My Brother's Best Friend | ✓

26. "one big misunderstanding"

I have a plan but it's kinda difficult to firgure out. I contemplate how I'm gonna pull everything off while eating a big bowl of captain crunch on one of the barstools in my kitchen.

Mom was still passed out on the couch and the criminal minds was on the TV. She told me Ryan was out with friends but somehow I had trouble believing that he wasn't completely wasted a bar near his school. If there's one thing Ryan sucked it, it was properly dealing with his emotions. When things got tough for him, he would always resort to drinking, which caused my mom all kinds of grief in the past. I for one am not gonna be that crazy when I go off to college, thats for sure.

I go on my phone and check facebook. Seeing how I have Georgia as a mutual, I figure shes the only way to reach Tracy. I send her a polite and friendly direct message, hoping she can get me in touch with her sister.

After a few moments a notification pops up on my screen with her straightforward reply, "NO".

I drop my spoon in my empty bowl of cereal. I've just about had enough with this ongoing feud between us so I decided to put it plain and simple.

Holly
Why do you hate me so much?

I see the three dots appear and I bite my nails as I watch my phone eagerly. It's always been a really bad habit of mine that I've been trying to kick. I wait and then the dots just dissapeared.

I decide to message her again because I've got nothing left to lose and frankly I've had enough of this unnecessary anger she has towards me.

Holly
What did I actually do to you though?

Georgia
What I really don't get is how you got Jacod. He's hot and you're not

Holly
This is about Jacob??

Georgia
You stole him from me

Holly
I did what??

Georgia
Don't play dumb, everyone knows he liked you since middle school

Holly
Believe me, this is just one big misunderstanding, but if you help me I swear I will help you get Jacob

I watch the three dots appear again. "Fine" she wrote, I hopped off the stool so fast and ran upstairs. With Georgia now on my team, all I needed was to go to the store to carry out my plan, which I got Cam to gladly help me with.

I changed out of my sweats and threw on some mascara. We met at our local supermarket and I explained my plan to her. I sat in the cart as she pushed me through the isles and I pointed out things to buy. I told Georgia what she had to do as well so I was counting on her for the most important part; getting Tracy.

Cam and I came home with bags of food and everything else we could possibly need at 5 at which point mom had already left for work. I noticed Ryan's black sneakers as I walked in so Cam and I quietly snuck into the kitchen and started setting up.

We got everything out and started cooking our fancy meal, though with the very limited cooking experience we had, the best we could do was chicken parmesan. Cam quickly got to work and put on the kiss the chef apron that was hanging on the wall. We giggled to ourselves while prepped all the food which really lightened up my mood.

"Thank you so much for your help" I tell her as we season the chicken. "Come on, like I would let you do this all by yourself?" she rolled her eyes.

"You know, you're actually pretty great for doing this" she says after a brief moment of silence. I smile just hoping that she is right. "I'm gonna go raid my mom's wine stash" I say gently grazing her shoulder before walking out of the kitchen.

Thankfully my mom was gone so I managed to snag a bottle of Maria Christina from the basement. Her hiding spots were not creative at all.

We set the table with the wine and some candles and I dimmed the lights downstairs to set the mood. Moments later I got a text from Georgia saying that we were good to go so I went ahead and put the final touches on the strategically set up photos of Ryan and Tracy that I snatched from his room.

I heard a faint knock on the front door and opening it quickly, feeling relieved that Georgia somehow managed to get her sister to come back here. Can't even imagine what kind of depths she must have gone to to convince her. I let her in quietly, knowing that Ryan was upstairs in his room and told her to wait downstairs.

I ran upstairs and a pit formed in my stomach as soon as I got to Ryan's room. Collecting my thoughts and taking a deep breath, I knocked on the door. He opened it with a sleepy and furrowed eyebrow look on his face. "What do you want?".

"Come downstairs, and bring the ring" I say with an excited smile stretched across my face. I lead him down and he followed close behind.

I step aside to where Cam and Georgia are standing and whispering to themselves. Ryan sees Tracy and his whole face just instantly lights up. He looks to me for a short moment and I just nod.

Cam, Georgia and I run aroynd the corner and watch secretly from the steps as they greet each other slightly apprehensively.

"I'm so sorry Trace. I will never do it again. I was stupid and scared, I don't know how I could ever be so dumb. I can't live without you, you're my whole world. You always have been and always will be". I almost teared up a bit listening to him. I never really knew how sweet my brother was actually capable of being.

"I believe you" she says wrapping her arms around him in a tight embrace. "I missed you too". We all looked at eachother and smiled knowing our job was done.

"I wanted to give you this in highschool" Ryan reaches into his pocket and pulls out the ring. Tracy gasps and cups her hand over her mouth. "It's a promise ring" he held it up for her to take. "I bought it with the money I'd saved up working at that burger shack for 6 months" he said. She slid it on her finger effortlessly and reached up to kiss him. We all just high fived as we watched them hug again. "I love you" Ryan said.

"I love you too".