My Best Friend's Brother

Chapter 16

I was wet.

Like soaked to the bone, but I didn't mind. I laughed out as Jamie had bomb jumped into my pool, splashing everything in sight.

His head resurfaced and he shook the water out from his braids, spraying more water everywhere.

"I'm completely soaked," I laughed, thank you very much!"

"Then you have no excuse not to come swim," he taunted.

"I told you I'm not going to," I said.

"Oh really?" He pulled himself out of the pool, exposing that perfect six pack of his.

At first I had hated myself for wearing a bikini in front of Jamie, surely he didn't want to see all that gross flesh I was packing, but as soon as I had seen him it didn't matter. He didn't seem to mind all the extra skin that was out on display.

"What are you doing?" I asked as he stalked towards my deck chair.

"I think you should go for a swim," he said with a devilish smile.

"No," I laughed as he got closer.

He slipped one arm under my legs, and as if I weighed nothing, he picked me up bridal style and jogged towards the pool.

"No," I laughed, "I'll crush you."

Before I knew what had happened, he had thrown me into the pool and had jumped in behind me.

"You little bitch," I laughed as I splashed him in the face when he came up for air.

"You love it," he chuckled and splashed back.

Before long we were in an all out water fight, squealing with laughed like children as we went.

We eventually called a truce when both our lungs and stomachs ached.

"So, about prom," Jamie began.

My stomach fell.

He was going to say he couldn't make it, I just knew it.

"What color are you going with?" He asked timidly.

"What?" I blurted out.

"What color are you going go be wearing?" he fumbled over his words. "So I know what color tie and corsage I should get."

"Oh," I blushed. "Red."

"Cool," he nodded.

"Are you sure though?" I didn't know where to look, "I mean you don't need to come if you don't want to."

"No," he shrugged, "it sounds like fun."

"Really?" A smile spread from my one ear to the other.

"Sure," he smiled back at me.

"Come here," I indicated with my chin.

Earnestly he came to me.

Before he knew what hit him, I grabbed him by the shoulders and dunked him.

"What the hell?" He laughed when he came up for air.

"That was for throwing me in," I laughed.

"Why you little," He grabbed me around the waist, and threw me across the pool.

I flailed uselessly in the air before I finally hit the water with a heavy splat.

I came up, spluttering for air as I went. I opened my eyes, and saw that Jamie was inches away from my face.

"Truce?" He asked, his dark brown eyes looking deep into mine.

"Truce." I smiled.

I had never been this close to him before. I had never noticed just how strong his cheekbones were, how broad and powerful his nose was. He was so handsome. He wasn't the fairy prince that Nathan was, but he was real, and human and perfect.

"What?" I asked. His eyes seemed to search my face for something.

"I'm just looking at you," he said, his mind seemed to be somewhere else entirely.

We seemed to stand there for an eternity, just looking at each other.

"Tasha?" He finally said.

"Yes?"

"What you did with Nathan," he began.

I could feel myself turn a dark shade of crimson.

"Promise me you'll never do that again," his voice was heavy with pleading.

"What?" I searched his face for answers.

"Never chase a guy like that," he smiled a small smile, "if he likes you then let him chase you, you don't deserve the amount of stress you put yourself under for him."

"But, I" I fumbled for words.

"I get that you're a strong and independent woman," he smiled, "but if he likes you then he'll do anything to be with you, and if he doesn't, then he's simply not worth your time."

A single tear rolled down my cheek, "What if no one ever chases me then?"

"You're an amazing girl," he said, "you never know who has been been in love with you while you've been chasing the wrong guy."

He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in to a tight hug.

He was right. What I had done with Nathan was completely unacceptable, the worst part was I hadn't even told him how bad it was. How I had taken off all of my clothes and got into bed with Nate. At the time it had seemed like the right thing to do, but looking back on it I could now see how horribly I had acted. Imagine if the roles were reversed. Imagine if it was a guy getting naked and climbing into bed with an unsuspecting sleeping girl.

I may have felt like I had lost everything that day, but in all honesty I could have gone to jail. I should have. It was completely unacceptable.

I needed to talk to Nathan. I needed to apologize. I could understand why he didn't want to see me. I didn't blame him.

**********

Hi guys.

Thank you so much for reading.