My mouth parted as my eyes locked on his face.
“You what?” I asked, not sure if I heard right.
“You heard me. I know what happened that night,” he repeated.
“H-how?” I asked.
“I was there that night. At the party,” he began to explain.
“Then why did you wait this long to tell me that!?” I exclaimed.
“Because things between us weren’t exactly rainbows and unicorns,” he responded.
My eyebrows pulled in together as I tried to understand his statement. Who in the world says rainbows and unicorns?
“What do you mean?” I asked hesitantly.
“You know,” he prodded. “After the…dinner that night, things between us were quite…shaky.”
“Oh,” I mumbled.
“Exactly,” he said with a tight smile.
“But why didn’t you call me and tell me a few days later!?” I questioned angrily. “Do you know how worried I have been for the past four days!?”
“I-I’m sorry,” he stuttered, taken aback by my outburst. “I was just making up my mind on whether to tell you or not.”
“That’s not the only thing! Ethan isn’t talking to me because he thinks whatever happened that night was intentional!” I bellowed.
“I know!” he exclaimed. “I was thinking about whether I should’ve talked to you about it or not. Yes, I agree it took way too long but when Abby told me what a jerk Ethan was to you, I decided to tell you.”
When I just stared at him with slight anger, he added, “And when I finally decided to tell you, my dad dragged me on that boring camping trip with him.”
I exhaled through my mouth. “Fine, I understand where you’re coming from.”
“You do?” he inquired, slightly surprised.
“Of course, I do,” I responded. “Do you think I wasn’t afraid or hesitant to talk to you after the…dinner?”
“Well, sort of.”
I rolled my eyes. “Typical.”
A smile broke out on his face and he seemed to physically relax.
“Now will you tell me what happened?” I asked.
He took a deep breath before beginning. “I was quite surprised to see you there, but when I realized that the guy you were with was the Austin Ethan kept blabbering about, I decided to keep an eye on the two of you.”
He sat down on a chair while I sat on the table nearest to me. “I would’ve talked to you at the party but I didn’t. I wanted to let things settle down between us before I finally started talking to you the way I did before,” he explained.
“I know, Jared,” I said, nodding in understanding. “What were you doing at the party?”
“A friend of mine had invited me. I thought it was just some party with alcohol crazed teens and dancing to techno music; I didn’t know it was a farewell for that guy.”
My mouth formed in the shape of an ‘o’ as I realized that there were many people there that night that Austin didn’t know. Jared was probably just one of those people.
He continued, not waiting for me to say anything. “Everything was alright; you were talking and dancing with him. But after Austin…”
“But after Austin-what?” I prodded.
YOU ARE READING
My Best Friend's Brother
Romance"Nice try," I said and the smile on his face grew wider. My eyes took in every inch of his face with pleasure. I continued, "But you've got to try better than that to impress me." A soft laugh escaped his lips. "Who said I was trying to impress you...
