My Best Friend's Brother // Young Love Book 1 ✔️

My Best Friend's Brother Ch. 4

Chapter 4

Early Saturday evening, me and my so-called mentor are going to a little mall trip to see the progress of our previous morning-afternoon endeavor. But, just for extra security, I watched a ton of Youtube "how-to" videos. It's really stupid, I know. Trust me, I knew that since the idea came to mind. I'm ashamed that I even bothered resorting to that option, but I did it anyway. I mean, what else are you supposed to do if you're a sixteen-year-old girl who's about to flirt with a teenage stranger? I don't have any experience in this department, if you don't already know. I spent about an hour trying to search stuff like how to flirt with a guy or how to get noticed by a guy. Hell, I even looked up how to be sexy. Shows how savvy I am when it comes to the dating game. I guess I really do need to get a life. No joke. Hopefully, after this covenant with Charlie, I'm over it. Succesful or not.

"Does Cindy know?" he asks out of the blue.

The beautiful lighting illuminates his face in this semi-crowded mall. I take him in like this - us.

What? Did I just say us? Uh-oh. You're focusing on Drew. Not Charlie. Not Charlie!

"Uh, Elouise? Cindy know I'm out, right?" I nod blankly as I sulk in my own thoughts.

"So where shall we start?" I ask trying to sound confident, which I'm not.

"The arcade," he answers simply.

I nod and follow him anxiously. The truth is I don't give a damn about this field trip. I'd rather listen to Penelope's drama all day than risk getting rejected. I hate rejection. It already happened to me a lot, I don't need to add more to My List of Rejections. I never want that kind of feeling again. Never. But here I am, doing it anyway - risking it.

When will you learn?

There's that smart ass voice again.

You know I hate you, right?

I scream the three words in my head. That voice doesn't listen, though. It has it's own mind.

Charlie drapes his arm around my shoulders and I remove it. "I thought we were on a hunt? You taking dibs?" I joke. I'm just feeling a lot more shy than I am earlier.

He pulls me back in and replies, "Relax, I'm being friendly. Besides, you're my little sister's best friend."

I sigh in relief. In that very far corner of my head, I felt disappointed. It's as if I've already been rejected and I didn't even try. Do you see where I'm coming from here?

The arcade was smelly, full of youth, and crowded. No surprise there. It's a Saturday night, for crying out loud. Charlie points to the basketball game thing and we quickly buy a few tokens. We challenge each other with a duel to the death. Well, more like I pretend I actually have a chance in winning. Within two minutes, there was a little group of the female specimen gawking at Charlie.

My Charlie!

There you go. I don't know why I'm being a tad possessive over him. Maybe it's because he's my mentor, not theirs.

Yeah, keep telling yourself that.

I ignore the annoying voice and pretend to accidentally hit Charlie in the head with one of the basketballs.

"What the hell?" he roars.

"It was an accident." I say it sweet, like it really was an accident. I add in my puppy dog face for added measure and his lips pull up into a grin that sends my heart rate quickening. He throws his ball at me and I stumble back a little, bumping into someone behind me in the process. Oops. I glare at Charlie but he appears to be examining his sneakers. He decides to ignore me now? Jerk.