Scream

Brian was sat in his room, head in hands and deep in thought. In his mind, it was plain unfair that Lyndsey would have to spend two weeks alone in the school just because she didn’t have family to go home to. After he had sat there for nearly two hours trying to find a solution, he stood up swiftly and walked along the corridor to Zacky’s room.

Zacky opened the door immediately, “You okay, man?”

Brian sighed, “I’m not going home if Lyndsey has to stay here.”

Zacky nodded, “It’s unfair on her.”

“I’m not standing for it,” Brian said with a petulant stamp of his foot, “I’m gonna phone my parents, Papa H and Suzy will sort this shit out.”

A week later, Lyndsey was sitting on top of her suitcase apprehensively waiting for Brian to appear. He had sorted everything out so that she was going to his house for the two weeks that they had off.

He appeared and smiled at her, “Comfortable?”

She shook her head and stood up, wringing her hands nervously and fixing her hair for the umpteenth time in the past five minutes.

“You look amazing,” Brian reassured her and then grinned as a car pulled up.

“Let’s beast,” he stated.

He picked up the cases effortlessly and put tthem into the boot of the car, then pulled the door open for Lyndsey. She climbed in, not speaking until Brian got in on the other side.

“Thank you, Mr Haner,” she said to the man in the front seat.

“It’s no problem at all and call me Brain,” he stated.

“That’s not confusing at all.”

Mr Haner laughed, “I’m Brian Haner Senior, and Brian is Brian Elwin Haner Junior.”

Lyndsey bit her lip against a snigger, “Brian, you didn’t tell me you had a middle name!”

Brian grimaced, “Can’t you see why?”

“Elwin is a nice name, Brian,” his dad told him.

“So, I have to call both of you Brian…” Lyndsey thought aloud.

Both of them laughed, “Brian is more sinister than I am,” his dad mused.

“Sinister, I like it,” Lyndsey nodded.

“What?”

“I’m going to call you that from now on,” she stated.

“As in S-I-N-I-S-T-E-R?” Brian asked confused.

“No, S-Y-N-Y-S-T-E-R,” Lyndsey spelt out.

They all fell into silence until they reached Brian’s house, which true to his description, was basically on the beach. Lyndsey smiled at the cozy, comfort it seemed to radiate.

Brian sighed happily, “At last, proper food.”

His dad laughed, “Just wait ‘til Suzy sees you, she’ll be ecstatic to have you back.”

“Some friends from school who live around here have asked can they come round at some stage, would that be okay?” Brian asked.

“You know that that’ll be fine,” his dad replied.

“Great, I’ll let them know.”

-x-x-

“Trust Suzy not to listen and get the wrong impression,” Brian grumbled and Lyndsey laughed at him.

“I assume you’ll be sharing a room with Brian,” Brian imitated his step mother.

“She did say we made a cute couple and sharing was fine as long as we ‘keep it down’!” Lyndsey said then cracked up.

“We didn’t deny it, so she probably thinks we are dating,” Brian shrugged.

“Who cares? I like sharing a bed with you,” Lyndsey said and lay back on Brian’s bed where she had been sitting.

“You actually want to sleep in here?” Brian asked her incredulously.

Lyndsey nodded and snuggled into the pillow sleepily.

Brian smiled at the sight and lay down beside her, wrapping his arms around her protectively. She turned over so that she was facing him and snuggled into his chest. Brian hoped that she hadn’t felt his heartbeat rise when she did that, he felt pathetic for how he had started to feel about her.

She looked up at him, “Call me stupid, but I feel safe here.”

He smiled at her, “That’s not stupid.”

She threw caution to the wind and placed her lips against his in a short kiss. He held her that little bit tighter, “Can I be more than your protector?”

She nodded shyly, “I’d like that, I’d like it a lot.”