The Libby Garrett Intervention (Science Squad #2) (11 page)

“Not helping.”

“Hey, you never know. Libby likes obnoxious pricks that treat her like crap, right? Maybe she was turned on when you called her a cheap whore.”

I laughed despite myself, and shoved my sister hard enough to knock her over. “You know, you really suck at this touchy-feely stuff, Kate.”

Kate stole the last bite of sandwich off my plate and shoved it in her mouth before I could stop her. “Yeah, well, I only ever had my big brother to learn from, and he’s kind of dense.”

“Thanks a lot.” I was referring to both the insult and her eating the last of my sandwich.

She grinned at me with her mouth full and muttered, “You love me.”

I rolled my eyes, but cracked another smile. After I rinsed my dishes and wiped away any crumbs, I chucked the dish towel at Kate, because she was still standing there watching me. “Go do some homework or something.”

“No way. It’s Friday night.”

“So? If you’re not going to get lost and stop annoying me, then you should be studying. I got a call from your math teacher this week, you know. She said you failed your midterm. What’s up with that? Do I have to, like, ground you or something?”

Kate groaned, and I gave myself a mental pat on the back for remembering that we needed to have this conversation. The subject of Libby was finally dropped and there was no way Kate would be able to turn the attention back on me now.

“It’s not my fault.” Kate slumped down onto the couch. “I pay attention in class. I do the homework. I swear. I just don’t understand it.”

I joined my sister on the couch and sighed. “I know, but if you get a C in math, you might not be able to get a scholarship.”

“I know I have to get a scholarship if I want to go to college, but I don’t know what else I can do about it. I have straight A’s in every other class. Mrs. Dressler is the worst teacher I’ve ever had. She doesn’t explain anything clearly. I don’t understand half the things she says. She may as well be speaking Japanese.”

I hated that I couldn’t help my sister with this, but she was a junior this year, meaning that she was two whole years further in school than I ever got. I opened her math book once just out of curiosity, and, quite frankly, I think Japanese would have made more sense to me. I reminded myself of all the ways I did help her and tried not to let this get me down. “Maybe we can get you a tutor.”

Kate shook her head. “Those are really expensive.”

Of course they were. “Doesn’t your school have some kind of tutoring program?”

“I don’t know. I can ask my guidance counselor, but I don’t think so. I think Mrs. Dressler would have mentioned it.”

I leaned back and closed my eyes. Having to worry about Kate’s future always exhausted me. Sometimes I wondered if I’d made the wrong choice keeping her with me. I hated to think about the alternatives, but I was hardly someone who should be raising a teenager. Technically, I still was one myself. Sometimes I wondered if she’d have been better off going to a foster family that could have provided for her more than I could. I knew Kate was happy with me, though. In fact, she’d probably punch me in the face if she ever knew I had doubts. But it was still hard not to have them.

“I could get a second job,” I suggested. “Tutoring can’t be
that
expensive, and Josiah would let me rework the schedule if I needed to.”

“Or I could become a stripper. I hear they make sick cash.” Kate threw her hands up in surrender when she saw my glare. “Kidding! But I could go get a part-time job. You work too much already, and I’m the one who needs the tutor.”

“No.”
I hadn’t meant to sound so sharp, but I didn’t want my sister to have to work right now. “Your job is to go to school, study hard, and get into a good college.”

“I can do that and still help out a little. Lots of kids have jobs in high school. Avery does just fine working and going to school, and she’s taking a bunch of AP classes.”

I hoped my sister wouldn’t hear the emotion in my voice when I spoke. “Look, there aren’t many things I can give you, but I can give you this. Just do school right now and spend the rest of your time being a regular teenager. Go out and have fun. You deserve a few years of a normal life.”

Kate glared at me—a genuine glare that let me know how mad she was. “And what about you? When do you get to have fun? When do you get to have a normal life? You deserve that more than I do. Why do you have to make all the sacrifices?”

“Because I’m the big brother. That’s my job.”

I gave Kate an arrogant smile, knowing it would only make her madder, but I refused to back down on this. It was too late for me, but she still had a chance. I wasn’t going to let her screw it up. “I won’t get a second job,” I promised, hoping that might calm her down. “We’ll figure something else out.”

She was still pissed at me, but the phone rang so she stomped off to answer it, and couldn’t argue with me anymore. I sat there, lost in my depressing, self-pitying thoughts, until Kate said, “Yeah, he’s here. Sure; come on over.”

I didn’t have visitors very often. Josiah came by sometimes and a couple of the guys from the skate park stopped by every now and then, but never this late on a Friday night. “Who was that?”

“Avery.” Kate’s voice held the same curiosity and concern I felt. “She’s on her way over. She said she needs your help with something.”

Adam

Avery had never come over before
. She’d never even called me at home. I shot to my feet, panicking, as I tried to figure out what could have happened that would make her come to me for help when she had her mom, Grayson, and a dozen other people who loved her.

By the time her quiet knock came at the door, I was half convinced ninjas had kidnapped her family and killed her boyfriend. The last thing I expected to see was the tiny girl bouncing on her toes because she was bubbling over with excitement, and her best friend gaping at me, with her jaw hanging open.

“Hi!” Avery squeaked. “I’m sorry to bother you on your day off. I hope it’s not weird that we came over, but I have a project I think you can help me with.”

Avery pushed Libby forward, as if she were the project in question. My mind raced with endless possibilities, and at the same time, it was hung up on a single thought. Libby Garrett was in my apartment. Libby Garrett was standing in my living room.

“You brought me to
Coffee Jerk’s
house?”

So I’d progressed from Coffee Man to Coffee Jerk? Great.

“You think
he’s
going to help me? He’s a total jerk!”

I grabbed Kate by the arm before she could jump off her stool and start a fight. I almost wasn’t fast enough. She opened her mouth to say something that I’m sure would have been made up of mostly threats and four-letter words, but Avery spoke up first.

“Adam is not a jerk,” she said calmly. “He’s the nicest, most thoughtful, sincerest person I know. He just doesn’t sugarcoat things. He’s direct. You’re like that, too. He’s the right person for this job. I know he is.”

Libby glanced my way again and frowned. “You can’t seriously think
he
is the key to getting me over Owen.”

That’s
what this was about? Libby finally dumped Owen, and Avery was trying to help her move on? Was Avery trying to replace Owen…with
me?

I frowned. I agreed trying to replace Owen with me wouldn’t really solve Libby’s problem, but did Libby have to sound so repulsed by the thought?

Avery glanced back and forth between Libby and me, and then sighed. “He can help us.” She sounded sure of herself and desperate at the same time. “Please trust me on this. I promise he’s a great person. You guys just didn’t start off on the right foot.”

Libby wasn’t convinced yet, but Avery didn’t care. She pulled my front door closed and ordered Libby to sit. Libby huffed and shot me a very skeptical glare, but obediently plunked down on my futon.

I had another strange out-of-body moment as I watched Libby make herself comfortable on the piece of furniture I slept on every night. It was impossible to keep my mind from going places it shouldn’t. Especially not after I’d seen enough of Libby last weekend that I didn’t need my imagination to fill in the blanks for me. By the time anyone spoke, I was ready to kick Avery and Kate out the door and spend all night making sure Libby didn’t just get over Owen, but forgot him entirely.

A snicker snapped me out of my daydream. I shook my head in an attempt to clear it and figure out what was going on. I had taken a seat on a barstool—our apartment was too small to have an actual dining table—and Kate had settled herself in the stool next to me. “Play it cool, you dork,” she whispered. “Right now, you reek of pathetic-sap-in-love.”

My stomach heaved and I elbowed Kate. “Shut up,” I hissed.

“Quit staring at her,” she whispered back, getting in an elbow jab of her own.

When I managed to pull my glare away from my sister, both Avery and Libby were looking at me as if I’d lost my mind. I tried to do as Kate suggested, and played it cool. “What’s up?”

Kate snickered again, so I kicked her leg for good measure—she was going to kill me one of these days.

Avery watched Kate and me for a moment with a look in her eyes that scared me. She could probably see right through me. Thanks to Kate, she’d probably just figured out that I had a thing for her best friend. I couldn’t tell if she thought that was good or bad.

“Libby asked me to fix her using science the way I cured my broken heart last year,” she finally said.

I perked up, but said nothing. I had no clue where she was going with this, or why it would bring her to my door.

“But Libby isn’t suffering from a broken heart,” Avery continued. “She’s not in love with Owen; she’s addicted to him.”

I waited patiently for the punch line.

“You were on to something with the intervention.”

Libby scoffed. “That was
his
idea? I should have known.”

I cringed, but Avery ignored her best friend entirely and kept her gaze focused on me. “Libby doesn’t need a science project, Adam; she needs a twelve-step program. She needs a sponsor.”

Libby’s face pulled into a frown, but everything suddenly made perfect sense to me. I knew exactly what Avery was thinking, and why she’d come to me. I wanted to help her, but I wasn’t sure if I could do it.

Kate stiffened on her stool next to me. “Avery,” she said hesitantly, “it’s a good idea, but—”

I spared her having to come up with an excuse. “It won’t work.” The plan was a great idea. To treat Libby as an addict and take her through the process of finding sobriety sounded like exactly what she needed, but there was one problem. “Those programs only work if the person is ready. Step one is admitting that she’s got a problem—that her demons are real, and that she’s powerless to them.”

“She did that,” Avery pleaded. “She admitted that she’d never be able to give Owen up without help. She asked for help. She came to me all by herself tonight.”

That was a good start, but it wasn’t enough. “But does she actually
want
to give him up?” I eyed Libby with obvious skepticism, earning another nasty glare before I turned my gaze back to Avery. “Is she willing to surrender herself to the cause?”

Avery hesitated, and that was enough to make me certain. Avery was a great girl. She meant well. I knew she would take this seriously and dedicate herself to helping Libby through it, but I didn’t believe Libby was capable of that. I really wished she were. Avery had stumbled onto something that could do Libby so much good. But one look at the anger and defiance in Libby’s eyes, and I knew that no matter what I did, it wouldn’t be enough. “She’s not ready, Avery. You can’t help someone who doesn’t really want the help. Trust me on this.”

Her pride stung, Libby jumped off the couch to yell at me. “How do you know I’m not ready and willing?”

My thoughts took an immediate turn back to perv ville. Libby realized what she had said and looked embarrassed for a brief instant, but she quickly found her hostility again. I couldn’t resist getting at least one taunt in. “If only.” With a wistful shake of my head, I let my eyes rove over her body just long enough to make her feel it. Then I stubbornly brought the conversation back on topic. “But you’re not.”