YOU BELONG WITH ME // Jack Hughes

Prologue

MIA

I can vividly remember the day the brothers moved next door. I was eight and playing alone in the front yard while my dad watered the pink peonies my mom loved so much. You could hear the truck making a turn from a distance and it was following a van. Jack was the first to get out of the car and he was carrying a stick. Quinn and Luke followed him excitedly but more calmly. I stopped playing and was fully mesmerized by the vision of three kids moving. But I was shy. If it weren't for Quinn, I think the four of us would never have gotten as close as we got. When we were little, he was the one who led us. He always made sure I wouldn't feel excluded for being the only girl. I absolutely loved (still do) watching them playing hockey. For a person who's scared of ice skating, I became quite obsessed with ice hockey. All because of the brothers. But, as we grew older, we ended up parting a bit. Well, I did. Why? Because I had a huge crush on him. I was 12 and he was gentle and extremely polite. And, believe me, living with three boys, that was a big deal. I was pathetically in love with him. It was the perfect cliché. My best friend's older brother. The boy next door.

So, standing in the middle of this party while everyone is looking awkwardly at me, it's kind of the lowest point of my life (as for now, I dare say).

I'm with my arms crossed over my chest, an empty plastic cup hanging from my hands. I can feel the tears forming, hot and fast. Quinn looks at me as if I'm a puppy that has been kicked, which just adds more to the feeling of total humiliation. Oh, what happened?

Astrid, my not-so-anymore-best-friend. She just told everyone in the party I'm into Quinn. Guess it's my fault for trusting someone I've known for barely six months. I bite my cheek, holding the tears just a little longer, just enough to have the courage to get out of here. I'm ready to run when I feel a pair of arms around me. I don't need to look back to know who it is. I'm too familiar with the feeling of his arms and his cologne. For a fifteen year old boy, he uses quite an expensive one.

"Well, too bad for you, Astrid. Seems like you have some serious competition for my brother's attention" Jack sounds extremely entertained for my taste but I feel like he just took all of the weight out of my back. I heard some ouchs and some boos and people started talking loudly again. Quinn was still red as a pepper but he turned to another direction, seeming visibly lost, then started to walk away. Astrid was nowhere to be seen.

Jack's arms were still around me and I turned around, to face him and to hug him back. He was giggling.

"Don't laugh at my misery"

"I'm not laughing at you, I promise" he unlocked his arms, freeing me. "I'm laughing because you have such a shitty taste in men"

"Oh my God, I hate you" I cried but I couldn't hide my smile.

"Quinn? Seriously?" he teased me and I laughed.

This public humiliation I went through (people wouldn't forget about it for about two weeks) puts a lot of our friendship in perspective. Jack is always saving me from all kinds of situations. Even when I got my heart broken because Quinn was secretly dating a girl he met in college and went public with her after this incident at the party. Jack was the one who saw me cry for weeks and bought an obscene amount of my favorite chocolate bar out of desperation just for me to stop crying. He can't stand crying and, luckily, I'm a crybaby.

Eventually, I moved on from the older Hughes brother. Well, sort of. I did get over him... just to fall in love with Jack, my favorite person in the whole world. And, unfortunately, my best friend.