This was... actually, it seemed fitting. Avery craned his neck, wondering if there were some trapeze things hanging from the ceiling, but it was hard to tell in this lighting. It looked more like a nightclub than a place of residence. Lyra had definitely said her friend lived here, right?
Then again, Topher knew people who lived like this in New York, so.
Avery was still looking up when Lyra found her friend, being dragged along in her wake, and he wasn't quite expecting for his first meeting with them to be in a pile on the floor. And then her friend said, squash us, and he immediately began to shake his head. Was it right that he should be that physically close to two strange women? Or was this a test? He was being tested if he was game enough to be part of the gang. He tried to catch Lyra's eye, but she was laughing and not looking at him.
But really, he was taller than all of them, and probably heavier, and what if he hurt someone by accident? "Oh, I- that's a bit-" Half-assed was worse than nothing, in this instance. "I don't wanna hurt anybody," he said, feeling a bit lame for taking the safe route.