This Burning Love

Dinner and Lies

Jonah's POV

    Lily and I are sitting in the living room, my sisters legs drawn up to her chest as she lays her head on her knees, facing me as she quietly watches me.

     And I let her.

     I know she's just trying to make sure I'm okay and she would rather see for herself before she asks me. Even as her brother, her anxiety can still get the best of her.

   I run my finger through my hair, sighing to myself as I arch my brow at my baby sister, trying to figure out what to say to satisfy her urge to make sure that things aren't as hard for me as she thinks they are. Even if they're just a little bit worse.

    "Lily pad, I'm fine. You worry too much." I tell her, reaching over to tug on her hair, making her smack my hand away, her face burning red as she does, embarrassed by the smallest things making me laugh a little bit to myself.

     "You sure?" She asks me, brown eyes wide as she looks at me and I give her the smile I have been giving my family for the past few years, even though I know deep down I want to come clean.

     But it would be selfish of me to take away more of their happiness than I already have by complaining about the pack they've worked so hard to make and support through all that they've been through. I would hate myself if it was my fault they got put at odds with their pack. In a way, all those nosey little shits were right. Maybe it is time for me to move one and find where I belong. I've been feeling a little lost for a while anything.

     "Lily I told you that I'm fine." I tell her in mock exasperation, expecting her to make a joke out of it but she doesn't.

     "Promise me, Jojo." She tells me and I have to look away.

     "Look, Lily, I am fine and I will be fine. I stayed for dinner right? If I wasn't fine I would have run away from Mom. You know he has an uncanny ability to smell a lie." I tell her and I hope to Goddess that she didn't catch the fact that I couldn't promise her.

    Pinky promises are important to our family, even if others see it as childish. You don't like on a pinky promise and you can't break one. It means too much to us to do that and it's basically unforgivable.

    I remember back when I was fifteen and Lily was seven, Dad had promised Mom that he was going to take him to the store to get a puppy.

     Dad forgot, and to this day, Mom holds a grude against the man who put 'false hope' into his mind. Dad has offered to get Mom one afterwards, but being the petty wolf he is, Mom declined. He claims that it's not the puppy they could have gotten and he doesn't want it anymore.

    It was hysterical even though we had to hear Dad make it up to his Mate for the next week.

    Let's say Lily and I spent as much time away from home as we could. I laugh to myself and just as Lily and I change the subject, we hear two cars pull into the driveway, and I turn to Lily with a soft glare, hoping not to upset her, but needing her to understand.

    "Don't say anything to them, Lillian. This ain't their problem to solve." I tell her and she looks away but I hold out my pinky for her to hold and her lip wobbles and go to set it down.

    But to my surprise, her pinky grips on to my just as I go to power it, and her brown eyes hold mine captive as she looks at me, baby tears swimming in chocolate.

     "Fine. But now you pinky promise that if things aren't better in two months, you have to tell them." She says as she tightens her finger around mine and I glare at her in full force now.