Zander
Chapter twenty-one
Sierra: If you thought pretending to be my friend so your brother could play a prank on me would get to me, you were wrong. Meet me tomorrow morning so I can give this phone back. I’m done with you and him. Fuck, I’m done with the whole damn school.
What the fuck? I stare at my phone in shock. I’ve got absolutely no clue what happened other than I’m going to kill one of my fucking brothers.
I press her contact icon, needing to talk to her, and it immediately goes to voicemail. Fuck!
Dropping my phone on my bed, I storm out of my room and head straight for Colton’s. He’s never hidden his desire for us to stay away from her.
Barging into his room, the door slams against the wall, causing him to jump from where he’s lying on the bed with a game controller in hand.
“What’s up, man?” he asks like he hasn’t done a damn thing.
“Fuck you, Colt. What the hell did you say to her?”
“Say to whom?” he asks, not even bothering to take his eyes off his game.
Pissed off, I storm over and jerk the controller out of his hand. “What the fuck did you say to her? She won’t even talk to me now.”
“What the hell, Zan? I don’t have a fucking clue what you’re talking about,” Colt shouts, and the confused look on his face tells me I may have the wrong brother.
“You didn’t text Sierra?”
“No, why would I? I’ve been telling you to stay away from her, at least until after we graduate.”
“Colt…” I start, but he stands from the bed and starts talking again, cutting me off.
“Zan, I get it. Really, I do. She seems like a nice girl and she’s getting a raw deal.
I don’t have the slightest clue what happened or why they’re doing this to her, but she’s been handling it this long.
She can handle it for, what, the eight months we have left?
It’s either cut your ties with her or have the whole school against you.
” Colt sighs, running his hand down his face. I can tell he hates what he’s saying.
Brax chooses that moment to walk into the bedroom, sandwich in hand, mid-bite. When he shuts the door behind him, I see red. Immediately, I charge at him, grasping his shirt in my fist, and slam him back against the door, causing him to almost choke on his food.
“What the fuck did you do?!” I growl through clenched teeth. “What did you say to her?”
“Let go of me and I’ll tell you,” Brax coughs out, trying to catch his breath. Reluctantly, I let go, trying really hard not to punch him right in the fucking face.
I back away as he straightens his shirt and walks over to Colt’s desk, sliding down into the chair. Placing the sandwich on the desk, he sighs.
“First off, let me start from the beginning,” he starts, but Colt immediately speaks up.
“Maybe I should leave. I have a twin feeling I won’t like what you say.”
“No, sit down and listen. I have nothing to hide, and you need to know what I’m planning.” That sentence makes my gut sink. I swear to God, if he plans to take part in any more abuse I’ll- hell, I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ve never been in a position where I’m pitted against my brothers.
“Spit it out. I want to finish my game,” Colt grinds out, his jaw clenching.
“Fine, so the day I met her in the shoe store, I fell hard. I’ve never been instantly attracted to a girl like that before.”
“That’s not news. You told us already,” Colt interjects, rolling his eyes.
“Would you just let me finish? Like I was saying, I liked her from the get-go, but she rushed out of there, so quickly I never got to ask her out or try to meet up with her. Hell, anything. Then we asked Wes about her and found out, for whatever reason, everyone hates her. I never expected them to treat her the way they do. I just assumed maybe they ignored her. So like a pussy, I stepped back and let it happen, watched without stopping it, and I hate myself for that. My feelings for her never changed. Then you,” he says as he points my way.
“Well, you said fuck it and befriended her. When you mentioned giving her your old phone, I assumed you left the number the same since we all got local numbers when we moved here, and I messaged her.”
“What did you fucking say to her?” My fists clenching and unclenching at my side. I’m so fucking angry. It’s taking everything in me not to beat the shit out of him.
“I apologized for how I treated her and told her I wanted to start over, to be her friend. Zan, I even told her how I felt about her that first day. I know you like her, but I do too. Then she messaged me back, thinking it was a game that we were playing on her. Here, look if you don’t believe me.
” He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out his phone, handing it to me.
Sure enough, the messages are right there for me to see. Everything he said was true.
Me: Hey Sierra, it’s Brax. Zan said he gave you his old phone, so I took a chance, hoping he never changed the number.
I just want to say I’m sorry I’ve been a dick to you since school started.
Guess fitting in seemed more important until I realized what the price of that was.
What happened with the pictures… umm… I’m sorry.
That was uncalled for. They went too far.
Me: I really want to start over with you. To go back to that day in the mall and begin again. I’d like to show you the person I really am and not the one you’ve been seeing.
Me: I don’t know if you’re reading these, too pissed off to answer, or just letting it all sink in.
Just know that I really want to be your friend.
I fell for you that day and I still really like you.
Well, you have my number, text me, or call me.
Just know I’m going to show you who I really am because I want to take you out on a date.
One thing is still eating at me, though. Is what he’s saying really true, or is this a game he cooked up with Wesley? Glancing back and forth between Colt and Brax, I’m looking for any hint that they have something nefarious up their sleeves.
“I know what you’re thinking and no, it’s not a game. No one but Sierra, and now the two of you know I messaged her. Colt had no idea until now.”
Colt takes that moment to speak up, “So that’s cute and all, but now both of you have admitted you like her, how’s that gonna work out for you? There are two of you and only one of her. Seems to me like someone’s going to be sitting on the outside looking in.”
Both Brax and I look at each other. Fuck! The asshole is right.
“Well, seeing how you’re not interested, I guess it’s between Zan and me to figure out.
And I think I might have a plan.” He looks at me and grins.
“Actually, your project with her gave me an idea. Let’s go to your room and I’ll fill you in.
Don’t want those who still believe what they’re doing to her is okay to overhear.
” Brax picks up his sandwich, takes a bite, and crosses the room to the door.
All I can do is look back and forth between the two of them. Fuck, has moving here ruined our brotherhood? It's like we’re pitted against each other like House Lannister.
“Are you coming?” I hear Brax call out as he walks out of the room, and I follow him, wanting to hear his plan. One where we both come out with the girl, I hope.
Walking into my room, I see Brax sitting on the bed, eating his sandwich.
“Come on man, that’s my bed and you’re dropping fucking crumbs all over it. What the hell?” I bark out at him. “Fuck’s sake, you’re a slob.”
“Chill out, I’ll clean it up,” he tells me as he continues eating, dropping bread crumbs everywhere, and I cringe.
“Just hurry and tell me what you’re thinking, so you can clean this shit up. I’m pissed and tired and ready to go to bed. Plus, hasn’t Dad told you that you don’t need to be eating this late?”
“What are you, a calorie narc? I’m a growing boy.
I need all the food I can eat. So the plan, well, I may have overheard you and her on the phone tonight and up until that point, I thought I’d have to fight you for her.
But then a light bulb went off. Why can’t it be like those books you’re doing your project on?
One girl, more than one guy. Hell, I even checked some of them out on the internet after hearing y’all talk about it, and some of them are about brothers.
It’s your project come to life,” he says smugly, as if he doesn’t need any validation.
I have to admit it’s a brilliant plan and I’m a little pissed that I didn’t come up with it.
But what will Sierra think? That’s the big question.
“But you fucked that up when you messaged her. Now she thinks we’re playing some big game on her and she wants nothing to do with me, either.
She’s even giving back the phone tomorrow, and it was the only way I had to talk to her outside of school. ”
“Simple. We don't take it back. We make sure she believes we’re one hundred percent on her side,” he says matter-of-factly, like it’s going to be easy.
“And if she doesn’t? What about Wes? Aren’t you afraid of what this will do to your social standing at school?”
He just looks at me for a moment, seriously thinking about what he wants to say.
“At one point, yes, I was concerned. But then I saw the bigger picture. What they’re doing is wrong.
It’s cruel, and I’d never want to be treated that way.
We have less than a year here and then we’re gone, most likely never seeing any of these people again, so what do I care if they hate me for this?
I want to know Sierra, to help her. She is the only person I want to know after we graduate. ” I know he means every word.
“What about Colt?” I ask, and he laughs like he knows something I don’t.
“Trust me, he’ll come around. He’s fighting his feelings for her, but I see how he looks at her when he thinks no one is watching. Plus, we’re twins, so call it intuition. He'll be on Team Sierra before you know it,” Brax says, grinning from ear to ear.
I have to admit, the two of them are eerily similar.
Often doing and saying the same thing. They even get dressed the same way.
When we first moved in together after Dad adopted us, it used to freak me the fuck out.
I kept looking for the camera, thinking I was in one of those Twilight Zone television shows.
“Okay, what makes you think Sierra will want to date both of us?” I ask, knowing a bit more about her than my brother does.
Sierra is a tough nut to crack and I have a gut feeling there’s something she’s hiding, not wanting anyone to find out.
Also, I really want to have a word with that aunt of hers.
Sierra seems to be more like the caregiver than her.
Not once have I heard mention of her doing anything for her sister; it always seems to be Sierra.
Somehow, I don’t buy that lame excuse of her aunt working at night.
If that were the case, who watches her sister, Sam, on the nights she's working?
Not to mention, she keeps avoiding the question of where she works.
If she was a waitress, I would drop in and sit at her table and leave a good tip.
“Hey, Zan… Earth to Zan!” Brax calls out to me, pulling me from my thoughts of the girl who seems to fill every minute of them.
“Sorry, what were you saying?” I ask him.
“I get it, man, really. Hell, I haven’t stopped thinking about her since that day in the shoe store.
We need to make sure she knows we are totally on her side.
Any hint of anyone being cruel to her, we nip in the bud.
We need to spend time with her doing things other than working on your school project. ”
“I’ve tried,” I cut in with annoyance. “She always has an excuse of her aunt working and having to take care of her sister or that she has to work.”
“Fine, then we invite her sister. She’s cool as hell.
Plus, what better way to get close to Sierra than getting close to her sister?
We need to let her know I honestly only wanted to apologize and there’s no game or prank.
Then, once we’ve won her over, we pounce on her with our idea of both dating her,” he says with confidence as he stands from the bed.
“So, are we good with the plan? We woo her all week and then invite her and her sister to the park or over here on Saturday.”
“Fine, but if she hates it, just remember she’s mine since I acted on my feelings first. And you better be going to get the vacuum to clean your fucking mess up.”
Brax leaves the room in a hurry, mumbling about how he’ll be right back. Moving over to the bed, I pick up my phone and send her a message, praying she reads it.
Me: I’m sorry, my dumbass brother really wants to apologize and get to know you. He is not playing a prank, nor is he doing anything sinister for Wesley or any of the others.
I hit send and then, before I plug it in, I send her one more message.
Me: I really didn’t know he messaged you. Please keep the phone.