under my skin || n.h. au

ten: speak now or forever hold your peace

The date has consumed Brooklyn's mind. It's all she thinks about. It shouldn't be a big deal because it isn't a serious date. At least that's what she's been telling herself. Judging by how nervous she is, one would say that she doesn't see it that way.

She needs a distraction and right now there's one person that she thinks can help with that.

Knowing that Beck is awake – he's in the kitchen thirty minutes ago – Brooklyn bursts into his room without knocking. Her unexpected move startles her brother who quickly shuts down his laptop. She shoots him a questioning look before she takes a seat on the edge of his bed.

"Sorry. Reflex." he apologises as he turns his laptop back on. Brooklyn's relieved to see that he's not watching anything weird. It's still fairly early, after all. "What's up?"

Brooklyn hesitates for a moment. "Did your friend from the band invite you to his manager's wedding?"

"Rick? Yeah, he did," Beck answers with a nod. He returns his gaze to the screen of his laptop. "But I'm not going."

Brooklyn is not sure if whether it's a good thing that he's not going or not. On one hand, it'll be nice to see a familiar face at the wedding but on the other, she knows Beck is going to tease her – for the rest of her life – for going on a date with Niall.

"Wait, how'd you know his manager's getting married?" Beck asks suddenly, brows furrowing in confusion.

"Oh, uh, he invited Niall and I," she replies. She can see a smirk slowly tugging at Beck's mouth so in an attempt to wipe it off of his face, she quickly adds, "As a thank you for the review we wrote a while ago."

"So, you're going?"

"Yeah," Brooklyn nods. Not that she has a choice.

Beck wriggles his eyebrow at her, "With Niall?" His suggestive tone earns him an eye roll – he's used to that so it doesn't mean anything to him. "What? He did invite you two, didn't he?"

"Yes, but you need to stop giving me that look," Brooklyn commands. Beck lets out a laugh and shrugs, pretending as if he doesn't know what she's talking about. Brooklyn lies on her back and lolls her head to the side to look at her brother. "Why aren't you going anyway?"

Although Beck is quick to look away, Brooklyn still catches the blush adorning his cheeks. That piques her interest. So she nudges his thigh with her elbow, forcing him to look at her. Maybe she'll finally have something to tease him about. "I have a date," Beck admits sheepishly.

"A date?" Brooklyn repeats, one corner of her mouth curving upwards. "I thought you're taking a break from the dating world?"

Beck laughs at that. Those were his exact spoken words from a few days ago. He didn't think they'd be thrown back at him. "Dunno, it just... happened."

Brooklyn sits up and faces her brother. If the girl manages to make her brother blush, she needs to know her so she can have an ally. "Well, what's her name?"

Clearing his throat, Beck grabs his mobile phone from the nightstand and unlocks it. Brooklyn watches as he opens his Instagram, scrolls through his following list and finally stops at a girl named Clara Dennis. She takes his phone from his hand and clicks on the selfie so she can get a better look of the girl's face.

"She's gorgeous," Brooklyn comments after she's finished checking out the girl's Instagram feed. She hands Beck's phone back to him. "How'd you know her?"

"Rick's girlfriend introduced her to me," Beck answers, short and simple.

"So you like her?"

"Of course I like her," Beck replies as he puts aside his laptop so he can climb off his bed. Stretching his arms, he adds, "I wouldn't go on a date with her if I don't like her."