The Rules They Broke

Chapter 5: Elijah's Rules

BLAKE

"Olivia, do you like pasta?" Blake asked, taking down plates from the cupboard and passing them to her. "I hope you like pasta. Because all we ever eat in this house is pasta. Oh, forks are in that drawer there."

Elijah turned around and glared at Blake. "We eat way more things than pasta, Blake. Stop trying to scare her away."

"I'm not scaring her away!" Blake protested. He gave Olivia a nudge. "Right, Livvy? You're not scared, are you?" Blake raised an eyebrow and grinned at her, the smile that he knew made people melt. Olivia didn't melt, but the corners of her mouth lifted upwards and she shook her head.

"See, Elijah?" Blake crowed. "It's totally fine! We all love pasta here!"

When they had all sat down and served themselves, Blake pointed his fork at Olivia. "So, how was the tutoring? Hopefully not too bad. I remember when Logan tried tutoring me for my ACT for a while. Glad that's over with, because it was the worst two days of my life. Didn't understand a thing he said. Was your tutor nice at least?"

Olivia blinked at him. Blake sighed internally. Slow down. You have to slow down.

But it was so, so much easier to charm people and make them laugh when he did the quick, funny talking. Really getting to know them - really, actually understanding them - took awkward silences and painful conversations. He was good at making those things go away, not making them easier.

Olivia spoke, seeming to finally have caught up with his rant. "Her name's Melanie. She's nice."

"Melanie?" Blake asked. He knew her a little. "The cheerleader? She's so nice. I mean, I've only ever spoken to her like, four times, but she's so great. Is she a good tutor?"

Olivia nodded and didn't say anything else. Blake watched her train her eyes back down on her plate and chew with slow, robotic motions.

Come on, Liv! They were siblings - or at least, they were supposed to be siblings. They had been siblings? Blake really didn't care to categorize whatever it was that had happened to them, but he did know that now, she was his sister. He hadn't known what to expect when she first came, but a list of Ten Commandments commanding him not to love her was not his first guess.

Did she really not want anyone to love her? Even Logan wanted them to love him. There was no way she was worse off than Logan.

Elijah's voice interrupted his thoughts. "-you'll have to get a phone. I was getting worried waiting for you today."

"You don't need to worry."

"You're my sister. Of course I'll worry."

Olivia let out an audible breath. "You can't worry for me," she grumbled.

Elijah frowned. "It doesn't say anywhere in the Ten Commandments that I can't worry for you."

Olivia stopped swirling her fork in the pasta. She held her fork there and stared into her plate. Blake raised an eyebrow. His brother was good.

Finally, Olivia resumed swirling the pasta around her fork. "I don't need a phone. I won't worry you next time."

"And what if I need to call you?"

"I won't give you any reason to."

"And what if I have a reason to? Not having a phone isn't in the commandments either. Come on, Olivia."

Blake opened his mouth to try to convince her, but Elijah shot him a look that clearly meant shut up. Blake remembered the day before Olivia had come, when Elijah had explicitly told him that he loved to talk too much, and he had to give their sister space. Talking now would be like ganging up on her. He shut his mouth.