Page 7 of Kiss Me Again

"Oh, please." I roll my eyes at how disgustingly sweet my sister is acting.

Mia smiles too. We both know that Diana would never give me back my chair or bring my plate if it wasn't because of my injury. Diana never caters to anyone, especially not her family. She is too proud. Also, she likes to argue with me; it's been our family language since we were little. But since I hurt my knee, she’s been overly accommodating.

I glance at Mia, who avoids my gaze. I just realized that I’ve never heard my sister argue with Mia. Have they ever had a real fight? I don't think so. Is that because Mia is always the most intelligent person in the room, so there's no point in arguing with her? Hardly possible, knowing Diana.

This girl has a genius brain and the face of a Barbie doll, with those dirty-blond natural curls, huge blue eyes, and full pink lips...

I lower my gaze to her mouth, and the fragments of our kiss pop up in my memory.

I look away immediately.

Living with Mia under one roof will be even more complicated than I thought.

"Here you go, my favorite brother." Di places a plate full of food in front of me. "If you need anything—soda, water, bread—just let me know, and I'll bring it."

"I have a knee sprain, not a tumor, Di. I can bring my own food, don't make a big deal out of it," I say, spreading my hands in both question and despair.

Mia laughs at this.

"I promised our parents I would take care of you," Di smiles with satisfaction that she finally got me—just like when we were children.

"Are you three?" I ask, looking at my sister.

"No, but I missed you," she says right away. "And this is my way of showing you how much."

"By pissing me off?"

"Kind of." She shrugs, and Mia laughs even more.

"You're both so adorable. I wish I had a sibling," Mia says, looking at Di.

"You have us!" Di exclaims enthusiastically, looking at her. "You were always like a sister to me. And I'm sure you're like a sister to Ben. Right?" They both face me, and I have nothing to say for the first time in my life, so I nod.

Mia turns away immediately. I don't see any disappointment on her face because of my answer, but she’s no longer smiling.

That kiss was a long ago. Mia has had a boyfriend since then. I'm sure she thinks of it as a drunken kiss.

Except that she wasn't drunk, and neither was I.

Diana's cell starts to ring, and she jumps when she sees who's calling.

"I'll be right back!" she exclaims and leaves so fast that I have no time to respond.

An awkward silence fills the room.

"So are you staying for long?" is the only thing I can manage to ask, and Mia looks up at me. I see the frustration in her gaze. Does she think she's not welcome here now? Why did I ask her that when I knew the answer?

"A couple of weeks, three at the most," she finally says, looking back at her salad, moving it around with her fork. "But if you don’t want..."

"No, it's not like that," I say and then kick myself for how stupid it sounds.

When you say'It's not like that,'it means it's exactly like that. It's the same as saying,'It's not you; it's me.'It becomes evident that it's you.

"I'm just asking because I'm not leaving for the next six weeks, and it's going to be a good opportunity to make up for lost time." Yes, that is the smartest thing I can come up with.

Mia looks up at me again; her eyes enlarge with surprise, but she says nothing.

What the hell am I saying? What does that even mean? We stopped spending time with each other since that kiss. I haven’t even texted her since then, and she didn’t either. For both of us, it was an awkward situation. I thought it would get better with time, but it didn't.

---