IM5 Preferences

35. He's Your Brother, But You're Secretly Seeing One of the Others

I KNOW THEY DON’T ALL HAVE SISTERS, THIS IS ALL IN THEORY.

COLE

 “And that one looks like a bunny!” you point up at the cloud and your boyfriend, Gabe, laughs with you. You’re at the top of the Ferris wheel, and your worries are miles away.

You walk around the fair, hand in hand with a grinning Gabe, knowing you don’t run the risk of getting caught by Cole, since he’s on the other side of town right now. You throw your head back and laugh, cotton candy in one hand, Gabe’s in the other.

“Gabe?!”

You both freeze up, recognizing the voice immediately. Reluctantly, you release Gabe’s hand and turn around, knowing you can’t run. You smile uneasily, “Um, Will, hi.”

He smiles at you, looking confused. He looks from your guilty face to Gabe’s and says with one hand on his hip, “I’m guessing Cole doesn’t know about this.”

Gabe sighs, “Please don’t tell him, not yet.”

Will shakes his head, “I wouldn’t do that, it’s not my place to, anyway.”

DALTON

Even though Dalton wouldn’t be too angry if he found out, you and Cole still decided to keep your relationship a secret. It just seemed more fun that way. So, one Friday night, you and Cole are out to dinner at a semi-fancy restaurant.

You sit across from each at your table for two, and you notice that he seems especially uneasy. “Cole, what’s wrong?”

He looks up at you, like a doe in the headlights, “What? Um, nothing.”

“Cole, I know you better than that.”

He sighs, “Alright,” and looks down at his lap, beginning to unfold something. Your heart starts pounding as he looks up at you and begins reading off a paper, “’I’m not very romantic, and I’m not very good at these things,’” he pauses to look up at you and you smile in reply, “’but I thought—‘”

“What do you think you’re doing?” You look up and there’s Cole, looking only mildly murderous.

DANA

 “We should tell him.” You’ve been lying on your bed, beside Dalton, just lying there.

Dalton sits up and looks at you as if you’ve got lobsters crawling out your ears. “I thought the whole point of dating secretly was not telling him.”

You sigh and sit up, facing him, “Yeah, it was, but he’s my little brother and it feels weird hiding something like this. I mean, he’s the baby, not me.”

“Yeah, but—”

“Dalton, relationships are supposed to be based on three things: love, trust, and honesty. How can we have a strong relationship if one of the three is missing?”

“But that’s honesty within the relationship.”

You shake your head, “No, it’s honesty within and all around the relationship.”

He exhales heavily, “I can’t change your mind, can I?”

You shake your head, “No, you can’t.”

“Well, alright. I guess I was starting to feel kinda bad anyway, going behind his back like this, I mean.”

GABE

You lie on Dana’s chest, both of you on the couch while Gabe is out. Dana lifts his head up and asks, “What if he finds out?”

You look at Dana, confused, “Since when has that ever mattered to you?”

He huffs and sits up, causing you to roll off him and sit at his side. He locks eyes with you, “Look, I don’t like this whole going behind Gabe’s back thing, okay? It was fun at first,” he breaks eye contact and scratches the back of his head, “I guess it was just the thrill, but now it’s just getting old and we’re not…”

“You want to end it.”

He doesn’t look at you, but he doesn’t have to, his silence says it all. He was only in it for the thrill, he only likes the chase.

As you’re standing up to say goodbye and he nears the door, you look at him and ask, “Honestly, was it all just so you could go behind my brother’s back and feel cool?”

WILL

 “Remember that one time when you said you’d never date my sister?”

You almost choke on your water when you hear your brother’s casual question. His back is to you, but Cole’s is not, he is staring right at you as you look across the room at him, horrified. Fortunately, Will doesn’t notice a thing.

Cole clears his throat, “Um, yeah, I remember that, it was a while ago, though. Why do you ask?”

Will simply shrugs and says, “I just thought of it for some reason and I was wondering why you said that.”

Cole’s eyes flicker over to where you sit, curled up in an arm chair, hands clutched tight around your glass of water. “Oh, well, um, I guess I just thought it would be a little too awkward, you know? I mean, she’s my friend and you’re my friend, and yeah,” he scratches the back of his head, “…awkward.” He glances at you, wondering if he did alright and you smirk, trying not to laugh as he continues to squirm in discomfort.