His Paper Heart ✓

•33|His Love

"Jojo, this is Genevieve," Gray says. "Genevieve, Jojo."

"Hi." I smile. There's an uncomfortable silence hanging in the air as she slowly looks away from Gray to me.

"So you're the girl keeping my brother from L.A," she says.

I hold in my breath for a second. "Oh. . .uh— I'm not—" I stop. I glance at Gray, he just stands there with his arms crossed. In my despair, he bursts into a laugh and his sister joins him as I stand there confused, watching them laugh.

"She's just joking." Gray chuckles and I exhale.

"I am." his sister says next. "Why would I not like the girl who got my psycho brother to feel something other than malice and deep, deep anger," she adds, looking at Gray with a teasing smile.

"It's called paper heart. Look it up," Gray responds. Jojo hums before imprisoning Gray in a hug.

"I've missed you so much, Cam," she whispers. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say Gray's middle name. I smile at the sight of him hugging his sister back. The moment Jojo lets go of him, she turns to me.

"I have been dying to meet you." she takes my hand in a frantic handshake as I giggle. "And she's so pretty," Jojo whispers to Gray and he groans, throwing his head back. "So tell me how did you get him to open up to you. I have been trying for thirteen years of my life."

I chuckle. Well, there's a lot of sarcasm and kissing involved, I muse.

"Can you stop being dramatic," Gray says.

"Dramatic?" the girl places her hands on her hips. "You once told me you didn't have time for happy endings in life. She's a happy ending, isn't she?" Jojo points to me.

Gray winks at me and I giggle again.

"So why are there so many people coming into your home?" Jojo asks.

"We're having a karaoke tonight," I answer.

"See Gray, this is what normal people do. Not take their thirteen year old sister to the shooting range during Easter."

"Hush! You loved it." Gray smiles.

"Gray wanted me to learn how to fire a gun. There's so much violence in the world that he thinks he can pull the people he cares about from the paths of incoming trains. There are new trains coming everyday, Cameron," Jojo says as a joke and I chuckle but I can see the terror in Gray's eyes as he blinks. 

"Genevieve?" Mom shouts from the hall and I sigh.

"I've to go," I say. Gray pulls me aside for a minute, he just stands there and looks at me. "What?" I laugh.

"I love you," he whispers. I've always known when there's bad news approaching. Well, sometimes. I learnt the trick on how to tell when people bare bad news from my doctor. There's this tone in their voice that always says something bad is going to happen. A slight fear and tremble in their voice. Gray is trying to hide his but he can't.

"Gray, what's wrong?"

He exhales. "Nothing. I just want you to know. No matter what happens." he kisses my forehead and goes back to his sister. Confused, I skip out of the kitchen to the hall. A couple of guests have started to arrive. Asher is setting up the microphones, Diana is still passed out in the couch and Darlene is busily drooling over mom's cookies for the guests. "Gigi, I need you to stand outside with Heath and show our guests where to park their cars alright? I don't want them to block the road."

"Okay." I nod. "Where's Heath?"

"He was right here," mom mutters.

"Asher have you seen Heath?" I ask.