In which I fall in love with my brother's best friend.
*****
"Don't pretend like you don't feel anything." His voice is low, sending shivers down my spine.
"What do you mean?"
"You know damn well what I mean."
"I don't know what you're talking about...
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"What brings you here?" I ask, trying to sound as casual as possible, my pulse quickening with every second passing by.
Vaughn stares at me with those piercing eyes that have captivated me from the first time I laid my eyes on them.
He tilts his head to the side and scoffs. "What brings me here? I guess I have no choice, since you never answered any of my texts and calls." His eyes dart on mine, as if trying to find what I'm hiding from him.
I gulp, bracing my self. It's so hard to do this when the person I've been thinking about the whole time is now right here, standing before me, making my knees go weak.
But I've made up my mind. This feeling is not worth it. Think about all the things in jeopardize. My heart. And his friendship with my brother.
I'm such a weakling, but I'm just not ready enough to take a risk. Don't blame me, though. I have no experience whatsoever in love. All I can see are the images of those girls being dumped by my brother.
"I was busy," I say nonchalantly. "There are a lot of assignments and papers I have to catch up to." Yeah. Typically me. I feel so lame and pathetic to use this line to ignore him.
"Really," Vaughn mutters, his voice low, his eyes still not leaving mine. "Perhaps you can tell me what it had to do with you suddenly turning the other way when you saw me at the campus earlier today."
Shit. He really did see me earlier. There's no way that I can escape from this.
"That... I guess you saw it wrong." I tear my eyes away from him, turn around, and walk into the house. I can't face him.
He follows me, and the door closes behind him with a soft thud. God, help me.
"I know damn well what I saw, Mel," he counters, his voice firm. And I hate the fact that even under these circumstances, I still find the sound leaving his mouth sexy. Like, so much masculinity in it. "Are you ignoring me?" he shoots me the bullet I can't escape, his voice lacing with slight pain, and that catches me off guard.
Maybe... Just maybe... There's a hope that everything is not the way I think it is.
But I shake that thought away. No, I won't let him do this to me.
I don't respond to his question because I don't know how to, with all these emotions building up inside me. Silence falls. The atmosphere becomes tenser, and it's killing me.
He scoffs. "I'm asking you a question, Mel," he says even though he should have got the answer by now. It's exactly what I'm doing to him. Ignoring him. God, I hate myself.
I feel him tensing up, whispering a curse to himself before his heavy footsteps draw nearer, making my heart beat twice.
No. No. No. I can't see him now. I don't think I can hide all of these feelings --
