"You don't need to thank me," she says. "Konnor is the strongest person in the world. He would have done it eventually. I know it."
A single tear slides down my cheek and now I'm jumping on Blesk and hugging her tight. "I think I love you."
She giggles into my hair. "I'm taken." We both laugh as I return to my seat opposite them. I grab my long strawberry-blonde hair, still straightened from the wedding, and pull it down one shoulder.
I smile at him tightly. "Konnor, I'm with Max now. You two are going to have to get along. Why don't you like him?"
"What's to like?" Konnor asks with a shrug.
Could it be possible that he doesn’t remember that day? The day that Max became my secret obsession. "Don't you remember the day we first met him?"
"Cassidy, right now, I barely remember what I had for breakfast."
"You were twelve. That kid across the street, Joshua, I think his name was. He stole my yo-yo. Don't you remember that day?"
"I got the ever-loving shit beat out of me with a cricket bat. Yep. Remember it."
My eyes soften on him. "Do you remember how it ended?"
He rubs his face in contemplation. "Um. I was on the grass. Josh was fucking me up with a cricket bat. Pretty sure, you were screaming. And then some kid we'd never seen before intervened, pulled the bat off Josh and knocked him out—" Realisation crosses his face. "No fucking way... Was that Max?"
I nod slowly. "He's not a bad person, Konnor. Why would he help you if he was? He just stopped the fight and carried on up the street as if nothing had even happened—" When the front door opens and I hear heels making their way through the foyer towards us, I stop talking. I'm relieved to see Flick appear, looking a little dishevelled from the flight and drive. Her face lights up when she sees Konnor.
"Little Bro!" She drops her bags and jumps on him, as such is the Slater way to welcome our family members. She's up straightaway and staring at Blesk. "You must be the famous Blesk."
"I've heard so much about you. I'm so excited I finally get to meet you," Blesk says, shuffling her feet nervously on thecarpet.
Flick wanders over to me, hooking her arm around mine. "Everyone in here kinda looks like someone has died."
I cover her hand with mine. "Konnor just got into a fight with Max."
Flick's eyes widen in pretend horror. "And you're still alive to tell your grandchildren the epic tale."
Konnor feigns a chuckle. "Haha. I punched him... once. Fucker barely moved." Looking guilty, he adds, "He was humping Cassidy in front of me."
She pinches my cheek and talks in a baby voice. "No one will ever be good enough forour little Cassidy." I make a silly face at her.
Konnor eyes Flick. "So you're okay with this?"
"I wasn't," she admits. "But Cassidy is eighteen, Konnor, not twelve."
"He gets under my skin," he grumbles. "Like, I can't even explain it."
Flick laughs. "I promise that I have firmly expressed my concerns, Little Bro. I'm doing my job. I've mentioned that he's not the boyfriend type... but he's different with her. She makes him a better person. I've seen it."
"So there's nothing I can say, is there?" He exhales loudly before staring at Blesk and then back at us. "Can you please just be very careful? Keep a bit of Cassidy for Cassidy?"
I smile. "Sure."
Family time
I'd liketo say the days are flying by with my Sugar Plum Fairy commitments, but that would be a lie. They're long and mundane. My mum and dad are both working from home this week, and Konnor and Blesk have taken time off from school to help Konnor get through his first few months of sobriety, so we have a full house.
I think about Max constantly and try not to worry. My mum once told me: 'Worrying is like a rocking horse. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere.' I completely agree. Despite that, worrying about him will be something I do often, I feel. It'll be an ever-present state of being for me.
For whatever reason, he can't see me at all until Friday. I don't know why. I should have asked. I guess I'm always hesitant to ask him questions.
The first thing I do on Monday morning is go to my local general practitioner and get a Pap-smear and prescription for the pill.
