Page 60 of Avenged

“What image is that?” Vi asked.

“You know, his real-life superhero, a Coastie-to-the-rescue kind of thing,” he said, looking down into her smiling face. Watching my brother watch Violet made me realize he was fighting an attraction to her as strong as the one I had for Jersey. They were as many years apart as Jersey and me, but Vi was completely off-limits. She was sixteen. I knew, like I’d told Jersey, he would never act on it, but it made me feel like a complete wuss for acting on mine. When it came to the Banner women, Dawson was the stronger man.

“So, I’m not supposed to carry my own backpack in order to let him be some kind of real-life Hulk?” Jersey teased, and when I met her eyes, I knew she had said the Hulk because of the first conversation we’d ever had.

“Just give him the backpack; this way we can move faster,” Violet said.

Jersey seemed to consider this for a moment, then she slid the backpack off and handed it to me. I winked at Violet over her head, and Violet winked back. Jersey didn’t need the extra weight tying her down to the earth. Not with a body that was already hurting. Not with the invisible bricks she carried on her shoulders.

When Jersey handed it over, she said, “Okay, Captain Coast Guard, I’m counting on you to have these for me when I need them the most.”

Our eyes met, and I said with more feeling than I should have, “I promise I won’t let you down.”

A cheer went up as the doors opened, and Violet and Jersey both stood on their tiptoes as they tried to see over the crowd. I leaned into Jersey. “Do you want to sit on my shoulders?”

She laughed. “No, I’m not six.”

“We should have been here earlier,” Violet said with a little frustrated sigh. “We may have to alter our plan a little.”

Jersey turned Violet to face her. “Listen to me. This. This right here. It’s already one of my very best days ever. What we get to do inside…that’s all ice cream beside the cake. If all we get to do is one thing, it will still be my best day.”

Violet hugged her, and then I couldn’t help it, I hugged them both. The women laughed. Then, to my complete and utter surprise, Dawson hugged all three of us. We must have looked like complete morons. A human ball of knotted limbs and hair, but I had to agree with Jersey. This was a really good day.

? ? ?

We’d been at the convention for a few hours before Jersey and Violet made it into the very long line that had formed for Di Felix and the entire team from Image Fist. Dawson and I had trailed after the blondes, who had almost danced and pranced about with giddiness all day. Their joy was contagious, and before we knew it, Daw and I were both smiling, too. We were also hitting each other in the arm and raising our eyebrows at some of the costumes—some sexy and erotic, others so ugly you wanted to vomit. The huge conference hall was vibrating with the excited energy of the crowd. Happiness.

Laughter filled the air. People squealed at the costumes of other attendees. People would stop what they were doing to take random pictures with the other costume-clad fans who wore what Vi informed me was “cosplay” and not “costumes.” Some of the people and costumes looked uncannily like the superheroes I did know, and you could tell who were the crowd favorites by the line of people trying to take pictures.

When Dawson and I were almost passing out from hunger, the women sent us off to get food, saying they weren’t going to miss anything because of something as mundane as eating. Dawson and I found them again, after gorging ourselves on junk food, and handed them burgers. They thanked us and ate them, but I seriously think they wouldn’t have cared if they’d gone without food the entire day.

I was left waiting for the Image Fist people with Jersey while Dawson and Vi headed to the restroom. I was still people-watching until Jersey let out a huge gasp, and I turned to see her staring at the booth next to the signing tables. The booth’s banner said “Image Fist” in shades of teal and blue. On the edge of the booth, in a huge glass case, was a pair of wings which looked similar to the ones she’d shown me on the cover of the comic last night.

The wings were probably four or five feet tall, and they shimmered from a light that was strobing behind them. The wings looked like they were made out of crystal or diamonds, but the edges turned to a bright-fuchsia color before ending in black.

“Oh my God. They’re gorgeous,” she said in awe.

As we got closer, I saw the price tag and choked. “A hundred thousand dollars!”

Jersey laughed at my shock. “It’s incredible, though.”

“But it’s a hundred thousand dollars. Is there anyone here who would be stu?”

Jersey covered my mouth with her hand.

“Don’t say it. We don’t want you to start a riot because of your own lack of knowledge.”

She was laughing up at me, her face its own sparkling vision. She was hurting my heart because she was so damn gorgeous. I wanted to see her this way all the time. Lit up more than the wings with the light flickering on them. I reached out, halting her hand before she could remove it, and kissed the palm.

She stared up at me, smile still there but slowly fading, and I hated myself for making it happen. For being the impulsive jerk I’d often accused my brother of being. The brother who was showing me he had much more strength than I did.

I let her hand go, and she pulled it to her chest which was heaving below her tank top in a way I remembered from our tickle fest and from our kiss. From our bodies touching. I wanted to be able to touch her all the time. I wanted her to be mine for real.

Violet came careening into me. “Move, move, we’re almost there.”

I stepped aside so she could take my place by Jersey and went to move away, but Violet halted me. “Wait, don’t forget the backpack.”

I handed it over before joining Dawson across the aisle from the booth. We didn’t say anything. We just watched the two women who had somehow wound their way into our lives in a way that was going to hurt like hell when they weren’t in it again. That sobered me up. Sobered me from my drunken Jersey haze. Because I was going to be leaving, and there was no way Jersey would. She’d stay with Violet. She wouldn’t do to her sister what I’d done to Dawson. I’d left to capture my own dreams, but Jersey? Jersey only dreamed of making Violet’s come true.

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