Page 26 of Fireworks

Her body shifted in her seat as she turned her legs toward me, her eyes like a cat watching a mouse try to escape.

“Okay.”

“I didn’t have any right to treat you the way I did the morning after your graduation. Mistakes happen and I’m just glad that you were okay. You don’t even know what went through my mind.”

A lump in my throat was making it impossible to swallow. I wasn’t sure if I should keep going or just leave it at that. She sat, not saying a single word.

“I’m sorry that I treat you like a kid and like you can’t take care of yourself. It terrifies me you aren’t just a little kid anymore. I can’t protect you from the world like I used to.”

Her eyebrow rose, her words were sharp.

“What have you ever protected me from? You and Asher have always treated me like an annoyance you would sell for a video game.”

Ouch, she was right. We had always been unnecessarily mean to her growing up. Never allowing her to be a part of our secret club and I never had the balls to tell her brother to knock it off and be nicer to her.

“Do you remember in seventh grade that kid, what the hell was her name, Claire? She kept making fun of you every day. Then one day she just stopped?”

She nodded.

“What you didn’t know is one day after school, I had a little talk with her.”

Her eyes widened as I continued.

“What the hell did you say?”

The corner of my mouth rose into a smirk.

“Something like, if she didn’t stop messing with you, I would make sure everyone knew she wet the bed still and sucked her thumb.”

Her laughter filled the cab, finally breaking the tension that had been building.

“How would you even know that about her?”

“I didn’t, but all it takes is an upperclassman saying something like that and you’re marked forever. You know how things work around here.”

“Why did you do that? You didn’t have to. I could have taken care of myself.”

Her head shifted, her eyes focusing again back out the window. As if she was recalling the torment she endured.

“I’m sure you could have, but seeing you come home and cry to your mom when you thought Asher and I weren’t paying attention was hard. You always tried to act so tough to keep up with us, but I knew how much you were hurting. I didn’t want to see you hurt. I told you, you aren’t just his little sister to me.”

I bit my tongue before I continued, unsure how the next thing I was going to say was going to change the relationship we had.

“I still remember your fourteenth birthday and what happened.”