Never Fall For You

-Jason-

I couldn’t tell her. Not yet. It would ruin everything. We were just starting to be civil, and actually get along with each other. If I told her how I feel now, it would just fuck everything up. Not to mention, I was one hundred percent certain that the feelings I was having were not mutual.

The first couple of days that her family stayed at our house, it was easy not to say anything. But by the end of the week, the roads started clearing up a bit, and both of our parents were able to go back to work, even though school was still out for another week, and their power had yet to be turned back on.

It was late Friday morning, and I had slept in. As usual. I made my way from my bedroom, towards the kitchen, when I heard voices coming from the library. I was used to Kat being in there; she’d practically moved into that room as soon as she discovered it. The other voice, I recognized immediately as Tyler, and a knot formed in my throat at the thought of those two being alone together. The more I thought about it, the less I wanted Tyler to get to her first. He would break her heart, and then I would have to break his face.

I poked my head into the room, and saw the two of them sitting across from each other, Tyler grinning, and Kat giggling. She reached over and placed her hand on his arm, and he reached up and brushed a hair away from her face. I cleared my throat loudly.

“I’m going to make breakfast, if you two are interested” I said, when they both looked up at me. Kat grinned, and nodded vigorously - my God that girl could out-eat me, but she never gained a pound. Tyler, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes, and glared at me.

In all fairness, this wasn’t the first time in the last week that I’d interrupted him and Kat. And you’re damn right I was doing it on purpose.

“Alright” I said, turning on my heel. I started walking down the hallway, then stopped when someone grabbed my arm.

I turned around, surprised to see Kat beaming up at me.

“I’ll help” she said, and I smiled down at her, then lead the way to the kitchen.

An hour later, after everyone had filled their stomachs full of pancakes, bacon, sausage, and eggs, I started cleaning up. Kat began helping me, but, much to my surprise, Tyler took over, and she headed back to the library.

“Why do you keep doing that?” Tyler asked, as I was washing some of the dishes that wouldn’t fit into the dishwasher.

I raised my eyebrow, and looked at him. “Doing what?” I asked, annoyed at his cryptic question. Or maybe I was just annoyed because it was Tyler. He’d been annoying me lately just by being around.

He rolled his eyes. “Every time I get Kat by myself, you appear out of nowhere and screw it up” he answered, his jaw clenching. “Yesterday, it was while we were building snowmen, the day before it was when we were in her room talking… What gives?”

“Nothing, man” I answered quickly, and he looked up at me, squinting, as if that help him figure it out.

We both fell silent, and he turned away from me, and begin wiping down the table. I sighed in relief, glad that he was dropping it. Then, he slowly turned towards me, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“You like her” he said, his voice low, and I glanced over him, into the living room, to make sure Lydia wasn’t paying any attention.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, trying to make my voice sound normal.

“You like her” he said again. “You like Kat. That’s why you keep interrupting us, you don’t want to me to get her first!”

I shook my head. “You’re an idiot” I said. “And you’ve got the wrong idea. I don’t like Kat.”

He rolled his eyes. “C’mon, Jason. You really gonna lie to your cousin?”

I turned around to face him, crossing my arms over my chest. I was bigger than him, and taller than him, and I know that I intimidated him. But his grin only got bigger when I said “Just drop it, Tyler.”

He shrugged, then put his hands up in the air in surrender. And, once again, a foolish wave of relief crashed over me, as I thought he was done with this subject. Wrong. Again.

“Fine, fine” he mumbled. “Just don’t come crying to me if she’s broken by the time I’m done with her.”

And that was it. Something inside of me snapped. My head got dizzy, and I couldn’t see straight. And before I could even comprehend what I was doing, I had balled my fist up, and brought it up to meet Tyler’s jaw. And he fell back. Hard.

“What the fuck, man?!” he yelled, as he cupped his jaw, and grabbed hold of the closest chair so he could push himself up.

“What was that?” Lydia asked, turning around in her seat to look at us.

And, then, of course, Kat suddenly appeared in the doorway, looking from me to Tyler, then back at me again.

“Were you guys fighting?” she asked surprised, frowning slightly.

Tyler was shooting me death glares, but managed to pull himself up - with Kat’s help, of course - and he smiled at her. “No” he said, glancing at me. “We were just playing around. Clumsy me, tripped and fell and caught his elbow.”

“Oh” she said softly, refusing to meet my eyes. “Well, are you okay?”

He nodded. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine” he replied. Meanwhile, I was becoming even more annoyed by the second.

I sighed, scratching my head, and refusing to look at either one of them.

“I’m going to take a shower” I mumbled, then shoved past both of them, and made my way to the bathroom.