Best Friend's Brother: Chapter One

Midnight Memories and Sick Comebacks

Nathaniel rolled into my driveway right at seven. I grabbed my small backpack that held my basic necessities. My phone, wallet, and candy to smuggle into the movie theater. I grabbed a blanket off my bed and folded it before there was a knock at my door. I heard Kari scramble out of her room and downstairs to open the door for Nathaniel. I shook my head and headed downstairs to see Nathaniel already sitting on my couch waiting for me.

I gave him an odd look as I registered what he was wearing. He wasn't dressed up or anything, just your basic khaki cargo shorts and a grey baseball tee with black sleeves. His shoes were your plain old grey Nikes with basic white socks. What threw me off was his hair.

He had recently gotten a haircut, but that wasn't the thing that bothered me. Since he got his haircut, he would wear it pushed up messily but this time it looked like he combed it up. I gave a small laughed and reached to mess it up.

"I like it when it looks messy. It suits you better," I smiled, and Nathaniel stood up. He gave Kari a small wave as I said goodbye and shut the door. I got in his car, and he drove to the theater.

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When we got to the ticket counter, the lady told us that the movie had just started ten minutes before we got there. We decided to wait for the next showing at nine o'clock. Since we had almost two hours to kill before the movie, we went to the nearest Chuck E. Cheese's to play games since there weren't any fairs around. We played in the jungle gym for a good forty-five minutes before we thought about playing games.

We ended up playing a ton of Skii ball to try to beat the other's high score. I, sadly, couldn't beat Nathaniel's fourth high score, so I had to get him a giant inflatable hammer as his prise. Once we ran out of tokens, we decided to leave. Otherwise, we would be there until close and completely miss our movie.

We got back to the theater just in time to get our popcorn and see the movie from the beginning. 

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I passed out in the passenger seat on the way back from the movie. I guess Nathaniel didn't want to carry me inside and possibly wake up my siblings because I woke up in his bedroom still wearing the clothes from the night before. I got out of Nathaniel's bed and made the side I slept on before walking out into the kitchen. Nathaniel was sitting on a stool at the island with a bowl of Lucky Charms in front of him and his phone in his hand. I slid onto the stool beside him and leaned on his arm to see what he was looking at.

"Why are you looking at engagement rings?" I asked with a laugh lacing my words to hide the pain I was feeling in my chest.

"I just like to look at the designs once in a while," he replied nonchalantly with a shrug. A sapphire ring caught my eye, and I reached over and clicked on it. 

"This one is so pretty. I've seen it all over the place, and I love it." Nathaniel nodded and took another bite of his cereal. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost ten thirty.

"Hannah and Katie must be at work by now, huh?" I asked looking at their calendar on the fridge.

"No, actually they asked Autumn if she could hang out today," He said putting his phone to sleep and putting it down. I let out a small 'oh' and looked at Nathaniel who stood up to put his now empty bowl in the sink, "Do you want something to eat?"

"No, I'm not much of a morning eater."

"Are you sure? I can make you anything," he insisted, but I still refused.

"I should probably be getting home soon anyway. I'm sure Harry or Kari are probably freaking out wondering why I'm not home yet."

"You're with me, what could possibly happen to you?" Nathaniel laughed.

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After an entire day of lounging around Nathaniel's house and playing a few games of Mario Kart, Nathaniel finally drove me home when he realized it was close to midnight. He let me change into something more comfortable which meant 'you're wearing my stuff, deal with it' in Nathaniel's language. He gave me one of his sweatshirts and a pair of sweatpants.

As he walked me up to my door, he had something behind his back which he gave me once we made it to my door. It was a small fox plushie with a green scarf.

"It was your birthday a few days ago, but I never saw you so I couldn't give it to you on your birthday," he said with a weak smile. I hugged and thanked him for the adorable gift and the past couple days. He nodded, and we went our separate ways.

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I walked into Home Economics after lunch and Alexa came up to my station I was standing at. I rolled my eyes and waited for her to speak. When she didn't, I did, "Need something?"

"Am I making you nervous?" She asked with a sly smile.

"No," I laughed, "I just don't want you to stand next to something so hot, plastic melts you know."

Summer jumped into the conversation, "Alexa isn't plastic, she's human."

"Honey, this is an 'A' 'B' conversation, so 'C' your way out of it," I gave a smile and Summer slumped behind Alexa with a pout, "So did you need something or did you want to melt?"

"If you think that you're intimidating, you're lying to yourself," Alexa sneered.

"Really? Because it sounds like you're trying to convince yourself."

Alexa gave me a hard glare as she got closer to my face, "And if you think that Nathaniel is going to fall for you, you're even stupider than you look."

"At least I have a greater chance then you do, cake-face. He doesn't like girls who have to change their skin color every day," I gave her a tight smile and pushed her out of my face as the bell rang to start class.

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I stormed into the house and slammed the door behind me.

"Kari! You can kick her ass if you really want to! I don't care if you end up killing her!" I yelled into the house. Harry walked out of the kitchen with his eyebrows raised and his mouth slightly open. He looked well rested for once and had an apron on. I finally noticed the sweet smell in the house, brownies, and cookies.

I slipped my backpack off, leaving it next to the couch and hugged Harry. Tears brimmed my eyes as I hugged him tighter, "She won't go away, Harry. She won't go away..." I cried.

"Oh honey," Harry said with sympathy hanging from his words.

"It's like the more I fight back, the more she comes around! But if I let her continue, she'll make my life a living hell!" I let go of Harry and wiped my face off, "I don't even know why I'm crying about this! I'm just fed up with her!"

"What did she hit today?" Harry asked even though he probably already knew the answer.

"Nathaniel, and the other day she hit mom and dad and you relapsing. I almost punched her in the teeth for that one! Why me? Why did she choose me to pick on?!" I almost yelled in anger.

"She's intimidated by how confident you are, how comfortable you are in your skin. She's trying to destroy the competition," Harry answered with a shrug to follow his words.

"Competition for what?! Being the best barbie?!" 

"For the boys' hearts."

"You're kidding. Most of the guys hardly give me a second glance, heck, even a glance at all!" I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms, "Why is she jealous of the kid who is everything the guys don't want?"

"Because you have the attention of the one boy she wants."

"I do?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, you have Nathaniel's attention," Harry said with a matter-of-fact tone.

"All we are is friends! That's all we'll ever be. He'll never love or like me. These are the facts and people need to understand that!" I shook my head and grabbed my backpack before running upstairs and into my room.