MELROSE

CHAPTER 28

He sat down on the ground beside me, draping an arm over my shoulder. I leaned into him, grateful that I wasn't alone. We sat there in silence for as long as he could bear before he cleared his throat. "Um, Davina's here."

I sniffed. "And Court?"

"Not here."

Silence.

"Then what are you waiting for? Let me see her!"

At my words, Fletch bolted out the door, reappearing not long after with the cutest little blonde girl I'd ever seen. The sight of her lifted my down spirits a little. Fletch dumped her into my waiting arms.

"Hey there cutie. Do you know you have a beautiful name?"

Her reply was to spit in my face.

I glared at Fletch, daring him to laugh. He shook his head wildly, a hand over his mouth in an attempt to hold it in. It worked. An alarm rung from his phone at that moment and he smiled at Davina. "Uh oh. You know what that means. Nap time!"

She spit in his face.

I didn't even attempt to hold my laugh. Unperturbed, he wiped off the saliva, plastering a scary look in his face. "Uh no. You've made me angry so you shall face the consequences!" Davina laughed as he scooped her up into the air, twirling. I couldn't help but imagine him a few years older, with his own daughter in his arms. He would be a great dad but I'd rather eat Hawaiian pizza than tell him that. And that is saying a lot.

"So." Fletch said when he'd successfully put Davina to sleep in his room and had come down to join me. "Tell me why you're sad. Is it because of Ethan?"

My breath caught. He noticed. "Did you guys break up?"

"No." I answered slowly. "At least I hope not. We just fought. If you can call it that."

"Oh." Then we stayed in silence.

I stared at the floor. "Listen, I want to ask you something, because I'm confused. During Christmas when Ethan travelled and I spent majority hours in Don's company, I was getting ... attracted to him. Then on Christmas day, when we danced Señorita and he stared at me like I was special I realized I liked him again. But then Ethan came back and kissed me and it didn't feel any different. I thought, if I did like Don, Ethan's kisses were supposed to feel different right? So I concluded what I thought was like, was actually infatuation. And I think I'm right because I haven't thought about Don for a long time now, only Ethan. This same Ethan is the one who told me five days ago that he missed sex and he just might cheat on me."

Fletch's fist clenched. "I'll kill him."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't. Now shut the fuck up and let me finish. I don't know why but I'm not mad. I want to be mad, I'm supposed to be mad but I'm not. I'm just sad. Sad that I can't give him what he wants. A part of me thinks it's because I know as long as we're still together, he wouldn't cheat. The other part is just plain confused. Do you think I should break up with him, so he can do as he pleases?"

He let out a breath. "That's was a very long question. And no, don't. If he wasn't bluffing and doesn't want to cheat, he'll come do it himself."

I blinked. "I'm supposed to sit around and wait for him to break up with me?"

He nodded. "If that's he wants, yeah."

"You're a shitty brother."

"But you love me."

I faked a gagging noise. He laughed.
I waited for him to stop before I asked my next question. "How do you when you're ready to lose your innocence?"