my best friend's brother is the one for me

Chapter 10

Gloria feels like her heart stops when she hears Hop's voice outside while she's sharing a sleeping bag with his older brother, but she doesn't even have a chance to try to get rid of him. As soon as she's said, "Um, yeah-" he's already starting unzipping the entrance to come say hi, and she realizes too late that she shouldn't have said anything at all. He wouldn't just boldly enter anyone's tent like that, but his best friend is fair game.

"Hop, wait, I-"

But it's too late. He's already poking his head in to grin at her, then freezing in place as he looks to Leon, then looks back at her, then looks back at Leon. His mouth comes open but he can't seem to find anything to say, until he finally closes it again, still not making any move to come in or go back out. Of course, it would be really cramped with all three of them packed inside, but that's not the main concern right now.

Her mind races as she tries to think of some kind of lie, any excuse to make it seem natural for Leon to be here with her, but the fact that they're sharing a sleeping bag says it all. If they hadn't already settled in for the night, maybe they could have passed it off as something else, but...no. They don't need to lie about it.

Leon took her by complete surprise, meeting up with her just to talk, and, rather than ending things like she expected him to, telling her that he feels the same way about her. All his teasing about her feelings lead up to the moment where he revealed that they weren't all that one-sided, making this the happiest night of her life so far. In the back of her mind, she knew there would be new concerns regarding who knew about them and how much of a secret this could really remain at this rate, but she hadn't expected to be faced with one of the people she was most concerned about telling so soon.

But now Hop is here, looking between the two of them with his shock written all over his face, and even if there were some way to lie about this and convince him that it isn't what it looks like, Gloria doesn't want to do that. If this is becoming more serious, then the longer they hide it from Hop, the harder it will be to come clean. In a way, it might be better that they were left with no choice, though this isn't the best way for him to find out. Still, he could have caught them doing something a lot worse...

"...Lee?"

Sheepishly, Leon offers a half a wave as he sits up, bringing Gloria up with him. "Hey, Hop. Didn't expect to see you tonight."

"I...me neither? Gloria...hey, um, I just wanted to stop in and say hi, so I..." Hop's expression is impossible to read as he stammers his way through the conversation, before he finally gives up on trying to pretend that he has no idea what's going on, and that it's normal to run into both of them at the same time. "What's going on?"

"We're...me and Leon..." she starts, but stops before she can finish her sentence because she isn't sure what Leon wants her to tell Hop. Though he made it clear to her that he wants to be with her, he also made it clear that it's not something they can be entirely honest about, and Hop may be her best friend, but it's his younger brother. She might need to tread a bit more carefully, so she looks to him so that he might continue.

"Hop," he says, "I'm going out with your best friend." Just like that. He says it so bluntly that Gloria is torn between feeling proud of herself for the easy way Leon admits to their relationship, and feeling embarrassed with how shamelessly he confesses the truth to Hop.

"It does kind of look like that," Hop says, giving the two of them a half of a smile. "So, you two...I had no idea, how long have you..." He doesn't want to show either of them his feelings on the matter, trying to bury his shock behind support, trying to act casually, as if he happens upon scenes like this all the time.