Caught Up in You by Sophie Swift

her long, dainty fingers interlace with his.
    “I have a surprise!” Then she leans over and plants a quick kiss on Grayson’s cheek. “We’re back together.”
     

Two
    Lia
    The day I met Grayson Walker eight years ago was a solid 9.5 on the Richter scale.
    I remember the chasm that opened under my feet the first time I looked at him. The tremors that rippled through my body when he first touched me. I remember the fault lines that splintered and ruptured my poor, naïve heart when he chose my older sister instead of me.  
    Some might say I’m being overly dramatic. That I was never actually a viable choice—me being only fourteen at the time, and him being a whole three years older. Maybe Alex, in all of her seventeen years of womanhood and maturity, was the wise choice that night.        
    Maybe age was the only deciding factor.
    But believing that would be just another lie.
    Alex always won. It’s what she did best. She had, what I like to call, an abundance of mores.
    More beautiful. More athletic. More popular. More sex appeal.
    Just... more .
    It’s a truth untold between any two sisters. A natural inequality that just happens without any specific rhyme or reason. Genetics doesn’t play on a normal distribution curve. God doesn’t evenly allocate desirable traits, diligently counting the score to assure fairness. Like two children divvying up a pile of Halloween candy.
    Some people simply get the better candy.
    It’s true Grayson was never mine to lose. And yet, somehow I lost him every single day of my life.
    I lost the “hope” of him.
    Every time his lips crushed against hers in the hallway of our high school. Every time I heard the moans of their teenage experimentation in the bedroom next to mine. Every time he promised to never leave her.
    It was like having to reread the same sad ending to a disappointing book over and over again.
    They were together off and on throughout their entire senior year. They would fight, break up, then get back together in some dramatic showing before repeating the whole process again. I watched them shatter and fuse back together so many times I lost count.
    It was no surprise when they both ended up attending NYU together. And their rocky relationship went with them.
    That, at least, was somewhat of a reprieve.
    I didn’t have to witness it every day. It was an echo of longing. A pain once removed. Decidedly better than the first-hand, front-row version.
    Then, one day, their relationship ended for good.
    Alex decided to stay in New York City after college, and Grayson decided to move to Washington, D.C. And just like that, they were no more.
    That was four years ago.
    And I thought that I was finally set free from the heavy, iron chains of being unrequitedly in love with Grayson Walker.
    But that’s the thing about earthquakes. Just when you think they’re over, just when you start to feel safe again, that’s when the aftershock hits. And the foundation you thought was finally stable enough to stand on is suddenly crumbling beneath your feet.
     
     

Three
    Grayson
    Don’t stare, I command myself.
    Just look away. Focus on something else. Anything else! The floor, the ceiling, that annoyed-looking couple leaving the restaurant.
    But whatever you do, don’t look straight ahead. 
    I can’t help it, though. I’m so speechless right now.
    Who is this girl standing in front of me? This is not Alex’s sister. The scrawny little girl I taught to play rugby on the beach eight years ago. The awkward freshman I used to help with her calculus homework. The tomboy who wore oversized T-shirts and read comic books.
    This girl—this woman —is...is...
    Fucking hot.       
    The words pop into my head before I can stop them. I instantly rebuke myself. Alex’s little sister cannot be hot . She’s Alex’s little sister. She can be sweet. She can be adorable. She can be lovable. But she cannot under any circumstances be hot .
    Seriously, though, where did