My Best Friend's Brother

Rule Number One

"I am so excited for you to finally come to my house, but you cannot and I mean literally- can not speak to my brother." Sarah had been coming over to my house for the whole three months of our friendship. Anytime I asked to go to her house, she always had an excuse. But today, my mom has her friends over for book club.

"He can't be that bad. Everyone at school seems to like him?"

She slammed on the brakes and my seatbelt dug into my skin, "Are you for real right now? He is the absolute worst! The only reason anyone likes him is because they think he is cute. They must all have vision problems."

I laugh waving my hands for her to continue down the road, "I mean... he isn't that bad looking."

The breaks. Slamming... again, "Look, rule number one of being best friends, you are my friend so stay away from my brother."

A car flew by us honking the horn and Sarah realizes we are sitting in the middle of the road. Thankfully, she sped up.

"And Rule number two?"

"We will get there. Patience, grasshopper."

We both laughed as she turned into the driveway of a beautiful brick house with a fountain in the front.

"We are here."

Sarah jumped out of her side of the car and waited for me to follow her. Her house is huge, with several perfectly trimmed flower bushes around the porch. The front steps led to two massive double wooden doors. She opened them, walking into the front room.... and there he was.

"God, Liam. Do you have to do that on the couch?"

Sarah's brother pulled his mouth off of the blonde laying on the couch, "I can do it in your room if that's what you would prefer?" He smirked, and then continued sucking face.

Sarah pushes me up the staircase into her room and slams the door behind us, "See. The worst."

I look around her room and the classy wall decor, "Who even was that?"

She jumped onto her bed and turned the radio on, "Who knows? Probably some dumb cheerleader."

Not even two minutes into the first song and there was a knock on the bedroom door, "Open up, Sarah."

"GO AWAY!" She threw the radio remote at the door, but it didn't scare him off.

The knocking came again, this time much louder, "Dammit Sarah, open the door."

I reached over and opened the door, standing face to face to Liam White- and then I was knocked over by the dumb cheerleader.

He shoved her through the door, "Hide her, I will give you $100 bucks. Just hide her, I will be right back."

Sarah and I both stare at the blonde as she shyly waved and sat in the corner, "I will just sit over here."

"I'm Emilie."

Sarah rolled her eyes but introduced herself as well, "Sarah. I think you know my brother."

The blonde laughed, "Not really, but we have some fun every now and then," it became awkwardly silent, "Oh, I'm Hannah by the way."

"Yeah, cool. We don't really care. Why are you in here anyways?" Sarah was pretty straight to the point, I was pretty much her only friend.

"I think your Mom is home or something. He saw a car in the driveway and drug me up here."

Sarah reached over to her radio speaker and turned it up dramatically loud mid sentence of Hannah speaking, "Oh my God, Em, did you see Jett at lunch today? He is so freaking hot, I swear."

She turned her phone around showing me a Snapchat story of Jett and Beau taking turns throwing gummy bears in each other's mouths from across the table.

"Jett is hot, but I feel like Beau gets so over looked. He has qualities, too." I shrugged and turned my chair back towards the magazine on Sarah's desk.

Sarah turned her phone back and stared closely at the screen, "Qualities... maybe. I will admit he has nice arms, but he is a complete negative five standing next to Jett."

We continued to gossip for a few minutes, ranking all of the guys in the junior class on a scale of one to ten. Hannah sat quiet in the corner picking at her nail polish.

Our gossip was pulled to a halt as the door swung open, and Liam grabbed Hannah. The two of them disappeared, leaving the door wide open.

Sarah didn't even look up from her phone, "I totally forgot she was even in here."

We both started laughing, "I forgot too, I feel kind of bad that we ignored her."

Sarah held up her hand, "Don't. Any girl my brother brings home should know what to expect in advance. He is a t-total douche bag." She rolled off the side of her bed and walked to her window overlooking their driveway. We could hear a car door slam shut. After a few minutes of observing, Sarah walked back to her bed and took a seat on the edge.

I could see her evil grin form as she began to type, "You are so about to tell your mom-"

"Oh she is so not going to tell Mom."

We both jumped, not realizing that Liam had made his way to the door of Sarah's room. He was leaned against the frame with his arms across his chest, "Who are you?"

My cheeks started burning. He was looking at me.
Oh shit, he is still looking at me, "Emilie."

He nodded his head holding eye contact with me, "Cool," he reached into his pocket pulling out a five dollar bill. He tossed it on the the floor, "Here is your hush money."

"Where is the rest?," Sarah jumped off the bed grabbing the money and held her hand out for more.

"Consider it a deposit."

"Deposit my ass. You spend more than this on your stupid vape juice. I expect my payment in full by the end of the week." Sarah stuck her nose in the air and crossed her arms over her chest.

Liam laughed and poked her shoulder, "I don't work on your time frame, plus Handy said you were a bitch to her."

I interrupted, "Hannah."

"What?" He glared at me from my comment.

"Her name is Hannah." I correct his mistake.

His eyebrows flattened and his mouth turned into a smirk, "Oh, I know her name."

"Gross! Get out!" Sarah threw one of her bed pillows at his face, but he caught it.

He tossed the pillow back on her bed, "See ya around, Emilie." He gave me a wink before walking out of the room and closing the door behind him.

I turned to face Sarah hoping my cheeks had lost the fire ant stings.

She stared straight through me, "Don't even think about it."

Oh... I was definitely already thinking about it, but what she doesn't know can't hurt her.

Rule number one may be a little harder than I thought.