Familiar Faces in the Oddest Places

I was spending the night at Sasha’s house, which was a normal occurrence during the weekends. We were watching TV when we got hungry.

“You have to go get the snack,” Sasha announced during a commercial.

“Why can’t you go get them?”

“Because I already got them earlier.”

“Yeah, but those were only for you not for me.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“But I’m the guest,” I countered, knowing it wouldn’t work anyway. I got up off Sasha’s bed to start heading to the door.

“You’re not really a guest anymore. Especially when you’re over here all the time. Now go.” Sasha said as she waved her hand toward the door. “Ooo and don’t forget the popcorn!” Sasha squealed as I headed out the door and downstairs to get some snacks.

When I arrived downstairs I noticed I wasn’t the only one in the kitchen. Standing there with a soda in his hand was Alistar.

“Whatcha drinking?” I asked.

“A root beer,” he replied. I went over to their pantry and got out a bag of popcorn. I placed it in the microwave and started it. Then I hopped up onto the counter opposite from it.

“So you came down here to get some popcorn, huh?”

“Yeah, Sasha didn’t want to come down here to get them so I had to. She insisted that I get popcorn.” The popcorn started popping slowly. Pop!

“But you’re the guest.”

“That’s what I told her and apparently that means nothing.” Then I decided to ask something that was on my mind. Pop!

“So you’re Sasha’s stepbrother?”

“Yeah, you didn’t know that?” Pop! He laughed.

“No, I didn’t. Nobody ever told me that. How was I supposed to know?” I said as I threw my hands in the air.

He smiled at me as he shook his head. Pop! Pop! It was then that I noticed how much closer he’d gotten. Pop! Pop! Pop! The popcorn started popping faster as his brown eyes looked into mine. Then for the second time that day his lips were on mine. He placed his hands on my thighs as I wrapped my legs around his waist. His tongue entered my mouth and my hands went up to run through his short black hair. It wasn’t until I smelled something strange that I pulled away.

“Do you smell that?” I asked.

“Yeah, it smells like…”

“Smoke? Shit! The popcorn.” I hopped off the counter and rushed to open the microwave, gray smoke blew out into my face. I coughed and waved my hand around to clear the air.

“Great, I burned the popcorn.”

“Don’t worry. You can just make another. Actually maybe it’s better if I make it for you.” He said as he took the bag of burnt popcorn and threw it in the garbage and got a new package.
He placed it in the microwave and pressed start. “You get too distracted.”

I scoffed then mumbled, “Yeah and whose fault is that?”

“So did you like that CD that I showed you?” He was smirking down at me because I wasn’t the tallest person. I was five foot four and he was five foot ten.

I might have blushed slightly as he mentioned the CD because my cheeks felt warmer. “Yeah it was pretty good.” Of course I hadn’t really heard it all that great because I’d been to busy kissing him to pay attention to the music. But from what I heard it wasn’t that bad and I didn’t find it at all distracting.

“Good.” The popcorn finished popping. He carefully opened it and placed it in a bowl before handing it to me.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” He turned to leave.

“Hey, Alistar,” I called.

“Yeah?” He turned around.

”Do you think that you could help me carry some of the snacks?”

“Sure.” I handed him two root beers, a bag of marshmallow, a bag of plain chips, dip, and a bag of pretzels. Then the two of us headed back upstairs.

“Why am I carrying everything?” He asked.

“Because you offered to help and you’re way stronger than me.”

“I am really strong, huh?” He asked with raised eyebrows.

“You’re stronger than me but that doesn’t necessarily make you strong a lot of people are stronger than me.”

“You’re just a weakling.”

“Yep. I am.” I have no problem admitting that I have absolutely no muscle strength, whatsoever. I’m a skinny weakling.

We arrived at Sasha’s room and I opened the door.

“What took you so long?” Sasha screamed as soon as I entered the room. Then she saw
Alistar and she gave me a knowing smirk. “Ooh.”

“I burnt the popcorn,” I explained.

“Sure and that’s what took you so long?” she asked.

“Yeah.” I handed her the popcorn bowl.

“Then you roped Ali into carry up the snacks, smart girl.” She looked over to Alistar as he placed down the snacks. “Wasn’t it so nice of you to help Sage carry the snacks? A girl asks for your help and you willingly oblige.”

“Shut up. It was nice. Now don’t make too much noise tonight like you two do every weekend.” He started walking toward the door then turned before he close it, “Goodnight, Sasha. Night, Sage.”

“Night, Ali.” Both Sasha and I said at the same time.

Sasha and I tend to be awfully loud whenever we had a sleepover. We laughed a bit too much that sometimes we just didn’t realize how loud we were being and that there were other people trying to sleep. Her parent’s room was far away so we normally didn’t disturb them but poor Alistar had the room right down the hall. He usually came into the room multiple times in a night to tell us to shut up so he could sleep. I’d feel guilty about disturbing his sleep but then Sasha would say something funny or something hilarious would be on the TV and we’d both burst out laughing. I’d soon forget that I’d even woken him up in the first place.

Tonight was no different.

“I told you guys to be quiet. I told you not to make much noise. But what do you do? You go and do it anyways. Can’t you guys ever be quiet?” Alistar said frustrated. His black hair stuck up a bit in the back and his brown eyes were sleepy. He was only wearing his boxers like he did every night. I could clearly see his flat, muscled stomach.

He’d come in here almost every night that I’d spent at Sasha’s to tell us to be quiet and he was always dressed in only his boxers. Before today I’d always loved to see him standing there because who doesn’t like to stare at and appreciate hot guys? Except maybe other guys. But tonight it was different. I felt something different when I stared at him, subtly, than I had all the other times before. I couldn’t explain exactly what it was, maybe this was what people described as butterflies in your stomach, but it felt nice.

“We’re always loud. You should be used to it,” Sasha said, “I think you just like to come in here so Sage can see you in your underwear. I mean she seems to enjoy it but that doesn’t mean you have to keep coming in here all the time.”

“Sasha.” I yelled embarrassed as Alistar looked over at me a smirk coming to his lips as he noticed that I had been staring at him.

“I look good in my boxers. Don’t I Sage?”

I only hid behind my long brown hair to hide my embarrassment.

“You can leave now, Alistar.” Sasha said shooing in out the door.

“Why should I leave? I’m sure that Sage still wants to see my beautiful body.”

“Because as much as Sage may want to see your scrawny white ass. I don’t. I see enough of you all day long. Now goodbye and goodnight.” Sasha had pushed him out the door and just as he said, “Goodnight.” She slammed the door in his face.

“So what exactly was it that took you so long in the kitchen?” Sasha asked as we settled down.

“I told you I burnt the popcorn.”

“We both know something happened with you and Alistar. Now spill. I am your best friend.”

“Okay fine. I’ll tell you.”

“Great.”

“I did burn the popcorn. But it was all Alistar’s fault. He comes up to me looking all… well hot and then out of nowhere, again might I add, he kisses me. And I kissed back.”

“You kissed him? Again!”

“Yeah and I was so distracted that I forgot about the popcorn and it burnt and I had to make another one and then he made it for me and then I asked him to help me carry the stuff.”

“And then, and then, and then. My gosh. Are you guys going out now?” Sasha asked.

“No… I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t even know if he likes me Sasha and I don’t even know if I like him.” So that was a big lie. I obviously liked him at least a little bit. I mean he was good looking, had a great taste in music, was nice to me, and was a great kisser.

“Please we both know you like him and he obviously likes you. I mean he keeps kissing you and he helped you carry the snacks up. If he didn’t like you he wouldn’t have helped,” she explained.

“Yeah but he could have just have been being nice.”

Sasha shook her head at me. “My idiot of a brother can’t just come out and say he likes you. I’m going to have to talk to him.”

“No! You can’t do that Sasha.”

“Why not? We both know you’ll never have the guts to tell him so he needs to tell you.”

“You can’t what if he doesn’t like me.”

“Sage, wouldn’t you rather find out than just sitting here wondering?”

“No, I’m just fine wondering.” Even though I wish I knew I didn’t want Sasha to just go up to Alistar and tell him to ask me out or something. It kind of screamed pathetic and I did not want to be pathetic.

“Fine, I won’t interfere. You can just be confused your whole life.” Sasha went to turn off the lights.

“Thank you.” We both went to sleep sometime after that. The whole time I was trying to figure out if Alistar really liked me. I was thinking about all the things he’s ever done for me. I was trying to see if he ever acted like he liked me and I just missed it. But I just couldn’t remember, nothing seemed like he liked me. I always thought he was just being nice to me because I was his sister’s friend and he kind of thought of me as a friend. Why does this have to be so confusing?

He wouldn’t have kissed me, twice, if he didn’t like me right? But then again like I told Sasha some people just kiss to kiss not because they like the other person. Just because he likes me doesn’t mean he wants to be with me though? Why do I keep kissing him back? Why don’t I just ask him? Oh yeah because I’m a coward who doesn’t want to look pathetic.