Page 38 of Ghosted

Everyone leaves something behind.

And Alice leaves patterns.

Same coffee shop when she wants quiet. The back staircase after late nights in the arts building. The basement darkroom when she should’ve packed up hours ago. That off-campus apartment with the shitty lock and the front door that sticks unless you pull it twice before turning the key.

That part makes me smile.

Bad security is basically a fucking invitation. At least in my books.

She’s careful, I’ll give her that. She watches reflections. Checks corners. Notices when people get too close. But careful isn’t the same as hidden.

And Alice is not hidden, she’s just quiet.

Big difference.

Alice Aster was supposed to be easy.

A pretty little pressure point with a camera. Something I could press my thumb into whenever Jagger got too quiet, too controlled, too fucking convinced he was above reacting.

And it still is about that.

Obviously.

I like watching my brother tense when I say her name. I like the way his jaw locks when I get too close to something he hasn’t admitted he wants yet, and knowing I can touch the edge of her world and feel him notice from across the room.

That part is fun.

That part is always going to be fun.

But now there’s another part.

The annoying part.

The part where I catch myself thinking about her when Jagger isn’t there to watch. The way she looks through a camera like she’s cutting people open without ever getting blood on her hands.

The way she stays quiet until she decides not to, then says something sharp enough to make me want to lean closer instead of shut her up.

That’s the problem.

Jagger doesn’t get stupid over girls. He uses them, ignores them, or forgets they exist the second they stop being convenient. My brother can walk through a room full of people screaming his name and look bored by the effort of being alive.

Then Alice points a camera at him, says his name, and suddenly he’s acting like the world narrowed down to one girl in black with a death wish and good bone structure.

So, yeah.

I still want to fuck with her because it fucks with him.

But now I want to know what she has.

What he saw.

What she pulled loose in him without even trying.

What part of my brother she got to crawl out for her that never crawled out for anyone else.

Including me.

Which is rude, honestly, and very fucking inconsiderate of her.