Something More | Randy

chapter eight | weird

I shoved Brooklyn into a nearby linen closet. 

"What did you just say?" I demanded.

"Woah, chill out mate. I'm sorry." 

By the way Brook was looking at me, I realised I had completely overreacted, hence confirming my true feelings for Rye. He may have meant it as a joke, but all was clear now. It was a slow process, but I saw Brook connect the dots in his brain.

"Fuck," I said simply as he calculated, "you were joking, weren't you?"

"No, Andy, genuinely," he reassured me, "I did mean it. I just didn't realise you..."

"That I was thinking the same thing." I finished.

"Wait you were? Like you want to be with Rye?"

Shit. How did I let that come out? I didn't, honestly. It was just a stupid man crush.

"I don't want to be with him," I hissed in an embarrassed whisper, "there's just a bit of..." I searched for a term to sum everything up. The best I came up with was "...weirdness."

"Weirdness." Brook repeated back, "Yeah, I get that, mate. Him having that girl round all the time doesn't help, does it?"

As much as I hated speaking about this shameful topic out loud, it felt oddly satisfying to have Brook on my team on that one, making me feel better about irrationally hating a decent person.  

"No, it doesn't," I agreed, "but it's not her fault. Or his even. I just need to sort this out for myself. You won't say anything about this to anyone, will you, Brook?"

"Of course not, And, but you know, you don't need to sort this out by yourself. You can talk to me about it. And you should probably talk to Rye as well-"

I let out a laugh. "Not a chance."

"Why not?" Brook pressed.

"Because there's no point. Nothing would come out of it except make him feel weird about our friendship. The 'Randy' thing's odd enough without me coming up to him saying 'hey, Rye mate, I'm just a little bit attracted to you.'" I spat.

"Well, how do you know he don't feel the same?"

"It's obvious isn't it? Aforementioned girlfriend?"

"Well, I reckon he does like you, girlfriend or no girlfriend." Brook countered. Against my mind's better judgement, my heart skipped a beat at those words.

I shook myself out of my momentary daze. "It doesn't matter. It's out of the question."

"Well, it shouldn't be. But that's just my opinion." Brooklyn muttered, then added with concern, "Are you okay though, Andy? It sucks if he's making you sad."

"I'll be fine," I mumbled, not wanting to go there. I flipped the question on him, thinking about his mood swings over the past few weeks. "Are you okay? I haven't talked to you yet about what happened with Jack that night we got the spa."

Brook looked at the ground. "I don't know what you mean?"

I looked pointedly at him. "Brook. If I don't get to play dumb, neither do you. What happened?"

"Nothing happened that night. He asked if I was alright and I just told him I was dizzy from the heat and went to bed."

Damn, that sucked, but it was typical of Jack to drop it at that, when Brooklyn was so clearly upset.  

"So are you two alright?" I asked him.

"Yeah, we're fine I guess," Brook sighed, "it's just..."