My Best Friend's Brother // Young Love Book 1 ✔️

My Best Friend's Brother Ch. 24

Her massive shoulder bag was resting on the crook of her elbow and I wondered how that didn't hurt her. "About time," she muttered with a teasing smirk. "Come on, grandma. I'm driving you home."

"I'm going job hunting, remember?" I told her and her eyes widened.

"So that's why you dressed up so fashionably!"

"Hey! Are you saying my clothes are tacky?" I said defensively. I crossed my arms, a tad offended.

She shook her head feverishly. "No! No! It's just that you...put in extra effort today. What happened to wearing demin jeans?"

While it was true that I wear jeans half the time, her comment still felt like a slap to my apparently unfashionable face. "Extra effort? This was the first thing I grabbed!"

"Calm yourself, woman. Okay, I'll just meet up with Ethan. I ain't driving with my overprotective brother when he knows I'll be with my boyfriend. You can babysit Charlie for me, right? Thanks, El. You're a life saver!" Cindy took off down the hall, escaping from me in a blink of an eye. She'll have an earful later.

Who said I agreed to it? Oh yeah, she did. I swear, sometimes that girl uses her knowledge for evil.

I spotted Charlie standling idly at the front of the school. He had one strap of his backpack slung on his shoulder and his phone clutched in his left hand. There was also a frown on his face. It was probably because he didn't want to accompany me in my job search. As I got closer, Charlie finally saw me. He didn't seem too happy to see me, but he did wave.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to," I quickly told him, trying not to sound embarrassed.

He shrugged. "It's fine. Got nothing to do anyway," he replied as he looked away, scowling at thin air. "Besides, I'll need a distraction. Who knows what Cindy's doing with her boyfriend as we speak?"

"Locking lips at his house?"

He glared at me in disbelief. "That's not helping!" Charlie snapped.

I huffed a laugh, even though it was an honest and innocent suggestion. It was a plausible one too. "Whatever, let's go."

Charlie was acting like a sour potato, but I guess that's what happens when he's in big brother mode.

Half an hour later, we were walking aimlessly up the street. I've handed in my resumé to most shops, but they all told me the same thing. "We'll get back to you," they would say. I'm sure they wouldn't, but that's fine. One, just one would do. But, for the mean time, I'll just keep trying.

So far, Charlie and I hadn't talked much, except for the time he asked me when we were going to eat. Which was now, I think. My feet were aching and I wanted to give them a rest, so I decided that it would be a smart choice if we stock up on our appetites.

Charlie wanted to eat some ice cream, so we went to SCÖÖP. It was a cute little frozen dessert shop with tons of options. They had the whole retro thing going on and I guess, I just missed going there. Penny and I used to eat there all the time when we were fifteen. She would always drag me along with her because the guy who used to work there looked like a Greek god, hands down. Once inside, I asked for caramel toffee, while Charlie got vanilla. Again. He paid, saying that chivalry wasn't dead. I rolled my eyes at him. He was such a boy sometimes. After I gave my resumé to the lady who worked here, the two of us sat on one of the booths beside the window. From there, Charlie struck a conversation.

You know, once upon a time, that would've surprised me - seeing that Charlie was somewhat distant before, despite the fact that he was always there. Nowadays, if we didn't speak to each other, it felt odd; as if something wasn't quite right and I had to find a way to fix it.