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One I need to cut off before we’re both at her feet again...or at each other’s throats.
I change the subject before I lose my shit.
“Did you talk to him?”
“Who?” he asks, his eyes closing as he covers his eyes with his arm and settles against the pillows.
“Who do you think? I saw he called you.”
When he doesn’t answer immediately, I sit down on the side of the bed and pull his arm from his face.
You have no idea how many times I’ve wanted to strangle Damon in my life. He’s frustrating as hell and so quick to get angry. I can’t fucking blame him, though. Not after what we’ve been through.
“Did you talk to him?”
“No,” he answers, his eyes meeting mine. “He called when I was at Red’s house. I didn’t pick up.”
Ignoring the vein of anger - and jealousy - that unravels inside me to know he saw Emily, I stick to the more immediate problem.
“That shit is over. He won’t drag us off again.”
“Yeah, so tell me that when I can’t close my eyes without seeing it. I can’t fucking sleep without hearing them. I think that’s why I went to see Red. She was the only person who could-“
He shakes his head and bites that thought off as well.
Who could silence the voices, I think for him.Who could somehow soothe the rage that thrummed beneath our skin constantly.
Emily has no idea what she did to us.
Both by simply being in our lives, and by disappearing.
Only a handful of days.
That’s all it took for her to become a person we needed.
I can’t imagine how different the last ten years would have been for us if she’d stuck around instead of leaving.
I grab Damon by the back of the head and press our foreheads together. At first, he refuses to open his eyes, but I just keep staring.
After a few seconds, he meets my stare, the nightmares in his head just as bad as mine.
“It’s over. All of it. It’s been over. We’ll get past the rest of the bullshit eventually, but you need to stop acting like an asshole.”
For as much as I want to kick his ass for stupid shit, there is no other bond I have as strong as my brother. I’d do anything for him. Murder a thousand people. Burn down entire cities. Fucking raze the world if it meant he would be okay after.
“The guy deserved it.”
I smile at that. “They always deserve it. But that doesn’t mean you can keep doing this shit.”
Releasing him, I push up from the bed and remind him who he should listen to.
“I’m the older brother here. You need to do as I say and respect your elders.”
“Fuck off,” he says as he grabs a pillow and throws it at me. “You’re older by fifteen minutes. Give me a fucking break.”
I toss the pillow back. “I learned a lot in those fifteen minutes, mostly how nice it was when you weren’t born yet.”
“Whatever, dick. You can’t live without me.”