Alexis (Natalie PoV)

Trying my best to work the anger out of my system on the way home was mixed at best. I was livid. Three days without so much as a word to me. I thought we were past this, but apparently we were still in the same god damn dance we always were. Here I was busting my ass to keep us afloat and she goes off and does god-knows-what with god-knows-who.

When I got home, I burst through the door like a righteous thunderstorm ready to rain down holy vengeance. That all evaporated once I laid eyes on her.

“Alexis,” I breathed as I rushed to her as everything I was carrying fell to the floor. “Are you okay?”

“No,” she said. It was all my fears happening at once, my stomach dropping off into the void. What had happened to her when she was away? Who hurt her? How? I didn’t care who he was. I was going to find him and feed him his balls. “Jake has a girlfriend.”

The words hit me in a weird way. For one, I didn’t understand why that information made it seem like her world was collapsing. Two, why did I care?

“What does that—”

I caught myself. Alexis had been flirting with Jake since we first met him. Recently, the playful nature of it had shifted. I don’t even think she noticed—until now. She was experiencing a moment when she discovered the world didn’t revolve around her. That people lived their own lives outside of hers. She had taken Jake’s presence for granted. How many guys had she brought over these past few years? I had tried to nudge her in the right direction, but she refused to listen and was now suffering the consequences.

Even though this was a situation of her own creation, I felt for her. How could I not? She was my sister. After surviving our personal hell together, I swore to myself that I would always do my best to protect her. No matter what.

Wrapping her in a hug, she lost it shortly after. I ran my hand through her hair as I made soothing sounds to cover the sounds of her sobs. As I let the emotions bleed from her, I found my thoughts turning inward. My heart was heavy, and while Alexis was a major cause of that it wasn’t the entire story. The news of Jake’s girlfriend made me uncomfortable. I should feel nothing. Jake was a good friend, so him getting a girlfriend was a good thing.

Right?

I pushed those thoughts away as I focused on Alexis. She was the priority now.

We ended up in my bed. We shared the same bedroom with most of the available space taken up by the two beds. It was the problem of living in an apartment designed for single people, but it was all I could reasonably afford.

I stroked at her hair, arms wrapped around her. She’d stopped crying some time ago but I knew she was still suffering in her own way. I wanted to help her, but I was at a loss. There was a time where I stood in her position, distracted by simple pleasures. I knew all too well the consequences that could come from the lifestyle. The only thing that saved me from that dark place was Alexis.

Sadly, it seemed my efforts didn’t have the intended results. Alexis was still locked in the wanton life full of sex and parties. A selfish part of me hoped this would be the moment she realized how destructive her lifestyle choices were. They were unsustainable. What she was experiencing now could be the moment I had years back that corrected my life course. If so, I was glad that it had been something minor like this and not something far worse.

Or it could tip her farther into the lifestyle she was in. Something that terrified me and I fought against every day. What hurt the most was how little control I had over the situation. I wanted to help her, but she was ultimately the only one who could make that choice.

I just hoped she chose correctly.