My Brother's Best Friend (17 page)

Megan was about to say something, but Mitch wisely stopped her.

Emily straightened a little. “Well then, I’m happy for you guys. I think it’s awesome that you two got hitched. Can I go to my room now?”

“Sure,” Mitch said. “We’re going to order out. Is there anything you want?”

“Just get me a salad,” she said as she stood up and left the room.

“How did you know?” Megan asked, referring to Emily’s reaction.

“I know my sister. What I like, she hates. What I want, she has to have it first.”

“I don’t—” Megan began.

“She’s not like that with you. At least she hasn’t been so far. So don’t worry,” I told her. “I really am happy for you though.” I stood up to head upstairs.

“Hey, how was your appointment?” Mitch asked.

“It was fine,” I told him. “And if you don’t want to order out there should be some leftover casserole in the fridge. Either way, I’ll be down later for dinner.”

I walked up the stairs and spent the rest of the evening reading my book for my English class and answering text messages.

Hey, beautiful. What are you doing?

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Sent from a guy bored out of his mind

Haha. At least you can’t die from boredom.

I’m just reading for class. Something I

should have started Thursday or even last night.

I think in this case you can die from it,

but now my mind is actively remembering

everything we did last night.

—————————————————-

Sent from someone who wants you

Okay stop, this is not fair. You can’t just

make me want you and not do anything

about it. We’re talking about something else.

How come we can’t do anything about it?

—————————————————-

Sent from someone who knows every inch of you

Because my sister is in the room right next door. So what

are you doing besides making my life harder?

Thinking about you.

—————————————————-

Sent from someone thinking about you

Dev, stop. I’m going to turn my phone off

if you continue this. Now tell me why you

texted me.

Fine. I’m stopping but only because I’m bored.

I’m sitting in my apartment because I told

Mitch I had to go to work.

—————————————————-

Sent from Mr. Bored

I’m sorry. That’s my fault, I guess. I shouldn’t

have asked you to meet me.

No. I’m glad you asked me. I'm glad I could be

there for you. I worry about you, CJ.

—————————————————-

Sent from a guy who cares about you

Thanks for caring. And if it makes a difference,

it has been a couple hours. I think you could

safely come back over.

I better not. If I do, I’ll just want to take you

upstairs and make love all night. And I’m pretty

sure that would tip off everyone.

—————————————————-

Sent from a guy who misses you

Yeah, that wouldn’t be good. Though I doubt I

could keep my hands off you myself. So I’ll

just see you another time.

Oh, about that. After dinner, you need to

excuse yourself for dessert. I told Larissa

and Zach that it was your birthday, so just

tell Mitch and the others you have plans with them.

I still can’t believe how well you and Larissa get on,

it’s like you’ve known each other for years.

—————————————————-

Sent from Top Secret Head Quarters

Haha. Okay TSHQ, I’ll plan for it.

Where should I meet you?

I’ll come by and pick you up. So just go

with the others in Mitch’s car and I’ll

text you when you should come out.

—————————————————-

Sent from TSHQ

You make me smile, Dev. I’ll have my phone handy,

waiting for your text. You think I could sneak out

tonight?

Probably, but better not to risk it. We’ll see each other

tomorrow. Just read your book and wait patiently.

—————————————————-

Sent from your other half

Dinner is here. I’m heading downstairs. If you don’t

hear from me again, know that I will really miss you.

Don’t talk like that. You will find me speeding over

there to make sure you’re okay. Just yell through the

door. Don’t open the dragon’s lair.

—————————————————-

Sent from your knight in shining armor

No damsel in distress here. I made it to the

dinner table with all my limbs intact.

Good to hear. Now make sure you make it

back safely. The harrowing road has many

dangers. Make sure you watch your back.

—————————————————-

Sent from Prince Charming

Isn’t Prince Charming supposed to face the harrowing

road without his princess? You’re the one who saves me,

you don’t just text me and tell me to watch out.

Well, my princess doesn’t like to be coddled by anyone,

least of all her prince. In other words, I’m respecting

your freedom. I'm a twenty-first century kind of prince.

I’m there when you need me, not there to impose my

dashing good looks and strong character on you.

—————————————————-

Sent from your respectful prince

All right, I got to stop for now.

Mitch and Megan aren’t sure who I’m texting.

Tell them it’s your best bud Larissa.

At least for now.

—————————————————-

Sent from Larissa

Okay, Larissa. I just finished explaining

to everyone who Larissa was, forcing

me to say I went to work with you.

Did you tell them you went because you wanted

to see behind the scenes of the show?

—————————————————-

Sent from Larissa

Stop with the whole Larissa thing. It’s not like they

can read my text messages. It’s fine. Megan actually

wishes she could see what you do.

I told her it was boring.

Haha. Very funny, CJ. I know you love

what I do. I bet you could even convince

Terry to give you a job working with me part time.

—————————————————-

Sent from Devin

I do love your job. I think it’s amazing you get to

record the tracks the cast sings. And you never know.

I may just appeal to Terry to find a place for me there.

Then you would be forced to see me all the time.

That wouldn’t be too bad.

I can see work not getting done on time though.

—————————————————-

Sent from someone who would

be distracted by your presence

Hmmm. That could be a problem.

Maybe I’ll stick with the job I have already.

Sounds like a plan for now.

We can revisit this at a later time.

What are you guys eating?

—————————————————-

Sent from a hungry man

Lasagna from Cortina’s.

Why don’t you go eat something?

Aren’t there leftovers from last night?

I’ll only be forced to remember what happened

after dinner. I can’t even walk into my kitchen

now without images of what we did on the counter.

—————————————————-

Sent from a man in pain

Well, I can’t alleviate your pain. I’m at the dinner

table with family and you know I blush easily.

So stop talking about last night.

I’m eating leftovers.

It’s just not the same without you.

—————————————————-

Sent from an empty dining room

Way to make me feel loved. Sometimes you’re too much, Dev.

I’m signing off—I don’t mean literally since we’re texting not

chatting online. But I have to finish dinner and read a book

that needs to be read by Monday and that’s not going to get

done if I continue to talk with you. So goodnight, Dev.

Goodnight, beautiful

—————————————————-

Love, Prince Charming

W
hen I woke up the next morning, I thought I would feel different. I mean I turned 23, but it feels pretty much the same as 22. I don’t feel different. I don’t feel older. I just feel like myself, Christy Walsh.

I slept in, but when I came downstairs I was surprised to find Megan had made a special breakfast for me. Well, I guess it was more like brunch now. “I tried to keep it warm. Hopefully it’s still good,” she said, biting her lip.

I smiled at her nervousness. “Even if it was gross, I would still love it. You made me breakfast!” I went up to her and gave her a big hug. “Thanks, sis.”

“You’re welcome.” I could hear the smile in her voice.

I sat down and ate the breakfast prepared especially for me and didn’t let anything bother me, not even when Emily came downstairs and scoffed at the food.

“I’ll just have my cereal, thanks.”

I gave Megan a ‘don’t worry about her’ look because literally she only ever ate her special cereal—cardboard if you ask me—or salads. She snuck a few snacks here and there when no one was looking. I started noticing my stash of junk food grow less and less a while ago, but I never said anything. God forbid I be the cause of my sister’s death due to anorexia.

Anyway, I learned awhile back not to ask questions and keep the cabinet stocked. The more stocked it is, the more Emily feels she can eat from it and no one will notice.

“Thanks, Meg, I really appreciate it,” I told her once more as I got up to put my plate away.

“I can get that for you,” she said, taking the plate from my hands.

“It’s not a bother for me.”

“But it’s your birthday. At my house on birthdays, my parents would cook breakfast and even allow us to skip our chores for the day. Mine was washing dishes. So please let me do this for you.”

I smiled. “Sure. Is Mitch up?”

“He went into the office for a few hours. He said he’d be back later and if you wanted we could do something before dinner since you have your time with your studio friends later.” I had told them last night that Larissa and Zach wanted to meet up with me after dinner.

“Uh, I don’t have anything. I actually have to finish the book I’m reading for class tomorrow. It was my spring break assignment.”

“What book?”

“
Pride and Prejudice
,” I said. “I have an end-of-the-semester project to find a continuation or a ‘what if’ kind of book and explore the differences in language, imagery or characters. Basically I have to analyze the book I choose with the original.”

“Sounds pretty interesting.” Megan smiled as she continued to wash the dishes. “Have you picked the book you’re going to read?”

“I’ve ordered a couple that sounded promising and I’ll probably read them and choose one in the next month. But for now, I really have to go read or else I will not have it done by tomorrow.”

“You have class after work, right?” Megan asked.