Chapter 21
I was bored this afternoon so I straightened my curls, which always takes For. Ev. Er. And now the April weather is threatening to undo all of my hard work. I’m pissy and the last thing I want to do is eat dinner with my family.
“Woah. Your hair looks… different.”
And of course Anders is here.
“Different? That’s the word you’re going with?” I ask, one eyebrow quirked.
“Shit. I didn’t mean—It’s good different.” He hesitates. “I like your curls, though.”
“Bex! Are you alive?”
Oh fuck. Fuck, fuck, FUCK.
I bolt up in bed so fast that the force of my upward movement all but launches a startled Anders off the bed.
“Babe, what the hell?!” Anders mumbles from somewhere under a pile of covers and extra pillows that ended up on the floor last night.
“Shut UP!” I whisper-yell, trying to keep my voice down. “My brother is here!”
His stupidly adorable face pops up over the side of the bed. His hair is mussed up from sleep and he has pillow crease lines across his left eyebrow. “Which one?” he asks with a yawn.
And I really try to stop it, but my eyes have a mind of their own as they roll practically out of my eye sockets.
“The only one that would lose his shit if he saw his best friend in bed with his sister!” I’m still whisper-yelling and it’s obviously not getting the point across. I get my wits about me and frantically try to find my sleep shorts.
I’m hopping from one foot to the next attempting to get them on when I hear Gabe yell again, “Bex! Wake up!” Accompanied by some aggressive knocking. What the fuck is he doing here this morning? Though it’s not totally out of the ordinary for him to stop by on a Saturday morning, this is extremely inconvenient timing.
“Damn,” Anders whispers, still sitting on the floor where he fell a moment ago.
“I know!” I whisper. “I’ll try to get rid of him but please, for the love of God, don’t move! Or talk! Or think too loud! Gabe will…” I wave my hands around wildly. “Sense you.”
“I was talking about how hot your ass looks as you jump around over there, but you’re right. We have a weird telepathy thing going on.”
“Anders! Now is not the time to admire my ass!”
He smirks. “Any time is the time to admire your ass, Baby Bardot.”
This man is going to drive me insane. Exasperated, I sigh, finally getting my clothes situated enough that I can leave the bedroom. I reach for the knob and turn at the last second, narrowing my eyes as they reach the handsome, sleep ruffled man who looks like he doesn’t have a care in the world.
“I’m serious. Be quiet!” I poke my finger toward him in emphasis.
He gives me a mock salute and a wink. Great.
I walk out of my room, closing the door behind me before heading into the living room.
“Gabe, what the fuck are you doing here?”
“Well good morning to you, too, little sis.”
“Gabriel, we’ve talked about this. You can’t just drop by whenever you feel like it! There’s this thing called boundaries. The key you have is for emergencies only.” I walk over to the coffee pot and start scooping out grounds into the filter.
“Don’t ‘Gabriel’ me! This is an emergency, Bex. Anders never came home last night and you were the last one with him so I need your help finding him.”
I startle instantly at the sound of Anders’ name, causing the hand scooping coffee grounds to get caught inside the bag, tipping it over and spilling the grounds all over the counter and on to the floor.
“Shit,” I murmur at the same time that Gabe says, “Bex, what the fuck?”
“Damn, let me help you!” Gabe grabs a tea towel out of the drawer, wetting it so he can help gather all of the coffee grounds off the floor. “I’m not actually worried, he’s probably with some chick he met at the bar, but I am bored and wanted someone to hang out with this morning; that’s actually why I came over.”
I let out the world’s loudest groan. “You can’t scare me like that! With the way you barged in here, I thought something was wrong.”
“Boredom is very serious to me, Bex. You know this,” he retorts.
“Yes, but we have two other siblings! Brothers who I’m sure would have loved to see you this morning!”
He guffaws at that. “You know Jules would react even worse than you if I ever showed up at his place unannounced! Plus, Ben wasn’t home. I tried there first.” He has the wherewithal to look sheepish at this admission.
He peeks around the living room, glance lingering on the hallway to the bedrooms. “Are Luci and Riz home?”
“I don’t know, Gabe! I just woke up. Did you make sure they got home okay last night?” I ask.
“Of course, I just know Luci likes to get up early and go to yoga so I wasn’t sure if she was back yet.”
“How the hell is this something you know about my best friend?” Even though, at this point I have no ground to stand on when it comes to siblings and their best friends.
Before Gabe has a chance to answer me, a loud thud followed by a faint “Ouch!” comes from the direction of the bedrooms.
“What was that?!” Gabe questions as he starts to move toward my room.
With lightning speed, I jump in front of Gabe, putting my hands out to block him. I immediately realize this move looks very suspicious, so I pull my hands back and do a lean-stretch thing in an effort to be nonchalant.
He stares at me for a beat before a lightbulb flashes on and recognition falls across his face. As I watch him put the pieces together, I realize I am so fucked. Gabe will never talk to me again when he realizes who is in my room. He’ll cut off his friendship with Anders, and I know how important it is to both of them. There are so many things that could go wrong. This is just not worth it.
I’mnot worth it.
He looks from me to my bedroom door, and then back again. “Holy shit,” he whispers. “You have a guy in there!” The accusation is clear.
“Yes! Oh my God, but I can explain! I’m so, so sorry!”
His face twists up in confusion. “Why are you sorry? You’re twenty-two, Bex. You’re allowed to have guys over. Or girls, you know. Whatever floats your boat. I feel bad about how I acted at the bar the other night when that guy was hitting on you, though I stand by the fact that he had a punchable face.”
And that’s when it hits me. He’s put together some of the pieces, but not all of them. And he has no idea who is in my room right now.
“Right, well… thanks, I guess. But I’m not exactly ready to introduce him to the family,”—even though you have already met—“so you should go.”
Gabe puts his hands up in surrender. “Fine, fine. I’ll go try Jules I guess. Sorry for barging in. Hey!” He snaps his finger and points at me like he just had a great idea. “We should try that sock on the door thing that people do so I know not to come in!”
“Or... and here me out on this… you could try just, I don’t know, not coming over without asking, like a normal person!”
Gabe’s shoulders slump. He looks like someone just told him ice cream isn’t an acceptable dinner choice. “But that’s not as fun,” he whines.
“Get out of here, you pest!” I say while playfully shoving him out the front door. “Bye! I love you! Text me and we can arrange a mutually agreed upon time to hang out!”
I try to close the door, but at the last minute Gabe’s hand shoots out to stop me.
“Wait! Didn’t you go home because of…” He pauses and I watch as he figures out how to phrase his question. “Girl stuff?”
Fuck. “Oh, yeah. I guess it was a false alarm. Just some cramping.”
“Mmm. Yeah, I’ve heard Mom say that sex helps with that,” Gabe ponders.
“Oh my God, get out!” I shove his arm out of the way and finally shut the front door, turning to lean against it as I let out the breath I’ve been subconsciously holding.
Simultaneously, all three bedroom doors open and three sets of mischievous eyes stare back at me.
“Holy shit, that was close,” Riz whispers.
“Should we have come out to save you? I was in here debating it the whole time!” Luci chimes in.
Anders pulls at his collar, a deep blush rising on his cheeks. “Sorry, babe. I was trying to listen in and tripped over the vibrator we left on the ground.”
“Anders!” My hands reach up to cover my face as I slide down the door until I’m safely on the ground where I can die of embarrassment.
The last thing I see is my two best friends, and whatever Anders is to me, bent over in laughter.
“You’re going to pay for that, killer!” I reply.
“Yes, please,” he says with a wink before turning back into my room and shutting the door.
“Oh, you’re in trouble,” Riz replies, taking the words right out of my mouth.