Oh Brother - S01 E23

2 years ago

Oh Brother - S01 E23

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 23

I glanced at Nate who was driving and frowned.

Bringing my eyes away from him, I internally sighed as I realized he wasn’t happy with the situation we were in. Lucky for him, I wasn’t either.

Christian had gotten ready quickly in a blue shirt and black pants. I was caught off guard when I saw him because I rarely ever saw him dressed up, and because he never wore anything that wasn’t black. Instead of commenting on those things though, I just ignored him and left to wait for Nate.

Nate soon came. Like a gentleman, he got out of his car and rang the doorbell. Since I had been waiting for him while Dee and Christian talked, I opened it quickly and commented on how great he looked. He did the same, saying that I looked hot.

At that moment Christian stepped forward and asked him to refrain from using that word on his ‘sister’. I rolled my eyes at that, and Nate’s eyes widened as he realized Christian was coming with us. Being the bigger person, he then chose to ignore Christian – just like me. We all then went to Nate’s car.

So there we were, on our way to the dance held at a hall. Nate and I hadn’t said a word the entire time, but from where I sat in the passenger seat I could hear Christian and Dee talking. As I glanced up at the rearview mirror, I saw that Dee was doing most of the talking. She looked animated doing so, and Christian was listening attentively. After watching her for a bit, I noticed with a heavy heart that she looked really happy.

We soon reached the hall and the four of us got out of the car. Nate quickly came to my side and I smiled at him. I hoped we would be able to talk inside, away from the two people I couldn’t help but slightly resent after the events of today.

Suddenly leaning close to my ear, Nate whispered, “Your stepbrother isn’t going to watch your every move today, is he?”

“He better not,” I muttered, glancing at Christian who still seemed to be listening to Dee attentively. “I’m so sick of his overprotectiveness.”

“Me too,” he muttered.

With that response, I knew Nate was getting tired. I didn’t blame him at all because I was also tired. If Christian did anything to ruin my seemingly last chance with Nate, I knew I would never forgive him.

“Shall we go?” Nate asked louder this time, moving away from me.

I nodded.

To my delight, Nate then grabbed my hand. He smiled at me as I blushed lightly, and then lead me inside. Dee and Christian became a background noise at that.

*****

Our hands were still holding each other’s, but I now had to urge to let go of his sweaty hand. Not even because of its stickiness, but because I wanted to get away from Nate. Away from how awkward I felt. This date was not what I expected.

What I had expected was for us to talk. To laugh and get to know each other. And while doing that, we’d be dancing until our ankles snapped. But instead of all that, we were standing off in a corner, holding hands without saying a word. That was the exact opposite of what I had wanted.

I glanced at Nate, wondering how he wasn’t dying of boredom. When I saw his face, I noticed he looked intrigued. Almost fascinated as he stared at the dance floor covered with sweaty teenagers. The very teenagers I wanted to join, but couldn’t.

Seeing him so fascinated, I decided to look at the dance floor as well. I just needed something to get rid of my boredom. Something that wouldn’t make me regret going on this date. Honestly, a part of me felt pretty shitty that I had gone through so much trouble for him. It wasn’t worth it at this point.

As my eyes flew to the dancefloor, I saw what I expected. Teenagers dancing their hearts out, laughing, and some public displays of affection that I quickly looked away from. I wasn’t entertained yet, but seeing them have fun lightened my heart up a bit. Also made feel a bit jealous too, I had to admit.

My eyes wandered around the dance floor for a bit more. Nothing caught my attention for a while, but soon my eyes widened as I saw a pair dancing their hearts out. Standing incredibly close to each other, they were laughing as they looked like they didn’t have a care in the world. They were the replicas of what Nate and I were supposed to be today.

As the girl threw her head back, I realized in shock that the girl was Dee. At that very moment, my eyes widened and my heart sunk. Without giving Dee a second glance, my eyes flew to the boy that happened to be Christian.

With my eyes still wide, I stared at Christian. I watched him laugh with his eyes as bright as ever. Right now, he looked incredibly happy. Happier than I’d ever seen him. And for some reason, I felt like I got punched in the stomach from that.

Forcing my eyes to move away from him, I began to look at the ground. My heart felt heavy and I knew exactly how I felt towards them. Envious. For some crazy, stupid reason I wanted to leave. I didn’t want to be here anymore. Nate and I had no chemistry it seemed, so there was no point of being here anyways.

Suddenly, I felt my hand being tugged. I looked up at Nate who was smiling at me. Somehow, he still looked happy.

“Hey, let’s dance,” he said.

My eyes widened as he finally asked the question I’d been waiting for. My heart lightened up and listened for the song, wondering what I would be jamming out to. To my slight disappointment, the song was a slow one. I realized that was why he even asked me to dance.

“Sure,” I replied, forcing a smile.

He took me to the dance floor where everyone else was slow dancing. Putting his arms around my waist, he then pulled me closer. If this had been yesterday, I would have been gushing at our close proximity. But now, I had the slight urge to pull away from him. Ignoring that urge, I wrapped my arms around his neck.

We began swaying side-to-side at that, and his eyes were on me. Instead of staring back at him, I decided to look at the other couples. Actually, I was looking for one specific couple who I couldn’t help but be curious about.

To my surprise, I spotted them quickly. Dee and Christian were in the same position as we were; standing close to each other and swaying side-to-side. The only difference was that they looked happy doing so. With smiles on their faces, they seemed happy to be slow dancing unlike me. And for some reason, I felt sick. I didn’t know why the sight of them was making me feel that way.

“Okay!” The DJ suddenly shouted, bringing my attention to him. “We’re going to switch things up!”

All of us froze at those words, wondering what he meant by that. I frowned as I moved away from Nate, listening closely to what the DJ would say.

“So I know everyone has a date or whatnot on the floor,” the DJ said, grinning. “But just for the hell of it, all of you need to find a new partner to dance with. Anyone.”

My frown grew at those words, wondering if the DJ was insane. Most of these pairs were actual couples, so dancing with another person would be somewhat wrong. I shook my head at the thought, knowing I wouldn’t go along with it.

Glancing at where Nate was, my eyes then widened. A gorgeous girl was talking to him, and before I knew it they were walking off hand-in-hand. My jaw dropped and I thanked myself for not falling for him. It seemed that I saved myself a whole lot of trouble. I rolled my eyes at the truth.

Moving my eyes away from the pair who was now slow dancing, I sighed as I realized I didn’t know what to do. Literally everyone was on the dance floor, and even then I barely knew any of these people. It seemed like I was a loser. A loner even. My pride took a hit at that, so I hung my head in slight shame.

But suddenly, I felt a hand grab my upper arm gently. I froze at the warm, gentle touch that I knew belonged to a guy. Looking up slowly, my eyes soon met blue eyes. Blue eyes, that I could draw just from the image I had permanently stuck to my mind.

“Hey,” Christian said.

“Hey,” I replied, feeling a variety of feelings. From shocked to warmth, I didn’t know how to describe what I was feeling – or thinking.

“Would you dance with me?” he asked, smiling his childlike smile.

For some insane reason, my heart fluttered at that. A response didn’t come to me for a second as I just stared at him, completely caught off guard. I didn’t understand.

“Me?” I couldn’t help but ask. “If you feel sorry for me and that’s why you’re asking, then the answer as no.”

I was slightly shocked from how defensive I sounded. But at the same time, it made sense to me. Christian had always saw me as this delicate little thing, so I knew he was asking me to dance because he felt sorry. I just knew, and there was no way I’d agree to that.

Christian shook his head. “That’s not why I’m asking.”

“Then why?” I prodded as my heart did summersaults.

I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I was both touched and angry at him, and for both I didn’t know why. By now I realized I was a psychopath.

“What’s with all these questions?” he asked, smiling as he suddenly pulled me closer to him.

As we were only a few inches apart, I felt my cheeks heat up. I gulped as I stared at his eyes to see if he was hiding something. But all I could see what affection.

“Answer that one,” I suddenly said quietly – almost pleadingly. “Please.”

“Because I want to.”

His reply came out quickly, casually yet sincere. I stared at his eyes for a bit more, and they looked dead serious as well. All of my defensiveness vanished at that.

Before I knew it his arms wrapped around my waist, bringing me even closer to him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and a smile quickly flew to my lips. He smiled back as we began swaying in sync.

It didn’t occur to me that I was slow dancing with my stepbrother. I was too focused on his eyes that were staring at mine. The blue of his shirt made them bluer, and I had to admit his eyes were gorgeous. I always thought that, but today I could admit it. Probably because all of the butterflies I felt made it hard to think straight. To even be the b---h I was around him. It was different, but from my light heart I knew a good different.

We didn’t say a word as we danced. Not even a sound. We just stared at each other with smiles spread across our faces. I still didn’t know why he asked me, why all of the sudden, but I didn’t care at this point for a couple of reasons. One of them being that this had been the best part of today. After Nate, I was glad something good was happening.

Suddenly feeling tired, I sighed and his smile dropped. He suddenly looked concern.

“You okay?” he asked. “Should we stop?”

“No,” I blurted out, causing me to blush. “I mean, I’m okay. I…”

“Today was not what you expected, right?” His eyes softened. “I’m sorry.”

My eyes widened. “How do you know?”

“I’m always watching you.” He shrugged. “I could tell.”

My heart skipped a beat and my blush grew. Deep inside I felt disgusted with myself, but my butterflies made that feeling small. So instead of running away from him, I actually moved closer.

“Let’s not talk about this,” I said, closing off the space between us. “I’m tired.”

Without another word, I then laid my head on his chest. His arms tightened around me at that, and I smiled. I just smiled as I listened to his rapid heartbeat. To my absolute delight, it seemed like I wasn’t the only one feeling this way from a simple dance. The thought reassured me, so I just stayed where I was.

After a minute, he said quietly, “I’m sorry for earlier.”

“Stop apologizing,” I muttered, feeling too calm to bring up the memories of the unpleasant afternoon. “It’s my fault.”

“Autumn, I just forget that you can take care of yourself. That you’re strong. I’m apologizing for every time I forget that,” he said, sounding as sincere as ever.

Once again, my heart fluttered. I didn’t know what was wrong with me, but every touch, every word of his made me feel warm. Calm in a strange way I hadn’t felt in a while. I didn’t understand, so I decided to go back to our calm dancing.

“You’re forgiven,” I said with finality, but a smile flew to my lips as I snuggled into him. “Because of this dance.”

Even though I couldn’t see him, I knew he was smiling. The thought made me satisfied, so I just stayed where I was for the rest of the slow dances. Even when we were supposed to switch back to our original partners, I didn’t. I stayed where I was and didn’t care about who I angered. The feeling of being with him like this was too relaxing.