Return What Was Lost

Chapter 29

Normally, Julian did not mind school. Sure it was boring and at times repetitive, but it was tolerable. Today's classes were hell. In any subject that he shared with Avery, Julian stared at her the entire time. He wanted to make all her problems go away, but he knew he could not. He felt responsible for her woes.

People were talking about her the whole day. They were probably gossiping about Julian behind his back too, but never loud enough for him to hear. Most people were scared of him. However, this was far from the case with Avery. No one seemed to worry about her feelings. Everyone was just openly talking about everything that had gone down as if she was deaf.

Avery was doing an amazing job of hiding how she felt though. If it bothered her, she refused to let it show. He wished he had that same power, all day he had to keep reminding himself that getting in a fight with the gossipers would lead to detention which would mean less time with Avery after school. Julian fought the urge all day and when the day was finally over, he practically ran to his dorm. He dropped off his bag and changed into his Metallica shirt and jeans. Then when four o'clock rolled around and Julian knew Avery would be done with therapy, he left and headed to her dorm.

He arrived and knocked, but no answer. Julian only waited a few minutes before Avery showed up. She was carrying quite a few things in her hands. He didn't want to ask in case it was personal, but he was curious what she was doing.

"Some old things," she said quietly in response to his questioning look."I'm going to go through them today."

"Do you want to be alone?" he asked.

She seemed to contemplate it for a moment, before shaking her head.

"You can stay."

Julian was surprised, but nonetheless happy to stay. He followed her inside and they sat on her bed together. They began looking through the box of things. Julian looked between the items and her expression carefully. It suddenly occurred to him that these were her father's things. A knot formed in his stomach.

The first thing she looked at was this map of America. He could see a black line that must have been tracking their locations as they moved around the states. Avery had a faint smile on her face as she looked at it.

She picked up a few other things, they seemed like her father's possessions. Avery didn't spend too much time looking at them, she put them in a box in her closet before coming back and picking up the stack of photos and a phone.

"I need to scan them or something," she said quietly.

"There's a scanner in Coach's office," Julian offered as Avery grabbed a thumb drive from her desk.

Avery nodded and followed him to Coach's office. Julian had not even considered what they would do if his office was locked, but thankfully it was open and empty.

He watched as she began scanning the pictures. She handed each one to him after scanning it and Julian found himself fascinated by her trip. Pictures from various states. Dozens of national parks. Countless landmarks. Julian hadn't even left the state of Colorado before.

"What were the Smoky Mountains like?" he asked as he looked at a picture from there.

"Pretty," she smiled. "We even stayed in the mountains too, the views were amazing."

"What about the Rocky mountains?" he asked, holding up another picture. These were in Colorado and still Julian had never been.

"Cold," Avery answered. "Although to be fair, we went in December."

Julian thought about where he would travel first as Avery continued scanning. Maybe to France, Brady seemed to enjoy Paris a lot. Or maybe the east coast, that would be fun.