Maisie wouldn’t speak to me in the car on the way back to the hotel. She did her best to stop crying, but the tears were still falling when she got to her room. I’d had my share of nights where I cried myself to sleep over boys, and the temptation was to let Maisie do the same, but she left the door open for me to follow her in.
“Do you want to tell me what all that was about back there?” I asked.
All I’d seen was Shaun running up to his bedroom saying he was sorry about something. My first thought was that he’d tried to kiss her and she’d blown him off, but she looked even more upset than he did.
“Not really,” Maisie responded through tears. I kicked off my shoes and sat up cross-legged on her bad and patted the space next to me so that she would join me.
“I’ll be honest,” I said softly. “Oliver is a convincing guy, so Shaun is bound to talk to him. Between what he finds out and what I find out, we’ll soon know the whole story anyway, so you might as well tell me.”
“He’s not interested in me,” Maisie said. “He made that pretty clear.”
“You two looked close when Oliver and I came in. I saw he had his arm around you on the sofa before the two of you darted apart when we walked in.”
Maisie smiled, although she was still crying. “You saw that?”
“Why do you think I sat in between you?”
“Yeah, you kind of cramped my style there.”
“That was exactly the intent. So what went wrong?”
“I really don’t want to talk about this with my sister.”
“You’d rather talk about it with Mom?” I asked. “Despite what you sometimes say, I do not have a heart of stone. I’ve had boy troubles in the past too.”
“Yeah, but now you’ve got the perfect man.”
“Oliver’s not perfect,” I replied.
“Name one thing that’s not perfect about Oliver,” Maisie said. “Oh, does he have a really small—”
“No,” I replied immediately. “Definitely not. In fact, maybe his flaw is that it’s… you know what, never mind. How about the fact that he lives in another country? That’s going to be a problem at some point. Plus, in case you haven’t noticed, we’re technically related.”
“Oh man, I can’t wait until you have that conversation with Dad. You have to let me be there.”
“Only if you tell me what happened tonight,” I replied. I wanted Maisie there when I told Dad anyway. He might not get so mad if she was there. It’s not like we were close anyway. I still hadn’t seen him once on this trip and there was a good chance I’d go home without seeing him. That was just fine with me.
“I kissed him,” Maisie said, looking down at her lap as she spoke. “Or at least I tried to. It was just going to be a little kiss goodbye. It’s not like we were going to start making out with you and Oliver just around the corner. That would be weird.”
“Uh, yeah, that wouldn’t be right,” I said, relieved that at least Maisie had no idea what Oliver and I had been doing at that exact moment. We’d only kissed for a few moments, but it never took long for me to get excited, and I’d felt a few signs of Oliver’s eagerness pressing against me.
“He ran away when I got close,” Maisie said. “I’m sure you saw that part.”
“Shaun’s a nice kid, Maisie, but he’s also shy and quiet. He’s not as forward as you. He was probably just scared. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s never kissed a girl before.”
“That wasn’t it. I saw the look on his face as I moved closer to him. He cringed.” Maisie’s voice was shaking and the tears were coming faster now than they had done all night.
I’d never seen her this upset before. Not since she first saw her face after the attack. I put my arm around her, but it felt woefully inadequate.
“He saw my scars,” Maisie sobbed, “and then he ran.”
“I’m sure that’s not what—”
“That’s exactly what happened,” Maisie yelled. “Don’t you think I’ve seen that look a hundred times before? I know what it looks like when people are disgusted by my face. I know I pretend that I don’t care, but I do. I hate how ugly I am. I hate it.”
I couldn’t bear to look at Maisie right now. I couldn’t handle seeing her cry like this, but the last thing she’d want is for me to look away from her.
My own tears started falling down my cheeks. I don’t know if it was guilt or seeing her upset, but I couldn’t help it. I wanted to be strong for her, but once again I had failed miserably.
“Anyone who thinks you’re ugly doesn’t deserve you,” I said softly in her ear. “I think this is all a misunderstanding, but if it isn’t then you can just move on and forget about Shaun.”
“I can’t forget about him,” Maisie said. “I’m his aunt.” She laughed and pulled away from me to wipe the tears from her eyes.
“Do you want me to stay with you tonight?” I asked. “I can crash on the sofa. These rooms are far too big for one person anyway.”
“No, I’m fine. Honestly, I am. I just need some time to myself. Can you do me a favor though?”
I nodded. “Of course.”
“When you tell Oliver about this, can you leave out all the crying? Pretend I was just angry, and not upset.”
“Will do.” I stood up and slipped my shoes back on. Maisie did look a bit better now. I knew from experience that sometimes a decent crying session did a world of good, but I also knew that sometimes it wasn’t enough. It never had been for me when Oliver had made it clear he wanted nothing to do with me.
I’d been a bit older than Maisie was now, but not by a lot. Fourteen was plenty old enough to have your heart broken, especially with everything Maisie has gone through in her life.
“Maybe Oliver and I should spend less time together from now on,” I suggested. “It’s not fair to you.”
“Don’t you dare,” Maisie said. “You’re so much more chilled out now, and you’re always buzzing after you’ve had one of your dirty afternoons. No, I like this version of you.”
I smiled. “Yeah, me too. Night, sis.” I kissed Maisie on the cheek and headed back up to my room.
Maisie had been right; I’d changed since Oliver and I had started dating. I still acted a bit “mom-like” around Maisie, but it took a lot more effort to do it. I wasn’t so tightly wound anymore, I slept better, and I kept smiling without knowing why.
Things were good for me, I just wished Maisie had things as easy. Before bed a message came through from Oliver.
Spoke to Shaun. Everything will be fine. Will explain later. Pub tomorrow night?
Thank God for that. Teenagers could get into fights over nothing, but fortunately they could make up just as easily. It had taken Oliver and I eight years to get together after our fight. Now we were with each other every spare second; we had a lot of time to make up for.
I’d always thought that once Michelle and I put the past to one side and admitted how we felt, things would be simple. Easy. Fun. I hadn’t imagined Shaun and Maisie would make things so bloody complicated. They weren’t doing it on purpose of course, but teenagers had a habit of getting in the way.
I knocked on Shaun’s door and walked in. I let him keep a lock on his door, so him leaving it unlocked was a subtle way of letting me know I could come inside. He wasn’t crying, but then Shaun wasn’t really the crying type. He probably got that from me.
“What happened back there, mate?” I asked. At times like this, I always tried to act like a brother or friend. I only pulled the father card out when things got really serious, which was rare with a kid like Shaun. “Am I going to get an earful from Michelle?”