Him and Me.

Him and Me- Twenty One.

It was a girl.

I had never thought that my brother would be lifting weights in a gym to impress a girl. This was a guy who once said that he would rather lift foot long sandwiches rather than bars and metal. Sure, he didn’t exactly admit it but come on. He turned red and then said shut up. Those were strong enough evidences for me to conclude that yes, my brother, Matthew Johnson, was utterly attracted to someone.

“What’s her name?” I asked, enjoying watching my brother squirm. “Is she in your university? Same course? A classmate? A seatmate?”

My eyes brightened as I looked at my brother, trying not to laugh at what I was about to say next. “Is she a cafeteria lady?”

Matty looked at me incredulously and exclaimed, “No! Her name’s Lily!”

And then his eyes widened, making me burst out laughing. Through my crinkled eyes, I could see Matty turned into a couple darker shades of red, which I wouldn’t have thought possible. It was one of the funniest, and most adorable sights I had ever seen.

As I laughed my heart out, my brother sunk on to one of his bean bag chairs, red up to the roots of his hair. He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest while I tried to catch my breath. When I finally did, I settled on the humongous, comfy throw pillow and looked at Matty expectantly.

“Ooooh so there is a girl! Tell me about this Lily. Is she pretty? Your classmate?” I asked again, now genuinely interested about the girl my brother was pining for. It was a pretty big deal, after all.

Matty had only had one girlfriend, Dianne. He dated her during sophomore year in high school, and I had to say they were really in love. I had never seen Matty so happy. But Dianne broke up with Matty last summer, since she would be going away for college. She said she didn’t want my brother to be tied up or anything when she couldn’t really be there physically for him. Matty tried to convince her otherwise, but he couldn’t really do anything about it. She was now attending college in Hong Kong, while Matty decided to stay here in Chicago.

My brother was pretty devastated after the break-up, and he wouldn’t really go out with other girls. I tried convincing him, but he said he wouldn’t want to do that just to cheer himself up. He said he would not be that guy who would use girls just to forget. At that moment, I knew my parents didn’t go wrong in bringing my brother up. Well maybe he could use a lot of work on his being annoying, and being a pig sometimes, but I had to say I was proud of my brother because he knew how to treat girls right.

So this was a big deal for me, Matty liking someone. She might have to put up with an occasional snore, the corny jokes, and the exaggerated protectiveness, but overall, she was very, very lucky to have someone like my brother to like her.

When Matty didn’t answer, I stretched a leg and poked his knee with my foot. He shot me a glare, and then stuck his tongue out at me. I tried my hardest not to laugh again at his immature antics, since that would probably make him sulk even more. Clearing my throat, I poked Matty’s knee again and adopted my puppy dog expression.

“Come on Matty, tell your lovely sister all about Lily,” I said in a pouty voice. Matty was not looking at me when I was speaking, but when he did and saw my face, his lips twitched before he let out a loud chuckle.

“You look ridiculous, squirt,” he said. I frowned and was about to retort back when Matty cut me off.

“Her name’s Lily Jones, she’s a freshman, art major, really cool and nice and funny and talented, black hair, green eyes, very pretty,” he said, cheeks slightly turning pink as he spoke. I fought the urge to pinch my brother’s cheeks.