benevolent. ❀ lrh

Chapter Nine.

If there was a picture in the dictionary for the definition of overthinking, it would most definitely be of Avery Harper.

She's been on edge nearly all day. Over a fucking book.

A little after four in the afternoon, Calum emerges from the spare room. The office, he calls it, though that's just a more adult way of saying it's where he spends every ounce of his free time playing video games. Avery had been attempting to distract herself from the muffled hollers with a true crime documentary that she could likely recite word for word by now, mindlessly picking at her cuticles.

Her blue eyes dance absentmindedly across the television screen but she can hardly keep focus long enough to skim the subtitles. Not that she's missing anything important, anyway, Avery knows how the documentary ends.

"Ave?" Calum waves a hand in front of her face, chuckling lightly as she blinks out of her hazy, convoluted thoughts with a simple hum. "I'm heading out."

"Where to?" She asks softly.

He carelessly slips on his sneakers, not caring much if the heels crease. "Mike's," he says, jangling the keys of their shared Camry between his fingers. "I might stay the night, if that's cool. I'll be back in the morning if you need the car."

"That's fine," Avery works to untangle herself from the thick, knitted blanket wrapped snugly around her torso, circling her shoulders to reduce the stiffness in them from sitting like she had for so long. "Is Mike still working on that truck for you?"

"Yeah, here and there," Calum shrugs, slightly evasive as he slips a jacket over his shoulders, shaking the wrinkled sleeves. Avery hardly knows anything about Mike. Only what Calum told her, of course, which had been very little. They'd been friends since high school, briefly attending the same college before Michael moved to work in his father's garage only a few towns over. "I'll let you know as soon as he has something solid, yeah?"

Avery doesn't get the chance to properly respond, a snarky comment on the tip of her tongue about how it's been nearly two months since Mike had been "working" on finding Calum a vehicle of his own yet nothing has come to fruition. But Calum slips out of the apartment before anything escapes her, leaving Avery mildly agitated yet somewhat relieved to finally be alone.

Retreating into her bedroom to find her phone, still plugged in on her nightstand where it had been since she'd woken up that morning, Avery skims through the useless social media notifications clogging up her lockscreen. At the bottom, sits a simple text message from only an hour ago.

Mr. Hemmings (3:09 pm)

Hey, not sure if you're busy today but I'll be home all afternoon if you want to drop by.

Avery's thumb hesitates over the notification, breath held in her throat. Though he'd made it clear she was welcome to come pick up the book from his place, a small part of her thought he wouldn't make the time. Or would've texted her later on with some sort of excuse.

Avery (4:22 pm)

can i come by in twenty?

Almost immediately, little gray bubbles populate on Luke's end of the conversation. Avery swipes out of the message thread, as she still hasn't taken the time to turn off her read receipts. She doesn't want Luke to think she's sitting around just waiting for his response, even though she is.

Mr. Hemmings (4:23 pm)

Sounds good to me. :-)

Who the hell puts noses on their smiley faces?