My best friend's brother

That night

We took Josh's car to the restaurant. I sat in the backseat while they sat in the front. While getting into the car, Josh had opened the front door for me, but Amanda had quickly hopped in, winking at her brother's annoyed expression. I could just giggle at the situation. I didn't know what her problem was, but Amanda clearly didn't want me hanging out with her brother. Since she had become my closest friend in this town, I guess I could give her that much. I resolved to keep my distance from Josh all night.

On the way, we were mostly quiet until I heard the strains of a familiar tune. "Oh my God, is that 'Shine on you, crazy diamond'? I love Pink Floyd!"
Josh turned back and smiled upon seeing the glee on my face. "Yeah, it's one of my favourites."
I smiled back at him until I remembered my resolve. I quickly turned away and started looking out the window.

At the restaurant, Josh got out of the car and held the door open for me. I purposely ignored it and climbed out the other side. This made Amanda laugh and I was glad that she wasn't pissed at me. But when I looked back, I could swear that I saw a hurt expression on Josh's face for just a second before he schooled back his features to normal.
This confused me; on one hand I wanted things to be fine but I also wanted this newfound friendship with Josh.

We sat on a table for four, with Am beside me and Josh in front of me. As we sat, I smiled at him and he smiled back. So I guess I had been forgiven for the car debacle.

"Woah, this place is just-", I said, unable to find the right words to describe the place."
" I know right? I love this place," Am said, grinning.

The restaurant was tastefully decorated with red and white interiors and soft muted lighting. It looked like an ideal place for a first date, albeit a very expensive one. In the lighting, Josh looked absolutely fabulous with his high cheekbones looking impossibly perfect and his dark brown hair looking almost black. He had on a dark blue shirt- which incidentally matched my dress-which looked wonderful against his skin and hair.

"Babe, I know I look hot but could you atleast stop drooling? You look gorgeous today. I wouldn't want your makeup to get ruined," he said giving me a wink.
I reddened and quickly looked away, discreetly checking my chin for drool. However I realised I wasn't as discreet as I'd thought when I saw him laughing at me.

"Well I don't believe in denying myself the simple pleasures in life," I said sassily, winking at him.

He laughed out loud. "Nice philosophy, and I think I'm going to follow it too," he said in a deep voice, staring intensely at me.

"I'm hungry, so can we please skip the chatter and just order?" Amanda said in a visibly frustrated tone. Feeling guilty that I had all but forgotten about her, I ducked my head and began studiously staring at the menu. After giving our orders, we just sat silently. An awkward silence hung in the air. I had never seen Am in such a foul mood.

"Uh.. so you guys are siblings and stuff-"

"Oh really?" Am said in the most sarcastic tone she could manage.

I tried not to be deterred by it and continued, "So you must know a lot of embarrassing stuff about each other, huh?"

At this, Amanda's eyes gleamed. "You know what? Actually I do."

Josh looked at her with actual fear in his eyes. "No you won't, Am." She stuck out her tongue at him. "Did you know that a couple of years back when 1-D was new in the whole music scene, who was their biggest fan? None other than the great Josh Taylor"

I sat stunned, just looking at Josh waiting for him to start vehemently denying it. When he sat silently averting his eyes, I screamed, "Nooo".
"They had some really good songs okay? Quit looking at me like that", he said in a highly embarrassed voice.
"Well, any lady boner I ever had for you is now most definitely gone". It was already out of my mouth when I realised what I had just admitted to. I started sputtering "Uh I mean, lame boner. No I mean lame boyer. No I mean- how can you listen to Pink Floyd and that lameass boy band crap too?"

"Well music is music. I appreciate it in all forms, no matter what band it's from. If I like it I listen to it. I could care less about bands and labels". It was obvious he loved listening to music. And I was doubly glad that we had moved past my 'lady boner' moment.

Suddenly, Amanda's phone started ringing. She got up and received the call.

"So lady boner huh? Glad to see that you're not unaffected by this whole 6'2" hunky package. " he smirked.

"What the f is hunky package? Wow. You're so full of yourself, " I replied annoyed by his cockiness and flustered that he hadn't let it go.

"So you're saying that you're not affected by me?" He said getting up and bringing his face close to mine. Didn't he get the concept of personal space? Argh. I couldn't formulate a sentence with his perfect lips less than 3 inches from mine. Once I started looking I couldn't look away. Slowly the lips started inching closer to me. When we were just a hairsbreadth away I realised what was happening and jerked back suddenly.

Josh was shocked to say the least. "You didn't expect that huh, Mr. Perfection?" I said trying to diffuse the tension between us. I was never one to run away from awkward situations and pretend like they never happened and this was definitely awkward, with a capital A. Josh and I had almost kissed. He didn't reply and we just sat silently trying to process what had just happened.

We had composed ourselves by the time Amanda came back. "So.. big trouble. I forgot to put the key under the mat and accidentally brought it here with me and now Mom's at the gate. Josh, you'll have to go back and give her the keys."

"Why me? You're the one who accidentally got them here."

"We got your car and you don't let me drive it, remember?"

"Here you go," said Josh tossing her the keys instantly.

"Whaaa-" Amanda just gaped at him. "You're giving me your keys?"

"Yup."

"You know that means I'll drive your car, right?"

"Yup."

"You know I'm me, Amanda, your little sister, who for the past year has begged for your keys and has never ever even gotten to touch them, right?"

"Yup."

"What's your favourite brand of cereal?"

"What?" It was Josh's turn to be surprised.

"Just answer the question," Amanda said sternly.

"I don't like cereal, you know that Am."

"Good, I was just making sure I wasn't in the middle of Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

I started laughing looking at the bizarre exchange happening in front of me.

Josh rolled his eyes. "Just take the car, Am."

"Okey-dokey," she said with the biggest grin on her face. "Come on P, lets go."

"Hold up, why do you need her to go with you? Just go alone."

"But she's my guest-"

"Who hasn't eaten anything. We'll eat and I'll drop her back."

I couldn't believe my ears when I realised that Josh was loaning his precious car just so he could have some alone time with me. Don't be absurd, I tried telling myself, he's probably just hungry. But a part of me was giddy at the thought that he'd done this for me. What was wrong with me?

Amanda couldn't argue with the logic of that, but I knew that she was not fine with the arrangement. This time though I didn't speak up. Because somewhere some part of me wanted that alone time with Josh. I sat silently feeling like an awful friend.

When I didn't speak up, Amanda muttered okay and left.

After she left, I looked up at shyly at him, dreading that he'd go back to his regular douchey self, but surprisingly he was smiling at me, an absolutely gorgeous smile at that.

"So where were we? Oh that thing that you just stopped from happening? It's going to happen. You want it, I want it and we both know it. So quit pretending, babe. By the end of tonight, I will kiss you and you will kiss me back, " he said with challenge in his eyes.

I gulped. This was going to be a long night.