My best friend's brother and my brother's best friend (2016)

A romantic offering

Hey guys! Before you read the following chapter, I'm proud to announce that I've just published the first chapter of my new story; My Kryptonite, it's written in a similar style to this story and I hope you'll all give it a read! Thank you again and without further ado; here is Chapter 45!

You can tell when Al is tense and stressed out. You can tell because she decides to cook a full English breakfast complete with bounties of fresh fruit, pancakes and mimosas. It all looks delicious, spread out on her fanciest table cloth and best china.

Unfortunately, the silence is deafening as we all pick at our food.

"Does anyone want a top up?" Cara chirps, armed with a fresh batch of cocktails before placing it in the middle of the silent table.

"Thank you darling," my mum smiles at her trying her best to break the tension.

Eli, convinced the awkwardness is all his fault, smiles gratefully at his sister. I take a bite of the delicious syrupy pancakes and chew slowly, racking my brain for anything to say that doesn't sound like an obvious diversion.

"So remember, I need to see you both for fittings for your tuxes to make sure they're right for Saturday," Cara starts, finally saying something useful to distract us all.

"Sure, can we do mine after this, I have something important to organise today," Eli comments, finally eating something himself and giving Cara an encouraging smile.

My eyes fly straight up to Cara's and she meets them straight away, reading my mind and giving me an excited smile.

"He's obviously planning your date!" Cara squeals after shutting her bedroom door to conceal us in her room.

"You don't know that, we only talked about this yesterday I mean it's your party tomorrow," I disagree, sitting on her bed and checking my phone.

"Exactly tomorrow, not today," she argues, smiling as she folds her arms, "anyway he could use with his mind being taken off this messed up form of guilt he's forcing on himself."

"And that's the reason why it probably isn't what you think. Sure, it sprung to mind at first but I don't think it's our date," I brush her off modestly.

"That's exactly your problem, you think way too much," she states winking at me like she knows something that I don't.

I tilt my head suspiciously at her but she ignores me, instead disappearing into the bathroom to shower and muttering something about how she has a busy day of party planning ahead of her.

Sitting down at the dressing table, I stare thoughtfully back at my reflection. This summer really hasn't turned out how any of us expected it to.

***

"Eli, I don't understand what we're doing?" I laugh in confusion as he pulls me excitedly over the little sandy hill and towards our usual spot on the beach.

"What are we getting for Cara that's all the way down here?" I ask again, now completely puzzled at our current task.

"It's in the beach hut, come on," he insists further, clearly trying to cover up the obvious smile on his face. He's really bad at keeping a convincing poker face.

I trail behind him as he crosses the soft sand, motioning encouragingly for me to keep up every five seconds. Glancing over my shoulder as we reach the small beach house, I notice how beautiful the sea looks as the sunset radiates upon it like a multicoloured spotlight. Eli slowly ushers me inside and quickly stops me before I can flick the light switch on. Just as I'm about to protest, I feel my eyes widen in utter shock as I do a double take.

"Eli," I breathe almost speechlessly.

The kitchen counters at the end of the room and the kitchen table are decorated randomly with dozens of candles that delicately illuminate the room with their soft glow. The room smells faintly of a mix of vanilla and cinnamon and set beautifully on the table is a platter of cheeses, crackers and rich red grapes. Sitting next to the silver platter is the biggest bunch of red roses I've ever seen.

"What's this?" I ask beaming, not knowing that I believe all of this is really happening.

"Our first date. You said you wanted something private," Eli whispers, stroking my cheek gently as he towers above me.

I cover his hand gingerly with mine and smile back up so hard that I feel like it's going to split my face in half. He pulls my other hand and leads me to the table, pulling out the chair for me in the most adorable way. Sitting down, he pulls a cloth, being used to conceal something, from the kitchen surface with an exaggerated voila motion.

Bringing the serving dish over, I realise that it's Al's famous lasagna.

"Before you say anything, I helped," he insists playfully, gently placing it on the table and serving me a generous portion.

"Really? I'm impressed," I tease, not hesitating to eat a big forkful right away.

"Is it good enough?"

"You know me, I'm happy as long as it's edible," I joke, "but if you must know? Definitely one of the best!"

"Well, I guess my assistance really was needed then," he replies with a wink.

We tuck peacefully into the meaty goodness, not taking long before we help ourselves to seconds.

"You are not having thirds," I laugh at Eli as he helps himself yet again, "how do you eat so much and not blow up like a whale?"

"Good metabolism," he shrugs with that innocent yet dangerous grin of his.

"So, I never really asked you, how was the festival?" I ask, breaking off a handful of grapes from the centre of the table and slowly eating them one at a time.

"It was so good to see all the guys from uni," he replies with genuine excitement in his eyes and he goes into great detail in describing his adventurous weekend in which they decided to go mud sledging.

"What the hell is mud sledging?" I can't help but laugh out loud.

"Exactly what it sounds like," he starts, holding his hands up innocently, "by the last couple of days in a busy festival, it gets pretty muddy from all the people tracking over it everyday so ..."

"You didn't?" I tut playfully, shaking my head knowingly at his antics.

I still can't believe that all of this is happening, this boy that I've loved for God knows how long is finally looking at me in the way that I've always dreamed. Bringing me out of my deep thoughts, his hand reaches over to clasp mine from across the white table cloth.

"Hey, your food all settled yet?"

"I think so, why do you ask?" I smile with confused suspicion.

"Good because we're going for a swim."

Wait, what did he just say?!

Thank you so much for reading and again for all the votes and all of the wonderful comments from my loyal readers. Again please remember to give my new story a shot, I really think you'll like it a lot! Please, if you can, vote, comment and share this chapter! ❤️