Page 23 of Avenged

“Yes. What’s the big deal?”

“Jersey doesn’t drink. Not ever. Not since the accident.” Violet sat down hard on the steps.

“What accident?”

“Dad’s and my accident. The one where he killed Ana Perez, I lost my spleen, and he went to jail.”

I stared, my pulse stopping and starting again, my brain processing her words slowly. I sat down on the step next to her. “Shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“No? I can’t imagine people in town knowing you were living with us and not mentioning it.” She shrugged.

“I haven’t heard a word.”

She flipped her phone around in her hands, over and over and over. Nervous. Pensive. A way you rarely saw Violet, but a way you often saw Jersey. With Violet acting this way, the similarity between them was much more apparent. Except, I was never once attracted to Violet. I felt nothing but a sense of protection for her. Jersey, on the other hand, routinely had my blood boiling to a level of bursting.

“Jersey blames herself,” Violet finally spoke.

“Why would she blame herself?”

“She was at an after-party on prom night with her boyfriend. When he’d had one too many, she called Dad. He was so angry. Angrier than I’d ever seen him. So when he got in the car, I followed. I was terrified he’d completely go apeshit on her, and if I was there, he often caught himself, stopped…” She shook her head. “He got in the car even though he’d been drinking. So stupid, when you think about it. He got in the car, drunk, to go pick Jersey up so she wouldn’t get in a car with a boy who was drunk. When I got in, I didn’t really realize he’d had so much…” Violet trailed off again. “You’re good at that.”

“What?”

“Getting me to tell you things Jersey would hate me telling you.”

I laughed softly. “I really didn’t say or do anything. Maybe you just needed to talk to someone about it all.”

Her eyes filled with tears, and she looked away, wiping at her eyes. “Maybe.”

After a minute or so, she got control of herself just like her sister always did. “How’d you get her to drink?”

“I proposed marriage,” I said with a smile.

Her jaw dropped again. “You what?”

It was almost a screech, and I put my finger to my lips. I didn’t want her to wake Jersey.

“An arrangement. If she marries me, she can get medical benefits. It would be strictly a professional partnership.”

“Holy blue jeans, Batman. She didn’t agree, did she?”

“Sort of.”

She was shaking her head. “No way. Jersey would never agree to this.”

“Why?”

“Have you seen her comic book collection? She’s all about the happily ever after.”

“A lot of superheroes don’t have happily ever afters.”

She was nodding. “But she likes the ones best where there is a happily ever after.”

“You’re telling me your sister is a romantic at heart?”

“She’d never admit it. She’d tell you all about the science of love or the psychology of love, or whatever. But it isn’t true. Regardless, she won’t marry you for the benefits.”

I sat quietly for a moment. I wished it wasn’t six o’clock at night. I wished the county clerk’s office was still open and I could drive Jersey there, half drunk, half asleep, and have her sign the papers. That way she’d agree to the one thing that could possibly save her.

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