Page 75 of The Other Side of Green

“That’s what little girls do. They crush on their big brother’s friends! It wasn’t a competition between the two of you to see who I loved the most.”

“You’ve got no idea what it was like, Lyra. It didn’t matter how much I defended you, how many fights I had on your behalf, you always sought out Jack first, checking his injuries, making sure he was okay first.”

“Luca, you were a shit to me most of the time. Always teasing, treating me like a baby.”

“Still,” he crumbled, “I did fight for you though.”

Angry as I was, hot blood pumping in my veins, I reached over and placed my hand over his. “I always knew that.”

“I was trying to protect you, both of you. The longer I kept the secret, the harder it was to share.”

“Did Grams know, Luca?”

He shook his head. “I never mentioned it to anyone until I told you.”

I dropped my head into my hands, my brain thudding close to explosion.

“Jack thinks it’s wrong.”

Luca snorted. “He would. He has an ulterior motive.”

I raised my head, my eyes almost beaming fire straight from the sockets. “You are such a double standard bastard. You’ve been dating Raven Smoake for years and she’s only a year older than me. Now that’s gross.” I gagged into my hand.

“But I haven’t known Raven’s brother since birth.”

“She doesn’t have a brother.”

“That’s not the point.”

We pulled up outside Luca’s small condo, on the very edge of the neighborhood. The houses were slightly more spacious here.

My breath cranked in my chest, tightening and tightening until stars danced in my eyes, swimming in saltwater. “Luca. He deserves so much more than this.”

Luca didn’t answer, still staring unseeing out of the windshield.

“He was your best friend. Even when you thought he might have been my brother, he was always still your best friend, until the night you sent him away.”

Luca swiped at his face and I realized a moment too late he had tears slipping down his skin.

“He told me that night you said you were going to set him free.”

Luca nodded, swiping at his nose. “I wished I always had. I should have helped him stand up to that monster.”

“Why didn’t you?”

He lifted his shoulders and then let them fall. “Why do any of us do anything?”

“You know I used to look after his injuries. That’s how we got to know one another. He’d ask me to play to drown out the sound of his parents going rounds, and then the times when he got caught in the way he’d come up and I’d wash all the cuts and grazes.” I choked on my words. “Luca, what are we going to do? We’ve messed everything up. I can’t go back home. Mom’s made it quite clear she doesn’t want me there.”

“That’s not for her to say.”

I huffed a breath.

“And Jack wanted you to go back to college?”

“Yeah, he said I should fight for myself.”

“You should. Grams would want you to do that.”