XPLR With Me • My Brother's Best Friend {Sam&Colby}

E L E V E N

Two months in and I'm doing good. I've avoided him at all costs and my life is back to normal. Somehow Sam hasn't noticed the distance I keep between them when he's at the house. Luckily, he doesn't seem to mind. I'm sure he figured out that I wanted him to stay away. I'm not angry at him, if anything, I admire him more knowing he's respectful. Not admiring him with romantic feelings, but as a person.

"Spring break is just around the corner, what are we doing?" Mia chimes into Evie and I's conversation. We both laugh, "Nothing at the moment. There's not much we can do." I tell her.

"Take that back, little sis, because we have plans." Sam sits at our lunch table and takes one of my fries. I gasp and slap his hand, "How dare you!"

"Wait, what's the plans?" Evie asks excitedly. Sam smiles and puts half of the fry down, "Well, we found a vacation house for our senior trip, but we need more people to fill it up. If you guys are up to it, you can join."

"Who is 'we'?" I ask surprised, "and I don't think mom and dad would let your 16 year old sister to go with you." I laugh at him.

"They already told me you can. They actually said it's the only way they'll let me go," he sighs, "But it's just me and Colby. We have two more rooms, are you up for it or not?"

I look away when he mentions Colby. I'm not going on a week long trip with him. I can't. "I don't know," I sigh. What if I brought Alex? I would feel way more comfortable with that. "On one condition," I bite my lip, his eyebrows raise, "I bring Alex." I smile.

He laughs and shakes his head, I stay completely silent. "Oh- you're serious? Now that will never happen. Mom and dad would kill you."

"Then I'm not going." I cross my arms. He rolls his eyes, "Fine. But they don't know." He tells me. He takes one of my nuggets, I groan in response. He taps the table and smiles, messing with my hair. "It's a plan. Make sure you got everything packed up by Sunday." He looks up, I follow his gaze and see Colby walking towards us. I slouch in my seat and look back to my plate. "See you later, love you." He tells me before getting up and following Colby.

"That was weird." Evie mentions. "Yeah, what was that about?" Mia asks.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I look between the both of them nervously.

"You just shrunk down completely. What happened?" Mia asks me.

I sigh, "Please don't tell anybody," I whine. They both agree not to. "Colby and I kissed." I tell them. I press my lips together as they both gasp.

"What? When? Where?" Lizzie asks with a smile. "It's not funny, Evie," Mia whispers.

"Penny, why? Did you tell Alex?" She asks. "No, I can't. I don't know what to do, though. One minute I think that I can ignore my head. Alex and I, we're good together. He treats me so good and he's so amazing. I fucked up. Every time I see him, every time I'm around him, it's like Alex doesn't even exist. I feel horrible about it. And now that Alex and I have, you know, I feel even worse. He told me he wanted me to stay away from Colby because he doesn't trust him."

"And you just agreed to go on vacation with both of them? Are you crazy?" Evie exclaims

I bang my head on the table and groan. "I don't know what to do." I lift my head up and look at them.

"You need to do what you think is right. And I have a feeling that what you think is right, isn't what you want to do." Mia tells me.

I know exactly what I want but what do I need? "Maybe just see how it goes next week. If you aren't feeling Alex anymore, just tell him that you want to be friends. Then you can focus on what to do about Colby." Mia takes my hand and smiles, "and whatever you choose, we'll support you."

"Well, that's the thing. I do like Alex, a lot, especially after a couple weeks ago. He's amazing and so sweet. Colby and I agreed that it was a mistake. That's all it was."

"So you talked about it?" Evie asks.

"Yeah, briefly. The night of the party. And that was it, we haven't really spoken since then." I explain.

"Good, just keep it that way." She laughs.

"What she means to say," Mia starts with an annoyed accent, "Do what you think is right."