Three Brothers (Completed)

How I Unwittingly Lost Lily to my Older Brother

Chapter 4

How I Unwittingly Lost Lily to my Older Brother

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I grew distant with Lily. I’m not going to lie I was pretty mad at her. Our sarcastic love began to wither as I turned my sarcastic banter into actual insults. I wasn’t nice to her anymore, and slowly our texting stopped, and I wasn’t driving her home after work or taking her out for coffee anymore.

Lily had stopped smiling at me, and I just knew that something bad was going to happen. She was going to text Connor, she was going to restart that horrible “friendship”. My pride was hurt though and I didn’t want to text her, I didn’t want to make a fool out of myself over this girl, even if she was the future Mrs. Royce Soran and just didn’t know it yet.

It turns out I didn’t have to worry. You see, instead of drinking like she usually did when she was sad, Lily had decided to do something less dangerous for her health and brain cells: Baking.

I got a text from her an early Saturday morning, too early considering I was out drinking the night before. She had made cookies, her specialty was chocolate chip oatmeal and peanut butter cookies, and she wanted to know if I wanted some. I should have said no, I should have said something else. Instead I jokingly said, “Sure, you should come over.”

Her next response was “Sure, where do you want me to bring them?”

And I told her where I lived. I didn’t think she’d show up, but fifteen minutes later—that’s right my Lily lived fifteen minutes from my house—she showed up with a container of cookies. And I just stood there in my hungover glory, wearing nothing but a pair of loose-fitted cotton pajama bottoms and said, “Wow, you actually came.”

Lily laughed lightly, not sure what to say to me. She fidgeted with her jacket and for a while and I just stared at her. Her hair was curly today, which was her natural hair, but she had done her makeup again and it made her eyes look wider. I overcame my stupid stunned silence and managed to say, “Do you want to come in?”

Lily smiled and slid on passed me. I watched her look around at my house. I shut the door and then looked at her attire. She wore plain pair of black yoga pants and a loose blouse under her black jacket, she looked amazing, so freaking hot. Why had I stopped talking to her? I looked down at my pajama pants and panicked.

“Uh, can you give me like five minutes?” I asked. Lily turned to me and I took her coat from her. She nodded and then I sprinted away from her galloping up the stairs to my room. I had to pick an outfit, out of millions, I had to fix my hair and brush my teeth. I didn’t want to leave her for too long though.

Little did I know that something unexpected was going to happen, and it happened while I was in the washroom. I should have known that something was up when James appeared in the doorway. “Yo, dude, why the hell is Lily in our kitchen?” he asked. He was still in his pajama’s too but it looked good on him. The same pants I was wearing but he was wearing a white tee shirt.

“She brought over cookies, don’t you have some where to be?” I asked him. I’m pulling open the drawers searching for a comb, for some reason I’m so panicked that I’ve forgotten the layout of our own house.

“Dude, you think I’m going to leave you alone with that girl in the house?” James shot back. He and Lily didn’t really get along, he was convinced that she was crazy.

James had met Lily the summer before. He had gone to pick up a mutual friend and fellow guard at her summer pool, Patrick, they were supposed to go up to the cottage together and they were just waiting on Patrick’s replacement. He had been sitting on deck surrounded by the other guards who thought Lily was weird because she never went out anywhere with them. She had walked in to the office, got her stuff all organized and then joined everyone out on deck. James had watched her through the window, when she got outside she said hello and offered a hand to shake. James answered with, “Oh, you must be Lily, the anti-social weirdo with no social life.”

Lily had slowly taken her hand away. She then turned to Patrick and said, “I didn’t sign a shift change form. I’m going home. Find someone else to take your shift.” And she left, leaving James with the blame for why Patrick couldn’t go up to the cottage with him that weekend. Regardless, there was bad blood between Lily and James from then on.

“James, she’s fine. She’s actually really cool. Her and I are just going to watch movies or something.” That was mistake number one. James had always made my life difficult, the second I liked a girl he would tease me endlessly about it, and then he’d spend his time trying to talk the girl out of dating me. He’d tell her horrible stories, make up lies and show her embarrassing photos. I turned to him and saw that look on his face. “No! It’s not like that! I do not like her that way. I’m helping her get over some guy and that’s it!”

But James knew me, James knew I was lying. So while I was upstairs trying to find the perfect outfit to dazzle the future Mrs. Royce Soran with, James went to talk to her.

He started with the uncomfortable staring, it was a common tactic he used when eyeing a girl at a club. He would stand across from them, lean on something, and then stare at them unsmiling, just nodding at her every now and then. Then he’d go over and insult her. Unfortunately, he had already tried this on Lily, it failed the first time, and it failed the second time as well. “Stop being creepy James, what do you want?” she snarled.

“That’s not nice, it’s my house after all, and you are a guest in it,” he said. Lily glared at him and James knew he’d have to change his tactics. He crossed to her and leaned on the counter. “Why are you here Lily? Royce tells me you’re trying to get over a guy.”

Lily’s smile is no longer playful as she looked down. “Not really, I just don’t want to text him. I thought if I came here I wouldn’t be so tempted to text him. I think I should just go.”

To this day, James swears he has no idea what came over him. If he tries to analyze it he says it was a combination of some irrational desire to see her smile again, and because she sounded so depressed he knew it would keep him down the rest of the day. Either way he said, “No, you don’t have to go. Stay, let’s talk you and I. This guy, do I know him? Is he ugly? I bet he is and I bet he’s stupid. Did you make these cookies? They’re freaking delicious. You’re a keeper Lily, a real keeper.”

By the time I was fully dressed and downstairs, the Lily I had instantly fallen in love with, the Lily who had been my sarcastic companion was laughing and joking—rather sarcastically—with James. I tried to regain her attention, I tried to get her to smile that smile at me, but I had lost her, I had practically giftwrapped her for James.