4

Chapter 4: Une Connexion Inattendue

Saturday came as quickly as it could as if the universe was in a rush to make Avery's life a living hell.

It was only one in the afternoon and Avery sat on the carpet in her walk-in closet, considering what to wear. She had chosen five different outfits which she had placed neatly on her bed for further critique, but there was a nagging feeling that she hadn't picked the best ones.

What should she even wear to the party? Was it a casual party? Semi-formal, maybe? Should she wear a romper? A dress? Jeans and a blouse? Should she dress simply to blend in, or would dressing simply make her stand out?

Avery frustratedly ran a hand through her dishevelled curls and let out a deep sigh. Her room, along with her closet, was painted mint-green, her calm colour. But, not even that or the smell of her mother baking a fresh batch of cookies (after Avery had accidentally finished the old batch in the jar on Wednesday), could lessen her anxiety as she dreaded the party.

It was no secret that Avery suffered from general anxiety. She was diagnosed, five years ago at thirteen years old and once she and her parents had discovered that mint-green seemed to help, almost everything she owned was decorated with the colour. It was an unconventional method, but it had always helped.

With another huff, Avery changed from her seated position as she uncrossed her legs to lay down on the fluffy carpet. She ran her fingers up and down the carpet, finding comfort in its soft feel.

"Avery," Mrs Toussaint called out as she entered her daughter's room, carrying a plate of chocolate chip cookies with her. She looked around and gasped when she spotted her daughter's form on the floor of her closet. She gently placed the plate on the dresser before rushing over to Avery.

"Doux-Doux, ça va? Qu'est-ce qui ne va pas?" she sat down next to Avery's lying form, and gingerly rested Avery's head on her lap. {Sweetie, what's going on? What's wrong?}

"Ça va, maman. C'est la fête ce soir. Je n'ai rien à porter," Avery sighed to her mother. {I'm okay, mom. It's the party tonight. I don't have anything to wear}

"Ah, but you have plenty to wear," Mrs Toussaint gestured to the racks of clothing in front of them. "T'as beaucoup de vêtements but you just wear the same things over and over." {You have lots of clothes}

"Can you help me pick something out then?" Avery asked.

"Mais, bien sûr!" she squeezed her daughter's cheeks together before they both stood up. {But, of course!}

Forty-five minutes to an hour later, they had both finally agreed on an outfit for Avery to wear to the party. It was a flowing black crop top with long sleeves, a white pair of high-waisted shorts accompanied by black wedged booties. The women stood proudly over their decision which was laid out neatly on Avery's bed.

" Génial! You can pick up any young man in this," her mother teased before grabbing a cookie off of the plate and biting into it. {Great!}

"Maman!" Avery blushed heavily, folding her arms in embarrassment.

"Maybe even Carson. I wouldn't be surprised if that boy was totally head over heels for you," Mrs Toussaint continued, causing Avery to cover her face with her hands.

"Nous sommes seulement amis, maman," Avery mumbled behind her hands. {We're only friends, mom}

"Les amis, les amoureux... same thing," Her mother said in a sing-song voice before exiting her room. {Friends, lovers}

****

Carson pulled up to Avery's house at eight o' clock on the dot, just like he had promised her. Avery felt her hands tremble and she stuffed them in the back pockets of her shorts to get her mind off of them. She instead decided to focus on what a beautiful night it was, it was peaceful and quiet.

Tonight was a full moon and the milky white sphere was only partially covered by light wisps of clouds. The light from the moon created a ring of colours, hues of orange and blue that reflected onto the clouds and made a beautiful outline.

"-very," someone called out to her. Avery's head snapped to the direction of the sound to find Carson patiently waiting for her. He was leaned against his car wearing a white button-up shirt that defined his muscles which he gained from football.

The right football. Not what the Americans called 'soccer'. American football was just a fancy way of saying rugby. Avery wrinkled her face in annoyance as she got lost in her thoughts. It's like America decided to call rugby 'football' so they obviously couldn't call football 'football' because they had already dubbed rugby that name, so they went ahead and called it 'soccer'. It was so confusing and unnecessary. In French, football was football, and French was her first language. It was frustrating to learn that certain places called football 'football' or football 'soccer'. How could she ever know which one was which?

Carson was the type of person who dressed to impress, he dressed almost always formally for every occasion. Even for something as insignificant as school. With that, his chivalry and his good looks, there was no wonder why he had so many girls chasing after him. He maybe even had a few guys.

Snapping out of her thoughts, Avery walked towards the car and got in hesitantly.

"How are you feeling?" Carson asked her, he turned to face her in the car while putting his hand on the back of her seat. He gave her a reassuring smile.

"I'll be fine, let's just go," she responded to him, sending him a smile of her own. Carson pursed his lips in thought before twisting to the steering wheel and placing the key in the ignition. Soon, they were on their way.

Avery had no doubt in her mind that she would hate this experience. As they stood on the lawn of the large house, she could feel the bass of the loud music vibrating in her organs. Red cups and drunk teenagers seemed to be everywhere. Couldn't Kaden have been the person to break the stereotype and just use blue cups? Maybe green? The trope of having red cups at a party was so overdone.

It had been less than a minute and Avery just wanted to run back home, but when Carson asked her if she was ready to go in she just smiled and nodded, looping their arms together.  A surge of confidence ran through her as she walked in with her best friend, but it left as quickly as it came.

"I know it seems a bit overwhelming, Aves," Carson reassured her, his voice raising to combat the volume of their surroundings. "You'll get used to it after a while. Let me introduce you to Kaden...if we can find him."

Kaden Aldridge wasn't hard to find. He stood with a group of three other people, one of which Avery recognised as Alex Rivers. She didn't recognise the others, but she felt intimidated by all four of them. Her reflexes kicked in and she slightly stepped behind Carson, wishing she could be invisible as they seemed to watch her and Carson as they both got closer to their group.

Carson confidently strode over to them, gracefully making his way through the crowd of different sweaty bodies. Avery could feel herself going through sensory overload as she followed him.

"Hey, Aldridge!" Carson called out to him. Kaden smiled. He put down his beer bottle and swung himself off of the counter which he was previously seated on. Avery watched awkwardly as Carson and Kaden gave each other some weird 'bro handshake' and embrace.

"Yo," Kaden said, dragging out the ending. He shouted out over the music, to whoever could hear, "Hey everyone! Number Five is here!"

The crowd of teenagers cheered and some even raised their cups and bottles, celebrating the arrival of Carson 'Number Five' Armani. Saying Avery felt out of place would be an understatement. As she watched Carson shake hands with and hug all the people who came up to greet him, she was reminded once more that this was not her scene. Carson, when he was 'Number Five', was so different from the Carson she knew when they were alone. He was more outgoing and seemed to be in his element.

Avery sighed, looking for somewhere silent she could sit and ride out the party. Carson may have been with her now, but give it a moment and he would be whisked away from her side. While he was chatting with some friends, he made eye contact with her and sent her an apologetic smile. "I'll come to find you later," he mouthed to her. Looks like that moment was now.

What had felt like hours but had only been thirty minutes later, Avery found a place on the porch she could sit where it seemed a little quieter than the chaos going on inside and on the front lawn. Somehow she had ended up with a red cup in her hand and glitter in her hair. 'Maybe booties weren't the best thing to wear to a party,' Avery thought to herself as she slipped them off, laying them on the floor before gently massaging the soles of her feet.

The abundance of people at the party was overwhelming. Though it was a large house, the school population was even larger and everyone seemed to know Kaden Aldridge. Or maybe they didn't know him all that well, and they were just there for a party. Avery felt humid, sticky and sweaty and hated the feeling that came from having people's damp skin all over hers. Whatever the beverage was in her hand felt cool and she went to take a sip from it. It was kind of sweet but with a bitter aftertaste. It left a weird feeling in Avery's chest as it went down and she made up her face in dislike at the sensation. But overall, the drink didn't taste so bad and so she went to sip again.

"You probably shouldn't be drinking that," Avery heard a voice call out. She hesitated as the cup was to her lips, then realised the person may have been talking to someone else and continued.

While she was in the process of finishing the contents in the red cup, she felt the presence of someone shadowing over her. She looked up to find Alex Rivers there, looking down at her with a frown. Alex took the cup from her grasp.

"Um, excuse me?" Avery said in annoyance. She halted. Where did that confidence come from? Alex looked unfazed by the response from the freckled girl as she poured out the remaining liquid from the cup.

"Where did you get this?" Alex asked her, folding her arms after she let the cup fall to the floor. Avery frowned at the blatant pollution. "I'm not sure," she drew her eyebrows together in confusion, "Someone must've given it to me."

Alex scoffed in annoyance, "People put all sorts of crap into drinks at parties. You don't just take drinks from anybody. Where's Carson?"

Avery shrugged, brushing her feet along the wooden floor as she looked down. She was starting to feel dizzy. Alex narrowed her eyes at Avery, "You better hope there was nothing dangerous in this drink."

Avery was surprised and confused about why Alex seemed to care about her wellbeing. They had only just met this week and spoken twice if one would even call their encounters conversations. From what she had heard and gathered, Alex didn't seem like that kind of person. Avery voiced her confusion, "Why do you care?"

"I care because too much bad shit happens to naive little girls at house parties," Alex bit out. She may not have known Avery personally but she had at least hoped that she had more sense than to drink suspicious liquid given to her by a stranger. Her features softened as she saw how lost and out of place Avery looked. She muttered a string of curses under her breath at the feeling that tugged at her chest and held out her hand to Avery.

Avery looked up at Alex, confusion written in her facial features as she shifted her focus to the arm that was stretched out to her. She felt herself get dizzier and brushed some imaginary curls from her face. Her hair was in a neatly made bun on top of her head, but for some reason, she felt like they were out and wild.

She took Alex's hand after a moment and felt the taller girl pull her back into the house. They weaved through the cluster of bodies and Avery cringed to herself. She didn't think twice when Alex brought her up a flight of stairs, she had just wanted to escape the chaos that was going on.

After walking for a while and going around some corners, Alex opened a door to a room. It was too dark for Avery too see inside and her adrenaline spiked. She felt panic nipping at her chest and she gasped. What was happening?

She felt her chest rising up and down at an increasing rate. She squeezed her eyes shut before opening them again. She was almost heaving when Alex flipped on the light switch, "This is my room- hey are you okay?" She was now facing Avery in concern. She guided her to the bed and sat her down.

"I'm fine," Avery said between breaths, willing herself to calm down. 'Look for something green, look for something green,' Avery repeated to herself in her mind as her eyes flicked to every surface in the room in a frenzy.

"I figured you'd want somewhere to stay to ride out whatever was in that cup. I can keep the door locked and go back downstairs if you want. Every time there's a party here, everyone knows this room is out of bounds so no one comes in here really," Alex rubbed her back, trying to soothe her.

Avery snapped her eyes back to Alex to find the taller girl looking at her with deep concern evident in her own. Alex's green eyes seemed to sedate Avery's anxiety and she took slow breaths as she continued to stare into them. In their two encounters, Avery had never noticed that Alex had green eyes. She also never noticed the flecks of gold that almost seemed to dance close to her pupil.

And then and there, she felt totally calm staring into Alex's eyes.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked once more, hoping to snap the freckled girl out of the trance she seemed to be in. She didn't know what to do and had started to panic herself.

"Um, yeah," Avery said slowly, looking down. She noticed that at some point, Alex had gripped her hand so she let go and moved away from Alex on the bed, praying it was subtle and that she wouldn't take offence. "You said this was your room, right? Isn't this Kaden Aldridge's house?"

Alex chuckled and she got up, feeling relieved that Avery seemed to be okay now. "Kaden is my step-brother so yeah, I live here."

"Oh," Avery responded softly, her eyes roaming the room carefully. When she had been scanning the place for something green, she never stopped to take in what it was like. At first glance, she wouldn't have guessed it was Alex's room. The room was minimalist, its walls were a light beige and everything else had either light grey or eggshell white accents. There wasn't much decorating the walls except for a few family photographs and paintings. It didn't feel homely at all. Avery frowned at that, there was no way to tell who Alex was or that she even lived here.

Alex followed Avery's gaze and seemed to realise what she was thinking, "I haven't really gotten around to decorating."

Avery looked back at her. She was wearing a dark green leather jacket, plain white shirt, black jeans and black combat boots. Who was Alex Rivers? "How long have you lived here?" she asked.

Alex seemed to think about it, "Um, my mom married Kaden's dad about two years ago. So, yeah."

Avery narrowed her eyes, "Okay." Another wave of dizziness hit her and she felt like she was staggering backwards even though she was firmly planted on the bed. She groaned and held her forehead with her hands, "I just recovered from a cold, and now this?" She flopped down onto the bed to a lying position and the movement made her feel as if she was falling into another dimension. "Am I drunk? Is this what being drunk feels like?"

Alex smirked, creating an unsettling feeling in Avery's stomach, "Possibly. Is this the first you've drunk, Freckles?"

"Avery. My name is Avery," Avery muttered, "Yeah, it is."

"Well, I'm glad I was here to witness your first time," Alex commented, walking over to a loveseat that was positioned not so far away from the bed. She sat down, positioning her body so that her legs could dangle over the armrest.

"Well, what do I do now?" Avery felt her words become more sluggish, she rolled over to lie on her side so she could continue looking at Alex as they spoke.

"You can either join the party downstairs or sleep up here until it goes away."

Avery wrinkled her nose as soon as she heard the words 'join the party' and she yawned. "I'd rather just stay up here if it's not too much trouble," Avery said.

Alex nodded before Avery started to continue, "Just tell Carson where I am if you see him at any point, please. He's my ride home and he'll probably be worried about me."

That was what she had meant to say but at that point, when it had left her mouth it was incoherent and her words sounded all mushed together. Alex observed as her eyes began to flutter and Avery's head nestled its way in the crook of her own arm.

Alex smiled softly at the freckled girl. Feeling cozy in her loveseat, she took her phone out from her pocket and started playing a game. It wasn't a conscious decision because she had planned to go back downstairs to party with Kaden, Sam and Jason, but she ended up spending the whole night in the room, just to make sure Freckles would be okay.