Page 176 of Say Yes to the Nemesis
“I’m sure you are.” He pauses. “Are you happy, Wren? Really happy?”
“Yeah. I really am.”
He nods. “Then I’m happy for you. Even if I still think Ryan’s an ass.”
I laugh. “He can be an ass. But he’s my ass.”
“God, that’s disgusting.”
“You love it.”
“I really don’t.”
But he’s smiling when he says it. I know we’re going to be okay. Different, but okay.
“You know,” Jay says as I’m getting ready to leave, “if it had to be someone, I guess I’d rather it be someone who’d take a punch for you.”
“You think Ryan would take a punch for me?”
“I think Ryan would throw himself in front of a bus for you. Which is the only reason I’m not throwing him out on his ass.”
“Thanks for that ringing endorsement.”
“Don’t push it.”
I hug him one more time at the door. “I love you, Jay.”
“I love you too, little sister.”
“Not so little anymore.”
“No,” he agrees. “Not so little anymore.”
I walk out to where Ryan is waiting, leaning against the driver’s side door of his car with his arms crossed. He straightens up when he sees me.
“How’d it go?”
“Good. Hard, but good.”
I reach over and take his hand.
“Thank you for coming tonight.”
“Always.”
“I mean it. You didn’t have to do that.”
“Yeah, I did. We’re a team now, Wren. Your battles are my battles.”
I used to believe I had to stay quiet to be loved. That I had to make myself small to fit into the spaces other people left for me. But I was never small. I was just waiting for the world to listen.
I never needed to sparkle. I just needed someone who saw me in the dark.
I used to be the girl behind the camera. Now I’m not behind the camera anymore. I’m not the extra in someone else’s show. I’m the whole damn storyline.
And I’m doing it all as myself. Not as Jay’s sister or Ryan’s girlfriend, but as Wren. Just Wren.
It’s terrifying and exhilarating and absolutely perfect.
