Counting Stars

“For God’s sake, Avery, we were supposed to leave twenty minutes ago!” As she finishes up with her make-up, Avery rolls her eyes at Sid’s words called up the stairs.

“It’s a party Sid, no one shows up on time,” She screws the cap on her bronzer and looks in the mirror, satisfied with what she sees. “And how do you know it’s not Jon holding us up?”

“Ha!” That’s it, the word, not any actual laughter, so Avery knows Sid’s getting on his last nerve. He’s been known to just leave her behind when she makes him too late and while she knows Mario and Nathalie Lemieux won’t care what time the family shows up to their annual Christmas Eve party, it is probably time to grab some shoes before Sid blows a gasket.

Jon comes back in, grumbling about a tie just as she finishes slipping into the high silver heels. He stops abruptly upon seeing her. “Well, what do you think?”

“Uhh…” Jon can only stare, looking her up and down and Avery fights back the smirk. This is exactly the reaction she was hoping for with this dress—it’s loose and flowy, but short and low-cut, neutral colored with silver sequins on the edges. “What was the question?”

Avery beams at him. “You answered, don’t worry,” Jon still looks awestruck as she steps forward and presses up onto her toes for a kiss. It takes him a moment to respond but he settles his hands on her hips pulling her closer once he does.

“Avery!” Sid’s annoyed tone is accompanied by a fist pounding on the door, and knowing that it really is time to leave, Avery pulls away reluctantly.

“Fuck off,” Jon calls back to him, only half-jokingly; Avery bites her lip and hides her face in his chest.

“I don’t want to know!” Sid whines and this time Avery can’t fight the laughter as she pulls open the door. “Jesus Christ, put some clothes on,”

“Jon loves my dress!”

“Yes I do,”

“I just said I didn’t want to know!” Sid cries, as they make their way down to meet the rest of the family in the foyer.

Avery shoots Jon a grin over her shoulder. “Can do,”

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Taylor’s been strangely quiet so to say that Avery’s surprised when her younger sister curls up next to her on the couch post-showers and the annual Christmas shinney game would be an understatement. In fact, she’s been acting weird since she arrived, according to Sid, just a day before Avery and Jon, and when Avery settles her arm around the girl’s shoulders, Taylor leans further into it until her face is pressed up against Avery’s hip. Fighting back a sigh, Avery moves her hand up to stroke Taylor’s hair; now she recognizes these signs. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Taylor nods into her hip. “I found out Marko was cheating on me,”

Avery’s heart breaks for her little sister. “Hun,” She pauses, still stroking Taylor’s hair. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You were busy,” Taylor mutters. “Moving. And getting engaged.” It occurs to Avery that Taylor doesn’t know the real truth—Avery’s not going to be the one to tell her otherwise. “I didn’t want to, I don’t know, ruin it all for you,”

“You can always call me,” Avery squeezes her shoulders gently and moves her hand to Taylor’s back, rubbing soothingly. “What happened?”

“I caught him with the other girl,” She—doesn’t sound as bitter as Avery is expecting and when she goes on to explain how she felt them growing apart, Avery winces at the familiarity of the story. It’s not exactly how things went down between her and Jon in 2012—nothing will ever be as insane as that—but the growing apart, the feeling that something was off, growing closer with friends from school while simultaneously moving further away from her boyfriend; those parts are like déjà vu.

Taylor sounds familiarly resigned as she explains road tripping to see Marko with a few friends only to catch him with the new girl. It’s one of the few parts of the story Avery can’t identify with—in her and Jon’s story this part was the two of them pretending it wasn’t happening until everything exploded with the concussion. She runs her fingers through Taylor’s hair gently as Taylor explains the last month of her life. “And now he wants to get back together and I don’t know what to do,” She presses her face further into Avery’s hip. “Because a month ago, I would have said no way, but the more I see you and Jon, the more I think maybe I should give it another shot.”

It’s the second time she’s heard that today and really kind of unnerving. But most of all, she doesn’t want to get a phone call from Taylor like the one she got from Kelly-Rae Keith earlier that afternoon.

“I thought I should give you the heads up,” Kelly says and it sets Avery on edge because she 1) doesn’t usually call on Christmas and 2) doesn’t usually say things like that. “We weren’t really planning on telling you guys until after the holiday but it kind of just came out with everybody,” Avery knows, with the short holiday break, the Keith’s, Seabrook’s, and Sharp’s spend the holiday together; she wonders if anyone else was around. “And now you’re the only one who doesn’t know so--” And Avery listens in shock as one of her best friends drops a bomb that she and Duncan are divorcing.

“Are you okay?” She thinks she cuts Kelly off mid-sentence but she can barely process the words. Kelly doesn’t sound upset at all; Avery’s voice cracks mid-sentence. Duncs and Kelly-Rae were—they were a rock, solid—one of the reasons Avery thought she and Jon could actually do this.

Kelly laughs. “It—it’s been a long-time coming. We—we were actually separated a while ago. Actually gave it another go when we found out and Jon did,”

Avery blinks. “What?”

“There was a time when we thought you and Jon would never speak to each other again, let alone be where you are now,” Kelly says softly. “When we saw how happy you guys were, well, we figured we should at least give it another shot.”

Avery sighs. “I don’t think that Jon and I should be your bar for a healthy, stable relationship, no matter what we look like right now,”

Taylor lifts her head momentarily to meet Avery’s gaze. “You and Jon are my bar happy,”

Avery can’t fight the grin that grows across her face. “Tay! You love us!”

Taylor shoves her face back into Avery’s side. “Only sometimes.”

Still smiling, Avery resumes brushing her fingers through Taylor’s hair. “I’m not going to tell you what to do about Marko. Just because it was right for me and Jon doesn’t mean it’s right for you. Look at Sid and Kathy.” She feels more than sees Taylor scrunch her nose up. “But make sure you know what you want to do. Don’t do anything just because he wants you to do—“Avery cuts off abruptly when a heavy weight suddenly covers both of them.

“Jon,” Taylor whines, voice slightly muffled now that she’s crushed between both Avery and Jon.

“You’re crushing us,” Avery’s attempts at pushing him off are ineffective.

Jon grins down at her. “Bummer.” But after a few seconds, he solves the problem by rolling underneath her and pulling the two of them on top of his chest.

“Air!” Taylor cries dramatically.

“Anyway,” Avery settles into Jon’s comforting warmth before addressing her sister. “You shouldn’t do anything just because he wants you to do it.”

“Don’t do anything with a boy, period,” Jon says. “Don’t touch them, don’t even go near them, for your sanity and more importantly, mine,”

“I hope you have like four daughters,” Taylor replies, after sticking her tongue out at him. “And every one of them looks like Avery,”

Jon nods grimly. “My worst nightmare.”