Three Brothers (Completed)

I Finally Win the Day

Chapter Seven

I finally win the day

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My parents had decided that we would have a family dinner for James' birthday that year. It wasn't supposed to be too fancy, just all the family and our respective girlfriends. Sean was coming back from university with some girl we had never met before and would probably never see again. James was bringing Lily and I was bringing Helen.

Helen showed up first and she was having difficulty making small talk with my folks. When Lily showed up twenty minutes after—a big plate of cookies in her hands and seemed to just fit seamlessly into our family unit like a cog in a machine—Helen was definitely not happy.

I could tell Helen was angry, I just had no idea what she'd do next.

Once again I don't know how this started, I just know it started as soon as I left Lily and Helen alone in the kitchen after dinner.

Lily had been putting her dishes away in the dishwasher when Helen cornered her. "You think you're so smart," she snarled. "You think being close with his folks will make them hate me and like you more! You think he'll leave me for you?"

There was apparently more in the conversation but I walked in for: "I told you to leave him alone, I told you stop talking to him, and you couldn't even do that!" All I saw was Helen standing over the cowering Lily who had tears in her eyes and I immediately saw red.

"Excuse me?" I cried, coming to stand beside Lily. "You told her to stop talking to me?" Helen began to stutter some useless excuse I wasn't listening to. "And you listened to her?" I asked Lily.

"Well...she yelled at me, you know what I'm like when people yell at me," Lily murmured.

"I did not yell at you!" Helen cried.

"Yes you did!" Lily shot back, side stepping away from her.

"I wasn't yelling!" Helen shouted. Lily jumped while I stared at Helen both disgusted and surprised.

"You know what Helen? It wasn't working out between us anyway!" I growled.

I expected a slap, I watched her gear up, I watched her hand swing forward but her open palm connected with Lily's cheek instead of mine. "This is your fault you little slut!" she screamed at Lily.

For the first time in my life I wanted to hit a girl. I wanted to yell at her, I wanted to kick her out of my house. Instead Sean picked her up, hoisted her over his shoulder. He took her kicking and screaming to the front door where he threw her out the door. He returned to the hall where he picked up her jacket and purse, opened the door one more time, whipped them at her screaming, "This doesn't even match your dress!" And then he slammed the door in her face.

In a flash of surprising concern everyone in my family rushed to Lily's side to comfort her. My mother had hurried to make her tea, my dad promised to slip something stronger in for the pain, while Sean continued to retell the story of how he saved Lily single-handedly from Helen, the uncoordinated skank. James had enveloped her in a big hug and I stood beside them, running a hand up and down her lower back and she stood in my brother's arms shaking. Not going to lie, I really wished it was me hugging her and not James, but I let him have it, only because after all it was his birthday.

The rest of the evening went smoothly, Lily put ice on her cheek and even then it went bright red within minutes, we sat around and told embarrassing stories from our childhood and Lily laughed at them all, promising to tease us about them as much as possible.

Before Lily left I took her aside and apologized. I apologized for letting Helen drive a wedge between us, for letting her treat Lily like garbage. Lily apologized too, she was sorry she let Helen scare her off. She admitted that she should have tried harder to explain to Helen that there was nothing but friendship between her and I. Something I hated to hear seeing how I was still very much in love with her.

That night James won the right to drive Lily home in what I still believe was a rigged coin toss. He took her out for a midnight hot chocolate, and then sat with her in the car watching the stars through the window. They talked about everything on nights like that, about their hopes and dreams, about new stories she wanted to write, and the progress on the stories she was already writing. It was on nights like those that he realized he was attracted to Lily, and at the very least he wanted to sleep with her. He refused to admit that it could go any further than that.

He decided that he'd make his move on her that night. He tried during their talking, but Lily never got the hint or moved away. So he waited until he was in her driveway. He in and kissed her red cheek goodnight. He had been going for her lips, but Lily had turned away from him.

As James was striking out with Lily, I asked Sean why he reacted the way he did. Sean looked me in the eye and said, "I did what you wanted to do, before you could do it. Besides, Lily hadn't done anything to her, and I didn't like her at all, girls like that really piss me off."

I shrugged that response off, when I really shouldn't have. I wouldn't know it until later, but that was the first sign of Sean becoming interested in our little war over Lily.