Meant For You

six.

Nola Scott

I sit in my introductory freshman class, cringing at my actions from earlier.

Shutting my eyes tightly, I try to erase every single second of my interaction with Miles at Renaissance Café. When I woke up this morning, I didn't think I would run into him. Again. I thought my days of seeing that man were over since Ember no longer speaks to...

What was his name again?

Anyway, I was already having a terrible morning. Despite all my attempts to put figure skating as my number one focus, I'm still not at my best on the ice. I woke up at around four this morning to get some time ice time in before I had to drive back here and come to class. Just like most of my practices these days, I continue to fail my jump sequence. My dancing is sloppy. I'm not into my music.

Nothing feels right. Nothing.

I was frustrated and seeing Miles at my favorite café did not help my situation. The simple view of his face ignites a fire inside of me. I'm sure he made his best efforts to try and disguise himself from whatever lame-o calls themselves his fan. Sadly, I noticed him almost immediately, and my annoyance only grew.

He was a dickhead to me. Nothing new. I expected it. We've never had a good exchange. To this day, I still blame that on him. He can cry and say I'm an asshole to him every single time we speak but that's only because he was an ass the first time we met.

Call me dramatic but I don't do well with bad first impressions. I've had many of those my whole life. Most of them were because of my little brother, Kayce.

Kayce and I are a little less than two years apart. I've always been in the grade above him - despite him being smart enough to skip multiple grades if he wanted to - which meant we were always going to the same school. While I was liked a good amount by my classmates, my little brother was not.

I was always the nice, extroverted girl who would make friends with anyone who would talk to her. Kayce was the mean, introverted boy who would not make friends and roll his eyes or insult anyone who tried to talk to him.

I never knew why he was so mean. So rude to people. My mom and dad didn't raise him that way. He had a special tongue of his own and it worried both of my parents. I remember us being so young and Kayce already having the biggest attitude and ego. He praised himself for everything, thinking he was better than everyone else. Even me.

It triggered me sometimes. I felt belittled by my own brother and it was never a nice feeling. There were a lot of days where he wouldn't be as mean though, and little old me took those days in. I looked up to Kayce for having qualities I didn't have.

He was smart. He knew how to stick up for himself. He was good at everything he did, never failing to try new things because of it. He got the most attention from my parents.

Every one of those things made me jealous of him. It made me want to be so much like him that I ignored when he would tear me down. I loved when he praised me though, even if it was rare.

He was my little brother. I loved him.

So I stuck by him the most. Even if that meant I would be in the way of the fire that came with being Kayce Scott.

Throughout my years in school, I was disliked for being Kayce's sister. Meeting new people was hard. Eventually, everyone assumed I was just like my brother. I wasn't, but no one cared to get to know me anymore. They had already formed their opinions about me.

I was treated harshly. Kayce was treated harshly. So we stuck together.

As much as he could defend himself, there were times when I felt the need to stick up for him. If someone was mean to him, I would be twice as mean to them in his defense. He would stand back and watch, interfering when it got bad. I've always been one to get mad quickly, he was more calm and collected.