Battle of the Captains

epilogue

Austin Collins fit in my family almost better than I did. The only thing that was saving my relationship with him was probably that most of my brothers are so far away at college to steal any of his time. Kyler was the only lucky one who got to interfere with our alone time, which bothered me for the first couple of weeks. But Austin was like a brand new toy— a brand new big brother— but since he was around all the time, Kyler kind of got so used to him that he stopped hogging. I eventually discovered that if mushy stuff had Kyler out of the room without me having to ask.

"Why can't you guys get a room?" my little brother asked.

"We try, it's not our fault you keep following us everywhere," I shouted after him as he scurried away.

"I think I liked it better when you hated each other."

"See," Austin said, throwing his hands up to gesture towards the room my brother had disappeared to. "That's exactly what I've been trying to avoid. I don't want him to hate us together."

"Well, I didn't want him to have to come on our date with us. Again," I said. "You know, you don't have to keep inviting him every time we go out. He's a big boy."

"I don't mind."

"He literally doesn't let us hold hands when we're out."

Austin pressed his sock-clad foot into my side, making me squirm further into the far end of the couch. "You're the one who said you don't like public displays of affection."

"Yeah, but I'd like to 'not like it' on my terms."

"You just want to be alone with me," he said smugly. "You don't like having to share my attention."

"Do I look like a puppy to you?"

"Yeah," he mused. "Cute, playful, possessive."

"You wish."

He scoffed. "I don't need to wish. You totally love me."

"You can go hang out with whatever girl you want you want. Go bring Kyler too. See if I care."

"Oh, please, you can't imagine life without me."

I pretended to think for a moment. "Oh, I remember life without you. It was nice. Quiet. Peaceful. Relaxing."

"What— like when we were infants?"

I gasped. "You remember, too?"

His foot came up again, higher this time, in line with my face. Shamelessly, he wiggled his foot on my nose. "You know, you're not funny."

"You can't shove your foot at a girl's face," I said, struggling to grab ahold of his leg with two hands. "And expect her to be nice to you."

Mimicking me, Austin wrapped a hand around my calf, right under my knee. He pulled me, by the leg, closer to him, away from the safe zone that was my end of the couch, moving me like I weighed almost nothing and proceeded to make me smell his foot. He's tickling me now and all my squirming is only bringing me closer to his feet. "You're never nice to me."

"Because you do dumb things like shove your foot in my face!"

"Oh my god, I thought if I left the room, you guys would just start making out— not bicker like a bunch of ten-year-olds," Kyler called from his room. "I'm trying to watch a movie."

Austin finally released me as he realized the commotion we were making. He glanced at while he said loudly "He's just jealous of our love."

I rolled my eyes, gesturing for him to pull me up. "Ready to go?"