Flutter |h.s|

54

Elias

I peer over my shoulder, wanting to tell Grace about this painting since it reminds me of one she did when she was a kid. It's nothing special at all, but it's more like an inside joke kind of thing. She was a horrible artist, but that didn't stop her from painting or drawing.

She was convinced for a hot second that she was gonna be this big shot artist like Picasso or something. I never had the heart to tell her she was the worst artist I've ever seen.

One day when she was about fifteen or sixteen we were going through some of the stuff I kept from when we were kids and she was laughing so hard when she saw her artwork. She asked me why I lied to her for such a long time about her being good at painting.

But how do you tell a kid who's constantly told by her parents that she's not good at anything that she's a horrible artist? It's all she wanted to do, so I let her have that.

When I look over my shoulder, searching for her in the room, my eyes go to the door, getting a glimpse of Harry and Grace running out of the room.

"Holly, come on." I say, grabbing her arm and heading in their direction.

"Elias! What are you doing?" she asks.

I hush her, "Shut up Hols!" I whisper to her.

When we get out of that hall, I see Harry and Grace go into another room. Holly sees them too, making a soft noise in realization.

"Elias, we don't have to follow them." she says, looking at me, but I'm too busy looking at the entrance to that hall.

Harry and my sister. I don't know how I feel about that honestly. Part of me is relieved in a way. She found someone who she could be comfortable around and talk to. It's always just been me or Holly when she came into the picture.

I've never really dealt with what happened when we were kids. I've always had to be in charge of making her smile at the end of the day. Even still, I don't really talk about what we went through with anyone. Neither did Grace, not until Harry.

That's what makes me nervous about all this. She's telling him everything. She's unloading on him. And by no fault of her own, whenever she goes through a break up, it's messy. The guys are always horrible and turn it on her, using her childhood against her. It makes it worse for her.

Now Harry knows a lot. More than any of her other relationships have known. I don't think he would flip it on her, but I'm just conditioned to think he will.

And if Harry uses that against her in any way, I'm not sure Grace would be able to survive that.

I see the way they look at each other, especially the way she looks at him. She looks at him like he's the sun. Her world revolves around him right now.

I hear what he says to her. God, I hope he means every word. I pray that he's not just a sweet talker. But at the same time, if he was just a charmer, he would be saying nonsense in Italian. He wouldn't be telling me how attractive my sister is.

If he hurts her, I would be more disappointed in him if anything. For leading her on and making her feel like she could trust him.

Grace needs a happy ending. She needs the fairytale wedding to the guy who sweeps her off her feet. To the guy that runs with her through art museums in Rome.

I've never seen her like this before. I've never seen her smile so much in my life. But for some reason when she's with him, she can't wipe the smile off her face. I want her to smile like this forever. No more pain and sadness.