279: Sneaking around

Avery's POVWednesday came the way all days I was not ready for came, which was exactly on time and completely indifferent to whether I had figured anything out.Liam picked me up at half past five. I had my bag, my jacket, the expression I used when I needed to look like everything was fine. He was in a good mood the way he often was after a football training session that had gone well, easy and warm, talking as he drove about something Tate had said on the field that afternoon. I sat in the passenger seat and laughed at the right moments, watching the streets go past the window and thinking about the route he was taking and whether it was taking us anywhere near my real job, the Velvet Underground.It was not. He was going directly to Crestwood Community Centre. Of course he was. He was a man who had offered to drop his girlfriend off at work and was doing exactly that. There was nothing suspicious about the route he was taking. I was the suspicious one, mapping everything, calcul

280: Hard to keep up

Avery's POVNikki was standing in the corridor.She was the absolute last person I wanted to see right now.She was not performing or getting ready, not doing any of the things people did in the back corridor of the Velvet Underground before a show. She was just standing there with her arms folded and a drink in one hand and the expression on her face of someone who had been waiting.I stopped when I saw her."Twenty minutes," she said."I know," I told her. "I got held up.""Held up." She looked at me the way she looked at everything, like she was already ahead of whatever you were about to say and was just waiting for you to catch up. "You look like someone who got held up on purpose," she replied."I had a transport situation," I told her. "It is sorted now. I am here.""You are twenty minutes late," she said. "In this place, twenty minutes is equal to a lot of money." She tilted her head. "Where were you?" she asked."I told you," I replied. "Transport.""Your car broke down?" she

281: Racing time

Avery's POVI left the Velvet Underground at twelve seventeen.I know the exact time because I checked my phone while I was still changing and twelve seventeen was already seventeen minutes past the midnight Liam was supposed to pick me up. The set had run late because I had been twenty minutes late. I missed my earlier spot and had to take a later spot which ended at that time. I changed back into my jeans and sneakers, went to the bathroom, ran cold water and worked through half the tissue dispenser and my baby wipes pouch trying to get the stage makeup off. I thought I had done enough. I got out the back door and I ran. The twelve-minute walk from the club to Crestwood community center took me six minutes at a run and the street lighting on two of the blocks was poor enough that I had to watch where I was going, which slowed me down when I could not afford to slow down.I reached the community center at twelve twenty-seven.Liam's car was parked outside and the engine was off, whic

282: project

Avery's POVI was so grateful that I made it without appearing suspicious to Liam that night. I felt very tired from having to shuttle the both venues and wondered to myself how long I could keep it up. I got to the study room of the library on Thursday before either of them, set my things out, and sat in the table nearest the door because our usual table was already occupied by someone else and also because I was of the opinion that I needed to sit near exits when the room was going to contain someone like Zoey Carmichael. Liam arrived two minutes after me with his laptop and a coffee. He sat next to me and gave me the easy familiar look that meant he was glad to see me and the evening so far for him had been fine. Normal. Ordinary.He came over to the table where I was and gave me a kiss. We started talking about nothing in particular, just catching up with how our day had been. I kept my face at the same easy level and told myself that two hours was manageable spending it with Zo

283: Alone

Avery's POV"No," Liam said.He did not seem to think about it. He did not weigh it up or consider the request for any longer than it took to hear it. He said no the way he said things he had already decided before they became a question."Liam," I said."There is no reason for the two of you to need a private conversation," he told her, looking at me not at Zoey. "Whatever she has to say about the project she can say with me here.""It is fine," I told him."Avery.""I mean it," I told him. "I can handle two minutes alone with Zoey. I have handled significantly harder things this semester." I looked at him steadily. "Give us a minute."He looked at me for a moment and I could see the internal argument happening behind his expression, the part of him that did not trust the situation pulling against the part of him that had learned to trust me. "If you insist." He shrugged and turned around. "But I'll stay in the room where I can see you both." He picked up his bag and his laptop, walk

284: Someone to talk to

Avery's POVI was really going crazy inside thinking about what Zoey just told me. I considered my options once again and decided that it was really becoming too much for me trying to keep my two lives apart. I needed someone to talk to. I had no one else except Jade my best friend. I made sure Liam was not home, then I stood outside Jade's door for a full minute before I knocked. It was not because I did not know what I was going to say. I had been rehearsing pieces of it on the walk over, editing as I went, deciding what to include and what to leave out and how to frame the parts that needed framing. I stood there because I kept coming back to the same uncomfortable fact, which was that Jade Rivera had stood in her doorway at the beginning of this semester and looked at me with an expression that said she was not sure about this, about me and Liam, about the combination of people, proximity, and history that was being stirred into something she had not asked for in her own home.S