"Vi…" Kaleb said helplessly. "It's gonna be okay. The doctor already said it's repairable, right? You wouldn't lose mobility in your leg permanently unless he had to remove the meniscus entirely."

Violet was surprised he actually listened to the doctor's explanation when he came to pick her up. She didn't think he had been paying attention. She certainly hadn't been at times because she was so out of it from hardly getting any sleep.

She sat back and desperately wiped at her eyes. Maybe she could talk to him about Noah since he had always been teasing her…did he really know this whole time?

"It's not only that," she admitted. "Last night Noah told me he was in love with me."

Kaleb blinked at her in shock. "Seriously? He finally fessed up?"

So he had known! Why didn't he ever say anything? With all of that joking around she hadn't been able to tell he was being serious!

"What do you mean finally? How long did you know?!"

"Uh…probably since we were like fourteen? You really never so much as guessed he had feelings for you? It really was so obvious. No adolescent boy avoids girls the way he did unless they're stuck on someone else," Kaleb said in a tone that clearly indicated she was stupid.

Maybe she was. That was twelve years ago and Violet hadn't seen it coming at all. She really should have though in hindsight. Noah didn't ever show interest in other girls and he always made every possible excuse to see her.

And he was so hung up on being younger than her back in high school especially. He said he would have taken her to the prom if no one else asked if they were the same age.

That moron! Why hadn't he said anything sooner? If Kaleb was right, Noah had been holding his feelings in for at least twelve years. Twelve years where they had seen each other pretty much every day! How had she never caught on?

Probably because he acted the way he always did. Violet never suspected him in the beginning so why would she suspect him later if he acted the same no matter what happened?

"I really didn't know," she said softly. "I can't lose him…he's my most important friend…but I'm with Jeremy. I don't want to hurt him but I don't see how not to. I'm not in love with Noah."

Kaleb raised an eyebrow. "You're closer to him than the rest of your family combined but you say you're not in love with him? We all know he's your favorite. He surpassed me back when we were in elementary school."

Violet looked at him questioningly. He seemed almost bitter about that. But he was the one who pushed her away! How could he expect to remain her favorite person when he ditched her? She had to turn to the only other person she was equally close to for comfort.

"…Kal, you were the one who didn't want me around," she said flatly. "Noah did. I was a shy, needy child who only cared about a few people and one of them thought I was a nuisance. Of course I ended up closer to the one who wanted to spend time with me."

He sighed and sat down next to her on the couch, running his fingers through his hair in exasperation. "And I regret that…I loved you but I also felt suffocated. Since you and Noah were off in your own little world a lot of the time anyway I figured you would be okay."

Violet wasn't okay. His distance had hurt her more than she could say. They were twins and she had thought the world of him back then. Kaleb was her other half. How was she, as a little girl, supposed to react to that?

But that was beside the point right now. He doubted her claim that she wasn't in love with Noah. She wasn't though! Wouldn't she know if she was in love with someone?

Besides…she couldn't be in love with Noah if she harbored romantic feelings for Jeremy. What on earth was she supposed to do about him? He hadn't been the most reliable boyfriend the past two days but before that they were having a good time together.

"I wasn't," Violet said crisply. "I did have Noah but it wasn't the same. You're my twin brother; nobody can replace you."

A small smile appeared on Kaleb's face and he reached out to tousle her hair. "Thanks for saying that. Getting back to the point…the reason we all joke about you two being married is because you act a lot like mom and dad do."

Wait, what? That wasn't true at all! Her parents were the mushiest couple alive; she and Noah weren't like that!

Seeing her obvious confusion, Kaleb shook his head and laughed. "Not in the touchy feely way. You two seem to practically read each other's minds the way mom and dad do. You get each other. You're always there for each other. You're the perfect team without even trying."

Violet couldn't even deny it. They had worked together seamlessly helping each other out since before she reached high school. They had always been each other's greatest support, with the exception of their parents.

She had thought it was because they were best friends. Did most best friends not work that way? She always knew her approach to relationsh.i.p.s was weird. She only needed one or two people to be close to and everyone else was incidental.

"That's because we're best friends," Violet said hesitantly.

Kaleb scoffed. "Mom and Dad were best friends too."

"That isn't the same and you know it! They didn't become best friends until shortly before they got married!"

"They were still best friends."

Violet frowned. It wasn't the same at all. They met in their senior year of high school but only knew each other for six months before being separated for five years. They were definitely a.d.u.l.ts when they got to know each other for real.

How could that be compared to someone she had known since she was eighteen months old? Noah was so firmly in the friend zone that she had thought of him as one of her brothers. She was positive her mother never thought of her father as a brother figure.

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