Page 62 of The Beta Test

“Ok, now spill, Avery. Why have you been avoiding me? I know you have, so don’t try to gaslight me into thinking you haven’t been.”

I take a deep breath and look towards my vision board, wondering where to start—with Braden, my parents, or how my goals are all falling apart?

Jenna follows my gaze and gasps. “What happened to Braden?”

My brows furrow in confusion until I realize the picture of Braden I’d taped to my mirror next to the board is now sporting the villain mustache and brows I drew on it last night. Not my most mature moment.

“Just got what he deserved,” I say coldly as I consume another snickerdoodle. “Actually, no. He deserves worse.”

Her hand flies to her mouth in shock. To be fair, Braden has been a constant in both of our lives for a long time. While Jenna and Braden didn’t talk on their own apart from me, we’d naturally spent a lot of time together over the years.

“He’s been lying to me, Jenna.”

“About what?”

“About… everything, I guess.”

She grabs another cookie and takes a bite, then leans forward, one arm resting against her knee. Her face is concerned and intense. “Explain.”

“Well, you know we made a plan before he left to keep in touch, FaceTime regularly, all that.”

She nods. Jenna does not have the same affinity for organization that I do, but she’s always been a good sport when listening to me wax poetic about my plans. She'd heard extensively about the long-distance-relationship strategy last summer.

“Yeah, so that immediately fell apart. He wouldn’t answer calls and would only text occasionally. Even when we did talk on the phone, it usually wasn’t a video call and it was short and kinda awkward. Then, I found out about Tricia.”

“I hate her already. Go on.”

I grab another cookie too. “I started seeing her in the comments and pictures on his Instagram page and she seemed a little too friendly, if you know what I mean.”

“Mmmhmm.” Jenna wipes the crumbs off her hands and rolls one to signal me to continue.

“And THEN, when I was on the phone with him last week, I heard a girl in the background, and Braden talked to her. He called her Tricia, so it’s the same girl.”

“No!”

“Yeah. To top all that off, Jake helped me figure out he’s been sending me stock pictures of MIT instead of real ones.”

“What?? Why would he do that? That’s insane behavior.”

“Because he’s not even there! Yesterday, Jake and I went over to talk to Mrs. Patel, and she let it spill that Braden never went to MIT. Instead he’s been backpacking across Europe like a homeless hippie.”

“Wow. Just… wow.” She pauses while she processes. “Braden… your Braden? I can’t believe it.”

“I know.”

“Well,” she says thoughtfully, “if I’m being honest, I’ve been thinking for a couple of years now that you two aren’t right for each other.”

My first instinct is to argue, despite the obvious fact that she’s right. “How can you say that?”

“Easy. You guys both spiral over everything.”

“That’s not true⁠—”

“Avery,” she cuts in, “don’t you remember the year your science project burned and we had to evacuate the building?”

Memories of the smoke stinging my eyes and the death stare competition between Analiese and me immediately pop into my mind. Instead of pointing out Analiese’s part in that scenario to Jenna, I simply nod for her to continue.

“Remember how Braden puked in the bushes because he was so stressed out about the whole thing?”