The Avery Shaw Experiment Read Online Free PDF Page B

maybe it’s for the best. You guys are almost seventeen. If it hasn’t happened by now, maybe it’s not supposed to.”
    “I can’t accept that.”
    “Denial isn’t good for you.”
    “It isn’t denial.”
    “Now you’re denying your denial.”
    “But look at you,” I said. “You always thought I was like a sister too. If you can change your mind, then he can too. He just needs a wakeup call.”
    “Hey now, you can’t just go jumping in the shower with every guy you know. That’s totally our thing.”
    “Oh my gosh, Grayson, we do not have a thing!” The torture was never ending. “I wasn’t talking about jumping in the shower with him,” I mumbled. “But maybe if I just tell him how I feel, if I ask him to kiss me—to just give it a chance.”
    “And if he doesn’t go for it?”
    “He will. Grayson, I know he will. I know it here.” I tapped my heart. “Aiden and I belong together. You’ll see. He just needs to know how I feel. Maybe he believes I think of him like a brother and nothing else, you know? What if he’s been in love with me for years, but he thinks I don’t like him that way.”
    Grayson frowned and went back to his dinner. He obviously didn’t agree, but I felt my excitement growing. “That’s got to be it! It makes so much sense! What if he said he needed space because it hurts him to be with me but not with me? What if I’m hurting him? You saw how mad he got tonight when you said you were taking me out. He was jealous.”
    Now my excitement had been replaced with dread. I didn’t want to hurt Aiden ever. But what else could all this have been about? Nothing else made any sense. “He asked me to talk, and I walked out on him! I’m awful!”
    Grayson rolled his eyes. “You are not. He was a jerk. He deserved what you did. Worse even.”
    I shook my head. “Thank you for being so nice to me tonight and trying to help me. I’m sorry to ditch you, but I need to go home and talk to Aiden.”
    Grayson sat there as if he were giving the whole situation some serious thought. Eventually I saw acceptance wash over his face and he set down his fork. “I suppose you do need to talk to him, don’t you. But if you do this, you can’t hold anything back. You’ve got to give it to him straight. Tell him everything. Just be sure to use small words so he can understand.”
    “I will.” I smiled for the first time all evening and jumped up to give Grayson a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you for understanding. You are the best big brother I’ve never had!”
    Grayson let go a small laugh and shook his head. “Not your brother, Aves.”
    “You never know,” I teased. “You could be someday.”
    He smiled again, but this time it didn’t quite reach his eyes “Good luck.”
    “Thanks.”
    I burst through the door to the condo less than five minutes later. The adults had cracked open the wine and were laughing a little loudly, but that stopped the instant they saw me.
    For once the attention didn’t paralyze me. Breathless from my run and excited to figure things out with Aiden, I hurried and threw my coat, hat, and scarf haphazardly onto the rack by the door. “Where’s Aiden?”
    “Up in the boys’ room,” Cheryl answered cautiously. “Where’s Grayson?”
    “If I had to guess? On his way to apartment 7B.”
    My mom’s forehead creased, and she set down her glass of wine. “Did you guys have a fight?”
    “Oh! No!” Realizing what they were all worried about, I gave them my most reassuring smile. “Grayson is the best! Who knew he could be so sensitive?” I remembered the comment about wanting to take my shirt off and cringed. “Well, sort of sensitive.”
    None of the parents seemed to know what to say.
    “Grayson and I had a nice time,” I assured them. “I just really need to talk to Aiden now.”
    I ran up the stairs without waiting for any responses.
    I took a deep breath, and then knocked on Aiden’s bedroom door. Thanks to this afternoon’s