In Her Shoes

Chapter 40: Monster

We stood there in silence for a bit. His head rested above mine and my hands resting in his. Finally I pulled away. "Aiden....I'm a guy..."

"I know," he sighed. "But right now you're a girl. And you're my best friend. And...I hate saying this as much as you're gonna hate hearing this but...you look hot." We chuckled weakly, but then he looked at me more seriously, "I'm serious...have you seen yourself?" Before I could answer he grabbed my hand and pulled me to a dark window where I could see my reflection, and he was right.

I was hot. The dress hugged my curves nicely, my hair was styled elegantly and even though my eye make-up was semi-smeared it just looked like I had gone for the smoky eye look.

"No," Aiden, said quietly from beside me. "You look beautiful..."

I looked at him, surprised that I didn't feel disgusted. Instead I felt sad, guilty. I backed away from my reflection. "No Aiden..this can't, it can't happen. I'm not someone to fall in love with. I'm your best friend, I'm Jesse, I knew you since you were five! You can't fall in love with me!"

"I already have..." he murmured softly, his voice breaking. His eyes watered with sadness and he slumped down on the bench putting his head in his hands again. "I'm sorry... I kept trying to remind myself... but all the time we spent together... you saw your reflection, Jesse. Imagine being in my shoes and being with your female best friend all the time, something was bound to develop." I thought about Anna, my female best friend, and knew he was right. I sighed and sat next to him at a loss of words to say. "I'm sorry," he mumbled again.

"Hey it's okay," I said trying my best to comfort him. "I...you know...." I started off slowly. "You know I can't return the feeling...right?"

He lifted his head from his hands and for a moment his glossy blue eyes searched mine. Finally he chuckled and looked down again. "Yeah....I know."

We sat in silence once more. "So... tell me something...are you in love with Jessica, or Jesse?"

He looked up, a smirk appearing on his face. "Don't flatter yourself. You're not half as hot when you're a guy."

I was insulted for a brief second, but then I started laughing, and after looking at me for a while he started laughing, too. "Okay then problem solved," I said as soon as I was done laughing.

"What do you mean?"

"All I have to do is act like a butch lesbian and you won't love me anymore."

We both started laughing again, falling over each other. When our laughter and finally quieted down we leaned against the wall trying to catch our breath. "Thanks, man," he said after a while.

"For what?"

"Understanding. I was afraid you would kick me in the balls and never talk to me again."

I laughed. "Tempting...but I can't do that to you. You're my brother. I love you, man...but...not like that."

He chuckled. "Yeah...I love you, too." He wrapped an arm around me and hugged me, and once I was sure he wouldn't get the wrong idea, I hugged him back, too.

"I knew it."

We both turned our heads at the third party, and our jaws dropped to the floor when we saw Jenni standing there with accusing eyes, her arms crossed angrily in front of her.

-

-

-

Aiden stood up so quickly and ran to her I almost toppled over. "Jenni baby"-

"Don't Jenni baby me!" She sneered pushing him away. "And you," she started pointing a finger at me. "We're supposed to be friends!"

"Jenni, it's not what it looks like!" I tried. Shit that doesn't sound good.