This week has been amazing so far, I got to mend things up with Alex, go out with friends on Wednesday and for the first time in ages I had a group of friends that weren't just figure skaters. I felt normal for the first time and I really loved it.

Micheal and Irene were back from their competition, now joining our little group. They'd told me they'd won at their competition but they really didn't seem very happy with one another. Something was off but I couldn't quite tell what.

Sabrina was doing her best to antagonize me but without her little click following her she wasn't having the same effect she used to. Nobody cared anymore, it was like the bullying stopped when Nate became my friend. This also reinforced that Sabrina really didn't have as much power as she thought she did. Jake was always loyally by her side, the two making it as clear as possible that they were together.

I could tell it really bothered Nate, to see two people you used to be so close to blatantly stabbing you in the heart had to hurt.

Today I had a big decision to make. Was I going to go with Alex to meet Nik's girlfriend? I wasn't sure if it would be a great idea because Nik and I still had issues that needed sorting out. And I know Nik hadn't been serious with somebody in ages, so I didn't want to be the one that messed it up for him.

On the other hand, he was my brother. He was one of the most important people in my life and I wanted to support him in this major part of his life.

"You okay?" Nate asks me running his hands over my back where we lay down in bed. "You seem like you're a million miles away."

Nate was always so observant, he was good at knowing when something was bothering me.

"Yeah, sorry." I say quietly shaking my head. "I'm just trying to make up my mind."

"About what?" He asks turning down the show playing in the background.

"Well when Alex came to visit he told me Nik had a new girlfriend. They've been going out for a while and everything and she wants to meet our family. Nik of course doesn't want that, so he wants her to meet Alex. Alex asked me if I wanted to come, meet her too. But I haven't decided, they're meeting soon and I don't know what to do." I whine putting my face in his chest and he laughs.

"Do you want to go?" He asks and I sigh really trying to think about how I felt.

"Well he's my brother and I know this is really important to him. I know he wants me there and I want to be supportive." I tell him. "But the other part of me knows he wasn't very kind to you or me when he found out about us. I also know we have our own stuff to sort out and I don't want that messing with this for him either." He nods quietly, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear.

"Well don't let his reaction to me, impact this decision." He tells me cupping the side of my face. "I know we don't stand in a great spot but in the end he'll probably threaten to kill me, but live with it because he loves you." I nod knowing he's probably right. "He'll probably be so excited to see you that he won't want to address it, he'll just want you to meet his girlfriend. Afterwards you guys can always sort out all of that stuff too."

"You're probably right, I'm just overthinking everything." I mumble and he laughs a bit.

"But if you're really not comfortable with it, don't put yourself in that position. You have to do what's right with you and if you really don't want to see him, you don't have to." He reminds me. "But I know he misses you."

"I miss him too." I admit. 

"Then go." He encourages. "If it's a mess, call me and I'll come get you. It's just that easy." 

"You're right, I don't even know what I was so worried about." I sigh and roll over to answer Alex's text from this morning, asking if I'd come and if I wanted a ride. "Alright, I'm going." 

"Good." He says pulling me closer. I laugh a bit and wrap my arms around him bringing our faces level with each other. God he's so good looking.

"You know I always thought your eyes were green." I say quietly leaning my forehead on his and cupping the side of his face, skimming my thumb over his cheekbone. "But then I really took a good look and realized they're-"

"Hazel." He finishes for me and I nod feeling my cheeks heat up. 

"They're beautiful." I whisper leaning in close to kiss the space between his eyebrows.

"So are you." He whispers rolling me under him and I laugh a bit. I put my hands on the sides of his body, resting over his ribs. He leans down and suddenly I feel his lips on mine. His body weight on top of mine makes me squirm.

We hadn't really talked about anything else regarding the two of us. Not relationship wise, not intimacy wise. We just seemed to enjoy each other's company, knowing how we really felt about one another. 

I really was scared of physical intimacy, not only because I didn't have great confidence in myself, but also because it left a lot of unknowns. I didn't know anyone who'd had sex or knew much of anything about this sort of stuff. I didn't know if it made me excited or scared, I wasn't sure how I felt about really putting everything out there.

On the flip side, I do know how I feel about Nate. He means more to me than anyone else in this universe and I know I just want to be as close as possible to him all the time. I know he sends shivers through my body, that his slightly tanned skin makes my heart beat faster. I know that I like looking at him a little too much. We had been close with each other for seven weeks, so I should arguably feel comfortable about this.

I do feel comfortable with him of course, but I shouldn't push myself into something I'm not ready for. That is the one thing I do know about sex.

"When does Alex come get you?" He asks and I furrow my eyebrows looking at the clock on the wall.

"In about one hour." I tell him and he smiles.

"Mom's working late tonight." He says quietly moving one of his hands over my waist. "Wanna make out until then?" He asks and I genuinely laugh.

"You're so immature." I tease, rolling my eyes. "I'd love to." I say quietly, falling back into the bed wrapping my arms around the back of his neck.

>

"So how was your week?" Alex asks as we drive to the coffee shop.

"Pretty normal, it was boring school wise." I tell him with a shrug. "But on the bright side, I have some new friends and all of the teasing seems to be dying off."

"That's really great Sash." He says quietly. "I'm glad."

"Did you tell Nik I was coming?" I ask and he shakes his head.

"No, but I know he'll be glad to see you." He says with a small smile. "He's been pressing me for information because he knows I know where you are. But I just tell him you're safe, if he knew he'd be there everyday trying to talk to you. He misses you a lot I think."

"I miss Nik, he's always been good for a laugh." I admit, smiling to myself now thinking about all the good things we'd done together. "So what can you tell me about this girl?" I ask trying to change the subject.

"Her name's Grace." He says quietly. "She's our grade, track team. She ran into Nik....literally in the hallway weeks ago. He took her out to make it up to her and the rest is history. He really likes her Sash."

"Aw really?" I ask feeling sentimental for Nik. "That's so sweet, I can't even remember the last time Nik felt serious about a girl." It was no secret that there were always girls around, but they weren't girlfriends. I tried not to ask any questions or get involved with all of that. We were definitely in a don't-ask-don't-tell situation when it came to all of that.

"I know, he's all sentimental with her." He says with a laugh. "The same guy who'll beat someone into the ground will go over to see Grace just because she wants a goodnight kiss."

"That's so cute." I say having a hard time picturing him doing that. Nik was always the more aggressive of my two brothers, fiercely protective. He'd been guarded since he was little, bad at letting people in and letting people love him. I guess we had dad to thank for that too.

"Well this is it." He says parking the car and I nod, trying to keep my breathing even. "Come on he'll be glad to see you." I nod and open the door walking up to the little shop behind Alex. We walk inside and I see Nik totally lost in conversation with a pretty girl. 

She was stunning, she had deep tanned skin which left me envious. Her hair was wavy and dark falling just below collarbone hight. She seemed fit, happy, a good fit for Nik. 

Nik looks up for a second looking at Alex and then his eyes land on me and he stops talking standing up and walking over to me. I get hit with the biggest hug I've ever had in my entire life and for a second I just relax a bit.

"You're here?" He asks and I nod.

"Yeah, Alex asked if I wanted to meet your girlfriend." I tell him and he laughs squeezing me tighter. "Nik-" I say having a hard time breathing. "You're squeezing me....a bit too hard."

"Sorry." He says, pulling back again. "I'm just so glad to see you, I missed you."

"I missed you too." I tell him. "Now are you going to introduce me to your girlfriend or not?" He laughs with a nod and brings me back to the table.

"Hi! I'm Grace." She says happily giving me a brief hug.

"I'm Sasha, it's so nice to meet you." I tell her and she nods with a smile.

"Nik talks about you all the time." She says. "It's nice to put a name to a face." 

"True enough." I tell her and she pulls me down to sit with her.

"Coffee Sash?" Alex asks and I shrug.

"Sure."

"Back in a few then." And just like that Nik and Alex disappear to the counter.

"So tell me about you." She says. 

"Well I'm a sophomore, I just took a break from figure skating so I've been making some new friends, getting to have some fun." I tell her with a shrug. "I'm pretty boring."

"Nik says you're one of the strongest people in the world." She says quietly. "He loves you and Alex more than anyone else."

"My brothers are amazing. They've always had a hard time opening up though, which is why I'm really glad to hear he's dating you." She looks flattered by that and nods.

"Well he was a hard nut to crack, it's hard to get him to trust you." She says and I nod knowing that sounded exactly like Nik.

"But I hear you have him in shape now, he really likes you." I tell her and she smiles leaning over to give me another hug.

Soon enough my brothers are back with the coffee and we proceed to have a nice quiet night of easy conversation. It was nice to see Nik so into somebody else, so nice to have my family back. Grace was genuinely one of the nicest people I'd ever met, she was just positive and happy to be around other people. I knew she was good for Nik, she'd be the patient, supportive type of person he needed. She'd be his Nate.

Soon enough our evening was over and we were all ready to go home. Grace told Nik she'd run to the washroom and then we could all head out. Once she was gone he turned to me and sighed.

"I'm really sorry about Nate." He says quietly. "Alex told me about you two, I didn't know."

"Well now you do, and that's what's important. Nik he wants your approval really badly, he really does care what you think. I just want you to know.....he's really serious about me. He doesn't even talk to his old friends anymore. He sits with me at lunch, he cares about me and....I care about him. But it doesn't mean I don't need or want you just as much." I tell him quietly.

"The way you feel about Grace, that thing you feel in your stomach that makes you break down your walls and want to follow her to the ends of the earth....that is what Nate is to me." I explain, trying to put it in a way that makes sense. "And I know we're only sixteen and there were four years that we spent without each other, but I really know I can count on him." Nik nods quietly and looks at the table before answering.

"I wasn't sure what was going on when I saw him with you." He says quietly. "I thought he was trying to mess with you, or use you. You're my little sister." He defends and I smile.

"Well I'll always be your little sister." I remind him. "That doesn't change, just like you'll still be my big brother even though you're with Grace."

"She's great isn't she?" He asks and I nod.

"She's wonderful, great job Nikita." I tell him and he ruffles my hair around. 

"Are we alright?" He asks and I nod.

"Of course we are." I say quietly giving him a hug that he gladly accepts.

"So....where have you been? You've been somewhere for more than a week, Irene? Kate?" He asks. "Micheal maybe?" He adds and I shake my head pressing my lips together.

"No, no. It's somebody I care about a whole lot more than that."

"No......" He says pulling back slightly, almost in disbelief. "You're not staying with Nate are you?" He whines and I nod quietly trying to fight the smile on my lips.

"Yeah, in separate rooms though." I tell him, not entirely true but I knew it made the whole situation sound better. 

"Oh Jesus." He mumbles.

"Relax, he's emotional support more than anything else." I assure him knowing that was mostly true. We just slept in bed together most nights and kissed, nothing serious had gone down between us really.

"You mean to tell me neither of you have snuck across the hallway-"

"Ew Nik." I say crossing my arms. "First of all, if I did, who cares? Second of all, like you haven't slept with Grace yet." I say rolling my eyes.

"Well....." He starts but fades off clearly not knowing how to get me back. "That's different, we're adults."

"Age of consent is sixteen." I tell him and his face contorts in horror. "Calm down, I'm only teasing. I promise we haven't done anything, nothing at all." He squints his eyes like I'm lying or he doesn't believe me. "I'd have no reason to lie about it."

"If something happens call okay?" He asks and I laugh a bit seeing how tense he is.

"Alright." I say with a shrug. "I promise I'm alright." He nods and then leans in for another hug.

"I'm glad." He whispers and then we see Grace coming back from the washroom.

"She's really pretty." I say quietly and he nods. I can see his cheeks turning red and I smile.

"I know, I'm a lucky guy. Best girlfriend, brother and sister anyone could ask for." I nod knowing I felt exactly the same way.

Who could ask for more than that?