My Best Friend's Brother

Malcolm's Girlfriend

Aria sat with Stevie and Malcolm working on homework, it was clear that Malcolm wasn’t paying his friends much attention.

“So, the universe can be finite. . . and unmounted. . . but if –” Stevie paused when he noticed Malcolm wasn’t paying attention, “Are you listening?”

“Oh, my God! Sara Coleman is so beautiful!” Malcolm gushed, “The way she runs her hand through her hair. And that smile. You look at her and you can’t even see anyone else.”

Aria and Stevie shared a look, Malcolm’s newest crush was a pretty blonde girl that he was too nervous to talk to. Aria had a few classes with Sara and she seemed really nice, but she didn’t know if Sara liked Malcolm. Aria thought that the way Malcolm talked about Sara was sweet, it was rare to call him or his brothers that, she kinda hoped for someone to talk about her like that.

“Everyday you do this. . . ask her out.” Stevie told him.

“Yeah, you've been staring at her for two days.” Aria added.

“Come on, guys! Sara would never go out with me! She’s smart, cool, good-looking.” Malcolm listed, “If we went out it would make me happy. It won’t happen. I am destined to be the most miserable person on Earth.”

“Boo. . .hoo.”

“Shut up! Look, it’s complicated, okay? You don’t just walk to a girl and say, ‘hey, I like you!’ You’d look like an idiot.” 

“Sara wants to know if you like her.” One of Sara’s friends questioned as she stood behind Malcolm.

“What?” Malcolm asked, stunned.

“He likes her!” Stevie and Aria exclaimed.

“She likes him, too.”

Malcolm and Sara started dating quickly and Malcolm had begun spending almost every waking moment with Sara. Malcolm was supposed to walk home with Aria but he opted for walking with Sara instead so Aria began walking by herself.

A couple of boys in front of her were pushing each other and messing around when one of them accidentally knocked into her. He quickly caught himself and apologized, the two locked eyes and smiled.

“It’s fine.” Aria waved off his apologies.

“I’m really sorry. My friends are idiots.” The two looked back to where his friends were and saw that they were now 20 feet ahead. “They’ve also ditched me apparently.”

“My friends ditched me too.” Aria chuckled.

The two walked together and flirted with each. She learned that his name was Sam and they actually had a few classes together, they got along pretty well. He walked her home and Aria had to admit that it was a little weird to be walking home with a boy that wasn’t Reese. 

Sam and Aria began to hang out more as Malcolm ditched her and she introduced him to the rest of her friends. Sam thought it was cool that she was in a band but didn’t show too much interest in her music, which was fine it wasn’t a requirement. 

The two become increasingly more flirty and Aria was not very surprised when he asked her out, she said yes.

“How are you and Sam?” Emma asked Aria.

“We’re doing okay.” Aria took a sip from her water bottle. “He’s really cool and hanging out with him is fun.”

“But you like him?” Tess leaned on the table.

“Yeah, of course I like him.” Aria’s expression confusion.

“We just ask because as long as we’ve known you, you haven’t shown much interest in dating.” Jane explained.