Heisupset.
He broke up with the love of his life, didn’t he?
“I can’t believe he beat someone up. He broke his nose, his jaw, four of his ribs. It took three men,threebig muscular men, to pull A off Ben. I saw it all on the tape. I’ve never seen A like that, so furious. Ben was threatening to press charges.”
Sarah has always called him A and I’ve always wondered why she’d choose to do that when she has every right to call him by his beautiful, unique name.
Arrow.
“But we managed to talk him down,” she continues. “And we came up with this whole deal. No cops. No bad press. As long as A does his anger management therapy and stays away from LAfor the next couple of months. That was the only way to save his place on the team.”
A breath whooshes out of me.
Thank God for my publicist sister. Thank God that she saved him.
See? Hebelongswith my sister.
My brilliant, beautiful sister.
“Why did you break up?” I ask quietly then.
Maybe because she’s scared that I’ll bother her again with my phone calls but she answers me without arguing any further. “Why do people break up, Salem? We grew apart, okay? We started leading different lives. I don’t know when but it happened. And yeah, we broke up.”
I swallow down a lump of emotions but barely. “But can’t you work on it? The distance, I mean. You love each other.”
“Look, Salem, you asked and I told you. Let it go, all right? It’s none of your business.”
“No, wait. I…”
I taste something salty on my lips and that’s when I realize I’m crying.
That’s when I realize that I haven’t swallowed down anything.
My emotions welled up in my eyes and are now falling down my cheeks as tears.
It’s so silly that I’m crying because it’s their relationship, their breakup.
But God, they’ve been together for years.
I’veseenthem together and my heart is breaking for them right now.
“I don’t understand, Sarah. Youloveeach other,” I whisper, pressing the phone tightly to my ear. “That’s the most important thing, isn’t it? You love him and he loves you and so you guys can work through this. You guys can overcome this. Love has tobe bigger than any problems that you guys have. Love has to be bigger than everything else.”
Shouldn’t it?
Love has to be bigger. It has to be.
Otherwise what’s the point? What’s the point of a girl falling and a boy catching her in his sleek, muscular arms?
Shouldn’t she fight for those arms? Shouldn’thefight to keep her in his arms?
Shouldn’t they put in everything they’ve got so they can stay together?
“Ugh, please. Can you spare me the bullshit? I don’t even know where you get it from. Mom was never like this.Iwas never like this. I don’t understand how you came to be this way. So weird and strange. Like an anomaly or something.”
My tears fall harder even as I tell myself that this isn’t the first time I’m hearing this. This isn’t the first time Sarah has called me an anomaly or weird.
It makes sense even.
