No More Waiting, She Chooses Love

But I couldn't keep hiding forever.

The more awkward the situation, the less I could afford to hide.

I let go, and Dustin also pulled back the duvet, looking at my face, "Heard you were caught in the flood. Scared me half to death."

He was explaining why he came. I managed a wry smile, "What, did I make the evening news?"

In this age of the internet, even the smallest events get blasted online. Today's flood was massive, and yet people were filming instead of helping. "Yeah, looked like a drowned rat," Dustin said, raising his hand.

I instinctively moved aside, but he didn't show any embarrassment, just gave a light chuckle, "I just wanted to fix your hair. You looked terrified."

I didn't respond, and Dustin sat on the edge of the bed, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, got checked out."

"But you seem quite shaken up, even cried, huh?" My red-rimmed eyes didn't escape his notice.

I wasn't crying from fear, but

really skyrocketed lately, lying just

"Yeah, otherwise

I know you've been

up, I didn't pretend otherwise, "Yeah, it's

it, you know. Regret that I ruined the simple sibling-like bond we had. But then, I genuinely fell for you and felt it'd be

always seen you as a brother, almost like a real one. You know, when Conrad used to bug me, I always ran

been thinking about how I lost that girl who depended on me. Realized it was my fault for scaring you off. So, can Dustin take back what he said? Pretend you never heard it, and let's be like before?" His

spilled water;

my feelings. From now on, I'm just your brother, nothing more," Dustin said, raising

made me feel

extended my fist to him, a gesture we often used as kids. Whenever Conrad, Dustin, and would get into trouble and

smiled and bumped his

Conrad's