Page 88 of Protect Me
“Fine! He said,the thought of losing you is more powerful than the other fears, and that’s never happened before.”
“Go Vik!” Vini cried. “That’s the greatest line I have ever heard. Is it weird that I’m super proud of my brother?”
A small voice peeped out of me. “Me too.”
“How are you feeling?” she hurried to ask. “After a line like that, I hope you feel like a bajillion bucks!”
“Scared, actually.”
“Of Vik?”
“Of this falling apart.” I sat up. Pillows cluttered my hips, tangled in blankets on top of my bed. Muted shadows lay on the house, and the distant sound of the air conditioner hummed in the background. My shorts bunched around the top of my thigh. I played with a few loose strings. “Vini, what would happen to me if Vik broke us up? What if he left? I’d lose my only family. You are all I have.”
“You have to know that Amma and Appa would choose you over Vik.”
I tilted my head back and laughed.
“C’mon, you know that’s not true.”
She giggled lightly. “Itistrue. Just because Vik’s an idiot doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t make it work. We’re family, Katelyn. You belong with us, whether or not Vik pulls his head of his—”
“What about family reunions?”
Her voice carried a shrug. “Can’t be much different than the last ten years, right? Whenever Vik did show up, it was fine.”
“It was hell,” I muttered.
She paused. “Have you really loved him that long?”
My eyes closed, face clenched. “It sounds so pathetic,” I whispered, splaying a hand over my eyes. “Really pathetic.”
“It’s super sweet! You could have the romance story of the century! Kate, this is epic, which means it would naturally be a little scary.”
I swallowed, looking down the hall. His bedroom door, right next to mine, was open. A hint of lemongrass issued from inside. I suppressed the desire to climb back in his bed and wrap myself in his smell. If Vini knew we’d spooned through a thunderstorm, she’d press even harder on the little bravery I had left.
“Listen,” Vini said on an exhale. “This is the most I’ve ever heard of Viktrying. He’s actually attempting to be a normal human. You are the only person he’s ever done that for and it means something. Vulnerability isn’t his strong suit. Look at Appa, the man mistakes himself for a brick wall.”
I chuckled. “True.”
“If you’re willing,” Vini murmured, “let him know how you feel—have felt—and give him a little space and time to decide what to do with it. It’s not fair for you to string yourself along when you can have an answer right now.”
“What if he says no?”
“Then he’s an idiot, he’ll regret it, and you will move on with me at your side through every single moment.The way you always have.”
Tears sprang to my eyes. I swallowed them back. My voice was husky when I whispered, “I don’t deserve you.”
Vini snorted. “You absolutely deserve me. Can you do it, Kate?”
With a sniffle and a resolute nod, I firmly said, “Yes. I can do it. You’re right. I need to tell him the whole truth.”
“It might make him feel safer with you, you know? To know the depths of your feelings.”
“Could scare him.”
“It could,” she murmured. “Knowing Vik? I don’t think it will. The moment you finish talking to him, you call me. Better yet, call me, I’ll mute, then put me on the table next to you on speakerphone so I can hear everything.”
A laugh rolled out of me, softening the expectant, fractured tension.
