The Smirking Jerk (Blake's POV)

Chapter 80

Chapter 80

"Hey Kendall," I said, as I took my own shoes off while she rushed to me to give me a hug. I hugged her back, a little out of it.

What was she doing here? I knew she'd been supposed to come visit us at some point, but I had no idea it would be now.

"What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to come in a few weeks?" I asked her as I dropped my arms from around her waist.

She shrugged, laughing. "I don't know, my parents just bought me a plane ticket and told me to go. I think I've been annoying them."

I smiled at her. Regardless of whether I was ready for her to be here or not, this was Kendall. I should be happy. "How are you doing?" I asked her.

She scrunched her noise a bit, a habit she had. "It's the time of the year you know? When everything is just harder for me. There's no helping it, I'm always going to be a mess." Yes, of course. Jayden's death anniversary was very soon.

She took a deep breath, like she was trying to clear her head. "Heard you went to his grave not to long ago?"

"Yeah, we had a funeral," I just said, thinking back to Lexi standing beside me by my brother's grave.

"I should go soon. Maybe I'll change my flight back so I can stop and spent a day with him. Or better yet, maybe I'll rent a car and drive there. You remember when he had that phase where he wanted to be a race car driver?" she said, chuckling, and then frowned, "Or maybe you were too young."

"Yeah, I remember," I replied.

Jayden had gone through probably every career as his future plans.

He'd been restless like that and interested about everything.

Usually, I would have smiled reminiscing about the memories. For some reason though, today it just kinda irked me, the way she had phrased it, even though she was smiling and joking around.

It always felt like a competition, when Kendall talked about Jayden with me. Like she had been closer to him, or knew him better in some way.

I hated it.

But I never said anything about it. It was her grief. She could process it however she wanted it.

And maybe it was true. Maybe Jayden had loved her more than he had loved me. I was often the annoying little brother.

She was the love of his life.

I just couldn't imagine a scenario where I'd act like this with Tyler if anything ever happened to his sister.

My relationship with Tyler was definitely different than my relationship with Kendall though.

I never knew what to make or Kendall and I's relationship to be honest.

We grew up together. For the longest time she'd been like family.

And for half a second, I'd tried to convince myself that I loved her. Mostly because I needed to hurt myself though. That much I could understand now.

I knew how it felt to love someone. I loved Lexi.

I'd never loved Kendall. At least, not like that.

But she was still Kendall. The girl my brother had loved. The girl I had grew up with. The girl that was like family. The girl that probably would have become family, had things turned out differently.