~*~ Chapter 8: The Siblings' talk ~*~
“Seth, you just gotta ask yourself: do you really, truly want to be just friends with Brandi? Because if that’s what you really want, then all this time we spent here talking about it was in vain.”
“I really, truly, just wanna be friends with her. Well, I really want her as my friend. I want us to be friends. For now, anyways. I think.”
“Seth!” Ryan had his disapproval look on his face.
“You’re right. I love Summer, and she’s the one I wanna be with. Brandi is just… a friend. I want her as my friend.”
“Good. Then problem solved.” Ryan got up and headed for the bathroom.
“Wait, wait, wait. What’s solved? I don’t see anything solved here, Ryan. My head is still spinning, and I still don’t know what to do and you are just talking, you aren’t really telling me what to do and… and that’s you’re job, my man. Telling me what to do and…” Seth started to babble.
“Seth, shut up and sit down.” Ryan ordered and Seth just obeyed, with a confused look on his face “Everything will be as you’re saying you want it to be. You’ll go try to win Summer back and you’ll go and be friends with Brandi. There’s not a problem in being with Summer and having a girl friend. You’ve been through that when you were with Summer and Anna still lived here.”
“Yeah…” Seth scratched his head “Guess you are right. I’ve been there!” Seth seemed more confident “I know how to act. No mystery here. Right? Tell me I’m right, Ryan.”
“You’re right, man.” Ryan nodded.
“Good. Good.” Seth stood up and paced around the pool house “Ok, so we figured out how this is gonna work out, now what do I do?”
“Seth!”
“Ok, fine. I’ll figure that much myself.”
“Good, now let me go take a shower and get back to my homework.”
“You’re too serious this year, Ryan. Studying all the time. Are you trying to steal my nerd position in this house?”
“Not even close. That position is all yours, you’ve earned it and I would never take it away from you, man, don’t worry.”
“Good. Ok. So I’m gonna go now.” Seth pointed to the door.
“Please, do.” Ryan half-smiled.
“Bye.” he said, got out of the room and closed the door behind him, going straight to his own room.
“So… how was USC?” Brandi asked her brother when he entered the kitchen. She was there, sitting on the kitchen counter, eating a sandwich.
“Long drive . But good. Good. What about Harbor High?”
“Same hell as ever.” she rolled her eyes.
“I see some sparkles in that eye rolling. Is this about that guy?”
“What? What are you talking about?” Brandi tried not to show it, but she was blushing.
“That guy you said that was different from the others. You never mentioned his name and…”
“Seth Cohen.”
“Oh, so it is about this guy, this Seth Cohen guy.”
“No!” Brandi lied “I just told you his name. I didn’t say anything about him.”
“Something happened today.”
“Nothing happened.” she stood up, took her plate from the counter and placed it in the sink.
“It did too. Just tell me!” his brother came behind her and poked her side.
“Stop it, Johnny.” her brother didn’t stop.
“I’ll only stop when you tell me what happened today.”
“Ok, ok.” her sister released from his pocking and stood in front of him “We had lunch today.”
“Just the two of you?”
“Yes, just the two of us.”
“And he asked you to?”
“Yes, he did.”
“And how was it?” John asked.
“It was fine.”
“Just fine? Wasn’t it awesome?” when he said the awesome word, he did some girly voice.
“You’re pathetic, you know that?” Brandi couldn’t hide her smile.
“Oh, it was awesome!”
“I didn’t say that!”
“But I could see it from your smile. It was awesome. It was more than awesome!”
“Ok, ok. It was awesome. But nothing major came out of it.”
“Nothing yet.”
“Oh, come on. We just talked.”
“Oh, yeah? What about?”
“Everything.” the smile returned to Brandi’s face, remembering their talk that afternoon.
“Oh, you’re so in love with this guy.”
“Am not. Johnny, don’t even joke about it. He kinda has a girlfriend.”
“What? What do you mean he kinda has a girlfriend. He either has one or does not.”
“He has an ex that he’s clearly still hung up on.”
“Oh, that’s bad.”
“I know!” Brandi exclaimed “I think that’s even worse than if he indeed had a girlfriend.”
“I guess I’ll have to agree with you on that one, little sis.”
“It sucks.” she collapsed onto the stool.
“I’m sorry.” her brother came closer to hug her.
“That’s fine. We could always be friends. I mean, he’s really cool. I think even you’re gonna like him.”
“What do you mean even me?”
“Well, you never like the boys I’m friends with.”
“Brandi, you had one guy friend. And he was screwing you.”
“Johnny!” Brandi hit him hard on the arm.
“Ouch! That hurt.” John scratched the hit arm.
“Good! That’s what I wanted.”
“But, seriously, I couldn’t be ok with a guy that was screwing you and didn’t wanna be serious with you. You are not a sex object.”
“Johnny, we’ve been through this before. I was the one that didn’t want anything to do with Colin.”
“Just sex?”
“Urgh…” Brandi didn’t like discussing this with her brother, but now she couldn’t just change the subject “Yes, just sex. Happy?”
“No! But at least you didn’t lie.”
“Ok. Now… am I free to go to my room?” she asked.
“Sure.” Brandi stood up and headed to her room “Oh, Brandi, just one more thing.”
“What?” she turned around to face him and rolled her eyes
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.” she smiled.
“And good luck with this Seth guy. Let me know how it goes and if he ever gives you any trouble…”
“I’ll come to you.” she nodded her head and smiled tenderly. Her brother was the best. She turned around again and carried on to her room.
* Thanx Hannah and Thea for reviewing and correcting the grammar errors *
~*~ Chapter 7 ~*~
~*~ Chapter 9 ~*~
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