The Mishap

Chapter Five

I’m an idiot…
An idiot is what I am…
Liza idiot Miller should be my full name at this point as I keep piling more and more onto this disaster.
“What the hell was that?” Brandi mumbles as we walk away from underneath everyone’s scrutiny. Running my fingers through my hair, I pace back and forth in front of my friend nervously.
“I-I don’t know. I have no idea what I just did. April’s cousin, uh-whatever her name is, scared me. I-I just panicked.”
My words come out fast and stuttery as Brandi just watches me in concern. She grabs me by the shoulders and holds me in place facing her.
“Liza, woosah! Calm down, sweetheart. I will fix this or at least try to. I’m so, so, sorry I got you into this mess but thank you for having my back.”
“This has to end now!” Brandi starts to walk away but I grab her by her wrist to stop her.
“You know what… it’s fine, it’s okay. I’ll do it.”
“Do what?”
“B-Be your pretend girlfriend. I’m only here for a few months so what do I have to lose? We can ‘end’ things then and go back to being just friends.”
I say end using finger quotations.
“Liza, are you sure about this? You know that you don’t have to.”
“Yeah, well, I started this and I don’t want my best friend to look like a fool. April has done enough to hurt you.”
Brandi pulls me into a hug.
“Thank you so much, you are the best friend anyone could ask for.”
“You too.”
“I have an idea. How about you spend the next few nights at my place. We can pig out, watch movies and catch up. Just like old times.”
Nodding my head I catch a glimpse of Case from a distance. He catches my gaze for a split second and turns his head.
“Yeah… Just like old times…”
…..
Brandi flicks on the light in the kitchen and we both burrow into our respective cabinets, rummaging for food. Case is nowhere to be seen, having retreated to his room immediately after we all returned from the cookout. I try to drown out the little flicker of disappointment in my gut by being as loud as possible, my head deep inside the cabinet:
“You know, I could really go for the old-throwback!”
I hear movement, so I back away a little to see Brandi popping her head out of the cabinet, her hands full of snacks she’s been pulling out. She arches an eyebrow at me.
“The old-throwback? Oh!”
The realization dawns on her and she giggles a little.
“Chips and nutella sandwiches?”
Back in high school, we’d discovered a heavenly combination that we’d always fall back on whenever one of us felt yucky about life. It had really just started as a weird experiment, prompted by the limited options available in Brandi’s parents’ kitchen, but had evolved into something that we’d started to enjoy on the regular.
I grab some supplies from the cabinet before turning around and facing Brandi. She unloads her findings onto the table and then looks at me, grinning.
“I wonder if it still tastes as good. It’s been years! How come you thought of it now?”
I shrug.
“I don’t know. I guess this just feels like old times. Us raiding the kitchen before settling down to watch a movie.”
The feeling of nostalgia swirls inside me, but it’s quickly pushed away when Brandi decides to tease me.
“Aww, so sentimental.”
“Shut up.”
I pick up a bag of marshmallows and throw it at her face, but my aim is off and it flies way over her head, making Brandi double over in laughter. Caught up in the moment, I don’t even realize that the bag never lands on the floor before I hear a deep voice from the doorway.
“If I knew there was going to be a food fight…”
Case leans casually against the wooden frame, clearly amused by our antics. My heart jumps a little, both from his sudden appearance, and the dawning realization that I have to put on the act again.
Brandi is your girlfriend now, I tell myself. That’s what Case thinks, at least. It’s easier if I just act in front of him too… right?
Shaking my head a little, I start examining what’s on the table.
“No food fight. Just trying to decide on what to stuff our faces with while we do some couch-potatoing.”
“Liza suggested our old high school snack. Remember? You used to always be so grossed out by it.”
Case’s attention is now on his sister as she nudges him, but I find myself following his reactions. Does he remember? We didn’t really hang out back then, but sometimes he’d bump into us in the kitchen…
Case tilts his head a little.
“You mean those nasty ass sandwiches?”
His eyes find me again as he tosses the marshmallows back onto the table, chuckling a little.
“You’re not serious about wanting to eat those again.”
I hesitate a little, but the nostalgia I felt earlier has been replaced by some curiosity.
“I don’t know. I’m kinda feeling it.”
I catch Brandi’s eye.
“What about you?”
Brandi laughs, leaning her elbows against the surface of the table.
“Well, why the hell not? It would be kind of fun to live through some of our youth.”
Case snorts.
“You say that like we’re old.”
“Aren’t we?” Brandi grins.
“It hasn’t been that long since we graduated from high school.”
I swallow a little.
“I don’t know. Sometimes it feels like forever.”
There is a beat of silence, and I find it impossibly hard to tear my eyes away from Case’s as he looks at me steadily. When he finally speaks again, a tentative note is in his voice:
“I guess you have a point. A lot of things have changed since then.”
I force myself to drop our eye contact and pick up a loaf of bread instead. Brandi looks at me a little oddly, but then she seems to shake whatever is bothering her off, and turns to her brother once again.
“Want to join us for a movie?”
My inner voice screams at me for a good few moments. Yeah, sure… Sure I totally want to sit down with Brandi and Case after a cookout in which I kissed my best friend - now fake girlfriend - on the lips while pretending I didn't use to have a massive crush on her brother.The dread I still feel over the situation amplifies as the silence drags on.
Carefully, I lift up my eyes from the bread and see Case glancing at me, but the moment our gazes meet, he turns his head away from me and smiles casually.
“Sure, why not. It's not like I have anything better to do.”
“Great! Now let’s get those sandwiches going.Woot! Woot!”
Brandi exclaims excitedly while pushing her palms in the air in a 'raise the roof gesture'.
She gets right to it, pulling out all the needed ingredients, and starts preparing our snacks. Case nods.
“I’ll be in the living room starting up Netflix.”
“Yeah,yeah,whatever.” Brandi seems too invested in the sandwich business to pay any mind to her twin, but my gaze follows Case’s figure all the way to the door.
I give myself a mental full-body shake. "Get it together, Liza. Everything will be okay. I can do this. I can pretend to be Brandi’s girlfriend in front of her ridiculously hot brother.
Probably."
…..
“I can’t believe you’re eating that.”
Case looks thoroughly disgusted when Brandi and I finally dig into our sandwiches, all three of us cozied up on the couch. I sit in the middle of the twins, with Brandi on my left and Case on my right. I swallow the bite I just took before I reply.
“What’s not to like? It’s sweet, it’s salty…”
Brandi chimes in too.
“There’s crunch from the chips and the bread is nice and soft…”
Case just shakes his head, full of incredulous amusement.
“Whatever, weirdoes.”
Brandi nudges me with her elbow as soon as we’ve finished devouring every last crumb. Wiggling her eyebrows, she says jokenily.
“Was it as good for you as it was for me?”
The joke feels oddly placed in our current… situation. Normally we’d just laugh it off, but the innuendo has a different kind of weight now. I steal a glance at Case, but his eyes are fixed on the TV screen. I don’t know if he didn’t hear, or if he’s just pretending that he missed it. Either way, I throw Brandi a warning glare before I clear my throat.
“It was okay...ish.”
“Aww, boo. Only okayish?”
“Well, at least I’d like to think that my palate has matured a little since high school.”
Brandi thinks for a second and then nods.
“Agreed. It was good, but maybe not our regular snack anymore.”
Then she turns her attention to where Case is browsing Netflix and yawns.
“Shit. I feel like the sugar went straight to my head.”
Case snickers. “Is that even a thing?”
Brandi picks up a pillow and pummels it at his shoulder.
“It is now.”
Then she tucks her feet underneath her, burrowing under a comfortable blanket.
“So, what are we watching?”
We spend the next few minutes loudly arguing over what to choose. Brandi is the loudest, so she wins. She celebrates her victory by squealing so hard that she nearly breaks my eardrums. Then she curls up on the couch… and five minutes later, she’s out like a light.
Case and I look at each other, and he flashes me a grin. “Well, that didn’t take long.”
“Classic Brandi, right?”
Case chuckles. “Classic Brandi.”
There’s a beat of silence that grows heavier the longer we stare at each other. For some reason, I can’t tear my eyes away from him. At least not until he clears his throat a little.
“Glad you enjoyed those sandwiches. Even if I still think they’re kinda gross.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing.”
Something I can’t quite define flashes across Case’s face, and he looks away quickly.
“I guess you’re right.”
I try to focus on the show we’re watching, but my mind is racing. And so is my heart. I open my mouth, desperate to cut through the awkwardness of the moment, when Case speaks again.
“You used to offer to make me one of those whenever I’d happen to pop into the kitchen. Back in the day.”
His words are tentative and slow, and he keeps his eyes locked on whatever is happening on the screen.
“I can’t believe you remember that.”
Case’s lips curve a little upwards before he looks back at me. My breath catches.
“I remember a lot of things.”
I don’t know how to reply to that, so I don’t, and the electrified moment passes. For about ten minutes, we both stare at the TV again, even though I can’t really concentrate on anything that’s happening on the screen. Brandi lets a little sigh in her sleep, and nuzzles deepers into the blankets.
“I guess, umm.”
Case peers at me when my hesitant voice rings out.
“I guess we could change the movie? It’s not like Brandi is watching…”
Case peeks at his sister and grins a little before nodding.
“Yeah, okay.”
Encouraged, I reach for the remote on the coffee table before realizing Case was planning to do the same: our fingers brush against each other above the device. His skin is warm and sends a shiver down my spine, and I feel my eyes widen as I stare at him. He looks just as shocked for a fleeting second.
“Oh. Uh. Sorry.”
Case yanks his hand away from the remote. I hesitate a little, my heart pounding against my ribs, before grabbing it. But before I have a chance to start pressing any of the buttons, Case gets up from the couch abruptly.
“Sorry. I… I’m kinda tired. I’ll just…”
And the next moment he’s gone, leaving me alone in the living room with my still-sleeping fake girlfriend and my racing thoughts.
“What the hell just happened?”