Foolish Games: A Brothers Best Friend Fake Dating Romance

one

#1 at the Box Office:Conspiracy Theory

Vivienne Delacroix

“Oh, look, it’s the nerd herd.”

I turn to see my brother’s best friend, who happens to be the Wampus Cats’ new team captain, and his crew swaggering by. I roll my eyes at my brother, who pretends he doesn’t know me and snickers in solidarity with Sebastian’s other minions.

Since Rob made varsity, he’s been irritatingly arrogant.

Since becoming friends with Sebastian, he’s been insufferable.

I tried explaining to him that I joined Quiz Bowl because it looks great on college applications, but that was the last straw for him. Apparently now I’m not cool enough to speak to him in the presence of his football buddies. Since he started high school and started going by his first name, all he cares about is his image.

I turn away, unbothered by Sebastian’s lame jeer, but my boyfriend answers before I can stop him.

“Is that the best you can come up with?” he asks. “No wonder you have to run around slamming into each other for entertainment. Your tiny brains probably can’t think of anything better to do.”

I sigh and shake my head. Most nerds know better than to give the popular jocks the reaction they’re looking for, but Chaz just can’t seem to help himself.

“I can think of something better to do,” my brother says. “Your mom.”

I hold back laughter, since even though Robert thinks he’s too cool for me, he’s still my little brother, full of lame jokes and unwarranted confidence.

“Very funny,” Chaz says, sliding an arm around my shoulders. “But a false statement. Whereas I am, in fact, doing your sister.”

I would laugh out loud if I didn’t see the fury brewing in my brother’s eyes.

“You better hope you’re fucking with me right now,” Robert says, stepping forward like he’s about to deck Chaz. All the humor of the moment is gone, and my other friends huddle together, cowering nervously as the football players prowl closer. I shrug off Chaz’s arm and shove myself between him and Rob, annoyed that once again, my boyfriend doesn’t know when to shut up and my brother doesn’t know when to mind his own damn business.

I’m a year older, but he acts like it’s his brotherly duty to talk shit to any guy who’s interested in me, even the ones who treat me as well as Chaz does.

“Rob,” I say, pressing a palm to his chest to keep him separated from Chaz. “Chill out. He’s just messing with you.”

“And we’re about to mess with him,” Sebastian says, looking as ready to deck my boyfriend as my brother does. “Or mess him up, to be more accurate. You nerds love to be precise, don’t you?”

“Lay off him,” I say, standing in front of Chaz to block him from the football players.

“Who’s going to make me?” A spark of challenge ignites in Sebastian’s green-apple eyes as he looks me up and down, taking his sweet time.

A little flutter starts in my lower belly when his gaze lingers on my chest before making its way back to mine. I lift my chin and cross my arms, refusing to back down from him or acknowledge the stupid thing my body just did—and does every time I see him hanging out in the pool at my house, all muscle and cocky attitude, dripping with water and sculpted like a freaking god. But I’ve had to put up with him turning my brother into an egomaniac, and I’m not about to let him get to me next.

“You?” he asks, dropping his voice to barely above a whisper, a smirk of disbelief on his lips.

I raise a brow.

“You’re lucky your brother’s one of my boys,” he says. “If he wasn’t, I’d have some fun with you, Princess.”

For a split second, I’ve never regretted having a brother so much in my life. Then my rational mind kicks in, and I remember that Sebastian’s brand of fun includes tormenting everyone outside of his social circle and probably sleeping with five different girls at once.

“It’s Vivienne,” I say in my iciest voice.

A couple of his friends “ooh” behind their hands, like I said something clever. Hell, maybe to them, I did. Chaz doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut, but that doesn’t mean he’s wrong. Sebastian’s been friends with my brother for the entirety of high school. He should know my name by now.

“Vivienne,” Sebastian says, trying out the word in his slow drawl, his tongue caressing every syllable in the most indecent way. He looks me up and down again, this time so thoroughly it’s nearly obscene. I can feel my nipples pebbling as my skin prickles with goosebumps at the naked lust in his eyes. He reaches out and tips my chin up, brushing his thumb down over my full lower lip. “Keep looking at me with those fuck-me eyes, Princess, and we’re going to have a problem.”

“Dude,” Robert says, slamming his shoulder into his best friend and knocking him away from me. “That’s my sister.”

“I know,” Sebastian says, giving us a cool look. “But I remember her being more of a geek last year.”

“She is,” Robert says. “Now back off.”

Even though my brother’s new on the varsity squad and only a junior, Sebastian listens, probably because Robert and I are from one of Faulkner’s founding families, not to mention our dad is a lawyer. People generally don’t mess with us, even though I’m firmly entrenched in the nerd herd, as Sebastian calls us.

“Yeah, all right,” Sebastian grumbles before turning to us again. “One of you nerds can tell the little pussy hiding behind his girlfriend that this isn’t over.”

With that, he turns and swaggers off, my brother and the rest of their clique trailing in his wake.

I let out a breath and try to collect myself. So what if Sebastian is fine as hell and looks like he could toss me around a mattress in a way that Chaz never could—at least not without reaching for his inhaler every two minutes?

Being tossed around a mattress is overrated anyway.

At least, I assume it is. I wouldn’t know from personal experience. I have Chaz, and there’s a reason I chose him. Mattress gymnastics is not that reason. He’s sweet and respectful and gentle, and I don’t have to worry about competing with the other girls in his little black book, since he doesn’t have one.

I turn back to our friends. Really, they’re Chaz’s friends, but now that we’ve been together a year, I’ve been absorbed into their group. And this year I’m on the quiz bowl team, which means I won’t be left out when they go to tournaments together like I was last year. This will help me truly belong, not just as someone’s girlfriend. Plus, I won’t have to battle my irrational jealousy over Chaz bonding with a certain girl on the quiz bowl team on their out-of-town trips.

“Did you really have to provoke the jocks?” I ask my boyfriend. “Now we’re on their radar.”

“We were already on his radar,” he points out. “He talked shit to us first.”

“And if you hadn’t answered, he would have kept walking,” I point out. “That’s what they always do.”

“That doesn’t make it okay,” Krissy says, gazing up at Chaz like he’s her hero. “We have a right to defend ourselves.”

With her plain, moony face and big teeth, she’s not exactly stunning, but I still envy the fact that she’s gone to school with my boyfriend since kindergarten and is super tight with him.

“They weren’t hurting us,” I say. “They just called us nerds. We call ourselves that. Do you really want to start shit with the most popular kids in school on the first day of senior year? You could at least wait until the last month to make a point.”

“One day we’ll be running our own companies, and those meatheads will be cleaning our toilets,” Chaz says. “Sometimes I just like to remind them that we’ll win in the end.”

“Totally,” Krissy says. “It’s about time someone stood up to them. The jocks think they run this school.”

“Yeah, because they do,” I say. “We’re at a high school in the south. More people attend the games on Friday night than church on Sunday morning. Meanwhile we’re lucky if our own parents come to our debate tournaments.”

“Well, I think you’re brave,” Krissy says to Chaz. “They were being jerks.”

I grit my teeth and glare at her, but neither of them notices.

“Thanks,” he says. “I figure my brains are at least an equal match to his muscles.”

The group starts down the hall toward our homerooms, since we’re the type of kids who like to be on time for class, even on the first day of school.

“You’re right, you know,” Jerome says, falling in beside me as Chaz and Krissy pull ahead. “Bullies get bored if you don’t respond. They’re just looking for a reaction.”

“Exactly,” I say, relieved that someone is on my side. “Try telling Chaz that, though.”

“He knows,” Jerome assures me. “He just can’t stand that society values beefcakes over brainiacs.”

“Good luck changing that,” I mutter, trying not to be annoyed that Krissy is swinging her mouse-brown hair against my boyfriend’s arm. Even though one of the reasons I date Chaz is because he’s a nice guy who would never cheat, sometimes it still annoys me that his best friend is a girl who’s secretly in love with him. At least, she seems to think it’s a secret. It’s completely obvious to everyone except Chaz himself.

“Don’t let her get to you,” Jerome says, seeing my stormy look and giving me a shy smile. “You know Chaz thinks of her as a sister.”

“So he’s told me,” I say with a sigh as we stop at our homeroom and Krissy stands on tiptoes to give Chaz a peck on the cheek before hurrying away, her books clutched to her chest. “But does she have to do that?”

“Do what?” Chaz asks, turning back to us with his oblivious, earnest face. He may not see her as girlfriend material, but she is definitely not in agreement.

“Does she really have to kiss you?” I ask.

“It was on the cheek,” he points out.

“And?” I ask. “I don’t kiss Jerome every time I say goodbye.”

Jerome stammers something about a tardy and slips past us and into the classroom. He could play the stereotypical nerd in every teen movie and show, the Urkel with glasses and a nervous habit of pushing them up, who’s never had a girlfriend in his life because he freezes up whenever anyone of the opposite sex speaks to him. For the first six months that I was dating his best friend, he could barely look me in the eye. Now we’re friends, but he still gets flustered at the mention of so much as a kiss.

I feel bad for embarrassing him, since he’s a total sweetie in addition to being the second-smartest boy in school after my boyfriend.

“I told you, there’s nothing going on between Krissy and I,” Chaz says in his overly-patient tone, like he’s tired of indulging my insecurities, even though I’ve only brought it up a few times before.

“I know that,” I say. “I trust you. Her, not so much.”

“Come on, Viv,” he says. “Don’t make a big deal out of nothing. You’re imagining things. She’s not into me, and even if she was, you have nothing to be jealous of. I’m into you.”

He takes my hand and pulls me in to plant a kiss on my lips, and my irritation melts. How can I stay mad at a guy who says things like that?