Six Years by Stephanie Witter

join you in a second."
    When he walked away I did something I couldn't be scolded for doing. I checked out his ass in his jeans and... That looked good. I fanned myself and Lisa, the waitress I was working with tonight laughed at me. She was a petite and curvaceous girl.
    “Are you okay if I take my break now? Just five minutes."
    "Of course. Have fun with him," she said with a smile gracing her little mouth as she finished cleaning a table.
    The bar wasn't very crowded tonight and I was thankful for it. I was too tired to run around for hours and I hoped I might be able to leave soon. The down side was that I wouldn't make many tips tonight. But you couldn't have everything.
    I sat in front of Nolan and waited for him to say something but instead he was looking at me like it was the first time he’d met me. I thought about waving in front of his face, but I would come across as awkward and that wasn't my idea of fun.
    "I thought about what you said earlier." He sighed and leaned back on his chair. "I would have regrets, but I can't exactly yell at her when she looks so... I mean she's fucking dying!"
    I grabbed one of his hand and squeezed it. Maybe I was doing this to comfort him, but it would be a lie if it wasn’t also because I wanted to touch him. I was falling back again and fast, or maybe I’d never stopped feeling something for him. And it was still hopeless, but at least, I could touch him a little bit.
    "I want to tell you something, but I know you're going to be mad at me and I don't want you to be," I said after a few more seconds of silence.
    He cocked his head on one side and put his hand over mine. I was tingling. "Tell me."
    "In all this shitstorm with your mom, you're lucky about one thing," His hand under mine and the one above tensed, but I kept going. "She loves you. It's something I don't have with my parents. They don't yell at me, don't put me through what you went through, that's true, but I get the cold shoulder. They’ve never told me they loved me and I know that your mom told you she loves you. I never had someone to just talk to at home and even if your mother was often out of it, she talked to you. You were wanted when she got you, I was not. I'm the child my parents decided to have in the hope of being some kind of replacement to my dead big sister and when they had their first look at me they saw that I was lacking in everything Kelly was and they rejected me. You have no idea what it's like to not know what it's like to be loved." My voice broke slightly, but I cleared it. I wouldn't cry over this. It was my life and I had to deal with it. It's not like I had any choice, but I wanted to open Nolan's eyes. I didn't want him to suffer once his mother was gone. He deserved to find some sort of peace from his past.
    "They love you, Little B. They have to." I looked up and my breath caught in my throat. There was so much emotion on his face and it was directed right at me. "They don't know how to express it after they lost Kelly. And you know what it feels like to be loved. I love you, Little B."
    My heart missed a beat. I wanted his words to mean so much more. I wanted him to b e i n lov e with me, Brooklyn Powell, not feel sisterly love for Little B. But in a way, he was right, I knew what it felt like because he was attached to me, deeply so. I smiled at him.
    "You look very cozy over here."
    Nolan released my hand and turned to his right where Mike was, frowning down at him. "We were talking."
    Mike glanced at me and his brown eyes could have killed. They drilled into us.
    I frowned at him, feeling annoyance coming, flooding me. At seeing Mike all threatening against Nolan, you would think I was his. I glanced at Nolan and saw him ready to bolt and it angered me even more. Granted, we weren't havin g a momen t , but our talk was important, was meaningful and now he acted almost as if it was wrong.
    "Relax, Mike. We were just talking," I replied dismissively, my voice nonchalant as I was