“No, no, of course not. You're blowing this whole thing out of proportion, B."

“Am 1?"

"I can't be in love with you. You know that.”

“Why not? And don't give me some bullshit about me being your little sister."

“No, I told you I wasn't going to hide behind that anymore."

“Why were you hiding behind it in the first place?"

"I..." My voice trailed off, and I took a deep breath to try and collect myself.

“You're not a kid anymore, Matty. You told me you mentally categorized me as ‘out of bounds' so you wouldn't be hurt by rejection, but that was a long time ago. There hasn't been a Taylor Guazelli in my life for a long time, and the relationship we have now is nothing like it was back then."

“It's not," I agreed. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and tried to relax my brain. I could feel the truth bubbling beneath the surface, the words trying to float into my brain if only I'd let them. Just like the words, ‘I've been in love with you my entire life’ had come into my brain and flown out of my mouth all on their own, a sentence I couldn't deny I'd said any Longer.

"I..." I began again, but stopped as I felt the old mental blocks coming back into my mind.

Belle was patient. She didn't press me.

“I..." I began again, and once again stopped and closed my eyes.

Belle rubbed my shoulder and gave me a warm, inviting smile.

I started shaking my head, muttering, "I can't. It's... I-"

"I love you, too, Matty," Belle said softly.

“I've been IN love with you a long time, too. Not my entire life, unfortunately. But... I dunno... before the BTC. I didn't want to admit it to myself, but it's certainly the reason why I never really dated anyone else.”

I blinked in shock.

“Wait, what?"

Belle grinned.

“That's why I always knew you'd get my cherry. It could never have been anyone else."

“But you've gone out of your way... several times... to state that you're not IN love with me."

Belle shrugged.

“We all lie, even to ourselves, to avoid getting hurt.

How could I tell you I was in love with you when you constantly held me at arm's length with your whole ‘little sister’ schtick? You made out with everyone but never let ME kiss you. It would have broken my heart to admit I was in Love with you only to have you fall in love with... I dunno... fall in Love with Sam or something."

“I'm not in love with Sam."