And I Will Try to Fix You

“Hey, Avery!” I called as I ran towards the shorter boy’s locker. I swear he looked so tiny you could break him.

When he heard my attempt at grabbing his attention, he slowly turned around to face me. I literally jumped back at his appearance, my brow furrowed.

His eyes were red – bloodshot – there were black pools underneath each one, showing that he hadn’t gotten sleep the night before. He looked terrible, to say the least.

“What happened to you?” I barely mouthed as I inched closer to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. His gaze shifted to the floor and he looked even more upset.

“Avery, what’s wrong?” I asked quietly, but there was no need. I already knew what had happened, and I knew that telling him, “I told you so,” would only make it worse.

So I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around him tightly, listening as he broke down into tears. His entire body shook as each sob choked up in his throat.

“H-he,” hiccup, “G-Gavin w-as,” hiccup, “u-u-using me.” I felt the tears soak through my shirt, but I didn’t care. My best friend needed me, so I only hugged him tighter to me.

We didn’t say anything after that; I knew he was in too much pain. I didn’t know how it happened, but all I cared about was calming him down. Class was about to start though, so he’d have to calm down eventually.

Okay, so I was wrong, he didn’t calm down. We must’ve stood there for an hour before a teacher walked by and told me to bring him home. I thanked her and attempted to help Avery walk home. He continued to cry into my shirt though, so I carried him to my house instead.

“Honey, why are you-”

“Shh,” I said to my mom while pointing to the sleeping Avery in my arms. She raised an eyebrow, but nodded her head in approval.

“We’ll talk later,” I whispered before stepping out of the kitchen. I was as lithe as possible while walking down the hallway; I definitely did not want to wake him. Not only was he terribly heartbroken, but I could tell that he hadn’t slept at all. Knowing Avery, he was probably up all night crying his eyes out.

I set him carefully on my bed and pulled a few blankets over him. I placed a soft kiss on his forehead before leaving the room, hoping that he wouldn’t wake up and question why I’d done that.

“You better have a damn good reason for skipping school, Skyler.” I sighed loudly and sat down at the table, folding my hands in front of me.

“It’s a long story,” I started, “you sure you wanna know?” She squinted with a mock glare and then rolled her eyes, acting more immature than I was.

“All right, well, Avery’s having boy troubles. He was really upset and the teacher told me to take him home.” I said, only telling the half-truth. She nodded and drank a sip of her coffee – probably what she’s always hyped up on.

“So if it’s okay…” I hinted with a sheepish smile in her direction. She chuckled and nodded her head before gulping another mouthful of coffee.

“Actually, I was going to ask if we could stay home tomorrow.” I knew that I probably shouldn’t have asked but, hey, it was worth a shot.

“Fine, but you’re both going to school on Friday.” She stated in a fake strict voice; I knew very well that my mom wasn’t strict at all. In fact, she was the least mature one in this house. I guess I would consider her cool, if there were any cool moms out there.

I was about to say something when I heard a weak voice call my name from behind me. I turned around to see Avery wiping his eyes with his shirt sleeve.

“Yeah, Ave?” I said as my mom stood and left the room. He sniffled a few times before holding out his arms for a hug. Of course, I gave in and hugged him tightly to my chest, silently breathing in his scent.

“You ready to talk?” I asked with a half-smile, pulling away and leading him to my room. He nodded and collapsed on my bed with his head in his hands. Although he looked as if he was going to cry, I knew that he wouldn’t because he’d already done enough of that at the school.

“You were right,” he muttered, leaving me speechless. But then I remembered all those times that I’d told him Gavin was using him. Hell, Gavin told me himself that he only wanted Avery as a fuck buddy. That and he was trying to make his ex jealous.

“He was using me the whole time. I-I should’ve li-listened to you.” He sniffled a few more times and brought his sleeve up to wipe his eyes.

I didn’t say anything because, well, I didn’t know what to say. He knew that I had told him, and that I was right, but I wasn’t going to rub that in his face. I didn’t want to tell him in the first place. But I suppose that it was better that I had warned him.

Throwing my arm over his shoulder, I plopped down next to him on the bed. He smiled weakly again before kissing my cheek. Although it was a simple thing that didn’t mean much to him, it meant a lot to me. I felt the familiar, sharp pang in my chest and winced, quickly covering it up by talking.

“It’s gonna be all right, Ave. He isn’t worth your tears; honestly.” I said truthfully with another soft smile.

“No, Sky, it’s not. I loved him.” No, you thought you did. I answered internally, knowing that he was only saying that because he was upset. I knew that he didn’t love him. I knew that Gavin didn’t love him either. But they were still together, even after I told Avery, and now he only got hurt in the end.

But I knew that he’d be okay, as long as I was there to pick up the pieces.