You Can't Tell Me to Heal

I still couldn’t believe I actually got Avery Lassiter’s phone number. I wasn’t gonna take any chances or push my luck with Avery. We’d start off just talking first for now. I was ecstatic, of course, but when it came to girls, I always felt like I was walking on eggshells.

“Bro, did you get laid?” Kennedy asked jokingly, handing me a Corona before sitting on the couch with Megan, who promptly latched herself onto him. Yuck.

“Hahaha, Kenster. Now, where the hell are Garrett and Jared? We haven’t had a full band practice for quite some time now,” I said irritably. I couldn’t help that Avery made me happy.

“Jared’s dropping off Chloe at her parent’s house, and Garrett’s bringing Shannon over,” Pat announced before pocketing his phone. “Shannon’s stoked to watch us practice,” he added happily. We were practicing in the Kenster’s basement today.

“Yeah!” Megan fist pumped. “I won’t be the only girl here!”

I remained quiet after I put my half finished beer on the floor by my feet and the three of them made small talk. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and scrolled down to my thread with Avery. It was probably still too early to talk to her. She wouldn’t be out of therapy until five. I texted out about twenty different messages to her, each one sounding worse than the last.

I couldn’t exactly ask the guys for advice. They’d never let me live it down, since I vowed never to have any relationships again after that whole fiasco with Jenna. Pat and Kennedy left to skateboard and Megan went to the bathroom, leaving me alone in the basement with my thoughts…but not for long. Shannon bounded down the steps with 5 boxes of pizza in her arms. “Hey, John!”

“Oh, ‘sup, Shannon.” I quickly got to my feet, nearly knocking my beer over. “Let me help you with that.” We set up the pizza on Kennedy’s ping pong table.

“Garrett’s gonna be here soon,” Shannon said before sitting on a couch. “He’s grabbing ice and drinks. And Jared just pulled into the driveway.”

“Cool…” I fiddled with my phone some more. I texted Avery, like, every other day, talking about nothing and everything. She was a tough nut to crack. She usually got me rambling about things and telling her more about myself than she told me about herself. It wasn’t fair. “Can I ask you for some advice?”

Shannon blinked in surprise and straightened in her seat. “Of course, John…”

I rubbed the back of my neck nervously before rising to shut the door to the basement. “Ok, so, don’t tell the guys, but there’s this girl that I like, and…”


Avery and I talked much more often now. She was slowly but surely opening up to me. I learned a lot about her in 2 weeks. She had amazing musical taste, but only because she had nothing better to do. She didn’t have a fallback when soccer didn’t work out for her. Her psychiatrist recommended music as a type of therapy, and so Avery was an excellent pianist. Her psychiatrist was helping her get over the fact that soccer was no longer in her future, as well as her parents’ divorce.

She didn’t like to talk about herself very much, so when she was in the mood for that, I was all ears. I wanted to see her for more than ten or fifteen minutes somewhere other than the physical therapy center, but she turned me down whenever I asked to hang out. It didn’t discourage me, it challenged me to try harder.

What I found mildly discouraging was the fact that she spent so much time with her male best friend, Eric. A whole fucking lot of time. When she didn’t respond to my texts, or answer my calls, Eric was usually to blame. But I didn’t like to hate on someone I didn’t even know…

Shannon’s advice was golden. Shannon told me first and foremost to be honest. She had a really weird logic and her explanation was a vague, mental Rubik’s cube, but it still helped. According to Shannon, honesty has to come first. Honesty allows friendship to exist, and together they create trust, which is a key element in any relationship. I mean, I guess it made sense, if you thought about it long and hard enough.

I was actually kind of hoping for specific advice, like, “if she says this, reply with that” or “don’t do this if she does that”, but Shannon’s advice was pretty solid. She kept my mystery girl low key, too, just like I asked.

I needed to make a move, before I got stuck in friendship lagoon indefinitely.