Five Brothers

by Penelope Douglas

Everything in life is about power, and it wasn’t that I was taught that I didn’t have any. I learned that men would like me better if I didn’t show it.

Dallas’s green eyes are always looking at me like he’s imagining me on fire.

Tryst Six family crest. Tryst after their mother, Trysta, and Six because there are six children. Not sure who came up with the name. I’m pretty sure they didn’t give it to themselves.

All I ever wanted was to love waking up. To be counted on to make someone’s life better. And I want a man who breathes me. Who craves me and needs me.

“Someday,” he says as he squeezes my throat, “when you look, act, and smell like a pristine pair of fifteen-hundred-dollar heels, and you’re married to a lawyer or a banker who tastes like glue and parades you around like his little trophy…” He flicks his tongue over my ear, taunting me. “I can wonder if it’s my son he’s playing Daddy to.”

“Not me,” he says, letting me go. “But…you will be a Jaeger someday.” I look at him. “You feel it, don’t you, Krisjen?” His eyes light up. “You belong in that house.”

sister. Because beauty is in the small things and character is in the flaws, and learning that fact can’t be taught or told.

“I guess I’ll forget the things I love, too.” I go back to sanding. “Life takes you over like that. You lose yourself. Who you were when you were five was the real you. Before everything started to kill you.”

“I just want to love you.” All I can do is whisper. “That, I will do beautifully.”

“My little princess from the wrong side of the tracks…”