I Never Meant to Fall in Love

2.2

I met with Brooklyn after school, eager to get out of this place for a bit.

"Want to come to my place? We got to play with Harper," he smirked.
"I've got a game we can play," I matched his facial expression, "but I'm going to go home first, hate this uniform."
"Want me to come?"
"My grandma will drop me off."
"See you then," he smiled and left.

I walked home quickly, since I was excited to start the holidays with my best friend. As soon as I got home, I told my grandma that I would be going over to his house. She had expected that because she figured we'd be spending most days together. It was easy talking to her about him. She easily agreed to drop me off at their house.

Before leaving, I changed into a grey tank top and black skinny jeans. I also straightened my hair and packed a bag full of clothes because I figured he'd invite me to spend the night. I wore black boots and didn't forget my dark green jacket.

We drove over to his house and I pressed the little button beside the keypad. It buzzed and a voice came up on the speaker, asking for me to identify myself.

"Isabelle Rourke."

The gate opened and I walked up to the door, waving to my grandma before stepping inside and out of the cold.

"Come on, let's go!"

I pulled Brooklyn upstairs and called Harper. She ran behind us. I got into her room and pushed Brooklyn back onto her pink bed.

"Are you ready to dress your big brother up?"
"Yay!"
"What?!"

Brooklyn wanted a response from me, but I just grinned at him. I jumped onto the bed and went behind him. I wrapped my arms and legs around him to prevent him from going anywhere.

"Harper, quick! Get my makeup from my bag!"

She giggled and pulled out my red lipstick. Brooklyn squirmed and she crawled in front of him. Thankfully, he didn't actually try to escape and he was being a good big brother and playing with his little sister. She messily put lipstick all over his cheeks, lips, even forehead. I couldn't stop laughing.

"That's it!"

He surprisingly stood up with me still clinging to him. He chased Harper out of her room and she ran downstairs screaming. Brooklyn carried me into his own room and dropped me on his bed. I laughed at his appearance. I heard him in the bathroom trying to get the lipstick off his face.

"Why isn't it all coming off?!" He angrily yelled then started laughing.
"Come here!"

He walked out with red smudged all over his face. I patted a spot next to me on the bed. I grabbed a makeup remover wipe from my bag that sat on the ground. Gently, I wiped the lipstick off his face.

"Looks like you got into a bloody fight."
"Thanks."

I took my time, making sure all the makeup was gone off of his face.

"So was that your little game?"
"Mhm," I nodded my head.
"I'm so glad school is done with..." He relaxed on his bed. I laid down beside him.
"Same."
He rolled over on his side to face me, "I'm so excited to spend the holidays with you. Want to sleepover?"
I pointed to my bag, "One step ahead of you, Brook."
"So you can read my mind now?"
"Maybe!"

The rest of the day we did our usual: talk, challenge each other to FIFA, go through our phones, and have dinner.

"Hey, Izzy."

I turned when I heard my name and he snapped a picture of me on his phone. He took a glance at the screen and burst into a fit of laughter.

"Brooklyn!"

I ran up to him and wrestled for the phone. I saw the picture and I looked horrific, so that's why I wanted to get a hold of his phone and delete the image.

"Why do you want to delete it so bad?" He chuckled.
"I look like someone who's just been raised from the dead!"
"Well, I think you look beautiful."
I stared at him with no expression, "Huh."
"You are."
"Shut up, stop playing."
"Ok, look here."

He held up his phone and took a good picture of the both of us. It wasn't unexpected, so I had time to smile nicely and fix my hair.

That one picture lead to us taking a dozen more. They started out nice and normal, but soon progressed to funny faces. We stuck our tongues out, did signs with our hands, crossed our eyes, and made the scariest faces we could.

"Come on, let's take a mirror selfie."

He dragged me into the bathroom and handed me his phone. First, I had to get payback.

"Ready?"
"Hold on."
"Too late!"

I zoomed in on his face and took the picture. He just rolled his eyes.

I took a few more with us smiling, laughing, and of course, distorting our faces.

"Want to do something crazy?"
"Isn't that already crazy?" I questioned, looking through the ridiculous photos we had already taken.
"This is even crazier, take the picture. Ready?"
"Mhm."

He counted down from three and kissed my cheek. My jaw dropped, since I was quite surprised myself.

The picture turned out pretty good. Brooklyn's hand was around my waist while his lips were pressed against my cheek. His eyes were closed, but mine were wide open as well as my mouth.

"I like that."

He took his phone back and then showed me what he had done.

"It's your contact picture," he smiled.
"Send that."

I heard my phone go off from his bedroom. I raced to get it and then set the picture as my lock screen. I shut off my phone and then pressed the home button to show him.

"Like it?"
"Love it," he replied, "Look it's late, we should get some sleep. Tomorrow I was thinking maybe meet up with the guys and stuff."
"Nia and Grace?"
"Yeah, them too."
"Ok, I'll take the couch."
"No way, sleep in the bed."
"Fine," I was too tired to start an argument.

We both got changed and then settled down to sleep. He shut off the light and I curled up underneath his covers. I couldn't help but think about Brooklyn kissing my cheek, it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It was weird, he was my best friend. But I mean maybe stronger feelings could develop? Or would that be too far... All I knew right now was that I liked it when he kissed me.