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His mention of my interfering twin makes me scowl. The temper that had laid dormant since the weed flares back to life. I pocket my phone, dust my hands off on my thighs, and stomp over to Sander’s group. He’s hanging with his team, the six or so basketballers making me feel small, even though I’m five foot eleven, and it feels like I tower over most people.
“We need to talk.”
My twin searches my face with eyes the same shade of blue as mine. “As long as you promise not to use your knowledge of pressure points against me.”
“I can’t make any promises.”
“Well, I can’t promise not to run at the first sign of danger then.”
“You’re not going to make me laugh,” I tell him. “I’m too mad to fall for your schtick.”
“The day that’s true will never come.”
Ducking my head, I bite back a grin. Sander follows me over to a secluded spot away from the group. He stops in front of me, his posture languid, not an ounce of apology to be found. Fury reinvigorated, I jam my hands on my hips to stop from slapping the smugness off his face.
“Why did you tell Zeke that you agree?”
“Because I do. Venom’s too old for you… he’s lived. You haven’t. It’s only fair that you get to have some time to yourself before you even think about settling down with someone like him.”
My spine stiffens at the contempt in his voice. “You’re making a whole heap of assumptions based on one phone call.”
“Bullshit,” Sander retorts. He juts his chin as he narrows his gaze. “He’s been panting after you since you started to grow tits. If I didn’t know that, deep down, he’s a good guy, I’d have knocked his head off his shoulders by now.”
“I don’t need—”
“Yes, you do.”
As rage coils deep in my gut and my temper builds towards explosion point, I jab my twin in the chest, pushing up onto my tiptoes to get right in his face. “You don’t even know what I was going to say!”
“Again with the bullshit,” Sander scoffs. “We both know you planned on making a play for him tonight. Jesus fuckin’ Christ, Anna… you should be thanking me. Do you really think Venom wants an inexperienced virgin? That he’s excited by the idea of tying himself to a teenage girl? Like, read between the fuckin’ lines here, you’re not even legal—”
“You had no right, Sander,” I snarl at him when his barbs start to hit a little too close to my own doubts. Looking around the crowded yard, I do my best to keep my voice at a volume that doesn’t gain anyone’s attention. “We’re almost eighteen. It’s none of your business what I had planned and who I planned to do it with.”
“Stop bein’ so fuckin’ melodramatic. I saved you from makin’ an idiot of yourself.”
“Whatever.”
We glare at each other. Breathing hard through my nose, I suck the inside of my cheek between my teeth and bite down to stop myself from engaging any further with Sander. It won’t get me anywhere since he’s very similar to Zeke in the way he refuses to back down once he’s dug his heels in.
My brother has always been overprotective.
I’m exactly the same with him.
Losing our mother at the age of eleven, such a formative time where we were caught between childhood and the cusp of our teenage years, bonded us in a way that most can’t understand. The way our father checked out, ignoring us in the wake of Mum’s death, made us grow up fast. Too fast. Because of that, I can normally see things from his perspective without much effort and he can do the same with me.
Arguments are few and far between when you can practically read the other person’s mind.
That’s not the case tonight.
As I scan Sander’s face for clues to his abrupt shift in attitude to my relationship with Zeke, I come up empty. There’s a deadness in his gaze, an empty pit of nothingness. His pupils are enlarged. The lack of care in his expression is stark.
It scares me almost as much as it enrages me.
How can my literal other half feel like a complete stranger?
When it becomes clear that neither of us plan on backing down, I spin on my heel and storm away. In my peripheral vision, I see Sander heading in the opposite direction and my temper peters out. Fury is replaced by an ache in my chest, a hollow, agonising loneliness spreads through me as my love for my brother proves inadequate against the pain of his refusal to trust me to make the right choices for myself.
As I walk, I stare at the ground, hoping it will yield the answers I need.
