Something New (A Chris Evans Story)

Chapter Twelve

I found myself unable to breathe – I was drowning in Chris's ocean-like blue eyes. My heart felt like it was beating out of my chest as his thumb stroked the apple of my cheek. His face came closer and closer; my eyes inadvertently closed as I waited for our lips to meet, and my arm automatically started to snake its away around his neck when-

"Hey, Chris!" Ananth burst into the room and Chris and I jumped apart as if we had been electrocuted. The fuzzy haze clouding my thoughts faded away just as quickly as it had arrived. "Didn't expect to see you here," he said, as he glanced our pillow fort, surrounded by candy wrappers, empty popcorn bags, and soda cans. And of course, I couldn't forget Chris' multiple beer bottles.

"What are you guys watching?" He stood in front of television for a split second until he figured it out. "Winter Soldier?!"

He then made himself comfortable between Chris and I as he started geeking out about watching a Captain America movie with the Captain himself. I could feel Chris sneaking peeks in my direction from the other side of the couch, but I didn't look back at him. I just couldn't face him after... after that.

My oblivious brother chattered on, even though I felt like the tension in the air could have been cut with a knife.

"I'm gonna... start cleaning the trash up," I muttered, looking for an excuse to escape the suffocating atmosphere, "does anyone want anything from the kitchen?"

Chris started to get up, offering to help me (knowing him, he'd probably try to make out with me once we were alone in the kitchen). Luckily, Ananth tugged his arm to make him sit back down, saying that it was a "once in a lifetime opportunity" to learn more about the behind the scenes stuff, and insisting that "Naina was so used to doing stuff like this." I rolled my eyes at my brother's sexist comment. Jackass.

As I disposed of the trash, I saw a small stack of dirty dishes in the sink, left over from last night. In fact, the entire kitchen was a mess because Chris had interrupted my cleaning session with our movie marathon. Fuck. I started to scrub down all the dishes in the sink, the soap suds bubbling up my arms. I didn't know whether to hug Ananth or murder him.

As I drove back home from the hospital on near- empty roads (or as close you can get in Boston) at the crack of dawn, all I could think about was the comfortable bed and the Chris Evans movie awaiting my return. How we had managed to avoid talking about what had happened between us a couple of days ago was beyond me. That was a good thing, though.

God, I just need to collapse on my bed and die. I was completely exhausted from my twenty-four hour shift at the hospital. The pediatric ward was unusually busy with a minor car accident. Luckily, nobody had been seriously injured, but there had been enough minor injuries to keep me on my toes.

As I let myself into the house, I dropped my bag near the front door and went into the kitchen to make myself something to eat. Recently, I decided to go through Chris's filmography to see something besides Snowpiercer and those Marvel movies we watched together.

Since his ego had become too inflated after I praised him for those movies, I now needed more blackmail material to make fun of him.

And apparently I had hit gold with this movie called Not Another Teen Movie. Just the cover assured me that I was in for a treat. Granted, I'd have to cut him a lot of slack since that was his first movie.

However, that right there is a huge maybe.

"There's some chai left for you on the stove, Nainu." Wait a minute, that voice (and the only person who would ever call me that) sounded like...