Chapter 5 House Rules

Avery's POV

Jaxon was waiting outside AP English, shoulder against the wall, talking to two guys from the team.

He saw me coming and said something that ended the conversation. They moved off. He straightened up.

"We need to talk about the house."

"Good morning to you too."

He fell in step beside me. "There are things that need to be clear."

I pushed through the classroom door. "Then be clear."

He followed me in, which I hadn't expected. Sat down in the empty seat next to mine, which I'd expected even less. Three people looked over right away. I opened my notebook and ignored all of them.

"The gym is mine 6 to 7 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. Don't come in during those times."

"I don't want your gym."

"The pool's shared but I'm in it Sunday mornings."

"I don't swim."

"The study on the second floor has my film on the hard drive. Don't touch it."

I looked at him. "Are you done."

"Kitchen after 10 is quiet hours. My mother sleeps light."

"Fine."

"And don't move my stuff. I have a system."

"Jaxon." I set my pen down. "I am not here by choice. I'm not interested in your gym or your pool or your film. I'm going to sit in my room, do my work, and pretend this is a library with better wifi. You will not know I exist."

He held my eyes a second. "You left your charger on the kitchen island this morning."

"I'll move it."

"And your shoes were by the back door."

"I said I'll move it."

Mr. Hale started class and Jaxon faced forward. I faced forward. Four inches of air between us, and neither of us moved into it.

He had good handwriting. I noticed without meaning to, the way his notes came out clean while Mr. Hale talked through the first chapter of the reading. No crossing out. Like he already knew what mattered before his pen touched the page.

I looked back at my own page.

Madison walked in four minutes late. She scanned the room and stopped when she saw Jaxon sitting next to me. Something moved across her face. She took the seat one row back and two over and said nothing.

I felt her eyes on the back of my neck for the rest of the period.

Halfway through, Jaxon leaned over without warning.

"You always take notes like that? Full sentences?"

"Some of us don't trust our memory."

"Some of us don't need to."

"Must be nice."

He didn't answer that one. I noticed his pen had stopped moving for a second before it started again.

After class Jaxon stood, picked up his bag, and walked out without looking at me. I packed up slow, let the room clear, and headed for the door.

Madison was waiting in the hallway.

"Careful. Getting cozy with Jaxon Ryder is a full contact sport. Girls have left this school over it."

"Good thing I'm not getting cozy with anyone."

"You're living in his house."

"My mother works for his family."

She tilted her head. "Does he know you watch him? In class just now?" A small smile. "You're not as invisible as you think you are, Avery."

She walked off before I could answer.

I stood in the hallway while the crowd moved around me and told myself it didn't land.

It landed.

I took the long way to third period, through the east corridor past the tech lab, and stopped to look through the window at the bank of computers inside. Empty this period. I had a key because I'd won the regional coding competition two years running, and Mr. Calloway had given it to me at the end of junior year without making it a thing.

I unlocked the door. I sat at the back terminal. I opened my project files.

The narrative engine needed one more branch. The one where the player stopped running and turned around.

I started building it and didn't look up until the bell rang.

At lunch I found a table near the window and worked through my code while the cafeteria filled up around me. Nobody sat across from me. That was normal. I'd learned three years ago that normal wasn't the same as fine, but it was survivable.

Behind me, two tables over, I heard Jaxon's name come up in three different conversations before the bell rang again.

Each time, I caught myself listening for what came after it. I didn't know why. I told myself it was just noise, the kind of background hum that followed him everywhere, and I had no reason to sort through it for meaning.

I closed my laptop before the fourth conversation started. Some things weren't worth the effort of overhearing.

By the time I got home that afternoon, the charger was gone from the kitchen island. I'd moved it myself before school, coiled neat on my desk upstairs, exactly where it belonged. I stood there a second, staring at the empty spot on the counter, and felt strangely proud of myself for something so small.

Rule number one, followed. One down. I didn't know how many more there'd be before this arrangement stopped feeling like a minefield and started feeling like a house.

Upstairs, the gym door closed at exactly 4:00. He kept his own rules too, apparently.