Because You're Different ✔

37. Little sister

"June," she said.

"Hi," I said, suddenly really uncomfortable. I grabbed my own hand with the other to keep them from tensing, which might've been a bad idea because now the green of the ring stood out against my paler knuckles.

Her gaze moved to the stone, her face completely empty from any emotion. I had no idea what she was thinking. What was she doing here? "Nathan's studying," she said abruptly, making me jump. Tentatively, she approached me, sitting down beside me on the edge of the couch, like she wanted to make sure she could leave any moment. "Can I see it?"

My fingers wouldn't keep still as I showed her the ring, a million questions running through my mind. "It's not a wedding ring," I blurted out.

She smiled amusedly. "I'm aware of that, thank you." She took my hand, barely touching me, which only made me tenser, and inspected grandma Redstone's prized possession. "It's very old, isn't it?"

"Yeah... I think Nathan said it wouldn't be suitable to be an actual wedding ring."

"Yes, I can see why. The emerald would be difficult to combine." She bit her lip, staring at the ring for a few more seconds before letting go and leaning back in the cushions. She sighed deeply, straightening her skirt. "I'm sorry," she said, turning to me, "for being so melodramatic. I had a short night and..." She didn't finish her sentence, and I was taken by surprise by having to respond sooner than expected.

"I — there's no need to be sorry. Sam was being a jerk. You had every reason to be a drama queen." She had. It might've been a joke; the message was that she wasn't welcome here, and that must've stung. I wouldn't have reacted any other way, had I been in her place.

She didn't respond, looking into nothing, turning around the golden rings on her unscathed fingers. Even now, I couldn't decide if I liked her or not. We were so different from each other.

After a long, uncomfortable silence, she opened her mouth — and closed it again — and opened it again. "I've been wanting to talk to you for a while now," she finally said, avoiding my gaze. "Ever since New Year's, I think. Or perhaps Christmas. Or perhaps before that..." She shook her head, hair flying around her. "It doesn't matter, I suppose. A long time, anyway. Gosh, I'm babbling." She smiled swiftly, dimples in her cheeks. "I meant simply to ask... if you ever... do you ever... have the feeling that Nathan... that he's not telling you something?"

What was she acting all weird about? I wasn't used to her rambling like this. She was always ready and confident; it was one of the things I admired in her. "Sure," I said, shrugging. "He doesn't tell me everything."

"What kind of things doesn't he tell you?"

I frowned. Was she serious right now? She was good at the lawyer-stuff, but this might've been the most useless question I'd ever heard. This conversation was starting to make me uneasy. "How should I know what he doesn't tell me?" I laughed, examining her face. It seemed like she was chewing her tongue. What the hell was going on?

She leaned closer to me, forming a circle with her hands. I caught a whiff of her stifling perfume and almost recoiled, but the earnestness her body radiated made me stay where I was. She swallowed, then took a deep breath. "June, is there something, anything, I should know about?" Her eyes were fixed on mine, almost pleading with me. "I know you and Nathan have a very... special bond. It's just... I want to go for it. I think he's a good man and I think... well..." She blushed, momentarily looking away. "It doesn't matter. What matters is that there's this odd feeling I sometimes get, like he's not really present. And I want to know why, even if... Well, I want to know why."

As I stared at her, my mouth probably hanging open, something was starting to dawn on me. New Year's, she'd mentioned. Only, the fact that she was admitting to me she "wanted to go for it", whatever that meant precisely, was making it hard to breathe, hard to think. After all, the one thing that a girl like her still had to achieve was marriage and babies. A familiar panic was emerging in my stomach, and I grabbed my legs. "Is this because of what Sam did?"