Falling In Love With My Best Friend (Watty Award 2011)

Chapter 24

© Copyright Nicole Nelson, 2011

Brandon's POV-

I woke up the next morning to find her body molded to my side and her face nuzzled in the crook of my neck. My first half-asleep thoughts were of how nice this felt; how nice it would feel to wake up like this every morning. Quickly, however, I gave myself an internal slap and gently eased to the edge of the bed. Careful not to wake her I rose from the bed and left the room, softly shutting the door before I changed my mind and savored a little more time with cuddling with her.

I made my way to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, searching for breakfast. I pulled out 3 eggs and the package of bacon and pulled the bread from inside the cabinet. Maybe cooking some bacon, eggs, and toast for breakfast for the two of us would keep my mind off the crazy thoughts that had been consuming me.

Just as the toast popped from the toaster Gracie trudged groggily into the kitchen and sat on a stool that was pulled up to the granite island counter. Dark circles were under her eyes and she leaned over the counter with her arm propping up her head.

"The smell of food is making me sick." She complained, looking at the two plates I was piling with food. "I hope this is all for you."

"You need to eat a little bit. It'll make you feel better." I told her, sliding the small plate with one egg, one piece of toast and a few pieces of bacon to her.

I grabbed two glasses from the cabinet above the sink and filled them with water.

"Here," I told her. "You need to drink some water too."

"Yes father." She said sarcastically, taking the glass of water and drinking.

We sat in an awkward silence as she picked at her food. Eventually her plate was empty and she seemed to be feeling better but still not quite fully recovered. I decided it was time to put the awkwardness aside and have a much needed discussion.

“Do you want to tell me about last night?"

"What about it?" She asked cautiously.

"Well for starters, how did you end up like that? You don't drink, that's not you.”

“I don’t really remember much. Just what I already told you."

I shook my head frustrated that I would never know the answers to my questions if she couldn't remember.

"And what about you? Anything you want to tell me?" She asked.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, sincerely baffled.

"Do you want to tell me how you randomly found me?”

“Not really. Wanna talk about anything else?” I asked her suggestively.

She knew precisely what I meant and we exchanged a look filled with hidden messages.

“Like I said, it was the alcohol talking.” I smirked, trying to lighten to mood and avoid the seriousness of this extremely awkward yet extremely tempting topic.

"No, it wasn't." She snapped, suddenly angry at my nonchalance. "It was your best friend talking."

She stood up from the bar stool and walked to the living room, forcing me to follow her to continue this conversation.

"I just feel pretty stupid now." She admitted, seeming to be mad at herself as well as me. "I've never been rejected like that before."

"I didn't reject you-"

"Yes, you did." She cut off my explanation.

“You wanna know why? Because maybe I actually care about you Gracie. So excuse me if I don’t jump on the chance to throw away a ten year friendship for a piece of ass.” I said, raising my voice to avoid another of her interruptions when she hears something she doesn't like.  

"Friendship? We've barely even been friends lately. You're moving in a couple months Brandon and we'll be even less of friends then."

Her declaration stung, even though I knew she was probably right. It didn't have to be that way though. 

 "I just don’t measure up to Brooke and all the other girls who flock to you.” She accused coldly.

"You know that's not true..." I started, realizing that she probably didn't know that judging by the hurt expression on her face. "The difference between you and them is that they don't mean anything to me."

She rolled her eyes as if the thought was ridiculous when in fact it was the truth.

"I don’t care if they don’t talk to me again." I continued, choosing to ignore her dismissive attitude. "I wasn’t attached to any of them but if you hated me I couldn't handle that."

"Whatever." She tried to act aloof but the tears filling her eyes that she was fighting to keep from falling let me know she was still taking in what I was telling her.

I looked away from her, not wanting to see her cry any more than she wanted me to see it.

“I mean, damn grace, did it occur to you that I might actually value you? Maybe even, I don’t know, respect you?” I asked sarcastically as I slammed the glass dishes in the sink harder than I intended and began washing our plates.

"We have a lot more to lose than me and Brooke." I emphasized her name in a tone of disdain.

"Can we just drop this this? I'm tired of talking about it.” She said indifferently.

Not looking at her made it easier to believe what she said despite knowing deep down she didn't want to drop it. I could blame my dad for this whole problem for forcing football on me and pushing me to move but in the end it was my choice to go to Ohio. It may not be what I would have chose to do on my own but at any point I could have spoke up and ended this obsessive plan.

More than anything I wanted to stay in town but I also knew that was easier said than done. So rather than trying to explain to her any more how wrong it would be to be together temporarily and break both of our hearts, I avoided eye contact all together and dried the dishes.

This was the easiest way; although my heart felt like it would break I imagined how much more painful it would feel after we grew a relationship and I pushed myself to do what I had to do. I calmly put them away in the cabinet where they belonged before leaving without another word, closing the door to her house and this discussion.