“I know he is. I’ve been trying to help him,” Violet says defensively, and I badly want to interrupt this entire scene, wrap my arms around her and tell my sister where she can shove the implications she’s making about her best friend.
“Right. And you’ve kept it strictly helping? Nothing else has happened between you?” Nora presses.
“We’re just friends, Nora. He’s moving out at the end of the semester.” An insistence to Violet’s tone, makes the lie that much more painful to hear.
My heart sinks in my chest, bottoming out in my gut and rolling over there until I feel like I might actually be physically sick. I didn’t realize it was possible to hurt this much this quickly.
“Okay. I’m sorry. I just got a vibe and I… don’t know, I’m reading too much into it again. Just be careful, okay? He might have a crush on you again and make it weird.”
“I can handle Ben, Nora.” Violet gives a little laugh, and it breaks me.
“Morning!”I say walking in, forcing a cheerful tone despite the fact I feel like I’ve been summarily ripped open and gutted.
Both of their eyes dart to mine, worry that I’ve overheard them etched across their faces before Nora smiles brightly at me. And even if I hadn’t heard them, I’d be suspicious at this point because Nora is not a morning person, and her smiling at all in the morning would be a bright red warning flag.
“Morning. Sleep well?” Nora asks.
“Didn’t get a lot of sleep, honestly. Rough night.” I smirk, glancing at Violet before I pull a pastry out of the box and put it in my mouth.
Violet sputters on a sip of her coffee, spilling a little and wiping it with a napkin.
Nora looks at her briefly but then looks back at me.
“Yeah, there is a weird smoky smell in my room that I don’t love.”
“You should try one of the other ones. It’s not like there aren’t plenty.” Violet joins in the conversation, I assume to try and cover her little mishap, which just presses my buttons more.
“Did you have to switch rooms?” I ask, looking pointedly at Violet before shoving another bite of food in my mouth and licking my fingers.
“No. Mine was fine,” she says quietly, watching me before taking another sip of her coffee as a pink flush blooms over her cheeks.
“Huh. Got lucky then.” I flash a gritted smile at her before I grab a mug out of the cabinet.
“I guess. I think I’m gonna walk down to the river and get some fresh air with my caffeine to try to wake up before our moms start putting us to work.” Violet smiles at Nora.
“You have fun with that. I don’t have patience for snow this early in the morning,” Nora gripes. And there is my real sister.
I shoot the shit with Nora despite her grumpiness, discussing which room she and Eric might take instead of the one she has now and talk about how we can help mom with cooking today, but the whole time I’m listening for Violet to head outside. Because if she thought she was going to get to just slink off, it isn’t happening.
Nora heads back to her room a few minutes later, claiming she wants to change but I have feeling she just wants to go back to sleep. Which is perfect because I don’t want her watching me. I throw a jacket and shoes on and head out the back door, following the winding stone steps down to the river. I spot her standing there staring out over it and walk my way out to her. She doesn’t hear me approach over the sound of the water and my first instinct is to lecture her about how she’s not safe out here if she’s not paying attention.
“So how are you going to handle me? Like you did last night? Fuck me into silence or do you just plan to try to ignore me the rest of the trip?”
She startles and gasps as some of the coffee sloshes out of her cup and onto the ground, still dripping from the edge as she turns to look at me. She has the decency to look ashamed and turns her head away from me again no sooner her eyes meet mine.
“Ben…” she starts, looking despondent.
“No. We agreed we were going to tell them we’re together. I don’t want to lie to my family, Violet.”
“You don’t understand. Your sister—“
“I heard the whole conversation.”
“Then you heard what she said. She thinks I’d fucking seduce you and use you as a rebound.”
“Well, we know she’s wrong about half of it.”
“You still think I’m using you?”
