Salty Licorice

Chapter 5

Avery's POV

I rush out of the locker room still feeling the burn in my lungs but it's slowly subsiding. I push out the door to see Liz standing laughing along with something Marisa was saying. I glare slightly at her and walk up to Liz wrapping an arm around her shoulders slouching down closer to her height. I see Emily step out looking at us with a smirk playing on her lips as she walks past us towards the cafeteria. She smiles and waves to a few of the cheerleaders as she walks past. One thing about Emily is that she knows everyone, and she walks around these halls like she owns them and everyone in them.

We follow slowly behind her, me keeping close to Liz until she drags her feet over to her friends at her table and I'm left to my own devices. I glance over Emily's shoulder and over two tables still I see her with that bright innocent smile.

"Someone got a little upsetty," Marisa chuckles, opening her book with a creak from its spin.

"Stop," I pull up my hood over my eyes, praying to just disappear. "Talking."

"I'm starting to think you might think this is more than a silly ol' game," Emily smirks. "Has our little Aves got herself a crush?"

"Stop calling me that," I huff feeling myself getting angry at just the sound of my childhood nickname. "And no, maybe. I don't know." I grumble, feeling overwhelmed with the stress.

"Idiot," Marisa huffs in amusement.

I glared at her starting to feeling self conscious, "You know you could be sympathetic or at least understanding instead of being assholes."

"where's the fun in that?" Marisa shrugs lazily with only one shoulder. 

"And what do you know about fun?" I grumble to myself as I fight my bag to free a twizzler from my side pouch. 

"I know lots of things Aves," Marisa slightly smirks before her face drops into a bored look as she returns her gaze to the pages of her book. I don't even know what she's reading anymore after she finished the book I got her over summer.

"Enough with the dumb nickname." I let my head drop onto the table making a loud thud and a slow throb starts from my forehead making me regret my actions, but only slightly.

I feel a ruff pat on the back of my head through my hood. "Their their, no need to make yourself more dumb," Marisa says lacking any emotion. Most of the time her calm demeanor helps keep my head level but now I'm just getting irritated.

I hate that people also make that assumption about me, always saying I'm dumb or something. The worst when they claim I'm just a stupid jock who is only good at sports and wont get anywhere in life. It doesn't help I got picked on a lot when I was younger for reading slow and now I just get defensive over it. I groan against the table top as a response to Marisa not having the will to actually speak anymore. Marisa knows how sensitive the topic is more than anyone but she still find it funny to pick on me about it.

"Now why must you be so dramatic?" Emily sighs.

"Why must you be so dramatic," I sarcastically mimic her accent. "Why can't you just leave me alone to grovel in peace?"

"And you called us assholes," Emily huffs.

I lift my head up and give her a flat faced stare. I hear Marisa sigh of annoyance along with rustling from her bag before I hear the low sounds of music playing through her headphones. I watch her for a minute feeling jealous of her easy escape and vow to myself to find my headphones that have to be in my room somewhere.

"Well looks like we lost her," Emily shakes her head before taking a sip of her overly sweet, sweet tea out of her tumbler.

"How many cups of sugar did you put in that shit this time?" I cringe just thinking about the amount of sugar there is in each sip. "I'm surprised you still have teeth."