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

MBFB Extra (Cindy)

Cinderella Fellows

"You are mine this afternoon and no one is allowed to steal you away from me!" I exclaim, basically friend-handling Eli. She had that all-too-familiar expression on her face, the amused one. I thought it was both funny and endearing. She was adorable.

Currently, we are heading to the mall, just her and me walking side-by-side, our arms entangled like two scaly, snakes. It's been a long time since we were alone like this. Nowadays, it was always the gang with a couple others.

The thing is, I missed Eli, my best friend. School and Ethan have been taking up my spare time for a while now. And, since she has more things on her plate too - mainly the pageant, my moronic brother, I guess Zeke too - it was quite a challenge to steal some quality bestie time these days. Most of all, I was a little worried about her.

She's not telling me something and it's sort of bothering the hell outta me. We never do that. We share secrets, not keep them from each other. You can see it in her pretty blue eyes; the nervousness, the hesitation - Eli's hiding something, but she's not ready to tell me yet. I'll respect that. How long I'll hold my prying back, I haven't the slightest clue.

"Don't worry, I'm all yours," she said as she sent me a swift wink. I laugh, flipping my hair over my shoulder as we enter the outrageously crowded mall.

I recall buying a few materials here - the one for Eli's brainchild. On top of her pageantry duties, El decided to orchestrate an ambitious plan that includes my goofy brother and the ever-so-self-centered Penelope. Elouise may be my dearest friend, but Penny and I never got on. Our personalities clash and she just has a different point of view from me. For the record, I tried my hardest to get along with her in perfect harmony. We both came to realize that we were simply not in-sync.

Well, at least, we can be civil towards each other.

Anyway, don't even get me started on Eli's full-blown infatuation with Mr Hottie McTottie. Or in Eli's words, Andrew James. That girl was dead-set on winning him over. I knew how Eli is with love-related situations. She either sinks herself in too early or in too late. She also has that difficulty with deciding whether she's all in or not in at all.

Eli may have the looks of a beauty queen, but I know what this is like for her. She's probably too afraid to actually believe anything - or anyone - special she notices. Honestly, the girl could smack straight into a brick wall, because she was having an internal battle inside the deep recesses of her brain.

Yeah, that doesn't make sense.

Busy Tuesdays at the mall seems to be the sale trend lately. Good thing, I came prepared and brought money to afford random shit that I find fascinating.

As we strolled through the deep sea of people, I couldn't stop myself from guffawing at Elouise. The girl was hugging her purse to her chest for dear life! I mean, the mall's busy, but not that full. Only one word had the ability to describe her right now, and that was "paranoid". There was an abundance of signs, ranging from an old-fashioned "SALE" to the oh-so-popular "buy one, get one half price". I always somehow fall for their deceiving red letters and quirky fonts, unlike this girl walking beside me who couldn't be fooled. Or so I think. Well...her lack of enthusiam when it came to shopping may be a possible determiner, but that wasn't the point.

Of course, for both our sakes, I quickly lead us to where our hearts lie - the food floor. I was feeling a little Italian, so I asked if we could get some. I didn't think Eli would mind; she even suggested going to Pizza Palace. Their cuisine is absolutely to die for, how could I decline? We arrive there a little after four o'clock in the afternoon. Our waitress was very welcoming - all their staff were. She moved really smoothly and she smile a lot. I liked people who weren't afraid to smile.