AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m okay. How can I not be? It’s just I worry, what do you think?” I ask and lift my chin in their direction. Two fingers dig in his cheek as he tilts his head to the side, studying them.
“Nothing stays buried, sis. Let’s see what happens. They have tangled around each other to forget someone else. You tell me, does it ever last?” His words shock me.
“Filip?”
“They seem fine. Stop worrying,” he says and dismisses me.
Filip, the secret keeper, and brilliant with his ability to observe others. My brother has mastered it to perfection.
“I can’t.”
“You always differed from everyone else. Light surrounds you and draws people to you. You were always in your own league, and one can never un-love you. Take Damien, for example. The devastation of his life without you shoved him into a darkness where I would never want to go.”
This veiled confession startles me.
“Is this the reason you won’t let anyone else in?” He shrugs.
“I like to be in control. What happened demanded something from all of us. We changed, one more than the other, in more or less obvious ways, but it made us into the people we are today. Better or not, it is what it is.”
“You’re afraid you won’t like the person you would become facing another loss or change.”
He nods and glances at me, a mix of apology and hurt. It’s his way of saying he doesn’t blame me, but how can I not feel guilty when my brother clings to never opening himself to love. I have to try at least to make him understand there’s more.
“It’s your life. Whatever you decide works for you, I’ll support but . . .” I pause, and he shifts toward me as I get all his attention and continue, “It was love, in the beginning, and in the end. It was all about being vulnerable enough, being stupidly open enough for another to enter your heart without apology, without an invitation. We live, we breathe, but when we’re in love, we truly are alive. We become fireworks, loud and colorful, and it’s worth it.” I end and catch Damien’s eyes on me, shining bright, illuminating me from within.
Filip asks, “Is it, Bria?” and I sway my face to him.
His voice holds the weight of the world in it. It’s a mix of curiosity and wonder.
“It’s a roller-coaster of emotions from the most sublime to the most catastrophic. Love is enough to make me want to come back to life. Nothing else, just love.” He taps his thigh with his finger, his eyes wandering from Damien to me, and his lips twitch into a half-smile.
“Whatever you and Damien have ranges from euphoric to toxic. I don’t know how the two of you pull it off, but it works in your world. The way you look at each other, the way the air shifts when you interact, but I also see the scars, sis, the ones you both acknowledge but stubbornly try to laser away. It’s the latter that has my attention.”
“Or maybe you just haven’t found your match, but, Filip, no one can escape love. It finds you, it finds us all, eventually,” I counter and prop my elbow on the armrest, and his hands ball into fists.
“There was someone,” he says, and I bend further into him, my curiosity piqued.
“And?”
“And nothing.”
I huff, losing some of my patience. “If you want it or not, love doesn’t ask for permission.”
“Are we done discussing my love life?” I shake my head and lean back into my seat.
“Infuriating man.”
“Already missing me, baby?”
Leave it to Damien to salvage a tension-filled moment, and my hands reach out in invitation. He pulls me into his arms and takes my seat as I sit in his lap. Everything else disappears, leaving me in the place where nothing bad reaches me. He flicks a strand of my hair to expose my neck and places a tender kiss on my sensitive skin. Filip elbows Damien, and I bury my face in the crook of his neck.
“Boundaries, ever heard of them?” Amusement laces his words, and Damien tightens his embrace.
“I can’t control it. I love her, man.”
“Come on,” says Alex, and I snap my head in his direction.
“You too?”
