*FREE WITH PAID BONUS CHAPTER*After being dumped by her boyfriend, Elodie Shepherd resigns herself to loving her older brother's best friend from afar, just like she always has, even though he only sees her as his best friend's immature kid sister.
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Matthew had me hide in his closet, because he was sure that Eli wouldn't want to come in his room.
He was wrong.
Their voices floated past and then grew louder and louder in intensity until Eli stormed into his room and I wanted to physically shrivel up and die.
I was in my brother's best friend's home wearing nothing but his t-shirt.
Nothing else.
Seriously, I wasn't even wearing any underwear!
"Oh, well nevermind then," Eli said, voice clear as day. If I crept close enough to the closet door, I could see their silhouettes through the crack in the door where the rising sun cast their shadows against the floor.
"What the fuck did you want to come in here for, man?!"
"I was sure you had a girl over."
"And so you thought you'd barge in and interrupt us?"
Matthew had a point. If Eli was trying to suck up for what he'd done, he was doing quite a shitty job about it.
"Hey, can you blame me for being curious? You never have girls over, ever. It's always you going to their place and leaving immediately after, and it's been months since we've actually gone out and you've gotten laid. You got something to tell me?"
"Something to tell you?"
"Yeah. I mean, I don't care if you're not into girls, I even have some guys I could introduce you to, if you want."
"Bro, I'm not-"
"And if you're not ready to come out yet, I can respect that. Just pretend this conversation never happened."
Matthew sighed heavily, and I could just picture him rubbing the bride of his nose with his pointer finger and thumb in exasperation.
"Yeah, cool, thanks man. Appreciate it."
I almost choked on my laughter where I stood hidden in the closet, and the irony of that wasn't lost on me, either.
Matthew wasn't in the closet--our relationship was.
Wait.
Relationship?
Where had that come from? It was way too early for a 'what are we' conversation, especially considering the fact that I'd only just recently been dumped. I didn't want Matthew thinking he was a rebound, but then again...
He definitely didn't need to know the extent of my true feelings for him, either. Maybe him believing he was only the rebound was good for me, to protect the secret that I've had this whole time--that I had been in love with Matthew since I was just a kid.
"Anyway, I just wanted to come and talk to you about what my publicist told me."
