Meet Me After Practice

Oh, Brother!

--- ABIGAIL ---

“Hey, Abby. Where have you been?” James asked me as soon as I stepped into the door. He was sitting on the couch with his arms crossed over his chest. I couldn’t tell if he was mad or concerned. “You’ve been gone for almost three hours.”

I smiled at him and closed the door, flipping the lock shut before turning to him again. Could I tell him where I really was? Or would he freak out? Probably freak out. “I was, uh… I was out running with some friends.” I lied, not looking at him completely.

“What friends?” He asked, his eyes narrowing as he looked at me. “Three hours is a long time to be on a run.”

I rolled my eyes. I couldn't believe he was going all overprotective brother on me. Again. “Just some people from school, okay? And we went out to eat after. That’s probably why it took longer.” Well, that wasn’t completely a lie. I had gone out with a ‘friend from school’, we had gone out to eat afterwards, and I had been out longer because of it.

“Really?” He said, standing up from the couch and walking over to me, his eyes narrowing even more. “You weren’t out with… any certain guy, were you?” His lips curved up in a evil smile when he saw a guilty expression cross over my face momentarily. Crap! I’d given myself away!

“N-no. There is no guy.” I said, very unconvincingly. I really needed to work on my lying skills. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

James just laughed at me, his eyebrows wiggling at me teasingly. “Oh, my goodness! Who is he? You have to tell me so I can beat the crap out of him if he hurts you.”

I laughed nervously at him, seeing no hope of being able to cover up anymore. “I’m not going to tell you.” I said, grabbing my stuff and turning to walk up the stairs to my room. James followed me, begging me to tell him who my ‘boyfriend’ was.

“Abby, come on. I’m your brother!” He said stopping at the frame of my door as I stepped inside my room. “You’ve got to tell me, Abby.”

“James, I love you, but-” I quickly swung the door shut and locked it, hearing protests from him immediately. “You being my brother is all the more reason not to tell you. Goodnight!”

I heard James groan and bang the door a couple times. “I demand you open this door!” He said loudly, jiggling the handle until he accepted that it wasn’t going to open. “Come on, Abby-”

“I said goodnight!” I sang, laughing as I changed into my pajamas and hopped into bed, the loud, rhythmic bangs on my door eventually disappearing, allowing me to fall asleep to the memory of Johnny’s voice

=          =          =          =          =

--- JOHNNY ---

As we waited for Abby to descend the stairs the next morning for school, James asked me a strange question. “You wouldn’t happen to know who Abby was out with last night, would you? She won’t tell me!” He said.

“Uh…” I said, looking away from his intense gaze down at my hands. Should I tell him she was out with me? Or would that just make him mad? I finally decided not to tell him. If Abby didn’t want him to know, then I didn’t want to be the one to give it up first. “Nope, I have no idea. Why, you think she snuck out with someone?” It was weird to be on this side of the conversation. You know, talking about myself.

James nodded, glancing up the stairs before lowering his voice and saying. “Yeah, I do. You wanna help me find out who this guy is? Whatever he did to my sister must have been bad, because she’s been unusually happy since she got back. I want to beat that guy up!”

I smiled and nodded, loving that I was volunteering to catch myself, and to beat myself up. “Sure, why not.”

Just then, Abby hopped down the stairs, a giant smile appearing on her face when she saw me. She was wearing dark blue skinny jeans, the rainbow belt looped around her waist matching her tie-dyed scoop neck shirt. Her hair was curled again, the dirty blonde spirals hanging down her back. My heart was pounding just at the sight of her. “Hey, guys. I’m ready to go.” She said, her eyes moving to me.  “Hey, Johnny.”

“Hey.” I said, trying to make it sound casual, but failing miserably. Luckily, James didn’t seem to notice anything. Few! “I, uh… like your hair. It looks nice.”

She blushed before reaching up to tuck a loose strand behind her ear, her gentle blush sneaking onto her face. Oh, I loved it when she blushed. “Thanks. Yours looks nice too.”

I smiled at her as we walked out of the door to James’s truck, arriving at the school a couple minutes later. I jumped out of the truck and helped Abby out, drawing curious eyes from James. There was no doubt that I was going to hear about that later.

“See you in English.” I said to her, sending her my best dazzling smile before walking over to James. We made our way across the parking lot toward the school, Abby disappearing into the crowd of students. And then came the wrath of James.

“What was that all about? Abby can get out of the truck by herself.” James said to me as we sauntered down the hall to locker room, an angry look plastered on his face. “Something’s up with you Johnny. Ever since Abby got here you’ve been acting- weird.”

I swallowed, not looking at him. How was I supposed to cover that one up? “What? No I haven’t. I was just… being a gentleman. You know, nice? It’s considered thoughtful to help a woman out of a car, James.” I said, sounding utterly ridiculous. Where did the word ‘thoughtful’ come from? I couldn’t remember the last time that word had ever so much as crossed my mind.

James didn’t buy it, but I didn’t expect him too. I was obviously a horrible liar. “Really? ‘Cause, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you liked her.” He turned to look at me then, probably trying to judge my reaction.

Don’t make a face, don’t make a face, don’t make a face… I begged myself, hoping against hope that my guilt wouldn’t show. But, unsurprisingly, my attempt to hide my feelings failed. I just stood there, staring at him like a freakin’ idiot, my face so red you could use it as a kickball. I had just given myself away. Big time. Seeing my hesitation and my face heat up, James narrowed his eyes, his hands balling into fists, his voice almost venomous when he spoke. “You do like her, don’t you?”

I let out a nervous breath, trying to open my locker. But my hands were too shaky. “I, uh- I didn’t say that.”

"Yeah, but you're thinking it." He said, yanking his shirt over his head before tugging on his gym shirt, a scowl permanently plastered onto his face as he glared at me. "Why didn't you tell me you liked my sister? Was it you that she was out with last night? Gosh, Johnny, why didn’t you tell me?”

I stuttered, stuffing my backpack into my locker before taking off my shirt and pulling my gym one down over my abs. "I wasn’t out with her last night, James! And I don't like her. How many times do I have to tell you? She's your little sister- that would be weird if I liked her." I said, now more mad than anything else. So what if I liked her? He didn’t need to know about everyone his sister sees.

James narrowed his eyes at me, obviously trying to decide if I was lying or not. Hopefully he couldn't see through me. After a minute, he finally sighed, slamming his locker shut before grabbing his tennis shoes. "Whatever, Johnny." He said, walking over to the door that went into the gym. "We'll talk about this later."

I watched as the door slid shut behind him, leaving me sitting by myself on the beach in the middle of the row of lockers, feeling like a complete jerk. I sighed and put my head in my hands, mad at myself for being so stupid. I couldn’t believe I'd just lied to my best friend. Again.

Hopefully James wouldn't remember to bring this up again, but something told me that that was very unlikely. When you fall for a girl with a majorly overprotective brother, you're just asking for trouble. Looks like I was asking for trouble.