My Best Friend's Brother

Chapter Eight

I'd been trying to corner Alex for a group hug for the last half hour or so. At first, he seemed upset, and the hug was to comfort him. But when he moved away every time, it turned more into a game. Eventually, tired of my "shenanigans", he slipped out of the opening to the house and stared at me through the black net. I pouted.

"You want to go inside?" Alex said suddenly. It took me a moment to process what he said before I responded. He and I? Go inside? Alone? Really?

"Uh... Sure..." Plopping onto my back, I shimmied through to the outside. Before leaving to follow him, I look back at the others. Jonathan had left a while back. Now it was just Aura, Thomas, Michael and Sabrina who remained in the bouncy house. None of whom seemed to notice the departure of Alex and I.

"Do you want to play video games or something?"

"Whatever you want to do." I shrugged, seemingly unamused, but then mentally took back my words. At least... Those particular words. Whatever you want to do... What a foolish choice of words, I scolded myself. Then it occurred to me that Alex wasn't one to think like that. So I scolded myself again for misjudgment.

The two of us walked into his home, only to find his stepfather asleep on the couch in the living room, though it was only nine o'clock. This made gaming impossible due to the fact that that was where the game system was. The now fifteen year old boy, made an unexplainable sound at the sight of the sleeping man.

"Let's just go to my room..." He sighed, taking the lead down the hall, past the couch on which the man had taken residence. I caught my self staring uncertainly at the his gaping mouth and listening to his irregular snoring. Once inside, my hazel eyes took in as much as they possibly could. I was in Alex's room. Alex Chin's room! Nervously, I took immediate occupancy on his floor.

He had a metal bunk bed with only one bunk and a black desk underneath with a box of stuffed animals under it. I even noticed one of my favorite Pokemon, Celebi, peaking out from the rim of the box. Beside his bed was a dresser with a terrarium on top where his lizard lived and a shelf stocked with video games and books. Behind me, in front of his dresser was a blue bench to match his walls and behind that, another shelf, piled high with games and nicknacks. Parallel to the bed was his closet and the walls were empty excusing a window, a dart board and nerf basketball rim.

I rubbed my fingers against the red spot on his floor, where he had told me he'd spilled red sand. If you pressed hard enough, you could still feel the prickle of the rough grains against your fingers.

"What do you want to do?" He asked me.

"I don't know." My cheeks blossomed a shade of pink. Glancing to my right, I noticed one of the video games he had. I scooted across the floor on my knees and pulled it from its spot on the shelf, tucked snug between two older Pokemon games. "Did you ever finish this one?" The case I held in my hand reflected the light from the bulb on his ceiling.

"Phantom Hourglass?" Legend of Zelda. "Yeah. I think so."

"Maybe you can help me sometime." I chuckled. "I never could get past fifth boss." He responded with a small smile and a "Maybe", then things were quiet for a while. This was the first time we had really been alone together and I was pretty sure I was blowing it. Trying to shoo the awkwardness from the room, I picked up the foam basketball from a shelf, meant to go with the rim, and tossed it to (at) him. It bounced off his arm. And this started a small game of basketball. But it ended when it bounced off my knee and rolled down the hall and neither of us wanted to fetch it.

It was about this time, however, that Alex received another message from Aura. An incomplete message saying "HELP M". This didn't raise much concern though because we had been getting messages from her and Sabrina for the last half hour or so since we'd been inside, telling us that Alex's brother and Thomas were wrestling them trying to keep them from leaving the bouncy house. I bit the inside of my cheek in slight irritation. Jealousy? Unlikely. Possible? Maybe.

There was a small shuffling in the hall that sounded like sweatpants rubbing together. Alex and I exchanged glances then averted our eyes to the doorless doorway. A small blonde head poked from around the frame. Then two more. His little cousins who had joined us in the bouncy house a few hours before in the daylight. It made things a little difficult as far as the bouncy house went because if you bounced too high, you hurt them. Or if you bounced too close to them. They lost their balance and fell RIGHT into your crotch. And earlier, one had sneezed onto the bouncy house floor and we had to call Alex and Michael's mother out to clean it up because all of us were too queasy to do so.

The three boys came into the room and immediately started going through Alex's stuff asking what they could and could not play with.

"Can we play a board game?" One would suggest.

"No." Was Alex's response.

"Can we play with the darts?"

"No."

"Can we play with your lizard."

"No." I found it slightly amusing how Alex dealt with the situation. He had the oldest child sit next to me on the floor and slung the middle child- who shrieked as he did so- over his shoulder. Alex looked around the room for the smallest child who had suddenly disappeared. Looking around the room, I joined him in the visual search as well, when I noticed a small shift of movement out of the corner of my eye.

Turning my attention in that direction, I saw the bathroom door wide open, and the youngest boy sitting on the toilet. I pointed to the bare legged child. "Uh..." A small choke on my laugh. "Alex."

He followed my line of vision and his eyes widened. Taking what seemed almost to be one large step, he moved to the door and closed it, always keeping his focus on me, straining a smile. I returned a slightly awkward one.