Falling for my Best Friends Brother

Today officially marks the day of my death. My dad was forcing me to move across the country from our hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, to Gary, Indiana. Forcing me to leave all my childhood friends who had known me since kindergarten, and some for my whole fourteen years of life. All the friends who had seen me through my tomboy phase, my awkward stages, and my realizing girls mature faster and boys stage.

Having to start high school in a completely new state was just one of the many new worries to add to my already growing list. I’d have to start over from scratch making new friends and figuring out who I was.

But then again, maybe starting over wouldn’t be so terrible.

The only bad thing about moving was leaving the place that was so familiar to me. This was where I grew up, where all my family was, and now we were leaving in all behind. But that could’ve been exactly why my dad wanted to move so far away.

Me and dad had been going through a rough patch lately. My mother had just gotten in a car crash and died on impact. We had so many people coming over and feeling sorry for us that my dad finally just cracked.

So here I am. Sitting in a moving van, pulling into the driveway of my new house. It seemed to be a little bigger then our old house, which I wasn’t about to complain about, but that still didn’t make it feel like home.

“So, what do ya think?” My dad said as he stepped out of the van, proudly adjusting where the line of his jeans laid on his hips.

I just shrugged my shoulders as I climbed out of the giant van. “It’s cool, kind of.” The last part was more to myself.

“What was that?” My dad turned his head towards me and I just smiled in return. “Nothing dad. It’s great.” I grabbed my bag from the passenger seat, kissed my dad on the cheek and headed up tp my room.

A few weeks before hand my dad brought us out here to get everything situated. Which meant all the big furniture was set up, T.V. and internet working, running water, rooms painted, blah blah blah. But at least that meant my room was almost done.

*************

My first day of high school. New state. New people. And hopefully, a new Aubree.

“C’mon Aubree You’re gonna be late for your first day at school ” My dad yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

“Coming ” Before walking out of my room, I took one last look in the mirror. My outfit was simple, just blue jeans, a yellow v-neck and my trusty grey converse. My long brown hair was somewhat tamed today, my bangs were swept to the side and the rest flowed down in naturally waves. “Aubree Renee Scott, if you’re not down here in five minutes...” He didn’t even need to finish. I rushed down the stairs and out the door before he could.

***************

Walking through the front doors was hard enough to do by myself, but finding my locker in this sea of bodies was another story. Accidently ending up in the senior hallway was definitely not the highlight of the day. They had silly string, water balloons, water guns, you name it, they attacked me with it.

Finally, I found my locker. And once the menacing cubby of metal decided to open for me, a very bubbly, and surprisingly up-beat, blonde haired girl appeared next to me.

“Hey My name’s Bailey. Bailey Marie Prescott if you wanna be all formal.” She laughed as she tried to put in her locker combination. “So are you new around here? I don’t think I recognize you from anywhere.”

“Yeah, actually. I’m Aubree Renee Scott. My dad and I just moved here from South Carolina.” Her eyes widened when I mentioned we moved from South Carolina. A big smile spread across her face and she got really excited.

“Really? No way That’s where I’m from Well, I don’t know if you can really count that because we moved out here when I was only about a year old, but still That’s crazy ” She started to jump up and down and a few people were starting to look, and didn’t care. I could tell we were going to get along perfectly.

“Really? Where did you guys used to live?” She finally started to settle down and smoothed her hair out.

“Oh I think it was Charleston, or somewhere around there.” This time it was me who started to jump around .

“No way This is crazy That’s where I’m from ” We both grabbed arms and started to jump around squealing like little girls who were just let loose in a candy store.

Once the both of us had calmed down from our greetings we exchanged schedules to see what classes we had together.

“Yay We have all our classes together Well, except for math. Why are you up a grade in that class?” She asked as we exchanged schedules again.

“Oh, well, I don’t know. I guess I’m just kind of, I don’t know, good at it.” I tried to shrug it off like no big deal. Being a math nerd is not what people needed to think of me as.

“Good. Maybe you can tutor me when I’m about to fail or something.” We laughed together and linked arms, skipping our way off to home room.

________________________________________________________

Over the next few weeks, Bailey and I became best friends. It was like we had known each other since kindergarten. This weekend she invited me to stay the night at her house and I couldn’t wait

After school we headed off towards Bailey’s house and from the outside it was amazing looking, the inside was even better. I walked inside the front door and my jaw dropped.

“Mom, I’m home Aubree’s here too ” Her voice slightly echoed through the first floor. The sizzling sound of food cooking brought a sweet smell of spicy peppers and Mexican food to the doorway we were standing in.

I couldn’t help but take in the sweet aroma of dinner and look at what their house looked liked. The entryway opened up into the living room with a short wall with closed shutters separating the kitchen. Towards the back corner of the room was a short hallway leading to probably their parents bedroom. The was a big stairway leading to and open area upstairs, letting the ceiling of the living room be even bigger. It looked like Bailey’s room was upstairs down a short hallway, and at the top of the stairs was a closed door, it looked like it said Riley on it.

“This is where you live? It’s amazing ” I couldn’t help but stand there dumbfounded. Especially compared to my house, this was the nicest place I’d ever been in.

“Oh thanks. My dad’s an architect so he kinda designed it.” Bailey just shrugged it off as no big deal and walked into the kitchen.

When I saw Bailey’s mom standing there cooking dinner I had to do a double take. Bailey and her mother looked like they could be sisters instead of mother and daughter. They both had the same blue eyes and the same shade of blonde hair. The only big difference between them was that Bailey had long straight hair and her mom had a short bob with small curls ending at her chin.

“Aubree, this is my mom, Mom this is Aubree. She moved here from Charleston.” Bailey introduced us and then snuck in a bite of whatever her mom was making behind her back.

“Oh so this is Aubree, well it’s nice to meet you. So you’re from Charleston? We used to live there when the kids were little.” The last part of what she said made me just a bit curious.

“Kids? Bailey didn’t tell me she had any brothers or sisters.” Just as I started talking, someone enter through the kitchen door. Oh my gawd was he gorgeous

“She does, actually. Maybe she doesn’t like to admit it, but whatever.” This gorgeous human being laughed and shrugged his shoulders as he leaned next to the doorway.

“Oh shut up Riley. You’re such a dork.” Bailey playfully slapped him on the arm and then continued to introduce us. “Riley this is Aubree, my new bestest friend ever that I was telling you about Aubree, this is my older brother Riley.” I reached my hand out to shake his but he just grabbed it and pulled me into a hug.

“Haven’t you learned anything from Bailey? Nobody in this family shakes hands.” Riley whispered in my ear. My cheeks started to burn and I tried hiding my face before he noticed.

Once he released me from his muscular arms, I noticed up close just how gorgeous he really was. He had soft brown hair that came down just above his eyes that were the a glassy blue with little specs of grey.

After a few seconds of gazing at Riley, I tried to snap myself out of it before anyone noticed me staring.

“Um, I’m gonna go to the bathroom. Where is it?” Bailey pointed me down the hallway and to the second door on the left.

I looked in the mirror to make sure that my hair was still somewhat tamed from all the silly string attacks earlier today and decided it was as good as it was gonna get. On my way back to the kitchen, there was a room at the end of the hallway with music coming from it that lured me in.

I walked in and it was like the ultimate hang out. There was a pinball machine, popcorn machine, flat screen TV, guitar hero and rock band, giant bean bags and couches, everything you could possibly need to entertain yourself.

Against the back wall was the biggest stereo I’d ever seen, with Riley standing next to it smiling. “So you couldn’t resist me for long, could you?” His smile seemed to get even bigger as I walked towards him.

“Sorry, but I just followed the music.” I pointed to the stereo and Riley’s lower lip turned out as he made a sad puppy dog face.

“Alright, I can see I’m not welcome.” He turned his back to me and went to walk out of the room but before he could leave I grabbed his arm and turned him back around.

“I didn’t say that. I just meant that...” My voice just stopped working when something behind him caught my eye.

“You have a drum set?” Curiosity overtook me and I sat myself down in the seat and picked up the drumsticks.

“Oh yeah. I do a little drumming in my spare time.” Riley ‘popped his collar’ and we both laughed at him trying to act cool.

“Do you mind?” My eyes went from Riley to the drum in front of me with a questioning glance. He closed his eyes and nodded his head. Did that mean he was ready for my amazing drum skills? Well here they come.

When my drum playing was finished Riley stared at me with his mouth open. He kinda resembled a cod fish.

“Wow. That was good. Did you take lessons or something?” I couldn’t help but laugh at him. It was like he’d never heard another person play the drums other than him.

“Hah. No, but back in Charleston my uncle used to have a set like this. He’d let me play on them whenever I came–” While I was trying to talk I decided to stand up from the drum seat and, me being me, my foot caught one of the cords running along the floor. My body was heading straight for the floor. “Great ” I thought to myself, “I get to fall on my face in front of Bailey’s cute older brother. He’s gonna think I’m total dork Whatever. Brace yourself.”

Fortunately for me my face never hit the floor. Just as squeezed my eyes shut to shield them from the incoming carpet, a pair of strong, muscular arms wrapped around my waist.

Slowly and cautiously, my eyes crept open and I saw Riley looking down at me with a big smile on his face. “Maybe next time you should stay sitting while you tell stories.” He tried to keep himself from laughing and I felt my cheeks turned redder by the second.

We heard someone clear their throats to the side of us and both of our heads snapped in the direction. Bailey was standing there, trying as hard as she could not to laugh at our little scene.

Riley must of realized that he was still holding onto me because he suddenly dropped his arms to his side and took a step away from me. Bailey just walked up to me and linked her arm with mine.

“Jees you two. You leave my side for one minute and almost face plant it into the carpet. What are we gonna do with you Aubree?” She laughed to herself and dragged me out of the room.

The rest of the night we spent upstairs watching scary movies in her room. Eventually we both collapsed from exhaustion but my mind wandered off, down the hallway to be exact. That night dreams of Riley went racing through my head. Did he have to be so irresistible?