders to another, even though it did not disappear entirely. I had been carrying a lot alone for a long time and I had put some of it down, which made me feel lighter than I had in weeks.I ran for forty minutes. Around the block and down by the park and back up the hill that always killed me, twice, because the second time I made the top of it without stopping and that felt like something I needed today. I needed to do one hard thing and finish it. The hill was the easiest version of that available at six in the morning. The air was cold enough to hurt my lungs a little on the way up and I was grateful for it. Physical discomfort was a good thing to focus on when your head had too much in it.I got home at

104: Gone for good

Avery's POVI went back downstairs.My mum was still at the kitchen table with her mug. She looked up when I came in and read something in my face before I had said a word."Avery. What is wrong."I sat down across from her. I kept my voice even because I needed her to hear what I was saying and not just react to how I was saying it."I had money hidden in my room," I said. "Cash. Two thousand dollars. I had been building it up for a while, a bit at a time, and I kept it in an envelope taped to the inside panel of my bookcase. It is gone."She looked at me. "Are you sure that is where you put it?"I stared at her."Are you asking me if I imagined it," I said. "Two thousand dollars.""No, I just — sometimes when you put things away carefully you forget exactly—""I did not forget." My voice was harder now and I let it be. "I know exactly where I put it and I know exactly how much was in it. I have been putting money in that envelope for months. It is not there.""Maybe he borrowed it,"