All Chapters of Affection Smells Sweet. You? Nasty.: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

I saw two people trapped in a painful emotional struggle. The scent pouring off them was so bitter it seemed to spill out into the hallway.My sister, Jasmine Ford, had her face in her hands, sobbing, her shoulders shaking."Bruce, let's leave it here. We can't keep doing this to ourselves." She looked up at him, grief written all over her face."I'm getting married. Next week, you and Rosie are getting married too. Rosie and I have only had each other since our parents died. Don't hurt her. I'm begging you."I leaned against the wall.My heart throbbed with a thousand tiny pinpricks, like needles under the skin.The sheer absurdity of it made me laugh, then cry, then laugh again, until I didn't even know what my own face was doing anymore.My sister. Bruce Dawson.I had never once put those two people together in my mind. Even though, over the years, the distance between them had always felt strange, like they were strangers to each other, and I was the only bridge connecting

I left the apartment and wandered the streets without any direction.A light rain was falling, the kind too fine to bother with an umbrella, though it was enough to strip the leaves off the sycamore trees and scatter them into the mud.I passed our old high school and stopped.Bruce and I had been classmates. My sister was a year above us.Back then, she'd worried about me walking home alone after night classes, so she'd have me wait for her to finish so we could walk back together. Then, somewhere along the way, Bruce started showing up behind us too.She used to tease me about it, saying he was just there to protect me. I barely knew him, even though we were in the same class.But from that point on, my eyes kept drifting toward him without my meaning to.After my high school finals, my sister encouraged me to confess to him. So I did.He looked stunned for a moment. Whatever refusal had been on the tip of his tongue never made it out. Instead, what came out was, "Okay."And

Iceland's airport was crowded, and my phone kept buzzing nonstop, drawing curious looks from the people passing by.They must have seen the photo I'd posted in our group chat.Bruce was the first to message.Bruce: [Rosie, where are you?]Bruce: [What did you mean by that photo? Do you know something? Please, just let me explain!]Bruce: [Rosalie, pick up the phone!]Messages had already piled up past 99+, and the calls had been coming in nonstop since six that morning, clear through the afternoon.Jasmine's messages and calls were even more numerous.. Message after message, call after call, all boiling down to one thing.Jasmine: [Rosie, please just come home. I'll explain everything to you. I'm begging you.]Jasmine: [Please don't make this bigger than it needs to be.]I ignored all of it and deleted everything, wiping both their contact information along with it.From now on, my world didn't need a love triangle in it. It didn't need people who pretended to love me while

Bruce wandered the streets without any real destination.He passed by their old high school.It struck him then. Back in the day, the one he'd actually liked had been Jasmine. He'd barely registered his classmate Rosalie at all.It wasn't until Rosalie confessed to him that he even realized the two of them had gotten it backward.He'd wanted to turn her down.But the moment he thought it through, he realized that refusing her would mean he could never be near Jasmine again.So when he saw the bright, hopeful look in Rosalie's eyes, he'd said yes before he could stop himself.Then time passed.Little by little, day by day, without him ever noticing, Rosalie had come to mean more to him than Jasmine ever had.Bruce stood staring at the school gates, lost in thought.He could still picture her, the shy, nervous girl clutching a love letter, all those years ago.He lowered his eyes, hiding the regret and helplessness in them.He understood now, too late, that the person he actu