A Sliver of Hope (previously My Brothers Best Friend... Is An Idiot)

Chapter Eleven

After a while, Derek came home and I ignored him without telling him why. Aaron went back to his usual self with Derek, not the softy I felt he could be.

"KC, can we borrow your pillow?" Derek walked in. I silently shook my head no, still angry at him for lying. Why would he tell me Aaron is hooking up with someone else?

"Bye." I told him. He raised his eyebrows at me and decided that was some code for 'please come over and sit on my bed'. He got comfortable and looked at me for an explanation.

"What do you want?" I asked after a 2-minute glaring contest.

He shrugged. "Why are you being a grump head?"

"I am not!" I defended myself. I knew very well how grumpy I was being, but that didn't matter. He deserved all my grumpiness.

"Yes you are, and I'll sit on you if you don't tell me why." He said casually. I sighed and sat up in my bed, pulling my long legs in to sit criss-cross.

"Why did you lie about Aaron hooking up with someone else?"

He laughed in my face and got up from the bed, turning back at me and giving me a humorless smile. "I wouldn't lie for no reason. Aaron did hook up with someone else." And with that, he walked away and I was left to gawk in solitary.

I processed what he said only about 10 minutes after he left my room, and by that time I figured nothing I said would make a difference. Aaron did hook up with someone else, and then he lied to me.

It took all my might not to walk downstairs and slap him, screaming "FUCK YOU!" but I contained myself. In fact, immediately after that I went to sleep. I actually miss school, at least then I get to see my friends every day. Here, I'm stuck with this idiot all the time in my own home.

I didn't cry or moan and groan about how things should have turned out differently because we were soulmates and we were supposed to end up together. We weren't in love. We've been childhood enemies, I didn't really expect us to work out, right? So I just laid sprawled across my bed, staring at my ceiling, reminding myself why I've hated him for all these years.

--

The next morning I woke to Kaylee jumping on my bed, screaming about something that probably wasn't as important as this drama queen made it out to be. After another 10 minutes of her jumping on me and screaming with no reaction, she got up and trudged out of my room. Before she left she turned around and voiced her last threat. "Be downstairs in 20 minutes or I'll come back up, Krystal Cuffman!" I let out a groan in response. "20 MINUTES! I'M WARNING YOU!"

I sighed and slowly sat up in my bed, trudging over to my mirror. I made an unattractive face at myself and made my way to my bathroom across the hall, getting into the shower and letting my emotions be washed away by the steaming water. I couldn't tell how long I was standing in my old fashioned bathtub, but I knew I wasn't ready to get out yet when my legs began to ache. So, I did what any stressed out teenage girl would do. I reached over to my sink, grabbed my bubble bath liquid and closed my drain plug. I had picked out this bathtub for a reason, and that because of how much I loved taking baths in this thing.

I lowered my self into the bath and let the warm water envelop me, leaning my head back and enjoying the tickle of the water faucet on my toes. I clicked the Amy Winehouse pandora station on my iPhone dock and let myself go. I occasionally let my head slide under the delicate mess of bubbles, coming back up every time more frustrated than the last. No number of head dunks could get him off my mind.

I couldn't stand it. He was invading every thought of my mind, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I put my arms on either side of the tub and decided to let myself go, just for now. Just this once.