Brothers Forever

28. Sleeping Beauty

Chapter 28: Sleeping Beauty

Sterling’s Point of View

I was upstairs in my room watching Bones on my TV when I heard the door slam from downstairs. It was shortly followed by clomping footsteps, and I stood up to see what the hell was going on.

Grey strode by just as I opened the door. His mouth was turned down in a scowl, his eyes dark.

“What’s wrong with you?”

He stopped and slowly turned around. When he spoke, his voice was dangerously low. “Want to know what’s wrong with me? I’ll tell you what’s wrong. You. You ruin everything.”

“Don’t blame your problems on me, Grey. Whatever is wrong with you has nothing to do with me.”

“But that’s the thing. It has everything to do with you.” He paused, his eyes were downcast to the wooden floor, and his voice was quieter when he spoke again. “She chose you over me, Sterling.”

I stared at him for a minute, utterly boggled. “What are you talking about? You don’t like Bren that way. And you’re dating Grace anyway.”

“No. She chose your relationship over our friendship. Apparently, since I’m not supportive of what makes her happy, I’m obviously not her friend.” His voice was bitter, his hands stuffed in his pockets.

“Wait, you guys had a fight? But you guys never fight…”

“I think I of all people know that.” He turned back around and went off to his room without another word.

I pulled a hand through my blonde hair. Grey and Bren were fighting? This was not good at all. My brother seriously pissed me off sometimes, but I knew how important their friendship was. I of all people knew that Bren could remain upset about something for a while. I definitely deserved it, though.

There was no way Grey was going to talk to me; he blamed me for this. I still can’t believe she felt she had to choose, and she chose me. That was definitely not how I thought things would work out. I pulled a hand through my hair again, and then an idea came to me. Walking back into my bedroom, I picked up my phone and dialed Grace’s number.

“Hey, Sterling.” She sounded distracted.

“Hey. So apparently Bren and Grey had a fight.”

“Really? What about?”

“Me and her dating. Apparently, she thinks Grey isn’t supportive enough of her being happy. I was hoping you could talk to him? He’s kind of mad at me by default. I’m gonna go talk to her now.”

There was a pause of silence. “Do you really think we should get involved in their fight, Ster?”

“They never fight, Grace. They have squabbles over silly stuff, but they never last more than five minutes. I’m going to try and fix this with Bren. I just don’t want Grey to do something stupid in the meantime.”

There was another long pause.

“What are you doing, Grace?”

“I was sketching out a picture, sorry. I kinda tune everything else out. But I’ll put it away and come over to your house right now. It would be pretty bad if they weren’t friends anymore.”

“It would. Thanks again. Bye.”

I could hear stuff shuffling around in the background. “Bye.”

I threw on my only clean hoodie—Bren kept acquiring them—grabbed my wallet and looked around for my keys. After a few minutes of fruitless searching, I realized that Grey had borrowed my truck, and I banged on his bedroom door.