Was he trying to make me have a major anxiety attack?
“If your heart was still broken, you couldn’t be in love again, right?”
“Right . . .”
Grayson turned fully to me then and took my hand in his. “Avery.”
My heart leapt in my chest at the use of my full name. Grayson almost never used my full name.
“In case it isn’t obvious, over the course of this experiment I have utterly, and completely, fallen for you.”
I gasped. When I sucked in a breath, it was so loud it felt like the walls rumbled. It took me a second to realize that was because everyone had gasped right along with me.
He couldn’t have said what I thought he just said. There was no way. Grayson Kennedy did not fall for girls. They fell for him. Still, he was looking at me, and there wasn’t a hint of a play anywhere on his face.
“What?”
Grayson took both my hands now and gave them a squeeze. “Somewhere between the shower and the Red Bull I fell in love with you, Aves. I’m talking epically. There is no coming back from a fall like mine.”
I heard a number of sighs from the crowd behind me, but I barely registered the fact that we had an audience. My brain was suddenly in overload thanks to all the blood my out-of-control heart was pumping to it.
Grayson stepped so close to me that our faces were mere inches apart. He put his hands on either side of my face and calmly said, “Breathe, Aves.”
I hadn’t realized I’d stopped.
When I took a breath, he smiled at me. “I love you.” He let go of my face but held my hand again and faced the crowd. “I love her,” he said. “Like crazy. And now that I am no longer an impartial, objective, outside observer in the Avery Shaw Experiment—because I assure you I care very much about the outcome of this particular test—I need all of you to stand witness and judge for me whether or not Avery’s heart is indeed cured.”
Grayson looked at me again and said, “Tell me you love me back. Admit it to the judges and your friends and Mr. Walden and our parents and all the other random science geeks standing here right now. Prove to them that you, Avery Shaw, are cured because you are every bit as in love with me as I am with you.”
Grayson stopped talking, and his audience waited, heart in hand, for my answer. And then, something not very uncommon for me happened. I burst into tears.
Don’t worry. They were definitely happy tears. Grayson was right. I hadn’t realized it until that exact moment, but I was absolutely in love with him.
I laughed through my tears and smiled so big at Grayson that he scooped me into his arms. “I am definitely cured,” I told him.
Grayson grinned but shook his head at me. “I think I need to hear the actual words to really be convinced.”
It was my turn to shake my head. “Has hanging out with nerds taught you nothing? You’re a kinesthetic learner, Grayson. You don’t need to hear it, you need to actively participate.”
I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him. I mean really, really kissed him. Tongue and all! In front of the judges and our parents and my friends and my teacher and every other random science geek in the state of Utah.
People around us cheered and clapped and whistled like crazy. It should have caused me to have a major anxiety attack, but thanks to Grayson and how much he’d helped me, all it did was make me laugh so hard I had to break our kiss.
“I love you, Grayson,” I finally said.
“I love you too.”
Grayson kissed me again and then laughed as he spun me to face our audience. “What do you think? Is she cured?”
I didn’t need the crowd’s cheer to know I was cured, and from the smiles on their faces, the judges didn’t either.
(Whatever, I make my own rules!)
Grayson
This is more of just a PS, really, because somebody had to tell you that Avery and I TOTALLY KICKED ASS at the science fair last year. We took first place and got this huge trophy that put all my basketball ones to shame. I wouldn’t let them display it at school because it had my name on it next to the words “science fair,” but after I graduated, I broke down and gave it to Mr. Walden to put in the glass case outside the office.
As first-place winners, Avery and I both won partial scholarships to the colleges of our choice. Can you believe it? Me? A science scholarship? (In your face, geeks of the world!) I used it toward my first year at Utah Valley University where I made the basketball team. Owen made the team too and came with me. Now we’re teammates and roommates. It’s pretty sweet.
It sucks being away from Avery, but Owen and I drive back to Spanish Fork almost every weekend. He still won’t admit he’s dating Libby, but there’s no other reason for him to go home every weekend, so he’s not fooling me.
Avery will be joining me at UVU next fall, while Aiden has decided he’s more of a University of Utah guy. Works for me. He and I never fully recovered from The Great Aiden/Avery Fallout of 2013. Not that we hate each other, and we weren’t exactly BFFs before, but I think as long as I’m dating Avery, things will always be a little awkward between us. And considering I don’t plan to ever stop dating her, he and I have just learned how to bear one another’s company.
Aiden and Avery’s relationship is solid, but it’s not the same as it was before. She’ll survive his absence just fine. Plus, she’ll have me to keep her occupied. And boy do I have all kinds of plans to keep her plenty occupied! *insert evil grin here* Next year is going to be awesome.
Oh! And just in case you were wondering . . . I’m totally majoring in social science.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Just a quick thank you to all the usual suspects. To my husband, the most amazing man in the whole wide world, thank you. I love you. I couldn’t do it without you. Thank you to all of my family—my parents, my brothers and sisters, and my kids. You are the best support system anyone could ever ask for!
Thank you to my beautiful beta readers, all the book ladies, and my editor, Sandra Udall. Together you all help me take my hot messes and turn them into something readable. Heaven knows I couldn’t do that all on my own.
And especially thank you to all of my wonderful fans! If you didn’t love my characters as much as I do, I’d probably stop creating them. Here’s hoping you love Grayson as much as I do. I wrote half of this book from his point of view just for you guys!
Kelly Oram wrote her first novel at age fifteen–a fan fiction about her favorite music group, The Backstreet Boys, for which family and friends still tease her. She’s obsessed with reading, talks way too much, and loves to eat frosting by the spoonful. She lives outside of Phoenix, Arizona with her husband and four children.
Connect with Kelly through social media: Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Blog.
Table of Contents
TITLE PAGE
ALSO BY KELLY ORAM
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1 - SHOCK AND DISBELIEF
PROLOGUE 2
CHAPTER 2 - AN EXPERIMENT IS BORN
CHAPTER 3 - DENIAL
CHAPTER 4 - SOCIAL INTEGRATION
CHAPTER 5 - SOCIAL SCIENCE
CHAPTER 6 - LIFE AFTER AIDEN
CHAPTER 7 - GUILT
CHAPTER 8 - SCIENCE GEEKS
CHAPTER 9 - FAILED EXPERIMENT
CHAPTER 10 - SCIENTIFIC METHOD
CHAPTER 11 - ANGER
CHAPTER 12 - DEPRESSION
CHAPTER 13 - ACCEPTANCE
CHAPTER 14 - HOPE
EPILOGUE
EPILOGUE 2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR