King of Harts

55

Emory

I watch as my sister paces my apartment, deep in thought, as if she's trying to piece everything she wants to say to me before she says it.

"Stop biting your nails, Emmy" she snaps and it makes me jump and rip my fingers from my mouth.

I hadn't even realized I'd been doing it.

"Kind of freaking out over here" I grumble and she finally stops pacing, standing a few feet across from me where I'm nervously bouncing my leg in the chair Adrian was occupying before we kicked him out.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She finally asks and her tone isn't hurt or betrayed, it's simply curious.

"Because" I shrug, my answer not really an answer.

"Emory" she sighs.

"Because I wanted it to be ours. Just mine and Adrian's. Something we could enjoy before all of this" I tell her part of the truth, waving my hand around aimlessly. The same truth I've been using since Adrian and I started it up this whole thing.

"No, that's only part of it, there's more" she shakes her head and I just deflate in my seat because if anyone can call bullshit it's my sister.

It always did take a bit more effort to lie to her growing up, much like Xander who reads me within seconds of looking at me.

"I don't know, I was afraid" I admit.

"Of me?"

"Of hurting you, betraying you" I clarify and then her face softens.

"Bee"

"You and Gray have done everything for me. You both excelled where my father lacked, where mom lacked during that period of time, and I just felt that this, this was going to ruin everything" I explain.

"How could this have ruined you and me, Bee?" She asks, again, not hurt or upset, just curious.

"Come on, Addie"

"I'm seriously asking, Emmy"

"Because you've had a crush on Adrian since the moment you met him!" I groan and she gives no reaction. She just folds her arms across her chest and stares at me.

"You've always had a thing for him and then I started having my own feelings for him, which came out of no where by the way, totally threw me off guard. So, I tried to push them away, I really did, Addie. Because I didn't like the jealousy I felt when he looked at you or when you dropped everything to cater to him. It makes me sick to think I felt such a way towards you and I felt so disgusted with myself for having it be a guy you've had eyes on way before I did. It didn't seem fair. But it happened... and then he confessed all of these crazy feelings for me and it was impossible not to fall for him." I babble, feeling like I got it all out in one breath while my voice wavered because the need to cry has been quite strong these days.

"So, if I asked you to break up with him, would you?" She shocks me with those words and something disgusting bubbles in my chest.

"W-what?"

"If I asked you to leave Adrian, to let me have my chance and make my move on him, would you?" She repeats the question and my fists clench in my lap.