Page 113 of Driftwood Daffodil 3

Nova sucked in a gasp, causing her head to bang on the mirror behind her.

“Come on,Gattina,” I pumped my finger out and in again. “Say something smart now.”

When Nova didn’t respond I arched a brow, “no? Didn’t think so.” Then I pulled my finger out and stepped over to the sink to wash my hands.

She was quiet for a minute, but I could feel her eyes on me, and not in the angry way they usually were. The wheels in her brain were turning, and there was this look on her face that gave me a pretty good idea of what she was thinking about.

“Does Carissa like it?”

Here we go.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” I knew this topic would come up eventually. Although I hoped it would be later, if ever.

Something tugged on my chest when I met Nova’s stare. There was a sadness in her eyes. Not the pitying kind. It was more like concern with a hint of rage. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Nova cared about me. Why did that fill me with pride?

“Alright,” I sighed. “What do you want to know?”

The first thing she asked wasn’t what I thought. Nova called Carissa a pedophile, so I figured she would want to know how Carissa got me in her clutches, what horrible things she made me do and so on. But none of those were the question that came out.

“Are you still sleeping with her?”

I couldn’t help but notice how Nova refused to look at me. Was she jealous? “No. I’ve been trying to break it off for a while.”

“Trying to break it off? So you couldn’t do it?”

How was I supposed to answer that? “It’s complicated.”

Her chest heaved with a heavy sigh. “When was the last time you were with her?”

“The first day of school.”

“The first day of school? When you saw me?”

Was she crying?

I dipped my head down to try and look at her, but she averted my gaze. “Nova, look at me.”

Using my finger, I tipped her chin up and looked in her eyes as a tear rolled down her cheek. I didn’t like that look on her face. I wanted to wash it away and punch myself for ever making her feel that way.

“My shit with Carissa has nothing to do with you.”

“You went back to her because of me.”

“No,” I shook my head. “I went back to her because of me. She’s not the monster you think she is. Carissa was there when no one else was.”

“Like when Kato killed Atlas?”

I didn’t say anything. What could I say? Denying it would only be a lie.

A frown tugged at the corner of her mouth as she tipped her head. “Do you ever wonder what life would be like if that night never happened?”

“Sometimes.”

That was the real problem between us. It wasn’t Carissa, or our constant fighting. It was our brothers. Regardless of what they may or may not have done, we still loved them. And nothing would change that.

We stayed there staring at each other for a while. Nova thought about her brother while I thought about mine. But for the first time since all this started, my thoughts slipped from Atlas to Kato. Would I have done any different in his shoes? No. If someone attacked Nova, I would gut the fucker alive. I didn’t forgive Kato, I never could, but maybe I understood him.

Desperate to get my mind off Atlas, I pushed off the counter, and said, “you don’t need to worry about Carissa. She doesn’t mean anything to me.”

---