Charlotte's Story

Sides

Renee's POV:

"Call me," the brunette had said, hanging onto the door, kissing Ryder on the cheek one last time. She had kissed him a total of seven times since stepping out of his bedroom, both of their hair dripping with water from their shower.

My skin crawled when I heard the shower faucet turn on in his bathroom.

I was jealous, I was disappointed, and I was almost heartbroken.

I wish Ryder will shut the door on her fingers, causing her excruciating pain; I was about to step up and do it if she didn't walk away.

I let a sigh out after the door is shut. Ryder looks up at me and winks at me. He knew what he was doing. I debate if I should throw a knife at his eye.

A second after the skank is gone, the door is swinging back open. Instead of it being the girl, Luke's bed head hair is stepping through with a smile.

"What are you doing here?" Ryder asks, patting Luke's head as he makes a straight line to me.

"Hanging with Ren," he says this as if it was apparent, which at this point it should have been.

"Right," Ryder says, not making eye contact with me this time. "Looks like you will have to share her today, big guy" He gives me a look of betrayal. He was the one who had just had a one-night stand with some chick he would not remember her name.

"You are coming along too?" Luke asks his bigger brother, a smile popping on his face.

Ryder points to the stranger on the couch.

"Come on, Ref!" Chad mumbles, hitting the armrest of the couch. He then looks up from the football game on the screen. "Who is this little guy?" Chad asks, turning to look at Luke and me in the kitchen.

Luke looks up at me with his eyes that mimic Ryder's.

Luke is Ryder's mini-me, except for the baby fat that still lingered on his face. Luke's look says, "are you serious? who is this tool?" Instead of speaking, he sits poking his fork at the french toast I had waiting for him. His mood had done a one-eighty since he saw Chad sitting on the couch.

"This is Luke. Ryder's little brother."

"Cool. What are we doing today?" He asks, his eyes falling back on the TV, not caring what was going on, really, the old Chad showing through. This Chad only cared about his interest and no one else.

"He is coming?" Luke whispers to Ryder more than to me. Ryder shakes his head as he agrees with his brother that it was ridiculous that Chad was invited.

"No," I wink at Luke, letting him know I heard him. "Sorry, but I promised Luke it would be just the two of us" I lie about this, and Luke knows this; he winks back at me, his goofy grin popping on his face." Are you fine on your own, here all day?" I ask Chad; Ryder looks at me, his eyes saying he could kill me.

I smile politely back at him. It Deserved him right.

"Uh.. That is fine" his eyes do not move off of the screen.

The door opens after Luke, and I have stepped out. "Wait," Ryder's voice fills the hallway. His movements were shaky, his sigh was extended, he pulls a five out of his wallet. "Go get something out of the vending machine" he hands it to Luke, who walks four doors down to the alcove in the middle of the hallway.

Ryder rubs his face with his hands; something was weighing on his mind. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" I try not to think about him and the moans from the night before.

"For..."

"Ryder, it's fine. It is your apartment too... You can bring whoever you want back home. It's fine." His eyebrows go up; he was amused by me.

"What?" I puff out, my voice betraying me.

"You said it was fine... Twice."

"Because it is," I say, looking at Luke, who was waiting for me, a chocolate candy bar and bag of chips in his hands. "I have to go." I try to keep my mind off of Ryder while Luke and I shop for pants.

Josh had called two nights before. "I know you have been watching Ryder a lot."

"It is fine," I said, placing my books on the makeshift bookshelf I made out of bricks and pallets; it was a DIY craft I found online.

"Well, could you take him pants shopping? He is growing out of everything, and I am horrible at it."

"Uh. Sure. That would be a lot of fun." I said while straightening the last shelf into place.

"Thank you Renee. You are the best." He clicked off before I could say it was not a big deal, that I would rather hang out with Luke.

Luke tugs on my arm. "You know he likes you" we had just stepped out of the last store, ready to head home.

"Who?"

"My brother." He smiles, kicking his feet at the ground.

"Ryder?" I ask, my heart rate speeding up; he did not like me, not after last night. And I couldn't trust him, not after last night. It was sickening that my pulse quickened when I thought about him.

"No. Josh. I heard him and Mandy talking about it the other night."

"Well, let's keep that to me and you," I say, patting the back of his hair down.

Josh? Likes me?

Date April 1, 2010
Title: Troubles
Writer: Charlotte

What do you do when one brother likes you?

And you only like the other one?

You stay away or try to.

That was what I had come up with. There is Ryder, who is everything different from my type, but there is something there that keeps pulling my thoughts to him. And then there is Josh, a few years older than me, who has his life together and is exactly the type I used to have. But I don't want things to be the same. To have a boyfriend like I used to where you fall into the same routine, and the same thing happens repeatedly. So my plan is to stay away from both. But this won't be so easy since my roommate is the one I like and the other one cooks lunch for everyone on Sunday.

I wish things could be simple... Again.

-Charlotte

The comments flooded in, polls were made up, it was official sides were being chosen. My readers were either Team Josh or Team Ryder.

Josh seemed to be everyone's favorite. Did I really want my readers weighing in on my thought process?