My Brothers Best Friend [18+]

Chapter Thirteen

I'd always looked at my brother at an annoyance in my life. A speck on the couch that I ignored so he could tease me and appear cool in front of his friends, even though I was always the cool one. 

He wasn't the classic big brother that every girl seems to have in the movies. We never baked cookies together or laughed about our differences. 

No, I had a brother that did nothing but piss me off. 

Apparently when I was born he threw a fit in the hospital and our dad had to take him outside, driving him home when he wouldn't settle down. My mother had just given birth and we were left to fend for ourselves. 

My earliest memory is Matt pulling on my pigtails so hard that he made my eyes water. I'd cried and smacked him as hard as a four year old could manage, and mum had shouted at us both despite it being completely his fault. 

When I started year 4 he got an older boy, one of his friends, to kick a football at me across the school yard. Everyone got in trouble for that one, too; the school nurse worried I had a concussion. 

I finally began making friends in secondary school so he backed off. Where he got into STEM subjects, I got into hanging out at parks and pretending to have sleepovers to drink in fields. 

Once puberty hit I became an annoyance to him as well. 

All the years of Matt teasing and being mean in childhood had built up in my little fists. I started arguing back, giving our mother a headache that didn't leave until Matt left for college. I embarrassed him in front of our family whenever I could - one Christmas I convinced a room full of people that I'd caught him kissing his study buddy and for two years they tried to gently ease him out of the closet. 

I can't help but feel like this is payback. 

Matt devised a plan; have Noah drop me off at Sara's early so we girls can get ready together, and speak to Skye as we do our make-up and drink cocktails. He gave me more pointers about it in the car on the way over, to my dismay. 

I know that now is when I should start 'the talk'. 

We're almost ready, Sara and Skye have been trying to involve me in their gossiping even though I don't know any of their other friends. We've had two cocktails each so we're loose, and Skye seems happy and smiling, but I just don't want to. 

I don't want to ruin her evening, or make her hate me before we've even gotten to know each other. 

Screw Matt for making me do this. 

I glance at myself in a vanity mirror as they giggle about a message Sara just received behind me. My long ginger hair is in loose curls thanks to Sara's new curling wand and it looks soft, silky, shiny - nothing like the usual frizzy mess I'm used to. 

A light dusting of brown eyeshadow rests on my eyelids, matching the contour Skye had helped me perfect. I think of Chelsea as I apply lip gloss. 

"Are you wearing that tonight?" Sara asks from her wardrobe. I turn towards her, noticing Skye sat on the bed in shorts and her bra, straightening the last few pieces of her short blonde hair. 

My jeans and t-shirt combo suddenly make me feel under-dressed with all the effort we've put into our hair and make-up. I nod, feeling weary at the smile that lights up her face. 

"Because we could be really dressy..." She bites her lip. Skye groans from the bed. Suddenly hangers click together and there's a rustling that fills my stomach with dread. 

Jumping up and down on the tip of her toes, she leans back out of the wardrobe and holds up three near-identical dresses; the only difference being the colour of each one.