What It Seems | Wattys 2023

Chapter 15

It was a Sunday afternoon at Jo's, and we were painting her room. She phoned me Friday, the day after we visited the gym, asking if I could help paint her room. Once I got here, Jo had five tins of paint (her new room is immense). There were two buckets of lime green, one yellow, one baby blue and the last one was white.

Her idea was to paint two walls lime green - where her bed would be. One wall would be the baby blue, and the next wall, along with her closet, would soon be yellow. The white was for her two French closet doors and her ceiling (I found it insane when she told me she wanted to paint her ceiling). So far, we've laid a tarp on the carpeted floor.

Jo painted the wall and her closet she wanted yellow. I've smothered paint on the two walls that she wanted lime green and the last wall that would soon be blue. Once, we got into a paint fight. My hair is practically yellow, and Jo looks like a big booger - a slimy one at that.

Right now, I figured it'd be a good time to talk about my brother since we were almost done. I promised Aiden I would before he dropped me off.

"So, have you seen any boys at school you've taken a liking to?" I ask, rolling the paint roller over the old paint. I continue until the violet-colored wall is the lime green Jo bought.

"Um, no, not really. I mean, I haven't met all the boys in school yet, so no," Jo responded.

"What about Aiden?" I dunked the roller in the green paint on the tray and let the excess paint drip until it stopped.

"What about him?" she inquired. I turned my head to look at her painting the corner of the wall with the paint brush. Her cheeks had turned into a light cherry color, and she tried to seem concentrated on the wall, but I knew her mind was on the, and I quote, "buff boy" that was known as my brother.

"Do you think he's y'know . . . cute?" I awkwardly asked. Calling my brother "cute" was not my intention but I was doing this for Aiden to help him. Once I returned to painting the wall, from the corner of my eye, I saw the corners of her lips curl into a grin.

"I guess," she breathed.

"So, if he asked you on a date, what would you say?" I asked, turning to Jo as her hand was on her hip, the other hanging loosely by her side with the paint brush in her hand.

"Did he ask if I wanted to go on a date with him?" Jo wondered.

I grinned, "Answer my question."

"I guess. I mean, I have to get to know him because I don't want to go on a date with him and not know anything about him. It'd be pretty awkward." At that, she held her lips in a taut line.

"Should I give you his number and when I get home, I'll give him yours? After that, I'll leave it to both of you." It was more of a statement than a question.

Jo nodded anyway. "Is he a - well, I don't want to call him a jerk - I mean - oh, you know what I mean!" Jo exclaimed, tongue tied and out of articles to call my brother.

"No, he's not a jerk. He's just a big. . . dork. He is aggravating at times but he's cool to be around." The words tasted bitter in my mouth. I have no idea why I just admitted that because I know deep down, I would've never said that if it weren't Jo. I was kind of shocked, really, because I never knew of anyone to ever like my brother. The only reason why most girls (and I've heard this plenty of times by some random girl stopping by my locker or stopping me at school or writing me notes telling me how great my brother is in bed, and I should tell Aiden that the girls wanted him to "hit them up") liked Aiden was because he was a "fun time," according to most girls.

But then there's Jo: the new (well not new anymore, really) girl who transferred from Georgia and didn't know who Aiden Claire was, let alone didn't know a soul in this state or in the northeastern region of the United States. So, how would Jo fit in with the other girls? She wouldn't, because Jo Collins hasn't been thought of since the day she moved - she hasn't been thought of by my brother since last week.

***

"God, what happened to you? You look like a big sunflower." Aiden twisted the strands of my yellow hair that were stuck together, making a crunchy sound. I was back at home, tired and drained from today. It was 8:45PM, and I was ready to get a shower, lie in bed and watch The Walking Dead until I fell asleep. I had already eaten Chinese over at Jo's and it seemed like Aiden finally cooked but it seems as if I missed that once-a-week (barely even once a week) home-cooked meal.

"Jo and I got into a paint fight. Jo looks worse: she looks like a huge booger," I chuckled and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. The taste of water overwhelmed me, especially when I'm practically dehydrated.

"Did you ask her?" Aiden bit the inside of his cheek nervously and ran a hand up and down the back of his neck. I've never seen my brother so nervous in my life before.

"Yeah, and I gave her your number. Jo said she wanted to get to know you a little bit more because it'd be sort of awkward. I dunno, you've never really let me date a guy in my life, so how would I know?" I stated. "Hand me your phone so I can put Jo's number in there."

Aiden reached into his front pocket, dragging his Galaxy from his pocket. He tapped here and there on the humongous screen and handed me his phone. It already had his contact list pulled up, revealing a large list of girls' names.

"If you want to date Jo, I suggest you get rid of these numbers," I advised. I heard a faint sigh come from Aiden and I giggled a bit. Whilst I was on his phone, I pulled mine out from my back pocket and searched for Jo's contact since I didn't know it by heart. I typed her name and number in and saved Jo's contact.

"Thanks." I nodded, and watched my brother type away on his phone. I shook my head and laughed silently. It's like it was love at first sight for him.

Since he's probably texting Jo, I decided to take a shower. I needed to wash the paint out my hair and off my body and refresh for tomorrow. Just by seeing the happy look on my brother's face, it made me a bit jealous, though I was still happy for him. I wish I had that excited feeling of a potential new beginning.

I'm too awkward to form a relationship like that. I'm also scared tolove someone. If I'm not good at forming a friendship, how could I even possibly be qualified to form a relationship?