“I guess not.” I laughed.

            “Well she’s upstairs in her room. You can go ahead in and make yourself at home. I’m gonna head out for a run.” I nodded and thanked her. “Oh, are you working tonight?” Shit. Work.

            “Uh, yeah… Yeah, I guess so.” I replied, trying to hide the complaint from my voice. And failing miserably.

            “Don’t sound so enthusiastic.” She laughed. I rolled my eyes and proceeded inside. Well, there goes any plans I might have made tonight. I had the 6-10 shift.

            Without a moment’s hesitation, I climbed the stairs and crept quietly around the second floor. I opened her door – she was still asleep – and quietly and made my way to the beanbag chair in the corner. On her desk I found a copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which would become my best friend for the next two hours.

I had read about 160 pages of the familiar text when she began to stir. I decided against looking up, feeling that it would be creepy if she opened her eyes and I was looking at her. Then I laughed at myself, thinking of how ridiculous it was that I was concerned with being creepy when I was here to apologize for something much worse.

I could soon feel her eyes on me, though, and the suspense of her expression was too much for me to handle. I looked up. She was expressionless. I bit my lip and closed my eyes.

            “Avery, I am so so sorry.” I enunciated each word carefully. “I was completely out of line last night.” I wanted to say much more, but I waited to gauge her reaction.

            “Yeah, I’d say you were.” She said after a pause. She then turned the opposite side of her face to me to reveal a red area across her cheekbone. My jaw dropped and I fumbled for words. Before I could respond, though, she spoke again, “But I’d say I was too.”

            “I shouldn’t have done that to you, Avery, you can’t even imagine how awful I feel, I -”

            “Spencer I know. I wasn’t surprised to see you in here this morning. It was very unlike you to do what you did, so after a lot of being angry, I realized that I provoked you in a serious way, and for that I’m sorry.”

            “But what you said didn’t make it okay for me to - ”