*FREE WITH PAID BONUS CHAPTER*After being dumped by her boyfriend, Elodie Shepherd resigns herself to loving her older brother's best friend from afar, just like she always has, even though he only sees her as his best friend's immature kid sister.
...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
My older brother was a total asshole.
I mean, sure, he was also my pseudo-dad (weird family dynamic, don't ask), but that didn't give him the right to tell me who I could and couldn't date, especially at eighteen years old. I was a full blown adult!
I mean, to be fair, he'd been telling me I wasn't allowed to date the guy since we started going out a year and a half ago, but it wasn't like I was going to let that stop me.
"I don't like this guy, El. I've told you this over and over again. I'm just looking out for what's best for you!"
"You always use that as an excuse, Eli! I know you think you're protecting me but you're really just holding me back! I'm not the little kid that you rescued anymore, I'm all grown up! You did your job! I just want to live my life now."
My brother sighed and raked his hands through his hair that was a few shades darker than my own, exasperated with me, no doubt.
Thankfully there was no one else around to witness this shit show that was my immature argument with him, because even I could admit that yelling to someone that you were an 'adult' most likely meant that you still had some growing to do, but I couldn't think of anything else that could get my point across to him.
I wished V was there. She would've told him to back off and give me some breathing room, maybe tell him to pay more attention to their three year old little girl, Evie, than me, the already grown kid that they'd taken in.
"You're barely eighteen. That's definitely still a kid in my book. I know you think I'm being unfair but one day you'll see that I was right in keeping you away from him."
"You can't control me forever. I'm in college now, and I will see who I want to see, whether you like it or not."
Eli took a few calming breaths while Evie squealed at a toy that went off beside her foot, laughing and clapping along to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
"I'm not trying to control you, Elodie. I don't think I'd ever try to do that, especially not after watching what V's father did to her, but I'm watching out for you because no one else is going to. I know how guys think, and at that age-"
"What, they only want one thing? You think I don't know that, just by being a girl, or by the way I grew up? I know a lot more about the world than I wish I did."
Guilt flared across my brother's face, and for a moment I felt bad about what I'd said. If it weren't for him and his wife, I'd still be in that situation, with an abusive father and a neglectful mother and-
No. I had Eli, and V and Evie and I wasn't there anymore, laying on the ground while he stood above me with a belt dripping with anger and malice that begged to kiss my skin one more time while painting me purple and yellow and blue.
