Sweet, warm smells filled her nose as she entered her house. Evidently, Sam had been persuaded to make cupcakes. Mattie kicked off her shoes, and shuffled into the kitchen.

"Mattie, guess what Sam's letting me do," Will said proudly upon seeing her.

"What?" she asked, and rustled his fine hair.

"Put the sprinkles on!"

"Well, isn't that just generous of him," she said.

"So how'd your experience with fresh air go?" Sam asked conversationally.

She looked at him pointedly, but said nothing in response. Grabbing a cookie, she moved towards the stairs leading to her bedroom, but Sam followed after her, closing his hand tightly around her skinny arm. "Don't disappear up there again," he snapped. "I think me and you should talk. I'll be right back. You go into the living room." He went back into the kitchen and exclaimed, "Will, are you eating the sprinkles? That's not your job!"

"I'm not eating the sprinkles, I was sprinkling them and they bounced into my mouth!" Will protested.

Mattie was sitting tentatively on the edge of the loveseat with her hands folded on her lap when Sam came in, looking defeated.

"Your cupcakes smell good," she observed.

"Yeah, well, you're going to be eating sprinkles-less cupcakes. Will ate the whole jar."

"Someone's going to be vomiting rainbow sprinkles all night, hey?" she said with a smile.

"Actually, they were green, not rainbow." He parked himself on the rocking chair. "I don't want to talk about Ace, so stop looking like that."

"Looking like what?"

"Scared." He cleared his throat. "I just want to tell you that I miss you."

She raised her eyebrows. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," he told her. "I know you've been pretty lonely and sad and everything, but no one ever stopped loving you, you know."

"Gordie did," Mattie said quietly.

"No he didn't--" Sam tried to protest, but she interrupted him.

"We just broke up."

He breathed a humorless laugh. "Didn't see that one coming."

"I didn't either, but if I'd been thinking about anyone else beside myself, I would have," she said. "I wasn't fair to him. To anyone."

"Mattie, I don't think you needed to worry about being fair when you had just been…assaulted."

"No, Sam, Gordie was right. Don't try and act like a protective big brother now, okay?"

"I never did act like a protective big brother," he muttered.

"Oh, shut up," she sighed. "Don't even blame yourself. That's not what I was talking about."

"Well, God, Mattie, if I would have just asked you where you were going and with who, maybe I could have just…prevented…"

She shook her head. "Sammy, I've gone through just about every single 'if only I had just done this or if only I hadn't done that…' scenario possible. It won't change anything. It happened. It wasn't anyone else's fault except for Ace's."

Lowering his head, he agreed, "I know." Looking back up at her, he asked, "So…you and Gordie…it's over?"

"I'm gonna miss him, Sammy," she said, her eyes brimming with tears.

"Frick, don't start crying," he sighed helplessly. "I hate it when girls cry."

"I just wish this hadn't happened," she whimpered. "Everything is so screwed up."

Sam raked his hands through his hair. Even now, he still had no idea what to do to comfort his sister. He knew that she needed some solace, but he didn't know what to do. For months he'd been waiting for the feeling of inadequacy as an older brother to pass, but he was still just as useless as ever. Nothing had changed with time.

"I keep thinking that if Mom hadn't died, then this stuff with Ace would never have happened. But if Mom hadn't died…" Covering her face with her hands, she cried harder. "If Mama hadn't died, I never would've found Gordie." She looked up at him miserably. "Oh my God, Sammy, how awful can I get?"

"You're not awful at all, Mattie," he told her. "I know you loved Mom, and I know you love Gordie. Once you come to love someone, it doesn't matter how you got there, just that it's love and that's all that matters."

Mattie's eyes were rimmed with red and they were sad, but the way she looked at him was loving. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Say things like that." Her tiny, tear stained face was lit up by a broken hearted smile. "You know, you've always been good at making me feel better when I'm sad."