Page 92 of Rise Above

“I’ll text you. Have fun with your family.” We hung

up.

I wasn’t quite ready to face my family. My brothers

would definitely make fun of me. They had a tendency to tease which was fair; we all liked to tease each other. But Aife was a tender topic for me because I did have feelings for her, whether I was ready to admit that or not. Slowly, I turned around to my family.

AJ and CJ blinked. They seemed surprised that a

blush was on my cheeks. I wasn’t known to fawn over women, not even Melody.

“Jesus, you really are impacted by this chick,” CJ

said.

“Just shut up.” I pushed past my family and plopped

myself onto the couch. “New topic, please.”

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Eaton was my oldest brother, but we were always

the closest. Of all my brothers, he was the easiest to talk to. AJ was too goofy to take any topic seriously, and DJ was often too busy. His life as a med student was typically all he could focus on. CJ was… well, he was CJ. He liked to poke the bear, and it made it hard to talk to him. Eaton was the one I trusted the most.

Knocking on his door, I entered his room at his call.

His head snapped up as he looked at me. A book dangled from his hand. Eaton could have easily gone to med school or law school as well. He was probably smarter than DJ was.

“What’s going on, TJ?” Eaton placed a bookmark in

his book and set it to the side.

“You ever been in love?” I didn’t really know how

to start the conversation other than to start it.

Eaton blinked at me. He probably didn’t know

where this conversation was going either. “I have been.”

“What did that feel like?” The more I thought about

Aife, the more I wondered if I was in love with her. I thought I had been in love with Melody, but that wasn’t really the case. I think that was infatuation and lust.

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Eaton sighed. “It’s hard to explain what it’s like to

be in love. What did it feel like to be with Melody?”

“Anxiety ridden.”

“Well, that’s not what love feels like.” Eaton