The Avery Shaw Experiment

“Mom! Grayson’s picking on Avery again!”

Aiden’s shout startled me back from my panic attack. Grayson was still watching me, a wicked smile playing on his lips, so I did the only thing I could think to do. I sniffed once and then pretended to gag. “Ugh. Your mom’s right. You really reek. Please go sweat all over someone else.”

Grayson laughed his way back into the kitchen in search of more cookies.

“What is it that makes your brother a walking hormone?” I asked Aiden. “Is it all the physical activity, you think? I mean with the working out, the snowboarding, and the basketball, he’s got to be on an endorphin high like, what, eighty-five percent of the time? Do you think there’s a correlation between the two? Like the more active the athlete, the bigger the sex-craved maniac?”

Aiden shrugged. “Probably. Think about the reputations of professional athletes.”

“Ha! Maybe that should be the topic of our experiment for science club this year.”

Aiden gave me a weird look. “How, exactly, would you go about testing that theory?”

I thought about the practical application that would be required for an experiment like that and promptly blushed again.

“Fine,” I relented, though the thought of Aiden and me working up a sweat together only to then go work up another one with a hot make-out session was highly appealing. “But we need to come up with something soon. The fair is in March this year. It doesn’t give us a lot of time.”

Aiden’s entire body suddenly went stiff. I glanced at him just in time to watch his face turn a little green.

“What’s the matter with you?” I wanted to make a joke about him being strung out due to steroids or something, but he looked too freaked to tease. Something was really wrong with him, so I paused the TV, sat up straight and gave him my full attention.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Aiden gulped. “It’s just . . . I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.”

“About what?”

He took a big breath and then let it out. “I’m not going to do the science fair this year.”

It took a minute for this news to sink in. We’d been partners at the Utah State Science Fair every year since sixth grade.

“What?”

“Um . . . well . . . you see . . . Miles Fuller moved over break, so the debate team needs one more person or they won’t be able to compete anymore. Mindy Perez and I had public speaking together last semester. She asked me to fill Miles’s spot. She said I have charisma and a natural talent for persuasion.”

I couldn’t talk for a full sixty seconds. He was speaking English, but I still couldn’t make sense of his words. “You joined the debate team?”

He nodded.

“But they meet at the same time as science club.”

“I know.” Aiden’s gaze dropped to his lap as if he could no longer stand to look at me. “I quit science club. I already emailed Mr. Walden about it.”

“You quit?” My voice jumped so many octaves that it broke halfway through the word quit. It had the unpleasant effect of making me sound like a mouse. “But you’re my co-president!”

“You’re better with all the science stuff than me anyway.”

“Yeah, but I’m not like, a leader. That’s why the gang voted us both. Together. I need you.”

Aiden winced and then forcefully shook his head. “You don’t.”

“Fine,” I said, even though it felt very, very not fine. “But even if you quit, you could still do the science fair with me. Everyone’s already partnered up. I’ll have to do it alone.”

Aiden finally met my eyes. He looked even guiltier now. “I won’t have time. Mindy said debate gets pretty intense. Plus with all the honors courses we have this semester? The science fair is a lot of work.”

“I know! And we’ve already waited until January to get started. I won’t be able to do it by myself. I’ll have to drop out.”

“No, you won’t,” Aiden insisted. “You’re amazing, Avery. You’ll find a way. You always do. And hey, without me bringing you down, you’ll probably win first place for once.”

“Shut up! I will not! I will fall apart without you!”

Aiden sighed and took my hand in his. “Aves,” he said slowly. “That’s also sort of why I said yes to Mindy. I think I need a little space for awhile.”

For just a brief moment, time stopped . . . like a heart that skipped a beat. When it started back up, my life had been forever altered.

“Space? What do you mean?” I knew what he meant. I was just praying I was wrong because, otherwise, he’d just ripped my heart in two and I couldn’t deal. “Are you saying you don’t want to be my friend anymore?”

Aiden quickly shook his head. “Of course not. We’ll always be friends. You know we will. But, Aves, we spend more time together than conjoined twins. I think it would be good for us both to maybe start hanging out with other people sometimes, you know? Like, separately. And . . .” Another shrug, and painful swallow. “I don’t want to celebrate our birthdays together this year. I kind of want to do my own thing.”

At that last request there was a gasp and the sound of shattering glass in the kitchen. I was grateful for the distraction until I realized that Cheryl was standing there practically comatose staring at us with a hand over her mouth and tears in her eyes. The gasp had been hers, and the glass of water she’d been holding was now on the ground around her bare feet in as many tiny pieces as my heart was.

“Mom!” Aiden jumped up and started picking up the larger pieces of glass.

I went to get a dish towel and the broom, but my movements were robotic. My body was on autopilot because my brain was pretty much dead from shock.

I simply couldn’t understand how this had happened. Was the earth suddenly tilted off its axis? Were the boundaries of space and time blurring, causing reality to splinter off into alternate universes? Was Park City, Utah, secretly the Devil’s Gate and I’d fallen into hell without knowing it?

I handed Aiden the towel and then swept up the remaining glass, but when I went to dump the dustpan, I accidentally ran into a wall of solid, sweaty muscles. “Sorry,” I muttered to Grayson.

He was standing there shifting his eyes between his brother and me, with unswallowed chocolate-chip cookie bits threatening to fall out of his gaping mouth.

“Can you get out of the way? You’re blocking the trash can.”

This made him jump into action. “Oh, right. Sorry.” He stepped aside and fled the kitchen muttering something about needing to take a shower.

I watched him go because it was easier than facing his brother.

Form behind me, Aiden’s fingers gently grabbed onto mine. “Aves.”

His soft voice made my eyes burn. He tugged lightly on my hand, but I couldn’t turn around yet. I was about to cry, and there was no way I was going to let him see that.

“Avery.”

After a nice deep breath, the burning sensation subsided. I was able to face him and force a smile, but I think my injured pride was the only thing that kept the tears at bay.

“You okay?” Aiden asked.

The answer was a definite no, but I nodded anyway. “Of course. Yeah, sure, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be? It’s just a science project. Like you said, I’ll manage. As for the other stuff, I get it, and that’s cool. If that’s what you want. I suppose it could be fun to change things up a bit.”

Lie! Complete and utter lie!

The lie was so big it hurt me all the way to my soul, but what hurt even worse was that Aiden believed it. He let out a breath and then threw his arms around me. His whole body sagged with relief. “I am so glad you understand. I was so scared that you were going to hate me for this and never speak to me again.”

“I could never to that,” I muttered.

His grip tightened gratefully, but he may as well have been reaching inside my chest and squeezing the last of the life out of my heart instead of hugging me.