Freezing Bonds that Tie our Hearts (Blood and Water #2)

21. Nova

“So, it’s serious, right?” I smiled at the question my sister seemed almost shy to ask.

I was sitting on my bed and she was on the floor between my legs, her back against the side of my mattress. Her cut off braids laid on the floor next to her, ready to be swept out to the trash.

Taking some more of my jojoba and castor oil mix and rubbing my fingers together, I then applied it to the roots of her hair, precisely where that little asshole had ripped her braid off.

It had been over a month, and even though Rory avoided the subject as much as she could, I knew there hadn’t been much change with that bully at school. She refused to let me intervene or tell Dad, but I’d been keeping a close eye on her, checking her for bruises and missing braids every time she came home from class. Sam, Jelena’s little brother, kept me updated too. According to him, nothing more happened if not some name-calling.

Prepping her hair for new braids was always a really calm and relaxing process for us. I usually oiled her hair the day before, then tomorrow would be hair wash day. She wanted to let her natural curls out for the next few weeks, which I thought was a great idea. She didn’t do it often but her curls were beautiful.

“I think it is. I’d like it to be.”

“Is he planning on going to the city for college too?”

I bit my lip, “I don’t think he’s planning on going to college.”

“Why not?”

“Money.”

“He could get a scholarship.”

“I doubt he’d want to study anything they teach in college.”

“He’s missing out then.” Crossing her arms on her chest, she looked appalled that someone wouldn’t want to attend higher education. It made me laugh.

“Aiden is… into tattoos and cars. Oh! And boxing, too.”

“Oh, so he’s like… a bad boy?” She giggled and I followed.

“I guess he is.”

We stayed silent for a few minutes as I massaged the oils into her scalp. I was the one to break the silence.

“Is it better? At school?”

She said nothing, her small shoulders tensing as she looked down on her lap. “Not really, but I can take it.”

“You shouldn’t have to take it, Rory. I’m gonna—”

“No!” She exclaimed, turning around and getting on her knees, her hands clutching mine, “No, please, Nova. I don’t want you to do anything, okay? I can handle it.”

“Aurora, that girl ripped a braid off your scalp. I only agreed to let it slide before because you said it had been an accident and that she had apologised. Now you’re telling me the bullying hasn’t stopped?”

“She’s just taunting me, okay? I promise. Calling me a teacher’s pet and things like that. If you interfere it will only prove her right.”

I said nothing, silently trying to find a solution that would not involve me betraying my sister’s trust.

“Plus, it’s only a few more months. Next school year, I’ll be in high school. It’s much bigger and no one will notice me there.” She smiled, sadly.

***

I was in bed, Kindle in hand and ready to read until I fell asleep when my phone buzzed on my nightstand. I groaned but my annoyance quickly died down when I saw who the text was from.

Aiden: Meet me down your street in ten.

Throwing the covers off, I rushed to my dresser and ripped the bonnet off my head, letting the braids cascade over my shoulders. I wasn’t originally going to, but prepping my sister’s hair earlier had me wanting to change mine up a little. I wasn’t ready to take them off yet, so I simply added some beads on the ends.

Adjusting myself, I grabbed a fluffy pink vest from my desk chair and some white sneakers, getting ready to sneak out of my window. Just as I had a leg over the sill, the door to my room came flying open. I froze and nearly had a heart attack thinking it was my dad, but instead, my little sister stood there, eyes riveted on her iPad.

“Hey, look I found this super cool documentary about frogs— what are you doing?” The last part of her sentence was hissed as she quickly shut the door behind her.

Putting my leg back in, I rushed to shush her, “Aiden asked me to meet him.”

She blinked, then continued to hiss at me as discreetly as possible, “Nova, dad is in his study!”

“I know, I’ll be back in an hour tops!”

“What’s going on with you lately?”

That made me stop in my tracks, rearing back a little.

“You’re giving Dad the cold shoulder, sneaking out, sleeping over at a strange guy’s house I— why are you acting that way, Nova?”

Rory looked genuinely confused, almost a little sad. Sometimes, it felt like she was the older sister, not me. She worried a lot, especially about me. I wasn’t mad that she questioned me, not at all. What I was mad about was that she thought she had to. It felt like I had been passively living my life up until a few weeks ago, and a big consequence of that was her taking on more responsibilities. I didn’t want that for her. I didn’t want a little sister who constantly had to worry about me. I wanted her to be my accomplice, to have my back without fear.

I wanted her to trust me.

“Rory,” I sat on my bed, “I have never felt more alive than I have these past few weeks. I promise you I’m being careful, I’m just… growing up.”

She frowned, looking so genuinely upset, “Growing up means you have to sneak out of the house at eleven at night? That you don’t have time to spend with your sisters anymore?”

“What?”

“We’ve barely seen you since you started hanging with- with him!”

I said nothing, thinking over what she’d just said. It was true that ever since the shooting happened, I hadn’t been as present as I should have. Those two weeks afterwards, I was a mess, barely coming out of my room and when I did, it felt like playing a role. Then the next two weeks, a lot of things happened with Aiden. I lost my virginity, we spent a lot of time together, going on late night rides or just sitting in his car and talking.

He told me about his family, I told him about mine. He knew I was impatiently waiting for an answer from the fashion school I had applied to in New York and he said he didn’t know what he’d like to do after high school. We still hadn’t put a label on what we were, hell, I’d barely even told my friends about everything that happened between us, but I liked it. Being with him felt like a breath of fresh air.

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how much it cost my sister. I’d gone from hanging out with her every time I was home—which was almost all the time— to barely being there at all.

“Rory, you know you’re my best friend, right? That no one will ever take me from you.”

When her little chin started wobbling, my eyes widened. Aurora never cried, she was the most put together person I knew, even at thirteen. My heart squeezed inside my chest and I immediately rushed to take her in my arms.

“Oh, baby.” I patted her back as she hugged me tight. Tears threatened to fall from my own eyes, it was hard keeping them in.

“It’s just… you’re going away next year. And it feels like all the time we should spend together you’re out there with him. I’ve seen you, I’ve seen how you seemed to bloom lately. I’m happy for you, but I’m also sad that you never looked that happy when it was just us.” I pushed away from her to look into her eyes.

“Believe me when I say that I will never love anyone more than I love you and Cece, Rory. With Aiden, it’s a different kind of love but it doesn’t mean it’s stronger than ours, okay?” Her eyes widened in surprise just as I realized what I’d just said.

Love.

I’d just told her I loved Aiden.

Not ready to come to terms with that realization, I cleared my throat and brushed away her tears with my thumb.

“Even if I do end up going to school in the city, it doesn’t mean I’ll stop visiting or calling you. I’ll be here every weekend, FaceTime you every night before bed. Please don’t think that us growing up means we won’t be close anymore. You’re the person I love most in the world. You’re my best friend. I’ll always choose you.”

By the time I was done, I was crying too, both of us a hot mess on my bed. It was almost comical. We laid sideways on the beddings, my arms around hers and her head on my shoulder, staring at the ceiling silently.

When my phone buzzed again, it pinched my heart a little to have to tell him I wouldn’t be coming after all, but I meant what I’d told Rory. So I shot him a quick text, saying my sister wanted to hang out last minute and that I was sorry.

“I’m sorry if I ruined your plans. You can go, you know.”

“Nonsense. I think you said something about a documentary about frogs. Come on, let’s watch it.” I smiled, sitting up and grabbing her iPad from beside her, when my phone buzzed again.

Aiden: Bring her. She can hang out with us.

I bit my lip, the idea was tempting, but I knew it was probably best to decline.

“He wants me to hang out with you?” Of course she’d be reading my texts over my shoulder, no matter how many times I told her I hated it.

“Would you like to?” I asked, hopeful.

“Depends. Are you guys gonna kiss?”

I chuckled, feeling my cheeks heat up, “No, smartass.”

“Okay then. But you’ll have to show me how to climb down your window without breaking my neck.”

I grinned.

“Come on.”

Aiden

“So you’re telling me frogs can eat with their eyes?” I watched as the credit rolled in, turning my head towards the preteen between Nova and I who’d spent the last hour or so watching me from the corner of her eye.

“Well… not really! You see, when a frog swallows food, it pulls its eyes down into the roof of its mouth to help push food down their throats. So, in a way, they use their eyes to eat, but they don’t eat directly with it.”

I couldn’t help the smile that stretched my lips as she proudly explained. I had to admit, documentaries weren’t my thing, but I would watch a hundred of them if it meant being close to Nova.

And her little sister was good company too. Rory was probably smarter than some of the guys in our grade, and even though she seemed wary of me at first, she quickly warmed up. We were squeezed tight in the backseat of my old Camarro, but none of us seemed to mind.

“That’s cool. Have any more documentaries on that tablet of yours?” Her eyes sparkled as soon as I asked and she nodded excitedly.

“Really? You’d like to watch another one?”

“Of course. That one on the frogs was great.”

“Okay. There’s another one on giraffes. I’ve already watched it but it’s one of my favorites.

“Go ahead and play it, then.” I smiled as she enthusiastically did so. My eyes briefly left her face and found Nova’s.

She looked happy and it made the shitty day I had all better. I wasn’t even mad that Rory was there, quite the contrary in fact. Getting to meet and hang out with her sister meant Nova was letting me in, and I fucking loved that.

The girl hit play on the new documentary and put the tablet on the console separating the two front seats of my car, so that we could all see. Then she surprised me a little by letting her head fall against my arm, throwing her legs over her sister’s lap, getting comfortable. Ten minutes into the documentary, she was out as a light.

I observed her sleeping face with a small smile on my face.

Rory looked a lot like Nova, they had the same delicate features and high cheekbones. When she slept, her mouth parted a bit and the cutest little snore fell off them. I couldn’t help but chuckle, catching Nova’s gaze over her head.

“Thank you for tonight.” She gave me a small smile.

“I had fun. We should do it more often, but maybe on a real couch with a real TV next time.”

My answer seemed to satisfy her and she nodded, pinching a smile. Her hand found mine on the headrest and I intertwined our fingers. There was something I was dying to ask her, a question that burned the tip of my tongue until I finally decided to let it out.

“Are things better at home?”

It didn’t miss, Nova tensed a little, “Not really. I haven’t been speaking to Dad all that much. Mostly been avoiding him and he’s taken on a big case at work so he’s barely there. Or when he is, like tonight, he’s staying up late in his home office. He doesn’t pay attention to much when he’s like this.”

My thumb rubbing the back of her hand, I nodded. We stayed silent for the longest time, just holding hands as Rory’s soft snores filled the car.

Nova looked lost in thought and I didn’t ask any more questions despite the fact that I still had about a thousand in store. I wanted to know everything about her. Every single detail about her life, everything that made her tick, what she loved and despised. I wanted to ask how she was feeling, if she’d had any more incidents with her meds, but I stopped myself, scared I’d be driving her away. I didn’t want her to think I thought of her like her dad did.

“Go on a date with me.” The words stumbled out of my mouth before I could think them through.

Her head whipped towards me, “What?”

“A date. With me. I’ll make it the best date you’ve ever been to.”

I had been waiting three years for that, saving money to be prepared just in case one day she finally decided to let me in.

The most beautiful smile stretched her lips as she nodded enthusiastically.

“There’s this restaurant that opened in Lakestone, it’s one of these Michelin Star—”

“A Michelin Star restaurant?” She looked amused, “What are we, fifty and celebrating our thirtieth anniversary?”

We would be, one day, if I had my way.

“I could take you there, you know.” I said, my feelings a little hurt at her reaction, “Just because I’m from a modest family and my mom doesn’t make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year doesn’t mean I couldn’t take care of you if you let me.”

Immediately, her face softened, guilt settling. “Aiden, no.” She leaned over me, a hand on my cheek, “I didn’t mean it like that. I promise.”

And I believed her, because Nova didn’t have a mean bone in her body, she would never say anything to hurt people’s feelings or put them down. And that wasn’t her watering down her personality or emotions to please her father, that was who she was at her core.

Kind. Soft. Pure.

The very definition of femininity.

“I know. I didn’t mean to react like a douche.” Moving my head to the side, I kissed the inside of her hand, Rory’s head moving in her sleep, getting more comfortable against my shoulder.

“You weren’t. All I meant was that this type of setup is too stuffy for me. I’d love to go on a date with you, something simple where we can just be ourselves and eat junk food. We could go to the Winter Fair.”

I could feel my eyebrows reach up on my forehead, surprised that she would suggest something so public. “It’s a date then.” I smirked, “Maybe we could take your sisters with us. Rory was saying how much she wanted to go earlier.”

“You want my sisters to tag along on our first date?”

“Your sisters are a big part of you, and as long as you’re with me, I’d even take your grandpa on a date with us.”

She laughed at that, her head falling back a little, “Sorry to disappoint, my pops isn’t much into fairs and festivals.”

“Oh, man. I was dying to meet him.”

Nova giggled again at my poor attempt at faking disappointment.

The sound was music to my ears.

“Tomorrow is the opening, we could go with your sisters in the afternoon, bring them back home and then go alone at night?”

“It’s a date.” She grinned, pecking my lips quickly before sitting back down.

“Can’t fucking wait, little star.”