my best friends older brother

12.

As he gently traced the tip of his finger against the skin on my back I knew I had to say something. I mean, if I don't what will happen? He seems out of it! It's been a good 5 minutes at this point and he's still touching my back!!

I cleared my throat and felt his finger tense and stop in its path, like I'd just woken him from a daydream. "Zain do you remember what was said in the treehouse?" I had to ask,it'd been eating me up for a while now without me noticing. His finger slowly slid down and then lifted off my back.

"What?" He questioned, I could sense him think for a moment. "Ohhhh, the whole thing about the party." He said, not any hint of emotion in his voice. Not even intrigue.

"Yeah, that." I spoke. Then everything went silent for a brief moment as I conjured up the right words to say. "Don't you remember anything from the party? Like not a single thing?"

I felt his breath against my back as he sighed, then he began to explain. "I remember a little. I remember going in and splitting away from everyone. A few girls tried to talk to me but I wasn't interested without any alchohol in my system. So I went to the alchohol station in tye kitchen and thats when I found you and Rae. I can vaguely remember little parts after that.." He rook a breath again and waited to see if I wanted more info, which ofcoarse I do.

"Go on." I urged, washing myself since he'd given up minutes prior. But when he saw me attempting to clean myself he began to scrub my hair again.

"Well, I remember taking a bunch of shots and then my vision got very blurry. Then I think I went out for a smoke break with someone. Didn't you say that was you?"

I froze, if he's remembering this now then he's bound to remember that it wasn't a normal cigerette; like I'd swore it was before. Admittedly, I'd never try drugs on my own. That was a one time thing and if he finds out I tried it he might think I'm actively using them. Now that I think about it, Zain never smells like weed he always just smells like normal cigerettes. I don't know how his parents haven't figured it out yet.

"Yeah, that was me." I managed to choke out. I'm obviously just overthinking it, he was basically out of it I doubt he'd question me. "But what about after that?" Hopefully I didn't sound too eager.

"Well I can't remember much, my last memory is of me sitting on the floor in a closet whilst having a cup pressed to my lips. The water from the cup really helped me to sober up and when I was only buzzed there was a nice girl sat on my lap helping me to sober up. The only thing is that we were both obviously recovering from.. you know."

A pit formed in my stomach yet again. A girl took advantage of him? Well I mean what did I expect when I left him like that. I could feel that he wasn't ashamed by his actions, just slightly confused. My chest ached, jealousy consumed me. Jealous? I'm jealous? I have no right to be, I'm the one who ran away!

"Atleast you got to have some fun." I sighed, trying to play it off like his words didn't affect me. He continued to scrub my hair, running his fingers through it and ripping through knots. It was silent again for a few seconds until I felt his hand firmly grab my shoulder and turn my around in the tub. A bit shocked by the sudden change, I instinctively covered my junk with my hands. I was face to face with zain but I couldn't bring myself to look at him. Instead, I focused on the water and how the ripples from my movement made the bubbles swish.

"What do you mean?" He asked, yet again no emotion in his voice. He didn't seem angry or happy or sad. Maybe a little intruiged but that didn't show since I wasn't looking at him. "You said you made out with someone, right?"

I felt nerves build up inside of me, is he peicing it together? Is he finally finding out why it's been so awkward between us? I had to say something fast, otherwise it might look like I lied about ever making out with someone!