.

I don't open my eyes. I reach my arm out to pull her closer but it falls flat to the bed. My eyes fly open and I sit up looking around the room.

She's gone.

I throw myself back into the bed, staring at the ceiling. I fell asleep holding her, it's been a long time since I've done that. Usually I was the one who was gone when they woke.

I should have never started this with her. I didn't realize I was messing with a broken girl, one that became my friend, one I liked.

I place my hands over my face and take a deep breath. It was getting serious. It needed to end. I wanted to drag this one out too, but we were getting way too close.

But now, she's gone. The one girl that probably could have beat that game, I pushed her away. It's probably best that she did leave herself, because if she was here when I woke I would have slept with her again. She would have cried again. It would have made ending this even worse.

The front door closes, telling me Courtney is home. Also telling me - I should put on pants.

The door to the bedroom opens and I throw the covers back over me.

"Christ Courtney, we need to talk about boundaries!"

"I have like four messages from Gabby's dad on my phone asking where she is. Does my naked brother happen to know?"

"If I was guessing she's home now..." I sigh and put my face in my hands. I hurt her. Just to piss off her dad... I hurt her.

"So you're sleeping with her now?"

I glance back up to my sister. She looks angry, she looks sad, she looks tired. We moved to get away from her troubles and now she's surrounded by girls with the same issues, bringing hers back to be surface.

"I was." I grab my boxers from the floor in front of me. This isn't something I want to talk to my sister about. She doesn't need to be in the middle of it.

"Was?"

"It's done Court." I slide my boxers on under the comforter.

"Jax you are such a fucking idiot!" she picks up my jeans from the floor and throws them at me as hard as she can. The denim slaps across my face with a force I wasn't expecting.

"Court!" I yell, my blood boiling. "I don't need this right now!"

"You can have a friend Jax! You can like a girl! You can love a girl!"

"No I can't, now get out of my room." I motion with my head to the door.

She remains firmly planted in my doorway with her arms crossed. She's not going anywhere.

"How upset is she over there? She's going through one of the worst weeks of her life! You, you were the one keeping her in one piece. So not only did she lose herself, her friend Kane, her town, her parents looking at her like a normal teenager, she lost the guy. The one guy who could put a smile on her face right now. And she was the one girl who could put a smile on yours."

"Court get out..." I can feel myself getting angrier.

"No! How bad is she Jax?!" She motions with one hand out the window towards the yellow Victorian house across the road.

"She fell asleep crying! She left while I slept! It's done! Now get the fuck out!"

Her eyes fill with tears as she walks away. She stops in the doorway and doesn't look back to me.

"You know, sometimes you can be a heartless bastard Jackson Parker. I really had lost hope for you until her. Hearing you two laugh at night on the phone, even mom and dad thought you'd be normal again, even if they didn't know it was her you were talking to. You aren't my brother anymore, I lost him that day. Now you're just a prick who sleeps down the hall..."

I swallow hard, accepting that those words are likely true. She doesn't understand that I need them to be true.

She storms out and I hear the front door slam behind her again. I peer out the window, watching her run across the street to the Brooks house. The door opens and I see Gabby answer it, falling into Courtney's arms crying. My stomach twists at the sight of the girl I just broke.

It was for the best.

That's what I told myself as I ripped the TV off the wall and threw it towards a floor filled with popcorn.