My Best Friend's Brother // Young Love Book 1 ✔️

MBFB Extra (Charlie)

Charlie Fellows

My sister and I share a relationship nothing short off unique. She gets ashamed of me, I get disgusted by her. I annoy her as hell, she bites my head off. She cries, I turn into a protective brother. I'm upset, she becomes my human cheerleader. When we fight it's a full blown tantrum that could last for days, yet one word could bring us together again. Lately, I've been less distant. Less than last year, at least. I talked to my non-jock friends more and it proved to be a good decision. Cindy thinks I've been "missing" for a while and that she wants me to "go back to the old Charlie".

It's been a bit cooler these day and the layers of clothing were starting to show up again. Right now, I was on my way to Eli's house. I just thought she'd like to go out somewhere. The announcement about her participating in this year's pageant made her suffer from mild shock and faux hysteria. I suppose I just wanted to get her to loosen up, even though she is a drama queen. I mean, she wouldn't be my sister's best friend if she's not.

Ringing the doorbell twice, I come face to face with the girl I never thought could look more beautiful than she did yesterday. "Hey, Pen," I said as she moved aside to let me in. I gave her a semi-lopsided smile, mentally scolding myself for acting too desperate and idiotic.

"Here for twinnie, I see," she states in a matter-of-factly tone. Her mischievous dark eyes study mine before she simply smiles. That smile did weird things to me. It made me want to run around, screaming, "She smiled at me!"

I open my mouth, but close it immediately. If I tell her yes would she think that I was interested in her sister? Probably...not? "Yeah, she's been spacing out. Especially during Chem."

Penny laughed, shaking her head at me. "You should know by now that Elouise doesn't like Chemistry. I don't even know why she chose it. But, you're here because of the pageant, right?" I nodded. "Just distract her. Don't let her talk herself into insanity. That girl, she thinks I don't care, you know."

After she said the words, my head shot to look at her. She was being genuine, I can tell. Looking at her expression, you can see it - the facade. Beneath the surface, there was something that I couldn't quite read. She gets it every time she talks about Eli seriously. She was hiding something and not knowing was driving me crazy. I wanted to understand it, fix it.

I nod slightly at her and head up to Eli's room. I could hear her talking to herself out loud and I fought to keep my chuckles at bay. Eli has conversations with herself more often than the average human being. That fact alone makes me question wy I'm even here. Still, I let myself twist the knob and wait for her to notice me.

"Maybe it's in the food truck?" she asked, pacing around her room.

"No, you never even come near them!" she answers back as if she was a different person.

"How would you know?"

"I'm a freaking part of you! What isn't clear about that?"

It went on like that - back and forth, back and forth. Although, I stopped her from uttering another word all because I said, "Normal people talk to shrinks about their dilemmas, you know. They don't have arguments with themselves while pretending to be two different people."

I saw her eyes widen and she turned to the side, facing me fully and seeing me for the first time in the past seven minutes. "Good God, Charlie! How long have you been creeping there?!" she snaps in surprise and annoyance. Her eyes were so blue today. It resembled the colour of a deep ocean when you look down it. Her cheeks were blushing too, the kind that makes you wonder if she just ran ten miles non-stop. "Long enough," I replied.

"What are you doing here anyway?" she asked, gazing at me in suspiscion.

I shrugged my shoulders, thinking that that was a good question. Why am I here? "I thought you were feeling like a moron, so I wanted to try and make you feel better?" Neither of us knew if what I said was my real reason. My statement sounded like a doubtful question, to be honest.

Eli huffed a laugh, a really emotionless laugh that I haven't quite heard before. "Basically, you want to fix me, right?" Eli shook her head at me. She went and sat on her bed, so I followed her. I wasn't really sure what she meant. I just raised my brow at her. "You've always liked doing that, Charls. You always want to make things perfect."

"No, I don't," I defended, trying to think of something that'll support my theory. "Who even said that?" Well, I couldn't actually back up what I said.

Eli punched me in the arm, her eyebrows slightly furrowed. "Never mind. It's in your nature, you know? It's not even your fault." And with that, she grabbed her coat and walked out the door without so much as a word.

We strolled aimlessly for half an hour. Then, we passed by one of the galleries in Miami. So, I told Eli that we should check it out. I said it seemed promising and we soon realised that it was. After a while, we decided to guess what some of them were. Fifteen minutes in and I was staring at the seventh quirky artwork that we deemed unknown. I tilted my head a bit, trying to change the angle of my perspective. "I think it's a baguette with a hand," I uttered, scratching my head and chuckling.

Eli laughed too, face palming herself. "I don't know. I think it's a hotdog with a crown."

"You know what? I think we're both just hungry."

"I hear you, brother."

Once I took Elouise back to her house, I returned to mine. Feeling my pocket, I later discovered that I didn't have my keys with me. I rang the bell and waited for someone to open it for me.

"Knucklehead, you left your keys in my room," uttered Cindy. She had a smirk on her face, telling me that she knew. She knew I was with Eli. "So, how was your date with my bestie?"

"For the umpteenth time, we never go on dates. I was being her friend," I retort, heading for the living room and turning on the TV.

"Oh, yes. Mentoring, right?" Cindy mocks, flopping down next to me. "I mean, it's not like you're actually going on date, yeah?" She cackles again, punching my arm.

I flinched; my sister could really pack a punch. Of course, I taught her that. "You're so...malicious!"

We fell silent after that. The only sound came from the show. It was starting to get late, but neither of us felt like eating dinner. Our parents were probably at work, but I'm not completely sure. After another hour or so, Cindy decided to go to bed.

When she stood up, she murmured, "You know, sometimes I don't know what you're really doing. Whatever it is, you have to figure it out, Charlie. I don't want anyone getting hurt."

I sat there, stunned and confused. I was dumbfounded and I didn't know how to respond. So, I did what I always do - I took a long shower.

* * *

So...that was Charlie. I guess it's not exactly a non-chapter. I'll call it a semi-chapter instead, because it's not too connected to the story, but it could still contribute to it.

Dedicated to AngelaRoberts469 :D

Cindy is on the side. So is the song 19 You + Me by Dan + Shay

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