Page 101 of This Blood that Bonds Us

The scene behind them was storybook worthy. I waited with my breath in my throat for him to say it. To ask her those four little words—

“I’m just . . . checking my shoe.”

His soft, expectant expression deteriorated into that annoying grin.

“Dude. I hate you.” I rolled my eyes.

“You’re such a tease.” Kimberly hit him in the arm.

“Not cool. Come on, Kim.” I placed my arm around her and steered her away from my brother. “Seriously, if he does that again, you have to say no when he really asks you as punishment.”

Kim’s laughter soothed all the weird sad feelings I had earlier. “Deal.”

“Better yet, marry me instead. I’m more fun than Aaron.”

“Hey! Wait,” Aaron called to us as we descended the mountain.

“Got this one for you.”

I handed Aaron a little blue rock I’d found as we continued down the trail. It wasn’t bright blue, more like a gray, but it stood out among the brown and white pebble rocks around our feet.

“Wow.” My brother grabbed it from me. “I love it. I’ll add it to the growing collection.” He pulled a few other rocks from his pocket. All various shapes and sizes. “Kimberly gave me this one.”

Between his fingers was a heart-shaped stone, almost completely smooth.

“She really loves you, dude.”

Kimberly was out of earshot, far ahead on the trail. She was soaking it in, I think. Like hiking was a drug straight into the vein.

“I am going to propose, you know,” Aaron said, eyeing the back of Kimberly’s head.

“Soon?”

“Yeah, soon. Thoughts?”

He said it like he really wanted my opinion. Like it mattered. It was something Luke would’ve done—ask me about something to make me feel included.

“I think you better get her a good ring. She deserves it.”

“I know. I will.”

“I still want to be the officiant. And you better give me a heads-up for the actual proposal because I want to bring the camera.”

“Done.”

The silence stretched between us, with only the sounds of our feet crunching in the snow and a few birds.

“They’ll be here too, Pres. I’ll make sure of it.” He rubbed my back as my chest ached.

I hated that I believed him. Aaron wasn’t someone I counted on growing up. He didn’t commit to anything and never took charge. He panicked in a crisis, and I didn’t blame him because I also panicked in a crisis. We were largely in the same hopeless panic boat.

Something had changed, like he’d leveled up way quicker than me. He defeated a major boss and gained all the XP. Only, it wasinvisible. I never saw the mega boss monster. I never grabbed my sword to fight it. Or I didn’t own one.

If I’d known about a monster, I’d have hidden instead. Old Aaron would have hidden with me, but he was turning into one of those badass heroes in video games. The ones with the armor and the cool catch phrases. Kimberly too.

I was still the same. Just sad Presley trying to make it through another day. At one point, we were all sad and purposeless together, like an unspoken agreement, then it was just me. Alone.

“You okay?” Aaron asked, watching me. He had to feel the new pain rolling in my chest.