“What are you doing?” She playfully swats my arm. “You just can’t go and change the saying.”
“Have you ever thought how morbid that sounds?”
“It is pretty creepy, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Very much so.”
“Okay, then a promise it is.”
She smiles before she gets pulled away by a bridesmaid who needs help with sunscreen application. I’m not sure of her name either. Bonnie, maybe. Or Brianna. Wow, I really need to learn my sister’s friends’ names.
I watch her leave. Think about how different our lives are. How different they’ve always been. Violet saves lives in operating rooms. I post photos of my breakfast and call it a career.
But right now, in this moment, I’m the one protecting her. Even if she doesn’t know it.
My phone buzzes.
SAGE: Update please
SAGE: I’ve been patient for THREE HOURS
SAGE: That’s like a year in Sage time
I type back quickly:
ME: Still at pool party. Still alive.
SAGE: That’s a weirdly specific reassurance
ME: Wedding stress makes me dramatic
SAGE: You’re ALWAYS dramatic
SAGE: It’s part of your charm
ME: Rude but fair
SAGE: How’s that hunk of a vampire boyfriend doing?
I nearly drop my phone.
ME: What???
SAGE: Did my BFF lose her sense of humor?
SAGE: Hahaha
SAGE: Obvs a JOKE
SAGE: At least the vampire part
SAGE: Not the other
SAGE: He’s a total hunk!!
SAGE: But he never eats and he’s always cold and he says old timey thing
SAGE: Just saying
