Falling For His Best Friend

One

My name is Willow Thompson, but people call me Billy for short. At 17 years old, I'm excited to say I'm ready to be done with high school, in the fall I'll be going into my senior year of high school and deciding where I plan to go to college after all of this is over. I've had to do most of this all alone because as I've come to learn, quickly, my brother is of all importance to my parents. Ryan Thompson, my twin brother, born 3 minutes earlier has made his superiority crystal clear for all of our lives. Although fraternal, we consider ourselves far from twins, we are just siblings, and only because we have to be, sometimes it feels like if Ryan could, he would get rid of me all together. I've always been, and always will be, the annoying little sister, and he isn't the only one who has made it clear. My parents cherish him, like he is a miracle sent from heaven and I'm just the extra. Dedicating their lives, time, and money into him and his hockey career as I've spent my entire life on the side lines. We live in a beautiful, wealthy area of Buffalo, New York, our home is well kept, large, and filled with memories, most of them metals and trophies on the walls. In the driveway sits, my mother's BMW SUV, my dad's pickup truck, my brother's Jeep Wrangler, and my motorcycle. It was a gift I had bought myself after working so hard all my life to try and keep up with him. My brother has been playing hockey since he was 4, now he's the co-captain of our local team, Buffalo Vipers. My parents raised him up to play after my dad got seriously injured and was never able to play again. Everything is done for him, he has his whole future set in stone, just for him. A car paid for by our parents, unlimited money to spend on things he needs, and a full ride scholarship to play Ice Hockey for Penn State.  

Me on the other hand, it has felt like everything I have ever wanted, I have had to pull teeth to get, like it has always been ripped from my arms. I've dreamed of nothing more than to ride professionally in motor cross but it's too late, if I started now I would make it no where, so instead I just watch it and plan to do something else with my life. Nursing is my current path, something about helping others has always attracted me, and it's something that wont break the bank since it's clear funds are tight for me and my future. I've applied everywhere with hopes of only one response, an acceptance to Duke University,  a school with the best nursing program. There isn't any reason I shouldn't make it in, I've spent most nights studying instead of partying or hanging out with friends like everyone in my town did, my grades were well kept, I had tons of community service hours, clubs, and though I don't play any sports, I do play the violin, since I was 6. I'm excelling, even though my parents have never acknowledged it. My brother on the other hand, is a train wreck. The spoiling did it to him, he has never worked a day in his life, while I have had a job at the senior citizen nursing home near my house since I was 15, with my best friend Leila. His grades are close to failure, he drinks illegally and smokes, dates a new girl every week, has a circle of friends bigger than our town itself, and spends his days partying and being praised by everyone at school along side his accomplice and best friend, Charlie Acker. 

17 just like my brother and I, captain of the hockey team, scholarship to play hockey at Penn State just like Ryan, the school's bad boy who has all the girls falling at his feet, tall, incredibly attractive, and the boy I have been secretly crushing on since I was 7. The only problem, crushing on him was forbidden. Ryan and Charlie were like brothers themselves, they did absolutely everything together and Charlie was practically like my brother since he was always with our family. It Ryan found out, or if anything happened between Charlie and I, he would probably never speak to me, or be too embarrassed to, I was a nobody to the two of them, and sure we had our moments, where we were the unstoppable three musketeers, hanging out all of the time, but when fall hit and school started again I was left shoved up against lockers as the hallway parted a clear center for the two of them to walk through, literally. Charlie Acker will never see me any differently. He will never feel the way I feel for him. Two polar opposites, and we will just continue to pull to different ends of the earth no matter what happens, the stars just don't align for us, as much as I don't want to admit it to myself. But that wont stop me from staring at him, cheering him on, staying out of his way so I don't make a fool of myself when I talk to him, fantasizing about an alternate universe where we actually work, and it definitely wont stop me from watching him sweat, shirtless in my front yard, on a beautiful, hot August day.