Oh Brother - S01 E24

Story 2 years ago

Oh Brother - S01 E24

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 24

I screamed into my pillow as blush rushed into my cheeks. Mortified was the perfect way to describe how I felt. To the point where I never wanted to leave my room again, I was mortified. All because of Christian. Stupid, stupid, Christian .

Rolling over so that I was now facing the ceiling, I sighed. Saying I was drunk would be the perfect way to explain why I danced with him like that. Why I felt all those disgusting butterflies. Why I even felt so comfortable with him. But, I knew I hadn’t consumed any alcohol. To my disappointment, I had been completely sober the entire dance.

I groaned, knowing that I had to blame Nate for all this. If he hadn’t given me the worst date of my life, I would never have danced with Christian. I would never have laid my head on his chest. My cheeks heated up at the memory and I face palmed myself. For my sake, I had to blame Nate for this.

Tiredly, I closed my eyes as I wanted to take a nap. But instead of having good dreams, my mind decided to bring up the memory of our dance. Of how close we were. Of how my stomach was filled with butterflies. Of how both our hearts were beating so quickly. I opened my eyes quickly, groaning as I sat up. I needed a distraction.

But then I remembered that Christian lived in my house. The perfect reminder of the events of yesterday was in his bedroom down the hall. With him around, I knew there was no way I could be distracted here.

That was when it hit me. Dee. I needed to talk to after yesterday. She was mad at me. I could definitely tell during the awkward, silent car ride home. She had every right to be though. I had stole her date from her.

Getting up, I decided the best thing to do was apologize to her. Then I would explain how horrified I felt about the whole thing, and maybe she could help me with that. My mortified feelings definitely couldn’t stay when they involved my stepbrother. After all the work it took for us to bond, I couldn’t just let it get destroyed by my stupid mistake of agreeing to dance with him.

*****

I was in Dee’s perfect, pink room. Sitting on her bed, I debated on how to apologize to her as she closed her rooms door. We hadn’t spoken a word yet, so I knew my apology had to be good.

As she came over and sat next to me, I suddenly felt nervous. Nervous at the thought of bringing up yesterday. Saying it out loud proved that it was true, and I wasn’t sure if I was ready for that.

As Dee looked at me with her curious hazel eyes, I blurted out, “Sorry.”

I mentally kicked myself at the terrible apology and groaned. Psychopath, that was what I was.

Dee tilted her head, looking as curious as ever. “For what?”

“You know,” I replied, feeling my cheeks heat up. “For yesterday.”

Dee stared at me for a second, seeming confused. As she did that, I tried to fight off my blush. I couldn’t allow the thought of Christian ruin my chance of forgiveness.

After a few seconds, Dee’s eyes widened as she said, “Oh. You don’t need to apologize. I’m not mad.”

“Really?” My eyes widened. “You’re not?”

She shook her head. “Nope. It’s not like I liked him.”

“But I thought you were on your way to that…”

She shrugged. “Maybe, but… I don’t know. I don’t think we’re meant to be anything other than friends. Like, he’s nice and hot and all, but I just don’t think it’ll work out between us.”

I frowned. Just yesterday Dee was ready to jump at him. Even if he was moving to Australia, I knew she’d move there too for him. Her response was shocking and kind of unbelievable because of that. But despite that, I chose to go with it. I had been obsessed with Nate for a few months, and that changed in a day as well.

I smiled at Dee. “Okay, as long as we’re good.”

“Yeah.” Dee suddenly smirked. “So, now. Tell me about the boy you used to despise. I think I saw you slow dancing with him.”

I groaned. “Dee, I hate myself. What was I thinking?”

Dee’s eyes widened at that. “You regret it?”

“Yeah. I’m so mortified!”

“Really? Didn’t seem like that yesterday.” She smirked.

I groaned again. “I was just upset about Nate. I wasn’t thinking straight. Now that it’s the next day, I want to bang my head against the wall until I forget about the yesterday.”

Dee frowned. “Wait, so now you feel like you didn’t enjoy dancing with Christian?”

I blushed at the question. I hadn’t really put much thought into it, but that was mainly because the answer was one that disgusted me. One, I couldn’t admit.

“That isn’t the issue,” I said, trying to sound stern. “I can’t believe I danced with my stepbrother. The one I used to hate.”

“You so did like dancing with him.” Dee broke out into a grin. “And like you said, you guys aren’t related by blood. There’s no incest here.”

“Dee!” I exclaimed. “Stop!”

“Why don’t you deny it when I say you liked dancing with him. Because it’s the truth, right?”

My cheeks heated up. I began to regret coming here. She was supposed to make me feel better, less mortified with myself. Instead she was making me feel more mortified.

“You won’t answer because it’s true,” Dee said, eyes softening. “It’s okay, Autumn. Why is slow dancing such a big deal anyways?”

“Because it was with Christian,” I blurted out. “It because I didn’t feel like myself. I felt…”

“Happy? Relaxed? Safe, even?”

By now I knew my face was as red as a tomato as I nodded. I hated myself for agreeing, but this was Dee I was talking to. If I was going to admit this to anyone, I would choose her in a heartbeat.

“It’s okay to feel that way,” Dee then said. “What makes you so… Worried?”

I sighed. “I don’t know. It’s weird, you know. I never felt like that so easily and the thought of Christian being the one to make me feel that way is strange. I hated him. I wanted him gone from my life. And now, he had been the only good thing in a bad day. It’s just so messed up.”

Dee’s eyes softened. “I know it’s strange. I know it’s hard to understand, but I guess you just have to accept what happened because you can’t change the past. I know you feel weirded out and embarrassed, but like you said it was a good thing. It is a good memory.”

“But how am I going to face him?” I asked, looking down as I decided to listen to Dee.

She was right. I had enjoyed our dance. As much as it made me feel embarrassed and strange, I had enjoyed it. There was nothing to do about it, but accept it. But now facing Christian was the issue.

“You can just go on with your normal lives,” she replied. “Don’t let a dance affect anything. And if anything, he was the one who asked you to dance. He should be the one mortified because he initiated the whole event.”

“That’s different,” I muttered. “He did it out of pity.”

“Really?”

I didn’t reply as I stared at my clasped hands. That seemed like the most logical reason to me. Even though he said he wanted to, I found that hard to believe. Christian choosing me to dance with was just so unbelievable for so many reasons, that I decided it was out of pity.

“Yeah,” I suddenly said, looking back up at her. “I’ll just forget it happened. I’ll put it behind me.”

She frowned. “Is that really what you want?”

I nodded, but for some reason I felt slightly sad. “Yeah.”

“Okay, Autumn. As long as it doesn’t bother you anymore.”

“It doesn’t,” I lied, closing my eyes briefly.