DELICATE / Brandon Darrow

nineteen

nineteen
stop being dramatic
FIRST PERSON

CYNTHIA:
hey, lets make some plans!

ZOE:
of course!
ZOE:
maybe tonight?

CYNTHIA:
yes <3

I WALKED OVER TO Brandon's house after school since he decided to leave me hanging. I knocked on his door which revealed him shirtless.

"Forgot how to put a shirt on?" I asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, can you teach me how?" He asked back just equally as sarcastic.

"Maybe," I shrugged, pushing past him to enter inside his house. I then followed him into his room which was where he proceeded to put his shirt on. "Do you have anything to drink?"

"Is water fine?" Brandon asked.

I nodded. "Yeah," and he left.

I started to look through his stuff. I couldn't find anything. I looked through other sorts of books on his desk. Then I started to look through papers.

Until I was interrupted.

"What are you doing?" His voice startled me frozen.

I didn't know what to say so I decided to rip the bandaid. I took out the book he dropped the other day from my bag and rose it for him to see. "You dropped this yesterday. It has a news clipping inside of it," he started to walk closer to me, "Dunbar Rakes. Why do you have that?"

"My mom sent it to me when he died," he responded.

I knew that was a lie.

"Remember, we went to camp with him when we were younger," he reminded me.

I looked down guiltily. "No," I actually didn't know.

"Here's your water," handing me a glass which deflected me from thinking about Dunbar.

"Thank you," I gave him a small smile.

He started to scratch his lip when I noticed his bloody knuckles. I grabbed his hand, examining it.

"What happened?" I questioned, probably a little too personal but I was curious. What if it had something to do with Monkey Man?

He looked at me then his hand. "Don't worry about it," he pulled himself away from me.

I looked at him confused. "Brandon, you told me Dunbar stood up for you."

"Yeah?"

"You stood there, laughing," I remembered the video and I could tell he did too as his expression shifted. "Why?"

"Why does that surprise you?" He asked.

"Maybe because I think you're better than this," I told him truthfully.

"If I was better, I wouldn't have done it, would I?" Brandon gave me a serious look. Then he stood up and got closer to me, trying to seem emotionless. "I'm a bad guy, Cynthia, right? Stay away from me."

I genuinely rolled my eyes. I was not falling for this act because I knew it was him trying to push me away and I couldn't help but think it was because I was close to getting my answer.

"I'll think about it," I replied sarcastically.

I walked past him and left his house. I stood outside his door and just took a breather. I turned to his window and saw him staring at me. Then I left.

♡

Zoe texted me her address and I went over there. I knocked on the door with her to openly greet me.

"Want anything to drink?" She asked me while we headed to her kitchen.

"No, thanks," I said. I took a seat on one of her stools while she grabbed herself some water.

While eyeing me, she jumped on the counter and took a seat beside me. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I shook my head, shrugging.

"It's about Brandon, isn't it?" She narrowed her eyes.

"What? No," I quickly denied which made me look a little suspicious.

"Come on. We were like best friends for like...how many years?" Zoe started to count her fingers until she shook her head. "Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that I know when there's something wrong. And Brandon's your partner for our project so I was just putting two and two together," she shrugged. "Your expression isn't doing a good job convincing me either."

I rolled my eyes. "He's just...weird. I don't know."

"I could've told you that," she laughed until she saw my serious look which made her calm down. "Like how?"

"He just seems distant," I leaned my cheek on my palm. "Like, I don't even see him and Sean hanging out like they used to."

"Maybe he's afraid to admit his feelings to himself," Zoe took a sip of water while I gave her confused stare which made her elaborate, "he likes you, Cynthia. So, of course he's going to make you hate him so it gives him a reason not to pursue you."

"I'm serious," I deadpanned.

Zoe laughed lightly. "I am too. From friend to friend, it's pretty obvious the way he feels about you. Even when we were kids, I could see the way he looked at you."

I shook my head. "I don't think so."