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“When the mind is traumatized, it does the best it can to repair the damages. Sometimes forgetting is the only way,” Vance says.
I pull back to look at him. It’s in the shape of our eyes, and how our lips are fuller at the top, the similarities. He smiles a little. “My brother,” I whisper.
“Unfortunately.”
I laugh, smacking his chest as I climb off. “You’re insufferable.”
“Says the girl who smashed a car with my favorite golf club tonight. Want to enlighten me on what that was about?”
I grimace. “I probably would have if I didn’t just figure out you’re my brother. What were you doing with a golf club, anyways?”
“Smacking balls into the forest, of course. I don’t enjoy parties. And you can still tell me. Not like I’m gonna fucking judge.”
“We… um. Did it.”
“Gross.”
“On my dead parents’ grave.”
Vance pauses. There is no judgment on his face, but it looks as if he needs a minute. “That’s some dark shit.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t know. Not until after.” I shake my head. It’s not that I didn’t want it, I may have even encouraged it, but he could have said something.
“I honestly don’t know what the fuck to say to that. I can break his fingers, if you’d like, but that’s not going to stop him.”
I sigh. “Yeah, I know. I’ve gathered as much. My life just got a hundred times more complicated.”
“Hate to break it to you, Soulless, but it’s only going to get worse from here.”
23
Beckett
It’s probablywrong to watch my best friend’s little sister as much as I do, but I can’t stop. I watch her dance in the ballroom of the De Luca mansion. Small slippers on her feet as she glides across the floor, looking for validation from a stuffed rabbit she’s too old to be carrying around, but no one ever says anything to the princess of the group. She’s the only girl out of our parents’ little group. I know there is more to it than friendship but I’m too young to know about it. We have Amiyah, but she isn’t an original—she’s an add-on due to Madden’s mom’s marriage.
Brixley pauses, looking over her shoulder, spotting me. I don’t pretend to hide. My mindset has always been to never regret anything. It is what it is, nothing I can change about the situation, so I might as well embrace it. Plus, I want her to know I’m watching her. She smiles, lime green eyes sparkling at me as she picks up her rabbit. He’s gray and lanky. In need of some new stitching, but no one can get it away from her. “Would you like to dance too?” she asks, voice soft and sweet like cotton candy.
I emerge from the corner I was standing in, shaking my head. “I don’t dance.”
She rolls her eyes. Copper hair wild and free, she pushes a piece behind her ear. “Vance doesn’t either, but Madden does, because he’s a gentleman.”
I cover my laugh, because he’s anything but—he just likes to dance. All the lessons his mother put him through helps as well. “What’s your name?” I know her name, but this is the first time I’ve been allowed to talk to her. Vance keeps everyone away from her as best he can. I just want her to tell me. Allow me in her orbit for a moment.
She lifts a red eyebrow. “You know my name.”
I shrug. “Still want you to tell me.”
She purses her pink lips. “I don’t think I will.”
“If you don’t tell me your name, how will I know what to call you?”
She tosses me one of those sassy looks she’s been sporting so much these days. “Because you know my name.”
I shake my head. “I guess I’ll have to come up with my own name for you.” I look around the room, my eyes landing on her rabbit clutched in her hands. “Rabbit,” I say.
She places her small hands on her hips. “Excuse me?”
“I’ll call you Rabbit.”
