Did You Get What You Deserve?

I spent most of the next few weeks sitting around at home. Sometimes James was with me, sometimes he wasn’t. One Saturday afternoon, he came running into my bedroom, his face red and tear-streaked.

“What’s up?”

He sat down beside me on the bed.

“We took Danielle to the optometrist today.”

I froze. Very rarely did he refer to his sister by her full name.

“And?”

He took a deep, shaky breath.

“She- her eyes aren’t just normally bad, like mine or Dad’s. She’s going- she’s going blind.”

I gasped.

“What?”

He nodded miserably.

“It’s some medical condition.”

“God... poor Dani.”

He nodded again. I sat there awkwardly, listening to him cry, and I felt a sudden need to be close to him. I put my arms around him and held him close to me, pressing my face to his head. He gradually stopped crying, and finally raised his head slightly to look me in the eye.

“I know this is completely stupid, and completely the wrong time, but fuck it, I’m gonna say it. Alec, I love you. I really, really do.”

I nodded.

“I know, James. I love you too.”

He grinned.

“It’s strange the things you think of at times like these.”

“Yeah...”

He sighed and put his head back on my shoulder. After about ten minutes, I realised he had fallen asleep, so I gently laid him down on the bed. Then I turned off the light and walked out to the kitchen. Mikey was sitting there with my parents, his head in his hands. He turned his head slightly as I walked in.

“Hi.”

“Hey Alec.”

I knelt down beside him and hugged him.

“How’s Dani?”

He shrugged.

“Okay. She’s actually taken it pretty well. She didn’t really cry, I think she kind of expected this.”

Then the door to the hall opened and Dani came in. I didn’t know she’d been in the house at all.

“Hi Dani.”

She smiled.

“Hey Alec. I take it James told you I’m going blind?”

I nodded.

“This must be really horrible for you.”

She shrugged.

“Not really. I mean, it probably will be tomorrow, but it’s not right now. It’s kind of unbelievable, but then, it’s also kind of a relief, if you know what I mean. It’s sort of good that I won’t just suddenly wake up one morning and find I can’t see anything. I have a chance to accept it before it happens.”

I nodded slowly. What she said made sense. She sighed and sat down next to Mum, who put a comforting arm around her.

“I think Dad and James are taking it worse than I am.”

Mikey nodded.

“I’d say that. James particularly. Danielle, you have no idea how much he loves you.”

Dani raised an eyebrow.

“He’s got a funny way of showing it.”

I smiled amusedly.

“For the past half an hour, your brother has been crying his eyes out because he loves you so much. He just has, like all boys, a greatly inflated ego and an incredibly sensitive sense of pride. It would not be worth his dignity to love his sister, especially one four years younger than him. Babies are alright, as are older sisters to a certain extent. But a sister who is four years younger must be shown nothing but contempt. She must be ruled over. However, this allows protection, as the boy feels he must assert his authority and make sure he has complete control over his sister. No-one bosses her around but him. Your brother is very protective of you, and he really does love you.”

I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist.

“Thanks for that, Alec.”

I grinned.

“Shattered your hard-earned pride, have I?”

He laughed.

“I’d say more given Dani a weapon to use on me... you see, now she knows why I can’t be nice to her.” He adopted a high-pitched tone that was supposedly in imitation of Dani. “James, I know you’re only trying to protect your fragile ego.”

His breath was warm and I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. He grinned and walked backwards out of the room, taking me with him.

“’Scuse us.”

Dad laughed and called after us.

“Behave yourselves!”

I shut the door of my room behind us and sat down next to him on the bed. He pulled me onto his lap and kissed me gently.

“You know what, James?”

“What?”

“I think I’m in love with you.”

“You already said that.”

I shook my head.

“No. I don’t just love you. I’m in love with you.”

He leaned back slightly and looked at me for a moment, his eyes searching my face. Then he smiled and hugged me tightly.

“I don’t have to say anything, do I? Because I don’t think there’s anything I can say.”

I nodded.

“I know.”

He grinned.

“Actions speak louder than words.”

“Wha-”

He kissed me again. My heart stopped for a moment, then started racing. Even after he stopped, I kept my face pressed to his.

“I don’t think there’s adequate words...”

I curled myself into a ball and leaned against him, listening to his heart. He put his arms around me, and we sat like that in silence until Mikey came in to get James.

“Come on, allow me to pry you away from each other. James can’t live here forever.”

I made a small noise of protest and rolled onto James’ lap.

“Yes he can.”

“No he can’t.”

James gently pushed me off him and stood up.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back tomorrow, or maybe even later today.”

He bent down and kissed my cheek before straightening up and following his dad out of the room.

**Author's Note:

Days_News
Friday; I'm In Love.

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