Hand on Heart

Chapter Five

The thought of Michael and I being anything more than friends was such a random and impossible thing to comprehend. It almost seemed like such a different lifetime, yet here I was getting wrapped up in one stupid, drunken night.

"Brooke?" Hearing Mia's voice enter my room, I rolled over and saw Kouvr standing behind her. "We were thinking of going out for dinner tonight. Calvin's complaining there's nothing in the house."

"The thing is, I know exactly how he complained about it too." I said, laughing as I sat up in my bed. "I'm down, though. I'm way too hungover to even think about cooking something for myself."

"Are you okay? You're never this hungover." Kouvr asked, giving me a look as if to say there's gotta be something else going on. Obviously, she's not wrong and as much as I trust the girls with my life, I can't have this out in the open. Last night was never supposed to happen so I'm going to pretend as if it never did.

"It's just been a while since I've been that drunk."

"Yeah, you and Michael went pretty hard last night." Mia said. "What happened after we all went to bed?"

"We just talked, joked around, you know, nothing special." I replied, watching the girls nod their heads. "I'm going to shower." I wanted to avoid talking about the night as much as possible so that I didn't exactly have to lie to anyone about what really happened.

---

"Oh wow, who would have thought I'd find you guys here!" Fletcher joked, as we made our way to the entrance of the restaurant. "Little family dinner?"

Watching as Thomas and Alex talked to Fletcher, I sat on the steps, trying to keep my distance from Michael without making it obvious.

"You know where Michael slept last night?" Vinnie asked, sitting down next to me.

"Wh...what?" I stuttered, trying but failing to keep my cool. I looked across and locked eyes with Michael before turning my full attention to Vinnie.

"His door was open this morning, so I figured he didn't sleep in his room."

"No idea." I lied.

"I know I haven't been here long, Brooke," Vinnie explained, scooting a little closer to me so he could whisper. "but it's kind of obvious that there's something more than just friends going on between you and Michael. If not from you, at least from him."

Excluding last night, nothing has ever happened between Michael and I and I never ever thought there would be. He was always just a friend to me and as much as I love him, I never saw anything more than that.

"I'm not going to tell anyone," Vinnie explained, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. "if there is anything to tell." Looking over at him, I refused to give him any sign that would suggest he was right but I knew he knew; whether or not he knew how far it went.

"Do we have a new couple on the rise!?" Fletcher said, pointing his camera over to me and Vinnie, causing us to break away.

"A couple of besties!" I said, reciting the famous line.

"Come on, let's get inside." Vinnie said, helping me up from the stairs. My eyes were locked onto Michael but this time, his were locked on his phone. After last night, I don't think we're ever going to be the same.