Enamour [boyxboy]

Chapter 29 - Memories & Reflection

Chapter 29

Memories & Reflection

•Jake's POV•

My eyes opened when someone knocked on my door. I hadn't ordered room service, the cleaners never came this early, and mom or dad would've used the adjoining door, so I knew it could only be one person.

I climbed out of bed, fatigued cause I barely slept since I crawled into bed, and opened the door. Amanda stood there, completely dressed and ready for the day, a grocery bag in one hand and her handbag hanging off the other.

"You stink," she remarked as she walked into the room, closing the door shut behind her. She wasn't wrong, I realised, as I made my way back to the bed and crawled back in.

Amanda placed her handbag on the ground and walked over to the window, opening the curtains. Bright sunlight entered the room. I groaned in protest, but she didn't seem to care. She came to the edge of the bed and sat down, one leg crossed, the other on the floor.

"I brought some of your favorites for you," she said, placing the grocery bag on the bed in front of her.

I sat up on my elbows and, despite all that had happened over the last twenty-four hours, and how drained I felt, I couldn't help the smile that formed on my face. Amanda always knew what to do, no matter the circumstance.

She pulled out the goodies as follows: a packet of skittles, a bag of sour worms,

"Now, I'm not saying I condone eating away your problems, but I mean, look at you," she said, flicking her eyes towards my torso that was half obscured by the duvet, "you'll probably never get fat anyway."

I chuckled slightly. "Thank you," I said to her.

She smiled at me. "What else is a big sister for?" She opened the packet of skittles and set them between us. "I would also say that I don't condone eating candy before midday but we both know that's a lie," she said, laughing.

I started laughing too, my mind flashing back to the time we got in trouble. "Remember that time when we were all staying at Grandma's during the summer." Amanda's face lit up with a smile, immediately recalling the memory.

I continued, "Grandma, Mom and Dad were all sleeping in, but Grandma had told us we that we could watch cartoons in the morning if we woke up early. I think I was five years old so you would've been..." I trailed off for a moment, thinking.

Amanda piped up, "eleven," she said, a grin on her face.

"And we thought, 'hey, they're all asleep, we won't get caught', so we got the candy jar from off the counter. We sat on either armchair, the jar of candy on the little table between the chairs, picking from it every few seconds."

Amanda joined in, laughing, "and you kept eating all the skittles, even the yellow ones, and wouldn't let me have any."

I replied, "hey, I don't discriminate skittles, they're all amazing." I took a yellow skittle from the packet and threw it into my mouth for emphasis.

This made Amanda laugh even harder. She continued, "but then when we were caught, you couldn't even hide the fact that you had been eating the candy because your tongue was so many different colors."

"Yeah! And then you blamed it on me!"

Amanda was in hysterics at this point, barely breathing, pointing a finger at me, laughing. "And," she said, trying to slow her laughing, "as a result, I got the rest of the jar for myself."

"That was the worst," I said. The memory cut off there for me.

"It wasn't that bad," Amanda said. "Don't you remember?"

I shook my head.

"I was wracked with guilt. Not even kidding. That's the earliest memory I have of ever feeling something so strong and horrible. They didn't believe you when you tried to pin the blame on me as well. All I remember is you being grumpy and not speaking to me for the rest of the day, so, before we got in the car and left for home, I confessed and took the blame as well."

I couldn't help it; there were tears coming.

"I couldn't stand you being mad at me, it hurt so bad. Even as children, when I knew the anger would fade in a day or two. We've always been so close – close as twins even, just a few years apart," she said.

I snorted a little at that comment.

She continued, "I remember when I confessed, tears where streaming down my face, but I felt so much better afterwards. Like I could talk to you again, untainted."

The tears dropped then. I don't even remember that part, but I could imagine. We have always been so close and I don't know what I would do without my sister.

Amanda grabbed the packet of skittles then, and crawled up the bed to sit beside me, both our backs resting lazily against the headboard. She didn't get under the covers with me though.

We rested our heads on each other.

The silence settled for a few moments, both of us sitting there, content. Amanda was waggling her feet side to side, clearly waiting for something.

"What?" I asked, a slight laugh in my voice.

"You're not going to like what I say next," she says, staring ahead, a kind of mischievous smile on her lips.

I sigh. "Just say it." I knew this was coming; it had to, eventually. But I'm glad it was coming from my sister.

She sighed too, but it was more of the kind that occurs before they say something harsh, or something someone doesn't want to hear.

"You need to confess," she said. She let the words sit in the opening silence for a moment. "Tears will probably stream down your face. You'll probably rather the world end than talking about it to him. He might choose to never speak to you again afterwards. It may never go back to what you two used to have. But you can't let it end this way."

They were words I didn't want to hear, but I needed to hear them nonetheless.

I had broken my own heart by my own stupid actions. And it hurt. But it hurt even more thinking about how I had broken Ethan's heart. How I had put him through such intense pain.

"Thank you," I said, a tear slipping down my face.

America wrapped her arm around me then as I buried my face into the crook of her neck.

I'm not sure how long she held me there.