Brawnly and the Bet

”WHAT?!’
Both Mina and Brawnly screeched jumping to their feet. Brawnly felt his face heat in a fraction of a second from anger or embarrassment he couldn’t tell all he knew was he suddenly had an insatiable desire to cause Cain pain. Mina looked incredibly pale which for the petit redhead was quite a feat as she was so white to begin with.

Cain took a few agonizing seconds to look between the two teens, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion before understanding flooded his face and he rolled his eyes throwing in a smack on his forehead for good measure.

“Not like that you idiots!” he cried out “What I mean is for now I want you two to pretend that Mika –“

“Mina” She corrected quickly.

He looked at her only to acknowledge that she’d spoken before continuing as if she’d never interrupted.

“-Is your girlfriend for an exercise I want you to try; in order to build your confidence and how to talk to women.” He finished giving his brother his full attention with a look on his face that clearly read, ‘You’re a dumbass.’

Brawnly could feel his anger ebbing away gradually being replaced by further embarrassment as what Cain was saying sunk in.

Mina on the other hand seemed far more at ease now that she seemed to have a better understanding of the situation, that and the fact that she wasn’t being ambushed into dating him.

“Oh so that’s what this is all about? Brawnly wants to meet girls?” she asked, subtly asking if she’d guessed correctly. Then as if a light bulb clicked on above her head she shouted out:

“Oh! This is so about that girl from the party the other night the one who yelled at you right?” once again her statement asking for conformation.

Brawnly absentmindedly scratched the back of his head, a nervous habit of his. His dad always told him if he kept rubbing his hair it would all fall out; ‘like Cradle Cap on a baby’ he’d say.

“Not exactly, more like the girl who saved me from the chick who was chewing me out, remember the blonde?”

“Right, right I remember her, she was really pretty Brawnly. So what then? This is like some twisted Cinderella wanna be? Brawnly meets the girl once and falls madly in love and Cain turns into his fairy godmother and tries to hook ‘em up?”

Brawnly rolled his eyes at her deduction, for such a genius her analogy was rather stupid in his opinion. Cain instead replied for him.

“Yes, sort of like that, except no not like that at all. How can I be his fairy Godmother if I’m a man?”

Mina didn’t find that as funny as the two men did, instead opting to glare, albeit half heartedly, at the pair of sniggering males. She clearly didn’t get the reference.

“Ok enough of this shit, can I finish telling you my idea so we don’t keep going off on these retarded tangents and half true thoughts, thank you” Cain never even waited for the others to agree.

He threw his body down on the other end of the couch rubbing his eyes in frustration.
Brawnly noticed the act as one that Cains’ mother also adopted when she was stressed out over something. The gesture immediately sobered him; it was something that Megan and Cain only did when they were nearly at their whit’s end.

“Ok I’m ready to hear it bro. What’s the big plan you’ve been cooking up in that thick ole skull of yours?”

“Thank you, now it’s really easy, Brawnly sucks at talking to girls so we bring in a girl , Mira,-“
“Mina” she corrected on the verge of irritation.

“-And he talks to her as if she where the girl he wants to ask out. I’ll feed you lines, scenarios and distractions and other obstacles that could possibly pop up when one is on a date with someone.” He finished once again completely ignoring Mina when she corrected him.

Brawnly looked to Mina for agreement before answering, when she gave him one of her ‘why not’ shrugs he told Cain they were up for it and so the game commenced.

“Okay so this is how we start, Brawnly you’re out at the bar and you see Mila sitting there; what do you do?”

Mina threw Cain a dirty look for getting her name wrong once again but remained quiet; Brawnly did the same though he was beginning to expect that his brother was mistaking her name on purpose.

“Well I go up to her and say hi-“

“ Wrong!”

“What do you mean? I haven’t even said anything yet how can I be wrong?”

“Easy, you go up to her say hi; she looks at you; end of interaction. You’re not giving yourself an opening Brawn something that will fuel a conversation, that’s how you start.” Cain told him looking very smug as he so; reclined in his seat feet on the table and hands steeped like some sort of evil mastermind.

“Cain’s right, as much as it pains me to admit; most girls wouldn’t give you the time of day if you just came up to them and said hi.” Mina added

Brawnly nodded in understanding and tried again and again and again until finally he seemed to be getting the hang of it. Mina took it all in stride, playing her part perfectly. Cain watched her vigilantly stopping Brawnly every once in a while to point out certain body language cues and facial expressions that would indicate whether or not he was making progress with the girl or if he should stop wasting his time. Eventually the trio decided to take a break.

“Wow that was tiring” Mina groaned rubbing at her eyes as Cain placed a cooler in front of her.

She opened her eyes and gave him an eyebrow raised stare as he passed a Coke to his brother.

“You do know I’m only 17 and am thus underage correct”

“You want me to take it back?” Came his cavalier reply as he twisted the cap off his beer, he had so much liquor left over from that party it was unbelievable.

“No, just letting you know”

The atmosphere in the room was outwardly calm yet you could almost feel an electric buzz in the air. Brawnly was going over the information he’d just received storing it and thinking it through, it was all very simple yet intricate at the same time, talking to the opposite sex was simply confusing and full of contradictions but he understood the basics what he was worried about was having to put this knowledge into use with the woman who’d been plaguing his dreams these last few nights and if he’d be able to pull it off.

Cain on the other hand was the picture of cool he watched his brothers ever changing expressions for a moment or two before his gaze fell to the petit redhead occupying the other end of his couch, nervously sipping her drink as the thumb on her free hand rubbed frantic circles on her knee.

Mina could feel her patience wearing thin, if that black haired buffoon got her name wrong one more time she was going to cause him pain, she was sure of it, he infuriated her and she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why she let him and his juvenile antics get to her so much.

“Ok Mibba lets me and you do a demonstration for Brawnly then call it a night shall we? Good” Cain stated breaking the silence and rising to his feet before anyone could reply, he did however notice the lightning quick way the woman’s eyes cut to him before settling into a cold stare.

“Okay, Brawn give me a scenario”

“College party in the woods”

And thus the scene began; both participants stood and it was clear right away that Mina wasn’t going to make this easy for Cain in any way shape or form so when he came up to her she completely ignored him.

“Hey there you are I thought I lost you for a second” Cain came up to her from behind and placed a hand on the area just under her shoulder.

She immediately pulled out of his grasp with a disgusted expression on her face as she whorled around to look at him.

“Whoa, I’m so sorry I thought you were someone else” Cain exclaimed as he held his hands in the air as if to say ‘don’t shoot’

“It’s alright I guess no harm done” her words were reassuring but the wariness her eyes held spoke volumes, she was really getting into the role now, her annoyance for the man before her slowly dissipating.

Cain reached up to rub the back of his head, a habit of Brawnly’s that on Cain made him look nervous yet endearing with that boyish grin he added.

“I’m really sorry if I startled you, my friends sister tagged along with us and I promised I’d keep an eye out for her tonight to make sure she didn’t get into any trouble you I thought you where her, you have the same hair”

“Yeah I guess that’s an easy mistake I mean what are the odds of there being two people here with fire engine red hair right” Brawnly watched in awe as the conversation went from forced to fluid as Mina gave a small but real smile accompanied by a faint laugh.

Cain’s grin widened “My thoughts exactly, I’m Cain by the way” and with that he extended his hand which Mina eagerly shook “I’m Mina”

“Mina? Wow that’s a beautiful name, you don’t hear that everyday”

“You don’t hear Cain everyday either”

“On the contrary, I hear it every day actually” all three of them gave a laugh at that one Mina
threw in a roll of her eyes for good measure.

“Now that was just horrible” she said though she continued laughing as she said it.

“I thought it was clever”

“I bet you would”

“So tell me if I’m being too forward but would like to go get a drink with me?”

“You’re being too forward, but I’d love to get a drink anyways” Mina replied quick with a comeback as she flirtatiously twisted a piece of hair next to her collar bone as her other arm wrapped around her waist which, whether she was aware of it or not, encased her bust area. Cain’s gazed lowered a fraction of an inch before quickly reinstating itself on her face. He closed his eyes as he gave a small chuckle before speaking again.

“Great just let me give my friend a call to see if he’s found his sister yet?” he’d already begun to pull out his cell phone “I really don’t want her to get lost in these woods she’s not from around here and it can be tricky of your not used to the area.” And with that he had a short fake conversation which consisted of convincing anyone who was listening on his end of the conversation i.e. Mina that his friend had in fact found his sister and was about to take her home and for him to have fun.

There little scene ended with Cain offering his arm to the small girl and her giving him a jokingly impressed look before taking his offered appendage and turning their backs to Brawnly which ended the moment and the two gave him their full attention once again.

“Guys that was amazing Cain you came up with all that off the top of your head and Mina you were amazing you read him perfectly stroked his ego while still staying in control that was awesome!” Brawnly exclaimed. It was like a movie the way they acted together the chemistry was there and it was explosive.

“Thank you thank you” they both said and gave small bows before the three of them broke out into laughter once again

Okay, okay it’s getting late, it’s a school day tomorrow and as the responsible adult that I am I’m kicking your asses out of my house for the night.”

Both Mina and Brawnly shot him a look of disbelief that he just shrugged off.

“So, Mica do you think you’d be able to drop by on Thursdays to do some more of this stuff with us?” he asked as he cleaned up the empties and just like that the easy going playfulness the two had created from before was gone and Mina’s irritation with the man was at the forefront once again.

“Yeah, sure it was fun minus the parts where you were a complete idiot who can’t remember four tiny fucking letters” She spat, grabbed her things and stormed out of the house slamming the door behind her.

Brawnly gave his brother a look that clearly read ‘You’re a dumbass’ before turning on him.

“Why do you do that you know her name is Mina yet you come up with the weirdest names that are everything but hers just to piss her off I mean come on Mibba? What the fuck is that? It’s not even a real word.”

Cain smirked “What can I say Brawn, I like ‘em feisty. Now get out, Skinamaxx is playing some good shit tonight that I wanna watch”

And as Brawnly left the house he couldn’t help but think that that was the most reasonable thing in the world.