All Chapters of Falling for My Best Friend's Brother: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Avery's POVThe shock on his face was almost satisfying.Almost, because it didn't last as long as I wished so much in my head that it would.Professor Cross touched the side of his face with two fingers like he was checking to confirm what had just happened, and his expression cycled through several things in quick succession. Surprise. Indignation. The particular recalibration of a man who had been very sure about something and had turned out to be spectacularly wrong about it."Well," he said. He straightened up from the desk and adjusted his glasses. "I think it is fairly clear that you are not actually willing to do whatever it takes.""I think it is fairly clear," I said, "what kind of professor you are. How dare you!?"He sat down behind his desk now, back in his formal position, like putting the furniture between us restored some version of the power arrangement he had come in with. He shuffled the papers that were already straight."You came to me asking for a favour," he sai

Avery's POVI was driving.Jade had offered but I had the keys already and we both knew the real reason was that I needed something to do with my hands on the way to cheer practice that afternoon. She sat in the passenger seat with one earbud in and her chin resting on her hand and she watched the streets go past and said absolutely nothing to me for the first ten minutes.I let it go until I could not anymore."Talk to me," I said."I am fine.""Jade. You have said about twelve words since I knocked on your door this afternoon.""I did not sleep well." She pulled the earbud out and looked at me fully. "Can a person be tired without it turning into a whole conversation?""When it is you?" I glanced at her. "No. Usually when you go quiet like this it means something.""Not everything means something," she said."With you it does."She was quiet for a moment. Then something softened slightly in her face, just around the eyes, the way it did when she was deciding to let me closer than sh

Avery's POVFor a moment nobody said anything.Jade stood two steps below us on the library steps with her shopping bag in her hand. I wondered how she knew where we were. Either way, the look on her face was not the quiet, contained version of hurt she had worn all afternoon at practice. This was the other version, the one she got when something she had suspected turned into something she could see with her own eyes.She looked at Liam first. Then at me. Then back at Liam. And then she looked at me with pain in her eyes."What are you doing here?" I asked."I should be the one asking you that." Her eyes settled on me and stayed there. "You told me you had something to do for your mum.""I can explain," I said. "It is not what you think it is.""Then explain," she said. "Because what I think is that you looked me in the face and lied to me so you could come here with him.""We're in a library" I said. "It is not how it is.""Then what is it? Because from where I am standing it looks l

Avery's POVI sat on my bed in the quiet of my room and listened to Dean's voice finally trail off somewhere downstairs. I didn't give a shit about whatever he was saying. He was useless to me and didn't deserve any respect from me.Then the house went quiet. Maybe my mum succeeded in calming him down, I didn't care.I looked at the ceiling and let it be quiet for a while.My wrist hurt faintly where Dean had grabbed it. Not badly. Just a dull reminder around the joint. I pressed my thumb into it and thought about his expression when the slap landed. The way the certainty had gone out of his face all at once, like a light switching off.I thought about my mum standing in the doorway once again like a coward.I thought about Jade. It's been a while since we had a fight. Besides that, we had never fought about boys. It was annoying that we were fighting about one now, and the worst part being that she even hated him.I thought about Liam and the things Jade said to him.I looked at my p

Liam's POVI was three blocks from the library and still talking to myself.Who the fuck does she think she is?I kept walking with my hands deep in my pockets and my jaw so tight it ached. I had gone over it three times already and the answer was the same every time. Jade had stood on those steps and called me a parasite. Called my dad one too. Like she had us all figured out after five days. Like the fact that her mum fell in love with someone and chose to build a life with him was somehow something me and my dad had done to her personally.I pulled out my phone and called Jace. He had been my best friend since kindergarten and we played football on the same team in my former college. It was such a bummer to leave him to move with my dad.He picked up on the second ring. "What's up bro?""I need two minutes," I said."Talk."So I told him. The girl on the steps, the word parasite, the whole thing. He listened without interrupting and when I finished he was quiet for a second."Bro,"