Chapter 24 Feelings Between Us

Book:Something Between Us Published:2024-5-1

It had been more than a week since Darren became my boyfriend and I must say that all these days he had been nothing but really sweet to me.
Naturally, Claire had tried to kill me because I didn’t tell her about Darren and me. She threw a fit and refused to talk to me for the first two days. It was quite comical actually. Whenever she was angry, she looked very funny and I accidentally let out a chuckle once when she was lecturing me about how I never told her anything. That was a big mistake because her glare that followed my chuckle could have literally sent me six feet under.
Luckily, it didn’t because she loved me too much to do that.
Darren was indeed a good boyfriend and he was always very protective and sweet towards me. Brian seemed distant again, though when I questioned him about the texts, he didn’t answer me. He and Gemma were a thing now and as expected, Gemma couldn’t contain her happiness and excitement at her new status and literally screamed in my face that Brian was her boyfriend now.
She then launched herself into a minute by minute description about how he reacted when she told him and how they now spend almost everyday at her house.
Well, lucky for you bitch!
I admit, I became angry every time that topic was brought up but I was yet to find out why. I just felt immense anger and hatred towards Brian and Gemma put together.
Now I was sure of my dislike towards Gemma, though of course I never showed it and treated her as I would normally treat my friends, but the difference being that the way I treat Gemma was fake. I didn’t mean any of that.
I know I was being judgemental and prejudiced in my opinion of her but really, I couldn’t help it.
“So… have you two gone out on your first date? You and Darren?” Claire asked me in Biology.
“No, we haven’t.”
She frowned. “Why?”
I shrugged, not really knowing the answer. “We just started out a week ago and I think it’s a bit… early? I don’t know. We didn’t get time to go out on a date.”
“I can arrange a date for you two,” she said hopefully.
I smiled at her. “Thanks but no, I don’t want to go. At least not anytime soon.”
“Okay. But do tell me when you want to go and I’ll help him set up the date! I’ll make it really romantic!” She giggled.
I rolled my eyes at her. “Fine.”
“And,” She drawled out the ‘a’. “I think that day is not far away.”
I raised my eyebrows at her. “What do you mean?”
“Darren has been asking me about you a lot. He’s even asked me what sort of dates you prefer. I agreed to help him.”
I sighed. I didn’t know what was happening with me. I was beginning to question my decision. What I had done… was it the right thing to do?
Claire seemed to pick up on my mood. “Are you okay?” She asked, frowning a bit.
I shook my head in an attempt to clear my thoughts. “I don’t know, Claire. I-I’m not sure whether what I did was the right thing to do or not. I guess it was just a spur of the moment thing. I was overwhelmed when he said that he liked me and I didn’t know what to do.”
“You don’t love him?”
“Um… I don’t know. It’s just so confusing. I’m not feeling the spark in this relationship. I like Darren. Definitely. But I’m not sure if it means ‘love’ to me.”
“Then… why are you with him?” She asked incredulously.
“Okay. Let me just tell you the truth. I, sort of, had a bet with Brian that I can get a boyfriend in a day,” I said slowly and carefully, watching each and every word sink in Claire. I watched her cautiously to gauge her reaction.
“What?! Y-You had a bet with him about getting a boyfriend in a day?” She screeched.
“Yeah. I didn’t want to lose, and I wasn’t getting anyone so I, thought that Darren could be my boyfriend,” I admitted ashamedly.
Claire’s mouth formed an ‘o’.
“You are with Darren just because of a stupid bet?! Are you mad?! You are using him,” she accused.
I stared at my hands that were resting on my lap. I was guilty. Guilty that I was playing with Darren’s feelings. He would be so heartbroken if he got to know about this.
I was an idiot. I so wanted to go stamp a brick across my face right now.
Why did I do that? Why didn’t I just think about Darren? How could I be so selfish? I hated myself so much right now.
“If you don’t love him, then don’t be in a relationship with him! Do you have any idea what he will feel like if he gets to know about this?! Do you want me to tell him what exactly you feel about him?!”
My head snapped to her as I gave her a pleading look. “Claire! Please don’t. I know I’ve made a horrible mistake but I swear, he won’t get to know about this. I-I won’t break up with him. I’ll be his girlfriend, for his happiness. Please don’t tell him,” I pleaded.
“I’m not liking this at all, Brooke. How could you do this to him? You were just using him to win a stupid bet. How evil is that?”
“Claire, listen to me. I’ll try to love Darren. I am not using him. I’ll never do such a thing to him. I’m trying, okay? Just give it some time, please,” I tried to persuade her.
She looked as if she was torn between two things. And I knew exactly what she was thinking.
“You’re not going to tell him. I’ll try my best to love Darren. I will, I promise. I just want some time.”
She still looked uncertain before finally giving up and sighing, “I just hope it doesn’t end badly,” She muttered.
“It won’t.”
“You can’t be sure. And Brooke, I don’t want anyone hurt.”
“No one would be hurt, Claire. But you have done the opposite,” I decided to change the subject.
“What?”
“Jake.”
“Oh,” She looked away. “I said I was sorry. And I’m pretty sure he has moved on and is dating some other chick.”
“You don’t know. And that’s definitely not the case.”
“Drop it, Brooke. It won’t get you anywhere,” she snapped.
“You know I still ship you two. You two make for a great couple.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, and what’s the ship name?”
“Clake.”
“What?”
“Clake. Claire and Jake. I like to keep the girl’s name first in a ship name.”
She burst out laughing. “That’s
s-such a-a funny ship name. You suck at it,” She managed to say.
I smacked her shoulder. “Shut up, I’m not good at creating ship names. You don’t have to rub that in my face.”
“That’s obvious that you’re bad at it.”
I gave her a glare and that shut her up, “But you know, I really want you two to be together.”
“In your dreams.”
“I’m serious.”
“Don’t ship us, Brooke. That ship will never sail.”
I shrugged, “Poor Jake. But no harm in hoping, right? Right? Right.”
***
“Why in the heck are we all gathered here?” I asked Sam as I stared at each and every one of my friends, my gaze lingering on Brian for a second too long. He stared back at me until I took my eyes off of him. “Hmm?”
“I guess I wanted to have a party with all of my friends.”
“Party? With only nine of us?” Yes. Jake faked being sick to skip this so called ‘party’. So only nine of us were remaining- Claire, the fuckboy who went by the name Jesse, Sam, Josh, Tyler, Darren, Gemma, Brian and I.
“Whatever you wanna call it, Parker. I just wanted to have a fun day with my friends, but no, I can’t even have that,” he said and pouted adorably.
I snickered, “Yeah okay, drama queen. Don’t need to get all emotional.”
“Shut up.” He said and a few chuckles escaped my lips.
“Um… but what exactly are we going to do?”
Sam scratched the back of his head. “I didn’t quite think about it when I called y’all. Uh… we could watch movies?”
I scoffed. “You called us all here to watch a darned movie?”
“We could watch Deadpool, or xXx: Return of Xander Cage or Fast and Furious…”
I gave him a blank stare. No way did I come all the way here to watch stupid action movies.
“Sam, we didn’t come here to watch that. We’re not going to watch that.” Claire said, voicing my thoughts.
Sam got up from the loveseat he was sitting on, with Josh and made his way towards the big flat screen in the room. He rummaged through a DVD box for the movie, ignoring Claire.
Moments later he came up with one but when he was about to put the movie on, fate thought it was the perfect time to plunge us into darkness. The lights went out. Everyone groaned. Great.
I glared at Sam but I was pretty sure it was useless because I could hardly make out anybody in the blinding darkness.
A few seconds later, my eyes adjusted to the darkness and I could at least make out silhouettes of the eight people in the room.
“I’ll be back in a sec, I have to go to the bathroom,” I said and got up.
I stumbled my way to the bathroom, tripping on something every ten seconds. I finally made it to the bathroom. I did my business and washed my hands. I opened the tap water and cupped the water in my hands before splashing it on my face. I was feeling a bit sleepy.
The water trickled down my face and I grabbed a towel to wipe my face dry. Then I went to the kitchen where I filled a glass with the water from the fridge. I drank the cold water, feeling good as the liquid slid down my dry throat.
I felt a sudden warmth at my side, the smell of cologne filled my nostrils and I turned around hastily, and my arm bumped into a warm, hard chest, effectively splashing my drink all over me. Could this day get any more worse?
“Jeez, You jerk. Where-” I looked up at the jerk with narrowed eyes and I was surprised to see it was Brian. My words seemed stuck in my throat.
He let out a low chuckle at this and I winced as I felt the cold water glide down my chest. I shivered lightly and glared at Brian.
“Jerk.”
“Sorry,” He said as another chuckle left his lips.
I ignored him and began fanning my shirt in a lame attempt to dry it off.
Brian leaned against the wall next me. I could feel his stare burning holes in me.
“You might want to take off your shirt,” he said and I looked up at him.
“What? Why?” I probably sounded stupid right now.
“You’ll get cold and I don’t want that.”
“Asshole.”
He didn’t reply but his lips twitched up in a smirk.
A moment of silence passed between us. Too soon, he decided to break it.
“So… how’s your boyfriend being to you? Is he all lovey dovey like you want?”
“Yes. He’s very sweet and a perfect boyfriend,” I said overly sweetly.
“I greatly doubt that.”
“Oh please, you don’t even know. He really is. And may I ask you how your girlfriend is?” I asked, putting special emphasis on the word ‘girlfriend’.
“She’s good.”
“Sure. Why won’t she be? She got what she wanted. I’m giving you a heads up… She’s just after the title of ‘Brian Smith’s girlfriend’. I hate to break it to you but she doesn’t love you,” I told him truthfully.
“I know.”
“You do?”
He nodded.
“Then why are you with her?” I asked, feeling angry. Was he using her? For what?
He shrugged. “You jealous, or what?”
“Hell no, are you using her or something? For sex or something like that?”
His eyes widened. “Brooke, I would never do such a thing.”
“Then why are you with her?”
“I could ask you the same thing. Why are you with him?” His voice rose.
“B-because I l-like him,” I stuttered and mentally face palmed myself for doing that.
“Oh come on, Brooke. We both know that you’re with Darren only because of that stupid bet.”
“No I’m not, I like Darren,” It pained me when I realised that the words escaping my tongue were sounding so fake. “I like Darren so much!” I said with much more feeling but still it sounded like a lie to me. “You don’t have the right to say anything about my life. Don’t you ever talk to me again.”
With that I slammed the glass on the table, which I realised I was still holding and without a word or a glance at him, I turned back to join the others.
Suddenly, I felt a warm hand wrap around my wrist. He yanked at it to make me face him. Brian’s both hands wrapped around my wrists which he placed behind my back, drawing me closer.
I could feel his abs pressing against me through the thin material of his
V-neck shirt and his minty breath fanned over my cheeks.
He had his eyes closed and his forehead was pressed against mine. I found it hard to breathe due to the intimacy. He took a few deep breaths as if he was trying to calm himself down.
It took forever to break the silence. He finally decided to speak up.
“Why can’t it be me, Brooke?” He whispered.
“What?”
“Why can’t it be me? Why Darren?”
I swallowed, my throat suddenly going dry again. “Because you have Gemma.”
He sighed. “I don’t like her and I know you don’t like Darren either.”
“What do you mean?”
We were again enveloped in silence.
“I-I like you,” He said after a moment, releasing a breath he had been holding. “I really, really like you.”
WAIT, WHAT?
DID BRIAN SERIOUSLY JUST SAID THAT HE LIKED ME?
THIS CANT BE REAL.
I’M DREAMING, RIGHT?
WHAT. THE. HELL.
“W-What?!” I stuttered.
“I do. I do like you, Brooke. A lot.”
I LIKE YOU TOO, BRIAN! HECK, I THINK I LO-
OH MY GOD, WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?! HOW CAN I DO THIS TO DARREN?
I SHOULD BE GIVEN A MEDAL FOR BEING THE STUPIDEST PERSON ALIVE TO SAY YES TO DARREN. WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?
AND LIKE I SAID, I WAS THE STUPIDEST PERSON, I PROVED IT AGAIN.
I took a long time to reply to him. And Brian took it the wrong way. He loosened his grip on me and I instantly cursed himself.?
“Guess I’m not liked back,” He said, disappointment clear in his voice.
“N-no Brian. It’s not-”
“It’s okay. I’m stupid,” He said, waving me off.
“Brian, you’ve got the wrong-”
“Yeah, okay. I understand that you really like Darren. I shouldn’t have said what I said. Just forget what I had said and everything will be fine. Well, for you at least. I’m sorry that I-”
“I like you too,” I cut him off from his rant.
His eyes widened. “Y-You do?”
I nodded. Shit, what about Darren?! And then I shook my head.
“What?”
I stared at his blue eyes and decided to go with the truth. “Brian, I like you but I’m not sure if I like you in that way. And now I’m Darren’s girlfriend and you are Gemma’s boyfriend so we can’t do this.”
I released a breath.
“I don’t see how that is a problem.”
“Well, I don’t want to break Darren’s heart. I’m not a heartbreaker. And Gemma will be mad at you. I don’t want those complications.”
“But-”
Before he could say anything else, I silenced him by putting a finger on his soft lips. I wonder how they’ll feel on mine. Are they as soft as- STOP.
Oh my gosh, I’ll go crazy like this. Well, crazy for Brian, I thought I should really get out of here.
“We can’t be together. I’m sorry. But I really like you, Brian,” I said as I backed away.
“Um… bye,” I said but before I could go, Brian called my name.
“What?” I turned back to him.
“Don’t forget. I won’t give up on you. I’ll always keep trying.”
A blush crept up my cheeks and so, with a smile I left.