Seeing Blind (Rough Draft)

Chapter Eleven

Over the next week Avery's face had cleared up considerably and she wasn't as scared to go out in public as before. Yet, the rest of her body was another story and she always kept the bruises hidden from everyone, especially her father. Tamar and Serena had come over to Avery's every day that week to keep her company and hid the bruises on her face.

Tamar tried to get Avery to open up a bit more every day, albeit Avery was still hesitant too. Everything she's been told about Blacks stuck in her head, going round and round until Avery got headaches.

Serena wasn't bad, either. A little standoffish, but not unfriendly. She was as friendly to Avery as Avery was to her.

Avery hadn't seen Ambrose for the rest of the week when he went off in search of something...probably Ben, Ric, and LeBron, and Avery felt a twinge in her stomach whenever she thought about him, and if he was hurt.

She told herself she didn't care and should stop thinking about him, yet when her mind wandered,it always seemed to land on Ambrose somehow. She could never muster up enough strength to ask Tamar or Serena about his whereabouts.

"I'm really thinking about purple for my next color, what do you think, Avery?" Tamar looked at her exceptionally.

"You'll look like a Troll," commented Serena from Avery's right.

They sat on either side of her, while she laid in bed, doing her nails and hair after they finished her hair. Avery never learned to braid, her mother was always away at work it seemed, and Senorita Camila was always in the kitchen cooking or cleaning. Her friends always wanted to hang out with older boys and drink, always saying they didn't want to do "little girl" sleepovers.

"Your nails are going to look awesome tonight," Serena said, finishing Avery's left hand and moving onto her right.

Today was the Fourth and tonight were the fireworks down at the pool.

Avery had nervous butterflies rocking around in her stomach at the thought of going to the pool, with so many people around, getting too close to the water, falling in, drowning...

She didn't want to go, but her refusal got turned down every time she tried to get out of the outing. These girls would not take no for an answer.

Her father was going to be watching the fireworks from their porch swing that he installed over the weekend with Torrance, Ambrose's father. Dad wanted the house to feel more like home for Avery.

Maybe he felt bad about the jumping but her father was trying so much to make Avery like this new house, to make it a home for both of them.

"T minus five minutes until we have to go to the pool so we get good seats, and not get squashed," Tamar said, finishing braiding Avery's shoulder-length, red hair. She had already straightened it so the curls wouldn't bounce back out.

Avery was running out of time to think of ways to have the girls back out of going to the pool. Was there even a reason for them not to? Avery wished she knew what their dating history was like.

Maybe she could find out...

"So, anyone interesting going to be at the pool tonight?" she tried to sound nonchalant and that she did a good job at it. She didn't look either of them in the eyes, only down at her fourth of July nails that Serena finished. "Pretty."

"Thank you." She beamed. "There is going to be someone there, but he doesn't know about someone's crush."

Avery turned her attention toward Tamar, who turned her head away from them, trying to hide the blush creeping up her neck. "Tamar? You like someone?"