Always

28| warning attack

AMARA

I kissed him.

He went stiff.

I waited. He didn't kiss back.

He didn't melt.

He remained still.

I finally pulled away. His eyes were still wide and he was still frozen from the shock of my sudden action. I quickly got up and left. I heard him call my name from the store. Luckily, my siblings' house was not very far away, so I decided to go back there.

"Amara, wait!" Sage grabbed my wrist as he caught up with me.

"I'm-" I interrupted him.

"Don't say you're sorry. I'm going to my siblings'. Please don't try calling me, until tomorrow." He looked down and let go of me. I went my way and decided not to look back at him. What surprised me was that I didn't feel embarrassed, I felt heartbroken.

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"And then I came here." I finished telling Genieve what happened. She stayed silent for some time.

"Well, maybe you should try talking to him-" She didn't get to finish. Ace and Romeo burst into the room.

"I knew it! I told you it wasn't a good idea!" Ace exclaimed.

"I told you guys he was bad news!" Romeo chimed in.

"Can you guys calm down for a bit? It's really not that big of a problem, geez." I said, which made Carter giggle, who was listening to me as well.

My two brothers rolled their eyes. "She's right, they can sort this out with a talk. And please, don't call an attack on him."

"Wasn't planning on it." Romeo mumbled.

"So you guys were eavesdropping? Or did you just happen to have heard our conversation while passing by?" Carter asked them with her eyebrows raised.

I laughed at their flustered expressions as they went out of the room mumbling excuses. Gen closed the door behind them, shaking her head.

"As I was saying, maybe you should try talking to him, sort this out. You have to get married after all." She paused at that.

"I'm so sorry you have to do this. An arranged marriage without love, just because of some stupid fu- freaking promise." I smiled slightly at her correction. Carter did not like it when she swore, and Gen tried to minimize her swearing keeping that in mind.

Suddenly, I was pulled into a hug by Genevieve. Carter joined us. We stayed like that for a couple of moments. I took in the fact that I wasn't going to stay with my siblings anymore after a couple weeks. I took in a deep breath and broke the hug.

"It's alright, you don't need to apologize. I got myself into this, remember?"

"Yeah, you're still an idiot for that."

I chuckled. "Yeah I know."

"Just don't decide anything without talking to him, alright? But take your time before you do that. And if anything goes wrong, we are always here for you, remember that." Carter said and I nodded.

"Let's hope those two don't do anything irrational." Gen checked her watch. "Come on, let's go downstairs, it's almost time for dinner." And we followed her to the dining room.

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Dinner was filled with stupid jokes, random"Good morning everyone." Amara said as she sat down next to me at the breakfast table.