Best Friend's Brother: Chapter One

Unexpected Reveals

As I walked down the hall to the locker rooms I spotted Katie going into the locker room. I ran to catch up to her so I could talk to her about confessing to Nathaniel. Out of Hannah and Katie, I'm oddly closer to Katie than I am Hannah considering they're twins and I see one as often as the other.

"Hey Katie," I said as I took the locker next to her.

"Hey, what's up?" she said nonchalantly as she shoved her bag into the small compartment.

"I'm thinking about telling Nathaniel that I like him but I don't know. Ms. Penney said it's a good idea because she thinks he likes me."

She stiffened a little bit before relaxing. I almost laughed because she thinks that I miss these small details. I am a very detail oriented person if you couldn't tell.

"What was that all about? Stiff muscles?" I asked and she hesitated before answering.

"Yeah, I had to help my dad carry a bunch of Nathaniel's boxes of toys he was saving for his kids to enjoy one day like he did. He's hoping to have twins someday with his future wife."

"That's really nice. It's cool that he's keeping his old toys for his future kids to enjoy." I smiled at the ground and laughed a little bit. I looked into my locker with tears in my eyes and pulling out my gym clothes so I could change.

"Jess, you ok? You look like you're about to cry." Katie said as she rubbed my back which didn't really help at all. It took her a second before she realized what I was almost in tears about.

"If you don't become his future wife, then there's someone even better for you out there waiting to meet you and make you their wife instead of Nathaniel's you know this right?" I nodded and took some deep breaths to try to calm down but the little voice in the back of my head came creeping in and telling me that I was never going to have a chance with him or that I would ever be his wife. 

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It's been a few days since I last talked to Hannah, Katie, or Nathaniel which isn't weird but it is a little unsettling for me because it makes me feel like I did something wrong. Yeah, I know that is really like "egotistical" but it's just how I am. I'm not egotistical, I'm insecure ok?!

Katie walked into class Monday morning with a zombified look on her face. She sat down next to me but didn't make an effort to say a greeting at all. I put my arm around her shoulders and pulled her to my chest, laying my chin on top of her head. Like a mother to a child. Her body started to shake and I felt a wetness start to form on my shirt.

"Honeybun, what's wrong?" I asked gently as I rubbed her back trying to comfort her.

She calmed down enough to speak, "My aunt gave birth to her son last night."

"Wouldn't you be happy about that?" My eyebrows came together and I tilted my head in confusion. What she said next was something I never wanted to hear.

"He's sick."

"What do you mean?"

"Grey shouldn't live past one year," At that moment my heart broke for Katie's aunt, "It's not just that, it's the fact that he's my aunt's first baby with someone she truly loves and wants to spend the rest of her life with." My heart broke a little more with each word she said. I kissed her head and hugged her tighter.

"I pray the doctors are wrong. He's so full of life and so smiley and giggly. He's an angel sent from heaven and I don't want him to leave us early."

I was going to comment until Mr. Heart walked into class and Katie jumped away from me. I seriously hate this godforsaken teacher.

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I had almost been asleep until Harry came into my room and sat on the edge of my bed causing it to dip. I turned to greet my brother who had interrupted my sleep schedule. I turned on my reading lamp next to my bed and saw that Harry had red eyes. I quickly sat up when I saw this.

"Why are your eyes red? It better be from no sleep!"

He nodded his head and rubbed his eyes muttering a small "sleep" making my anxiety about having him relapse calm down. He lied down beside me and snuggled under my covers. I turned off my lamp and lay back down with my back up against Harry's. I fell asleep quickly and dove into a world of colorful dreams.

I ran after him as he weaved in between trees trying to escape, his back was to me so I didn't know who it was. All I knew was that I wanted him dead for a reason. I threw my pocket knife at him and it stabbed him in the back causing him to fall. I pulled out my ax and brought it down on him a couple times before I stopped. I screamed in anger when I still saw him twitching. I brought the ax down several more times until I knew for sure that he was dead. His face was unrecognizable but I knew that it was Nathaniel.

I shot upright in my bed, my heart racing, breathing ragged, adrenaline pumping through my veins, and cold sweat making my hair stick around my neck almost choking me. I looked at my clock on my nightstand to check the time. 3:33 A.M. Isn't that wonderful? A nightmare from Satan himself during the devil's hour. Fantastic.

I turned to grab my phone and noticed that Harry wasn't there. He must have been called into work again, I thought as I unlocked my phone and pulled up Nathaniel's contact, hitting call. It rang a couple times before I heard a raspy voice answer the phone with a faint "hello".

I sighed a breath of relief when I heard his voice. "Hey, uh, I just had a nightmare and you were the first person I saw in my contacts. I'm sorry I woke you up, I guess I'll hang up then..."

"No, what happened?" he asked in concern. He sounded genuine but I don't know if I'm ready to take that jump to tell him about the dreams I've had about him.

"I killed you with a pocket knife and ax..." I guess I freaking am! "I had another dream like that the other day too. I talked to my mo- I mean Ms. Penney about it, and she came up with the crazy idea that you liked me, and I said, haha not in a million years. I'm his sisters' best friend, there's no way that I could ever be a love interest for him and uh yeah... Sorry for ranting. It just came out." I pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration with myself, "I'll let you sleep now."

"No, don't go! I've actually had a dream like that too, a couple weeks ago to be honest. I think it's because I'm actually nervous about telling this girl that I like her. I'm kind of afraid of getting rejected because I really like this girl and I've known her forever but I don't think that she feels the same way you know?" His words hit me like a pile of bricks from the top of the Empire State Building. I swallowed the lump forming in my throat and formulated a reply.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Who's the girl you like?" The phone was silent for a little bit before I spoke again, "You don't have to tell me I was just curious so I asked but curiosity killed the cat, am I right?" I said nervously laughing.

He laughed a bit before agreeing with me. "Do you want to go somewhere with me?"

"If you're actually going to murder me, please do." I laughed and shook my head.

"I'm not going to kill you. Do you want to come to the park with moi?"

"Oui, monsieur. That would be très magnifique," I laughed again at our stupid little French vocabulary as Nathaniel said that he would be at my house within 5 minutes to pick me up. I pulled on a hoodie and slipper shoes and walked downstairs to meet Nathaniel who was already at my doorstep.