Time Will Tell

She’s finally asleep. She’s so aggravated that she can’t remember anything. She cried on my shoulder for a while and it broke my heart. I can’t stand seeing her this way.

I lean down and kiss the top of her head. She smiles a little in her sleep. It’s extremely cute.

“You really care about her, huh?” Kim asks, leaning against the door, waiting for me.

I look back at her, frowning. “After everything I’ve put her through you might not think I do, but I love your sister. She means a lot to me.”

I walk towards her and she opens the door. I follow her out. We walk towards the elevators. She bumps my shoulder with hers and grins.

“You were a dumb ass, but I’ve thought that I was being cheated on before, too, and it drives you a little crazy. Teag can take care of herself, though. She told me about pouring coffee on your head – just means she either wasn’t mad enough to kick you in the balls or they were out of her reach. She kneed Reese in the balls when they broke up.”

“Reese is such a freaking jerk.” I groan.

“Yeah, I know – and you can cuss around me – I’m not your mother.”

“What’s his deal anyway?” I ask, ignoring her jab.

“They were like best friends since they were toddlers. They started dating when they were fifteen and Erin became her best friend. He got mad when she chose her over him and he started getting really possessive. They broke up when they were seventeen and he had sex with this girl so of course she, being an emotional seventeen year old girl, went out and had sex with his best friend, and he flipped the fuck out. But for some stupid reason, and I don’t know what that reason was, they got back together, but she didn’t seem as into it. She broke up with him again though, like out of the blue and he hasn’t let it go. You make her happy, though, which is more than I can say for Reese.”

I push the down button and the elevator doors open automatically. We step in.

“So she broke up with him?” I ask, thinking about what Reese said about her sleeping with him.

“Yep,” she sighs. “Best decision she ever made if you ask me.”

“So she didn’t get back with him after that? Before me?”

She shakes her head and bites her lip. “I don’t know. She was talking about him the first day she went to babysit for you…” she glances over at me and must see something in my face that has her backtracking. “Not that that has anything at all to do with you! She cares about you.”

I sigh and run a hand through my hair. “I know,” I sigh. She loves me.

“Why were you asking?” she asks now, lifting an eyebrow at me. We reach the food court and I pull the door open for her.

“When Reese was trying to convince Teagan that he was still her boyfriend he told me that he slept with her when I was trying to get with her,” I admit, feeling extremely childish. It hurts, though, to even think that maybe she babysat for me, flirted with me, agreed to go on a date with me, and then turned around and fucked Reese.

“I doubt that,” Kim says, walking straight to the Chick-Fil-A line. I follow her, wondering why they have things like McDonalds, Starbucks, and Chick-Fil-A in a hospital. It’s like their promoting heart attacks and obesity.

“Why do you doubt that?” I ask.

“She was crazy about you. I couldn’t understand why – not that you aren’t great or anything – just you have a baby, and your life is so much further ahead than hers is already. She has these great friends, and she could have gotten any guy she wanted, but she chooses the one with the responsibility of a child to handle. I just doubt she would have risked things with you for Reese. I’m not saying she didn’t, because maybe she did, but in my personal opinion, as her sister, I think if anything happened with him, it was before anything ever actually happened with y’all.” She nodded at me and then ordered her food.

I ordered mine next and then we went and sat down at a table.

“I never thought she’d mean this much to me,” I say quietly. “She wants to leave – or at least she used to, I don’t know what she wants to do now – but she wants to get away from this town and be on her own, and I didn’t want to screw that up for her, but what if she chooses to leave? I don’t know how to let her go.”

“If she does choose to go to a college a couple hours away I’m sure you could make things work. People do long distance all the time, and the last I heard she wants to go to Wofford, which is only like an hour away.”

That makes me feel a little bit better.

“Why haven’t you talked to her about it?” she asks me, biting into her sandwich.

I shrug. “I don’t know. I’ve tried a few times but somehow we always end up off the subject. Usually she asks me how I’m doing before I can actually ask her about college.”

“She’s worried about you,” Kim says matter-of-factly.

“Worried about me?” I ask, slightly surprised. “Why?”

She shrugs. “She says you’re tired all the time, and that you stress about everything, and she wishes she could do something to help you, and she hates seeing you that way.”

I shake my head. “That’s stupid. She’s got enough to worry about. Besides, I’m fine. This is the way things have been for me for the last year. She’s actually made everything so much better for me.”

She nods at me, like she’s agreeing. “I thought you were like her new charity case at first, no offense, but then she told me she was going on a date with you and I said everything I could think of to change her mind, but she liked you and wanted you. She said she thought she could make you happy, not the other way around.”

I smile. “That sounds like my girl.”

“I didn’t think I was ever going to like or approve of you, but you’ve turned out to be pretty good for her – you know, when you’re not screwing her over. Remember when I told you I’d kick your ass if you ever hurt her? Well I don’t ever want to see her that way again, understood? And keep your ex away from her. She’s out of her fucking mind trying to mess with my baby sister.”

“What happened anyway?” I ask. It’s been eating at me all day that I don’t have a clue how this happened.

“My mom said that Teag and Celeste were screaming at each other and when she opened the door Celeste like slammed Teag’s head into the mail slot.”

I wince. Damn, Celeste.

Kim tosses her trash onto my tray and stands up. “Ready to go back and drool over my sister while she sleeps like the pervert you are?” she asks.

I roll my eyes. “I’m getting her something from Starbucks.”

She smiles. “Getting her her favorite drink to prove you actually know things about her?”

I shake my head sadly. “Getting her favorite drink to make her happy, and to make sure she knows I care.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell her you care. She listens to me on these things.”

“Whatever,” I say. “I’ll be up in a few minutes to watch over my girlfriend while she sleeps like the concerned boyfriend I am.”