Dirty Sheets

Brother's Best Friend

I'm walking around the house, drink in hand, making sure everyone is doing alright. No one seems to need anything so I make my way over to my best friend, Rose. I have been so busy running around all night I've barely had the chance to talk to her.

Tonight is my family's housewarming party. Well, the one for all of our friends. We had a family one a few days ago and my mom thought it would be fun to have a friend's night. Fine by me. All of my brother's, sister's and my friends are here. We've been doing construction on this house for quite a while so the reveal of this house was highly awaited. So far I've given fifteen people separate tours of the house. I'm making sure the chip bowl is full and that we never run out of beer (it would be an absolute disaster if we did).

I don't know why my mother thought this would be a good idea, it's essentially a frat party. They left us to fend for ourselves, telling us we can set up for the party without their help and that they need some "alone time." I'm not even going to think about what they are doing. None of my business.

There's going to be around fifty people here, but I'm only nervous about seeing one: Harry Styles, my brother's best friend. Ian has a lot of friends but Harry is the one he's known the longest. We practically grew up together. He's been to our previous house plenty of times and even on a few family vacations. I've always felt that we had a connection, but neither one of us has ever acted on it. He has a reputation for sleeping around and I've only ever had one boyfriend last year when I was seventeen that ended a few months ago.

There was a moment when Harry met my ex, Brian, that stuck with me though. I introduced the two to each other and Harry gave him a hard stare, almost as if he was trying to wear him down. When they shook hands, Harry made sure to squeeze his hand extra hard. I gave him a questioning look, wondering what the hell he was doing. It was like he was trying to fight for dominance when it was completely unnecessary. He has a girlfriend, for fuck's sake. I had to drag Brian away and pretend Harry wasn't being an outright asshole. That was six months ago. I haven't seen him since. We've both been so busy with school that we haven't had a chance to talk.

"So, are you nervous?" Rose asks.

"For what?" I respond, pretending to not know what she's talking about.

She narrows her eyes, "You know what."

"No, I'm not nervous. It's just Harry, it's not like I'm meeting the Queen," I take a sip of my vodka cranberry.

"Mhmm, whatever you say," she's not believing a word that's coming out of my mouth. Hell, I wouldn't believe what I'm saying. Truth is, I'm nervous as fuck to see him. I haven't seen him in months.

"Listen, I have to go catch up with a few other people. Let me know if you need anything." I walk away before she has a chance to say anything else. I go up to one of my brother's other friends, Sam and give him a hug. "Sam! How are you!"

"Jess, how've you been? You look great!" he pulls back and gives me a once over. I'm wearing a simple black leather mini skirt and a tight long sleeve black shirt.

"Thank you. You, too," I give him a smile, "What do you think of the house?"

We get into a comfortable conversation when I feel the air shift causing me to turn my head back and see him walk in. My breath hitches in my throat. Shit, he's here. Why am I having this reaction? Bad, bad, bad. Way off limits. No.

I turn back to Sam pretending like his entire presence didn't just quite literally take my breath away. I give him a smile and lean into his ear. "Wanna go dance?" He gives me a quick nod. Boys are so easy. I take his hand and lead him to the living room. There's some EDM music playing but I'm not paying attention. The only thing on my mind is Harry and how I'm trying not to look at him. I wouldn't even know what to say. I'm mindlessly dancing with Sam when I feel his presence behind me.