my best friend's brother is the one for me

Chapter 9

Leon has taken this too far, and there's no turning back from it now.

He should have stopped this at the beginning, before he let things escalate to this point. He shouldn't have worried about her feelings in the moment, and instead worried about the long term consequences of sparing them to keep this going. He should have never done this to begin with, he should have minded his own business, he shouldn't have had sex with his little brother's best friend the day he met her just because she was pretty obviously into him, and cute as hell.

He never should have done any of that, because now he's in far too deep, and he has no one to blame but himself. Gloria is innocent- at least in this regard- and has no idea what he's done. As far as he can tell, she is perfectly content with things as they are, and has no intention of pushing him for more or using blackmail to keep him at her side. He likely could have cut things off a long time ago without any real consequence, but he kept making his excuses, because she's cute, because she's fun, because he likes her.

But he really likes her, in a way that he's never liked anyone else before, and he knows what that means.

It means that he's completely out of his depth, and that there's no way he's going to be able to just cut things off and move on.

It means that Gloria, who could ruin him if she wanted to, who he never should have even entertained the idea of sleeping with, has managed to completely win him over without even trying.

It means that, against his better judgment, he's got a thing for the girl he's been having exclusive but casual sex with for the past few months. The girl who happens to be too young for him, one of his endorsed challengers, and his little brother's best friend. And just what the hell is he supposed to do about that, anyway?

He's kept in regular contact with Hop throughout his journey, and Hop never has anything bad to say about Gloria. Always, he sings her praises or complains about how capable of a rival she is and how she's really making him work for it, but that Leon doesn't have to worry about her, since it will be Hop coming to challenge him. And though he can fake his way through these conversations, pretending as if he hardly knows her and gets all of his information through Hop, the guilt increases every time.

How's he supposed to tell Hop about this? Even if they sugarcoat things and don't mention all the no-strings-attached fucking, once there are strings attached, they'll have to tell Hop about that , and even that seems like something Hop will have a hard time accepting. And the fact that Leon is already wondering what will happen should he decide to have some strings attached is as good a sign as any that he is in over his head.

Against his better judgment, even knowing that he will have to face Hop and knowing that exposure could ruin everything, he already knows that he's going to tell Gloria how he feels.

~X~

She's camping out on the road the night that he decides to meet up with her. With two gym badges left to collect and just a few weeks before the championship finals to collect them in, she's making good pace. He wonders if he should wait until after all that to address his feelings, but the more he thinks about it, the more he over thinks it, and Leon is not the sort to spend a lot of time thinking.

So, rather than allowing himself any further time to think, he decides to do it now , and see what happens. Because, no matter what happens, he doesn't want to just keep sitting on it and let things continue as they have been. It's the first time anyone has made him feel like this, the first time he has ever felt so drawn to someone that he wants to keep seeing them and that he wants them to know that he does, that he wants even more than what they already have.