Page 153 of Sincerely, Butterfly

“Okay, but now Callie is high out of her mind with Lola,” Sylas says.

“But… they’re so cute.” Garrett chuckles.

“I feel like I’m watching feeding time at the zoo,” Jasper mutters. “What is wrong with you?” he asks me.

“Be nice,” Garrett chastises. “They’re just hungry."

After Nola came into the house, and Callie saw she was high, she started pouting because we left her out. I told her I had another joint and insisted she ask her brother. When he told her no, she went outside and smoked it until she started feeling the same effects. Now we’re all sitting around the table eating, and Callie and Nola are a giggling mess as they devour their food.

“I’ve lost my appetite,” Jasper grumbles, even though the fucker ate all the food on his plate.

I watch the girls with amusement, eating my food. After we’re done, we move out back where we sit around the fire pit.

It’s strange. Just hanging out like normal people. I don’t remember the last time we were able to just hang out like this.

Between the company, school, and the Brotherhood, it feels like our lives are always constantly on the go.

Callie is telling us stories about her time in London, but my attention is solely on Lola. She watches her friend with a grin that reaches from ear to ear. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this happy before.

I’m glad Callie moved back and that these two became friends. It pissed me off that people in our school were so self-absorbed that they couldn’t give Nola the time of day.

We might have made sure people left her alone, but that's the thing. She was already alone.

When I think about being a kid, all I remember is my time with her.

Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if I weren’t a part of one of the original families. If I were just a normal rich kid, and the only expectation was to work for my father.

While other teenagers were partying and drinking, we were doing fucked up tests and trials to prove our loyalty to the Brotherhood.

What if we never had to tell Lola we had to stop being friends?

Would we have fought over her? Or would the three of us be with her?

Laughter pulls me out of my own head. Nola and Callie are dancing around the fire, music playing in the background.

The guys and I each sit with a beer in hand, the buzz of my high stronger after my second joint.

“It’s almost midnight, and it’s New Year’s Eve!” Garrett sing-songs.

The girls stop and spin around. “Really?” Callie grins. She runs over to a bag she brought out and proceeds to hand everyone noise makers.

“No.” Jasper hands it back to her.

Sylas takes it. “Lighten up.” Sylas blows it in his face, the sound making Jasper wince.

“Ready?” Callie calls out.

She and Nola start to count down. “Ten, nine, eight…”

I watch as Nola grins ear to ear, and I think about how much she’s grown, how much she's changed.

“Seven, six, five…”

She might never be mine, but that doesn’t mean I don’t wish she could be.

“Four, three, two, one! Happy New Year!” Callie and Nola blow out the noise maker. Sylas and Garrett laugh. And I even see Jasper’s lip twitch.

For a moment, I think that this could be our lives.