Page 78 of This Blood that Bonds Us

“I’d tell you to get your head checked.”

“Seriously? You wouldn’t take my word for it. This could be the start to a beautiful love story, and you’re killing the vibe.”

“You’re concussed.”

“Guess I’ll need you to watch over me then.”

My joking usually made him laugh, but he was still searching for signs of a scratch.

“Are you done?”I asked, pulling at the edges of my shirt to get him to stop.

“Yeah. Now get your ass in bed.”He smiled.

He stopped answering my texts after that, only asking for a few days if I was okay. Things were cool, but it was never the same.

Had things miraculously worked out with Ellis and he was as cool as Kim, he wouldn’t be safe.

What would it cost to get my brothers back, and what was I willing to give up? A foreign concept. Everything was a foreign concept, like someone had given me a final test with no prep. Luke and Zach paved the way through every experience in my life, but I was on my own path now, and I was sure I wasn’t making good decisions. Maybe I had to make the bad ones, all the hard decisions the others couldn’t.

Aaron and Kimberly had more to lose.

So maybe that’s why I stared at the note in my hand a few seconds longer before shoving it into my pocket, resolving not to tell them a thing. Or maybe it was because I was getting used to doing things on my own. I couldn’t tell anymore.

I was surprisingly sober enough to feel the ache in my chest again. As soon as I did, Aaron’s head shot up like he’d felt it too. His eyes darted to the door, then the window, and he smiled when he saw me.

Thirty-Two

Kimberly

I’d sobered up long before the boys had, and as I did, all my fears and thoughts came tumbling back one by one. We took our time on our way back to the car. At least the alcohol had lasted long enough for me to brave through Presley’s second favor. Allthree of us sang karaoke in a nearly empty bar in the middle of the day. I’d have done it regardless, because it was good to see him smile.

The boys sang Avril Lavigne at the top of their lungs as we walked back toward the car. The sun was gone, but it wasn’t late yet. Only 5:00 p.m., but it felt like midnight in the pitch-black cold that encircled us. The soft rumble of cars on the nearly barren roads eased my worries, and the snow-blanketed trees covered us. We were alone there, and it was comforting when it was just us three.

Presley grabbed the edge of a streetlight and jumped on the base, spinning around in his drunken state while Aaron kneeled to the ground and serenaded him on one knee. The plastic base cracked, and I prepared for it to fall. It was the normal Calem ridiculousness that I had missed. We hadn’t had a carefree night in what felt like months. I didn’t like to count how long it had actually been, but I had a calendar. I knew the time down to the day—the hour even. I never talked about it, but I liked to know in case it could be useful somehow.

The boys spun around in the snow, lightly grabbing me and blending me into their shuffle. A bright flash of green sparked in my peripheral.

“Whoa, do you see that?” I pointed to a green hue that blurred and bended in the darkness of the night sky. I followed it, running in my new body that had started to be more fun. I liked that when I saw places I could go and be there in seconds.

“Kim!” the boys called after me as I disappeared into the trees, but their footsteps stayed close. Through the trees, the lights of the city grew dim and the green hue in the sky got brighter. I went for an opening in the trees. My boots weren’t made for the amount of snow covering my calves, but it didn’t stop me from following that light until I stared in awe at the wispy green light bending in the sky.

Presley tackled me from behind with a laugh. “Don’t tell me you’re dragging us into the mountain of snow to see the green gas in the sky.”

We fell into the snow, and Aaron came in shortly after.

“You’ve never wanted to see the northern lights?” I asked while laying my head in the blanket of snow. The boys followed suit, nudging their heads close to mine as they stared at the sky.

“I kinda forgot it existed, but you’re right. It’s so cool!” Presley exclaimed.

“Have you always dreamed of seeing it, Burns?” Aaron’s hand found mine in the snow.

“Kind of. I imagined I’d come out here and hike. Alone.”

“Typical Kim. Always trying to get herself killed somehow,” Presley said.

The laughter settled between us. Seconds turned to minutes as we watched the light twist and bend in a swirling pool of green and blue.

Presley broke the silence. “Remember that shitty picnic by the lake when we almost killed you by making you jump in the lake a hundred times?”