Big shoulders, good one. Avery snickered to himself and took another swig of drink, grimacing slightly as it went down. Topher was so chipper much of the time, which made him easy to like, and easy to mock too, because he took it in such good humour. He noticed Topher's eyes on him, and on Lyra, and Lyra holding out her hand to Avery, and the very big question marks in his face. He grimaced at his cousin, trying to wordlessly tell him to shut up.
"Hey," Topher said, moving closer to Avery. "You know Xander's in there, right?" He looked a little worried, because he knew that things could go quite wrong if Avery and his older brother collided in the wrong way.
Avery looked up at the house as he took Lyra's hand. "Oh. Fuck. I forgot."
"I got you, cuz, I'll run interference where I can," Topher promised, holding his fist up for a bump, and Avery had to get his other hand out of his pocket to respond in kind.
"Thanks," he said gratefully, feeling a little bad for making fun of Topher in his head just before. "I'll see ya in there." He let Lyra drag him inside, leaving Toph's other questions to go unanswered for now, and steeling himself for the crush of people while on their way to the punch.