Our hair blew far behind us in the wind. Brik played my favorite song, One Call Away by Charlie Puth, which brought on a too familiar sense of longing to be at a beach somewhere in Florida with Brick, my ex boyfriend and best friend. He parked my car outside of his house. He's a 20 year old entrepreneur or entrepreneur in training or something like that born in the US but his family, not including his parents of course, all reside in Germany. He visits his grandparents every summer and luckily for me, they always manage to have a spare ticket, not that I need them to pay for it. My father is a multi-billionaire.
I took steady strides to Brick's front door after he locked his car and opened the door. When we were in he engulfed me in a tight hug.
"I missed you. Du siehst wunderschön aus." He breathed, looking me up and down quickly in a single sweep then licking his bottom lip.
"Ah. Danke Brick." I breathed, looking him in the eyes with a genuine smile. Whenever I felt like running away I always ran in his arms. He was my protector but we could never be anything more. He's like a brother to me.
Soon in the aftermath of our greetings, he and I somehow ended up in his bedroom laying on his waterbed watching old cartoons he still had on DVD and eating ice cream. I missed times like this.
"So how's school?" He asked.
"Oh wonderful. I was kicked out of math Friday after I went out with Tamie. I can't wait until I have to go back Monday morning next week." I said sarcastically before shoving a spoonful of superman ice cream into my mouth. I starred directly into the TV.
He laughed. "What did you do?"
"It's not my fault. I was late to class getting you coffee Friday morning so I missed the ... warm welcome given in the beginning of class."
"That coffee tasted like ass on rocks by the way. Don't ever get me coffee again." He laughed.
I rolled my eyes and dug my spoon into his tub of ice cream. "Deal."
After eating it, I regretted it. I spit it into my superman ice cream and disgustedly tossed the whole tub on the night stand to the left of me.
"When you ordered ice cream did you ask for shit flavored because let me tell you, that was fucking delicious." I stated as I made my way to his indoor jacuzzi which was to the right of his bed and through the doorway, stripped, and entered since he was already running the water. He gave me a look that told me what I already knew, he was supposed to be in there and not me. I waved him over.
He gave me a suspicious look.
"Oh come on, we've done it before. Don't act weird." I rolled my head around and adjusted my shoulders. "I've had a really long day."
"Yeah okay well last time we were in my jacuzzi together had clothes on."
I rolled my eyes and walked over to him, tossed his whole tub of ice cream which I received a mortified look for, and spoke. "Honey, I've seen everything of yours that there is to see. Now if it's such a problem for you I can dress myself and that ice cream was nasty you won't miss it." I poked out my bottom lip and he smiled back at me and after a few minutes he finally joined me in the jacuzzi. The humor eluded the moment as seriousness set it. He placed himself on the far side directly across from me silently staring into my soul for a brief moment. I felt crowded in his lasting stare; after he looked away I still felt his eyes on me. I began wondering if my body looked weirder or different than he last remembered. I sighed.
"Do you believe in God?"
"Yes." He answered.
"Oh. How are you?"
"I don't know Imani." He moaned, closing his eyes. I splashed him with water and he opened his eyes and bit his lip as he retaliated the action. We ended up having an all out water splashing jacuzzi war. He dove under the water slowly like a crocodile disappearing in swamp water which caused me to laugh. He started tickling me as his head gradually came above the water.
"Brik!" I laughed.
"Who?" He pretended to be confused.
"I give in I give in!" I laughed and he laughed with me then ceased tickling me. I took that to my advantage and started tickling him.
"Woahh." He laughed then escaped my hands.
"Damn you. Clever bastard." He laughed from the opposite side of the jacuzzi as I disappeared under the water and somehow found him with my eyes shut tight. I rose above the water and didn't know how our faces were centimeters away from each other until I actually opened my eyes and along with that I realized how all seriousness had evaded the moment just as he had evaded my arms not too long ago. Our breaths lingered in the air for a moment as we stared at each other passionately.
My mind raced while my body laid frozen. What was happening here? I can't kiss Brik, he's like a brother to me. Would he feel insulted if I don't kiss him? I couldn't speak.
I couldn't hurt him but I also couldn't be his girlfriend. My eyes trailed from his brown/blonde hair to his pink lips to his muscles. I became extremely aware of how hot it was and how small his jacuzzi was. It felt crowded and the air was suddenly thick.
Then the unthinkable happened.
He somehow found humor in the moment and began laughing and brought me in for a hug then started tickling me. And to think he was going to kiss me..
