Star-Crossed ✔️

23

- 23 -

Lina gave the best hugs in the business.

She was never one to shy away from showing her affection. Even when I was a teenager and mortified at the thought of my little sister crashing a movie premiere with me because our mother insisted, she'd smiled wide in front of the camera and clutched onto my hand proudly. She was proud like that.

I braced myself for impact when she barreled down the drive to greet Noah and I when we were dropped off at her house. She threw her arms around me, squeezing the daylights from my body. I could smell her vanilla perfume that she'd worn since she was smaller, a dreamy scent of cupcakes that always piqued my senses. "Hi!" she squealed into my ear.

"Hey," I laughed, holding the both of us up so we didn't tumble to the ground in the midst of our enthusiastic rocking back and forth. "How are you?"

"Good, great! Fantastic, even," she said as she finally pulled away, but still holding me by the shoulders to get a good look at me, then pinched my cheek. "You've gotten fatter." I rolled my eyes, not offended in the slightest. If anything, that was a compliment from Lina, who'd given me enough shit in the past two years about not eating enough and partying too much. It was her own special way of showing that she paid attention and gave half of a shit.

She didn't linger on me for too long because she turned towards Noah and smiled broadly and threw her arms around him without second's hesitation. I looked over at the front door where Ryan, Lina's boyfriend was standing with a friendly smile. We shared a compulsory nod, neither one of us much for the dramatics of an elongated hello. Noah was still being squeezed to death when I glanced back at him, but he didn't seem to mind.

"How are you?" Lina said all-too-cheerily. "It's been so, so long. I've got to hear everything about what you've been up to."

Noah didn't flinch nor falter. He just nodded, smiled, and allowed Lina to take him by the hand to lead him towards the front door. I grabbed our bags from the SUV with a huff and bid my driver a goodnight.

Ryan held the door open for me and I dropped our bags in the living room. It smelled so familiar, so much like Lina that I had to take a moment's pause. Not just the perfume, but the air of teakwood and blueberry soap and maybe a bit of whatever she'd last cooked in the kitchen, so familiar to me. I basked in the comfort of it, never getting the pleasure of feeling this way very often. Lina already had Noah on the couch, talking his ear off. I tried to catch his eye but he was fully immersed in what she was saying.

I didn't mind that Lina wasn't hanging all over me. We talked frequently enough that there wasn't much to necessarily catch up on, so I just let her have her time with Noah. As I said, he didn't seem to mind. In fact, he seemed very relaxed and happy to be here.

After he snapped at me for not wanting to share the bed, I didn't push it. I didn't make any obvious advances towards him, either. He was allowed to have boundaries, but so was I, and I didn't want to continue to be all lovey dovey in private while he shunned me to the side in public. That wasn't how I wanted to do this. It pained me. To finally be able to touch him and kiss him like I'd been fantasizing about for the last handful of months, but feel like I shouldn't in fear of breaking what we had.

"I got a new amp. Do you wanna see?" Ryan asked, dragging me out of my Noah-induced reverie. I turned to him and grinned.

We spent the evening just relaxing. Ryan and I shared some beers while Lina showed us pictures from their recent day trip to Kansas City. Noah had taken to Lina immediately. We were all close back in the day, but time could strain attraction sometimes. My body warmed at the fact that this was not the case with my sister and him. They got along like peas and carrots. Noah met Lina's excited chatter with equal vigor, even about the most mundane subjects like college or work. I could watch them interact all night, if I weren't falling asleep in my seat.