Introvert

nine

Brandon wasn't surprised to see Austin's car in front of his house Sunday afternoon. The blonde boy hadn't texted anyone that he wasn't going to make it to band practice. Although they were confused why he was a no show, they did trust that he was somewhere more important. When Brandon pulled into his driveway and he saw his friend's car, he wanted to go blow up at him about not giving anyone a heads up. It wasn't like Austin to just flake out of something like that. But as the older brother unlocked the front door, he could hear his sister's laughter which he rarely heard anymore. He stood at the bottom of the staircase and listened to her giggles for a few more minutes.

Brandon decided then that Austin ditching band practice was not as important as his friendship to his little sister. As long as Dylan was happy, he wouldn't make the boy feel bad about choosing her.

The next night, though, the older brother did want to talk to her. He wanted to make sure that nothing more was going on and to possibly figure out what Austin's deal was with her.

Dylan sat at her desk studying the screen on her laptop. The bright lit screen had the equations for her math homework displayed. As the clock ticked closer to 10:00 pm, she just wished she could get done with the last two problems so she could go to sleep.

Pushing numbers into her calculator with one hand and scribbling answers onto her paper with the other, the creek of her bedroom door and the sound of Brandon's voice made her jump a little. "Hey."

She turned her attention from her homework to her brother. "What do you want? I need to get this finished."

Brandon stood nervously at the entrance of her room. Even though he had rehearsed what he wanted to ask his little sister, he didn't really know what to say anymore. Everything slipped away. It was Dylan after all. The fact that she was even reaching out to anyone other than him and Everett was a big deal. She wasn't the social type and her having a new friend didn't happen ever.
Before saying anything, Brandon stepped further into her room and found a seat on one of the bean bags by her record player. "Why do you assume I want something from you?"

Dylan rolled her eyes as she looked back at her homework. "You always want something when you start a conversation with 'hey' in that tone."

"Okay, fine," he scoffed, "I wanted to ask you about Porter."

"What about him?"

Brandon looked from his sister to the artwork around her desk. "I don't know. Like what you think about him, I guess?"

The little sister finished up her last homework question before looking at her brother again. "Why?"

"What do you mean 'why'? You two are hanging out all of sudden and that isn't normal for you." Dylan frowned at him now facing him in her chair completely. He paused for a second to figure out what else he needed to say. "I just mean, you have been so hesitant to hang out with my friends when I try to get you to meet more people. And Porter comes along and gets you downstairs for once. I'm happy that you found a new friend, Dyl, I just want to make sure that everything's okay. You know?"

The girl looked away from him and stared at the pillows on her bed. It wasn't anything new that her brother was concerned for her. They had plenty of discussions about her making friends in the past. Brandon always encouraged her to meet more people, but normally, she didn't listen to him. She would scoff and roll her eyes, then throw him out of her room without speaking a word to him. In the past two weeks, she had spoken more to her brother than she had before in a long time.

"I don't know, B. I didn't even want him as a friend. He just started to show up. I barely even talked to him at lunch, but he would talk to me about literally anything. It became a routine and I eventually didn't mind him." Her brown eyes shifted back to Brandon. "I don't know why I agreed to hang out with you guys on Saturday. I just did. I promised him and you know how I don't break promises. But then I freaked out, which I didn't expect to happen, and he sat with me through it. He offered to let me stay upstairs and didn't make me feel bad about having an anxiety attack for something that should have been easy. He makes me feel safe and that's just weird to think about."

The two siblings stared at each for a moment; both shocked at how much Dylan had just shared. She had never really confided in her brother before, yet she was glad that she could. Although the girl hadn't thought that her attachment to Austin was bothering her, being able to talk to someone about her feelings felt like a weight was lifted off of her shoulders.

As what she had said registered in his head, Brandon broke out into a smile. "You like him, don't you?"

Dylan's nose scrunched up in disgust. She didn't want to admit that to her older brother of all people. "No, you perv."

"Austin and Dylan sitting in a tree," he started to sing.

Dylan immediately stood up from her chair and lunged at her brother on the bean bag. She tugged on his arm as best as she could with all of his dead weight keeping him in his seat.

"K-I-S-S-I-N-G," he continued as she finally got him to his feet. Dylan started to push him out of her room. "First comes love, then comes marriage..."

She slammed the door on him before he could finish the song.

"I literally hate you." Brandon could hear her muffled voice on the other side of the door.

Snickering to himself a little, he waited until he thought she was away from the door. Pushing it open slightly, enough for him to see her from her bed, he spoke once more, "Dylan."

The girl looked at her brother, irritated. "What?"

"I'll kick his ass if he breaks your heart."

Scoffing and rolling her eyes, she took off her glasses. "Whatever, B."

"Night, Dyl."