My bros best friend

4

My mom called and asked me to dinner and blah blah, she had a suprise, blah blah. I asked Reed to come tonight, but he said he had a family thing, so I asked Jackie to come. We are almost there now. I haven't really talked much cause I don't really have anything to say about this. We pull up and I park in the garage. I grab my key and unlock the front door. "Mom, I'm here!" I yell coming inside. Jackie and I go up to my room to set my stuff down, and she wanted to see my room at my moms. I told her its the room with all my posters and toy stuff. After about 20 minutes of me ranting on about how much I don't want to do this. I stop talking when I hear a really familiar voice downstairs. "Riley! Come down here." I hear my mom say from downstairs. Jackie and I walk down the stairs and I was right about there being a familiar voice downstairs. "Riley this is Jake, my fiancé, and Reed, his son." Jackie and I both looked at each other and then looked at Reed. Reed and I both had a terrified look on our faces, but tried to hide them. I shook hands with Jake and Reed. "Why don't you kids go into the lounge room and get to know each other." My mom says. We turn around and start walking towards the lounge room when Jackie leans over and whispers in my ear. 

"I think you and Reed already have 'got to know each other." I hit her on the arm. 

"This isn't funny. This is just weird." We walk into the lounge room and I sit down on the big bean bag, and Jackie on one of the couches. Reed walks in and sits next to me. 

"Well, this is odd." 

"Ya, really odd. Can I talk to you in my room?"

"Won't your mom find that weird?"

"All she knows, is that I just met you." We get up and I tell Jackie that I would be right back. Reed and I walk upstairs and close my door. 

"Your not gonna tell her you have known me for 6 years?" 

"I would, but then later she would start asking me if there is something going on between us."

"But there is." He says grabbing my hands. 

"I know. And I like that. But do you really want your dad and my mom knowing that there is? We're gonna be step-siblings."

"That is weird. Then there is only one thing we can do."

"What?" I say worried. After knowing him this long, it's not anything good. 

"We have to stop them from getting married."

"Reed, we can't do that!"

"Why not?"

He starts to talk but was interrupted.

"Time for dinner!" I hear my mom say from downstairs. 

"We will talk about this later." I say letting go of his hands. I start to turn around and he steps in front of me and kisses me and I smile. We walk down the stairs and my mom gave me a weird look. "Why where you both up there?" My mom asks. 

"I had to go to the bathroom, so she was showing me where it was." Reed says covering for us. We sit down and talk for a while. Reeds dad isn't that bad. I'm glad my moms happy. Maybe me and Reed aren't meant to be. I cant tell anyone about him cause if my mom finds out, it will be holy hell. If Ryder finds out, he will kill me. I don't want to ruin him and Reeds friendship. "Will you excuse me?" I say standing up and pushing my chair back. 

"Ya. You ok?" My mom asks. 

"Fine, just need some air." I walk to the back door and step outside. Jackie had to leave cause she had a softball deal. I guess it's me and the birds. 

"You okay?" Reed says closing the door. 

"This isn't working. It can't."

"What's not working Riles?"

"This, us. I mean, your dad is marrying my mom. Your my brothers best friend. Nobody can know about us. I just, I can't do it. I want someone that I can be seen with."

"Riles, slow down. I have thought about this too. Can't we just give it some time?" 

"I need time to think. I don't want to destroy what we could be, but I also don't want to do that to my family." 

"I understand." There was a pause. "You still need a ride in the morning?"

"I'm just gonna stay the night here. I have my pickup here." 

"Alright." He says smiling, but I could tell he was hurt. We walk back inside, and my mom and Jake are cleaning up. 

"So when's the wedding?" I ask

"Well, we're not really gonna have a wedding. We don't want anything big." My mom says.

"When are you getting married?" Reed asks.

"Wednesday." Jake says, probably knowing we were gonna freak out. 

"What?! That's two days! You couldn't of told us this any sooner?" I say, not very nicely.

"I know, I'm sorry, we just wanted to get married." My mom says. 

"But the good part is, we're gonna do an expansion to the house. We're gonna add a basement, it's gonna have four rooms and in the middle, it will be you kids game area." Jake says. Now that actually doesn't sound to bad. 

"What are we gonna do right now when the we're all here?" Reed asks.

"Well, Reed and Ryder will share and you and Mackenzie will share a room." Mom says. I nod and go up to my room.

--*--*--*--

Mom and jake got married Wednesday like they said they would. I have been staying at my dads all week and Ryder went to moms on Thursday. I haven't talked to Reed much and it's killing me. The hard part is that we're step siblings now. Ryder and Reed are loving that. Reed and I are staying at my moms next week, so it will be interesting. I walk out to Jackie's car. We always go to get smoothies after school Fridays. As we're pulling out if the parking lot, we pass Reed walking to his car. We both look at each other. I want to look away, but just can't. 

"How are things between you two since he's your step-brother?" Jackie asks pulling out into the road. 

"Ok, I guess. It totally sucks. I miss him. I can't seem to get away from him. I need him." I pause and take a deep breath. "But I already hurt him."

"Riley, talk to him. I can see it in both your faces you guys are in pain."

"We are both at my moms tomorrow tell next Saturday, so I guess I will talk to him in that time."

We pull into McDonalds and order. After we finished, we decided to invite Ryder and Reed to go fourwheeling with us. Jackie and I got on our fourwheelers and Reed and Ryder were on their dirt bikes. It was really odd with Reed there, but we couldn't let Ryder know there was anything wrong.