When Perfect Meets Crazy novel Chapter 20

She was drowsy and very much out of it. It showed in the way her smile drooped, in the way her words slurred and most importantly, in the way she was being far too honest and just the tinniest bit vulnerable. He was getting another peek at the little girl inside just like the day he caught her bawling her eyes out. Thanks to the meds, she wasn’t her normal calm and collected self. She wasn’t trying to be perfect Avy Johnson, borderline genius and all-round trophy child. Yet, he couldn’t help but think she had never seemed more endearing, more perfect. Perfect should’ve tried to be her if you asked him.

“So why did you do it?” he continued.

“Because.” She smiled lazily.

It was the goofiest expression he had ever seen on her and if he wasn’t currently seeing it with his own eyes, he would’ve sworn she was incapable of such.

“Because,” she repeated, giggling to herself as though something about the word was hilarious. “If I don’t, someone else will have to. And by someone, I mean Olly.” A wide smile stretched across her face. “But I love her too much. Aren’t I an amazing older sister?”

The smile on her upturned face reminded him of his own younger sister. It was full of child-like innocence and a longing for validation.

Something in his chest tightened.

“Olly will have to do that girl’s dirty work? No offense but Olly seems like she can handle a bully just fine,” he replied, forcing himself to focus on the conversation.

“No.”

She waved her hand enthusiastically, almost stabbing a finger in his eye.

“No. No. No,” she repeated, pulling the covers up to her chin as though to hide her face. “No. It’s not Claire. Nobody cares about Claire. You’re not getting it...” Her eyes lazily drifted shut as she trailed off.

She was already halfway into dreamland. He was losing this opportunity. Thanks to it, he now knew why she went to the arena -because Olly wanted to-, why she didn’t scream when she found him in her room -she didn’t think she would come out unscathed if her mom caught him in her room since he wasn’t middle aged and unattractive-, what she would do if she could do anything for a day -skydive, fall in love and spend what was left of the day at an amusement park ‘like in the movies’, he couldn’t help but shudder at that one- and lastly, why she acted the way she did like her life was constantly being evaluated.

By God, he really hoped she would conveniently forget the entire conversation come morning because he couldn’t picture a version of reality where she wouldn’t be super pissed at him for having taken advantage of her lapse in judgement and bad reaction to the meds.

“What am I not getting, Avy?” he asked, lightly shaking her awake.

He was going to pump out all the information he could while he still had the chance. The plan was to finally figure out if there was more to her or if she really was just a harmless civilian who stumbled on the wrong secret.

Her eyelids slowly fluttered open and for the first time, he noticed that she had thick clumpy eyelashes.

“Hmmm?” She blinked, her disoriented gaze gradually settling on him.

“Your face is so close,” she mumbled, pushing his face away and almost blinding him in the process. “I like your werewolf brows. Have I ever told you?”

“Anyway,” she continued before he could reply. He was too busy rubbing at the eye she had almost poked out anyway. “It’s not about Claire. It’s about my mom. My family.” She yawned.

“What about your family?”

“Do you really think I enjoy never having a free weekend?” she slurred. “Or having three after-school jobs?”

He shrugged. To be honest, he got the feeling she did.