Oh Brother - S01 E28

Story 2 years ago

Oh Brother - S01 E28

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 28

It was hard to be in the same room as him. My eyes were focused on my breakfast, but I couldn’t help but be completely aware of his presence. By now I only felt anger at what he had done yesterday. Only because I had a bad feeling that his actions were a way to somehow punish me for how I’d treated him in the past. Kind of fair, but even then, I hoped it wasn’t true. If it were, I knew I would be crushed.

Sighing, I dug into my French toast. For some insane reason, my mom wanted the four of us in the same room eating. It had been a long time since this occurred, and with everything that had happened since the last time this seemed to be really awkward.

After a few minutes of eating in silence, my mom spoke, “Okay, our cousins are visiting from France. They’re currently living with my sister and today they’re holding a party. We’re invited.”

My interest sparked at those words. It had been a while since I had seen any of my cousins, so this event was something I actually wanted to attend. Especially with all of the awkward tension at home, this almost seemed like a blessing.

“How come you didn’t tell me about this?” Stephen asked, frowning.

“Because I need to tell all of you this, together,” my mom replied, sounding tired. “Everyone needs to behave. I want us to look like a happy, united family. Got that?”

I rolled my eyes. It was funny how she wanted us to look like that, when she was the one who made us the exact opposite of that.

“Autumn,” my mom snapped, seeming to notice I rolled my eyes. “You especially need to control yourself. Got that?”

Despite my annoyance, I agreed, “Yeah, I got that.”

As long as I didn’t have to be around my family at the party, I was fine with agreeing to anything. Knowing Christian’s eyes had been on me this entire time, I knew I couldn’t stay here any longer. I needed some sort of distraction, and the party was that.

*****

I sat on a couch, waiting for the rest of my family. Somehow, I had gotten ready the quickest. In a strapless white, laced dress, I had just left my natural waves out. It wasn’t like there was anyone to impress, so I didn’t spend too much time on my appearance.

Too busy staring at my petite feet, I didn’t notice that someone had entered the living room. I didn’t even notice that someone was standing in front of me, staring down at me. That was why I jumped when the person said my name.

Looking up, I saw that it was Christian who was dressed in a black button shirt and jeans. He was staring down at me with those gentle eyes of his, and I quickly rose. I didn’t know what overcame me, but I suddenly felt insecure as I stared back at him. My heart skipped a beat as I hugged myself, remembering the events of a few days ago.

“Hey,” Christian said, sounding surprisingly breathless.

Only then did I realized his eyes were on my shoulders, moving to where my collarbones were. His eyes then followed along the bones, and I remembered the feeling of his lips as I watched his eyes travel. To my absolute surprise, I suddenly wanted his lips to be placed where he was looking. My face heated up at my disgusting thoughts, but for some reason I shivered. And at that moment, I remembered what Cheryl said. She said that I liked Christian. It was impossible, I had to remind myself at that moment.

“Hey,” I replied suddenly, trying to ruin the moment as I moved away from him. “What do you want?”

He snapped out of his own trance, bringing his eyes back to mine. To my surprise, his face reddened as he brought his eyes away from me. I was glad to see that I wasn’t the only one feeling embarrassed.

“I’m sorry,” he suddenly said, not bothering to look back at me. “About what I did. I can’t give you a reason, I can’t pretend it didn’t happen, but I don’t want it to affect the way we are. Like I said, I like being around you. I don’t want to lose that because of something as stupid as what I did.”

A part of me was glad to hear his apology. All I wanted was to put this behind us, but a part of me was slightly offended. He said what he did was stupid, but it had left me with a pounding heart and butterflies. It made me wonder if I was the stupid one here.

Despite that, I said, “Yeah, it’s okay. Let’s not ruin what we have.”

Christian smiled at that, but it looked forced as the smile didn’t look like his usual childlike one. “Okay, good. Let’s have fun today.”

I forced a smiled as well, still unsure of how to feel. “Yeah.”

*****

I was sitting off to the side, feeling disappointed. There was no one at the party that I was close too. No one I really knew in fact. Years of avoiding contact with cousins showed me that you really do become an outcast once reunited with everyone.

Sighing, I rested my head on my fist that was propped up on one of the arms of the couch. I was incredibly bored, but I didn’t know what to do. I was never a social butterfly, so making friends was out of the question. Going home was out of it too, because I knew my mom would murder me. To seem like a united family, we all had to be here. I knew that much.

Frowning, I realized I did have a single option of who to hang out with. Someone I did need to hang out with, so everything could go back to normal completely. Even though I did need space from this person, I also knew that I wanted this person to remain in my life. I wasn’t about to lose Christian because of how uneasy his lips made me feel. He was right, that was stupid.

Getting up, I fixed my dresses position and left the room I sat alone in. With a destination of finding Christian, I made my way through the hallway of many rooms. Most of the adults were in the living room, but none of the kids were. They were either in these rooms or outside. Knowing Christian, I wondered which room he would be in.

Most of the rooms I passed were empty. A few of them had my cousins who I said hi to, but otherwise the hallways were empty. Quiet too. Frowning, I wondered if Christian was lame enough to stay with the adults.

But then, I heard giggling in a room nearby. Curious, I walked up the the room and popped my head inside. Once I did that, I wished I didn’t as I found my heart freezing painfully at what I saw.

Christian was there. He was sitting on a couch, but not alone. In his lap was a blonde girl who I recognized from school – the girl who had asked me who I was with eyes that told me she thought she was better than me. That girl was laughing as she kept a hand on Christian’s chest, looking like she wanted to make out with him as she kept her face near his. To my disappointment, Christian was smiling his real smile back at her.

Christian seemed to notice I was standing at the doorway because his eyes flew to where I stood frozen. He looked surprised and the girl’s eyes also flew to the door. She looked annoyed by the sight of me, but somehow pleased with the situation. At that, I felt angry.

“You again,” the girl said, not bothering to hide her annoyance. “Can’t you live without your stepbrother?”

“I can,” I replied, sounding equally annoyed. “But I can sense when he’s around s--t. I need to protect him, you know.”

I glanced at the girl’s dress that barely reached passed her butt. She gasped at that, her eyes narrowing at me as my own eyes hardened. I suddenly had the urge to rip her away from Christian, so I clenched my hands into fists to refrain from doing anything I would regret.

“Excuse me?” she snapped. “At least guys want me. You’re going to die alone if you haven’t noticed with that face and attitude.”

I rolled my eyes, not really caring about what she said. Sadly for her, she didn’t hit a sore spot.

I smiled sweetly. “Sweetheart, guys want you temporarily. No one wants to wife you.”

Her jaw dropped at that. She quickly stood up, rage filling her eyes. I smirked as I felt adrenaline pumping through me. If a fight was about to go down, I was ready.

But to my disappointment, Christian intervened. He got up and grabbed the girl’s hand, pulling her back. I pretended not to care as he held onto her hand.

“Liz, relax,” Christian said. “Ignore her. Actually, I’m going to talk to Autumn.”

He looked at me, but there was no anger in his eyes. Christian never got angry at me, but I wished he did. I was about to go off on him, and it would be nice if he’d respond in some sort of way that could fuel my anger.

I stepped out into the hall as Christian marched towards me. Facing him, I was surprised to see that he was still walking towards me, nearing me when we already had a close enough distance. My back hit the wall as I backed away, and my heart fluttered at the thought of being pinned against the wall by him again. Forcing those thoughts away, I glared at him as he stood a foot away.

“What was that about?” he asked, a fire entering his eyes.

I was glad to see that fire because they meant I could explode. With him also fired up, I could let out everything I’d been feeling at the sight of him with that girl. Liz . The name gave me an unpleasant feeling in my stomach.

“What was that about?” I asked back, narrowing my eyes at him. “What were you doing?”

He raised his eyebrows. “Spending time with my friend. Well, until you rudely interrupted.”

I scoffed. “Really? A friend? What type of friend sits on your lap!”

“Autumn, this is none of your business.”

“Yes it is!” I exclaimed, feeling frustrated. “Just like how Nate was your business, this is my business. How dare you judge me when you were ready to make out with that girl.”

“I’m eighteen. I’m a man.” He sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

“A man with bad taste,” I shot back, feeling rage at the depths of my heart. “What are you even doing with a girl like her?”

At that, Christian’s eyes lost their anger. He looked almost caught off guard as he stared at me, seeming to wonder something. With this pause, I realized my heart was pounding.

Eventually, Christian asked gently, “Why are you even mad?”

At that, I froze. Because at that moment, he saw past my angry exterior that was telling him I was mad because he was with a girl when I couldn’t be with a guy. He was right for thinking I wasn’t mad because of that. I wasn’t even mad because of who the girl he was with. The truth was, I was hurt. Actually, my rage came from the jealousy I felt at seeing him with another girl.

I didn’t know why I felt this way. It shouldn’t hurt to see him with another girl. It shouldn’t make me feel like pushing the girl away from him, so far that they could never make contact again. But it did. And with those feelings, what Cheryl said hit me hard. I liked Christian. The most reasonable reason of why I felt like this was that. But even knowing that it made perfect sense, I had the urge to throw up as I denied it. There was just no way that this could be true.

“Autumn,” Christian said gently, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Are you okay?”

I wasn’t. I really wasn’t, but there was no way I’d admit that to him. It was hard enough to admit to myself. So without another word, I ran off.