Beach Week

14- "The tires were slashed."*

A knock rasped loudly on the back door, interrupting Avery's book. She groaned in annoyance and pushed her glasses up higher on the bridge of her nose. The book had just been getting good, hitting a climax in the fighting when the main character was about to confront the leader of a drug cartel for those he had killed, and with Sara outside and Taylor still asleep she was hoping to get past it so she wouldn't be consumed with thoughts of what could happen next while they took their trip to the zoo after lunch. Looks like that wasn't going to happen now.

The knock sounded again earning a loud, "I'm coming!" from Avery as she forced herself off of the couch and toward the back door. She knew that it would be one of their friends since they were the only ones who ever used the back door, but they should also know that most of the time it was unlocked so they could just come in.

Avery opened the door to reveal a smiling Brett. The smile made Avery suspicious. It wasn't a friendly smile, it was a mischievous smile, and that worried her. Her caution was within reason too since she had been the target of some of his pranks growing up, and knew that when he was smiling like this he was up to no good.

"What did you do?" she questioned.

His response was raising a finger to his lips to tell her to be quiet. He counted to three on his fingers before they heard Sara scream, and the sound of everything in the garage beneath them falling and crashing to the ground. Brett's laughter took over, covering Sara's screams and curses as she fought through the clutter to escape the garage.

Avery's eyes had widened to the size of saucers. "What did you do to her?"

His body continued to shake with laughter for a few more moments before he managed to calm down enough to speak coherently. "I found a water snake, and I let it loose in the garage. It was the perfect opportunity I couldn't pass it up." He continued to laugh hysterically, his laughter giving up his hiding spot once Sara got out of the garage.

Sara's yelling could be heard perfectly now as she reached the bottom of the stairs and called up to Brett. "Brett come down here now and get rid of that goddamn snake before I come up and force you down here! If you aren't down here in two minutes, I'm coming up there and then locking you in the garage until it's spotless and the snake is gone!"

Brett rolled his eyes, ignoring Sara's empty threat. He hoped that she wasn't serious. He had never done anything to her over the years and figured she'd over look one small prank. He hoped anyway. "You look beautiful today, Aves."

Avery blushed at the unexpected compliment, tilting her head down and pushing her glasses up farther on her nose. "Thanks, Brett. That's nice of you to say considering I opted to read after our bike ride today," she mumbled.

Noticing the awkward feeling hanging in the air, Brett changed the subject. "Have you guys cleaned the house? I notice there's not a mess in the hallway anymore, which means that either you cleaned or Sara hasn't been cooking so you didn't have to clear things out of the line of fire."

Avery looked up and smiled. "Sara hasn't been cooking, and I think Taylor may have cleaned up some too."

"That's good news. The Sara not cooking thing, not the Taylor cleaning thing. Although that might be good news for her parents. They may be happy to know that their daughter isn't a slob." He shrugged, and leaned against the wall. "So, what are your plans for the day?"

"Your plans should be to help Sara. You know she's going to come up here, right? It wasn't an empty threat. Shouldn't you head down before you realize how serious she was?" Avery asked, watching him as he stood casually leaning against the door frame as if he hadn't set a snake free in the garage on a lifelong friend a few minutes ago. She knew he hoped Sara was bluffing and wouldn't really come up here to terrorize him, but clearly he needed a reality check if he thought that was remotely possible.