Page 63 of Tasting Innocence

“He’s really sweet, Zo. He makes me happy.”

His eyes flicker to me before he looks back at the TV, and I start sensing a crack in his anger-filled armor. “Vi, I’m still not the biggest fan of this. I don’t know. It’s weird for me to think about.”

I walk over and sit next to him on the couch. “I love you. You’re the best big brother a girl could ask for, and I appreciate how much you care about me, but I have to make my own decisions, whether they become mistakes or not. I have to grow up. And you need Dex in your life. You have to talk to him, Zo.”

“I know.”

I wrap an arm around him. “And you owe me a boyfriend for stealing my last one.”

He gives me an unamused look as I grin at him, hoping to make him smile.

“You’re a little shit, you know that?” he says, squeezing me into him as a chuckle finally breaks free.

“I know.”