Three Brothers (Completed)

A Rivalry Between Siblings

Chapter 5

A Rivalry Between Siblings

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My brother James and I had been in fights before and we had fought for a girl’s attention before. But he was absolutely evil about this one. He made a point to text Lily more than me, he took her to dinner once a week, a fancy dinner, not any of the fast food junk. If it weren’t for the fact that this was James, I would have thought that he liked this girl and that he was trying to date her but this was James and that wasn’t why he was doing this.

Truth be told, James didn’t care about Lily; he was doing this to get to me. It was the kind of brother that he was, he’d pretend to like a girl I wanted just to get at me. He was more attractive than me, he knew how to catch a girl’s eye and keep it and it was what he had done with my Lily.

In return Lily baked for him. She baked cakes, cookies, and cupcakes. You name it she was good at it. She wrote him stories–oh yeah that’s right–I had found out that summer that Lily had been an aspiring author, she had even let me read a few of her works, well the polished ones. She was pretty good. Regardless, I was furious when I found out that not only was James allowed to read her rough drafts she was writing stories for him and she made characters for him.

In less than two weeks James had managed to become a better and closer friend to Lily then I had in two months, and of course James just had to rub my face in it. Snide comments, and little Jabs. “I’m taking Lily to the movies tonight, we’ve already seen the movie but we like it so much we’re going twice,” “Oh that Lily, so funny, I can’t help but laugh at all her hilarious jokes,” “Lily baked me cupcakes, she spoils me that girl.”

There were days I wanted to strangle my brother, but I refused to comment on his remarks. I want to tell you that I showed no signs of the torment this was causing me but I know very well that I was sulking. I had thrown a good thing away, and my brother had picked her up. How could I have been so stupid, I should have just brought her with me upstairs, but no I had to be a gentleman.

I had pretty much given up on Lily, James had her now. He was going to sleep with her and she’d be forever hooked on him. I’d be a shadow in the background and nothing more. But I had underestimated my Lily. It was after work, when she caught up with me. She pulled me aside, a frown on her pink lips. “Why are you mad at me?”

It was then that I had realized something. I hadn’t actually thought about what Lily must have been feeling. I had been so angry at my brother, so angry with myself that I had completely forgotten about Lily. We had been friends before all of this, we had talked and then it all suddenly stopped, and I guess to her there was no reason.

Then I thought about it. What was really my reason for not talking to her? Was I really going to say to her, “Oh you didn’t know? I’m mad because you sister zoned me when I was pretty sure I was in love with you and then becoming friends with my brother is when I pulled away.” Even at that young age I knew I was being selfish and I saw it in her eyes.

So instead I manned up and said, “I’m sorry Lily, I’ve been having a mild rivalry with James and I got so caught up with it that I forgot about you. Can you ever forgive me?”

Even now it sounds corny, but you know what? It worked. Lily broke out into a huge smile, she suddenly enveloped me in a hug. I inhaled her smell, a mix of vanilla, cherry blossoms and chlorine. I held her to me and for that brief moment I had my world in my arms. Then the only thing that could have made my day even better happened. James walked in.

Oh my god the look on his face was hilarious. His jaw dropped briefly, but he quickly shut his mouth and donned a strained smile. “Oh, Lily, what’s going on here? Cheating on me?”

Lily laughed, she thought it was a joke, but James’ jaw was twitching and I knew that something was up. He was mad for some reason and I wanted to get back at him for two weeks of torture. “No, me and Lily were making up. You interrupted the start of make up sex.” I said instead.

James started grinding his teeth and I narrowed my eyes at him. Was he attached to my Lily? Lily smacked me. “No, but we did just make up, I think. I wasn’t sure if we were evening fighting, but I guess we did.”

“Well come on Lily,” James interrupted, “We have a date with a coffee place.”

“Oh? Well what if Lily wants to come with me?” I shot back.

For a moment we glared at each other and then I saw it in his eyes. James was more than angry, he was territorial, he really had gone and gotten himself attached to Lily. The question was how far had it gone? Lily got in between both of us. “Come on guys, we can all go for coffee. We’re all friends here.”

“Friends?” James echoed. Lily turned her innocent smile to him and James coughed. “Right friends.”

Lily left us to get changed and I smiled deviously at James. “I thought you thought she was crazy.”

“Hey! That girl is a goddamn saint. Do you have any idea what she’s been through?” James growled through ground teeth.

“No, do you?” I asked slightly concerned. James had never cared about a girl before. Usually he bounced from conquest to conquest, getting what he wanted and leaving. It was odd to see him with one woman for more than a month, even if she was just a friend.

James shook his head and walked away from me. The three of us went for coffee that night, and after every shift together after that. Almost overnight, the rivalry between me and James blossomed into a full out war. A war for Lily’s heart.