Midterms began and ended and, luckily, I did pretty well. Christmas was around the corner and school let out for holidays. Since we were in California, we had no expectations of snow, but there was one thing that was going to make this Christmas amazing.
Chase.
It was the twentieth and I had eagerly accepted the task of picking him up from the airport. I was actually considering asking Julio to come to the airport with me to pick my brother up, but I knew that Chase had to slowly get used to the idea of me dating someone or else there was a high possibility that he'd punch my boyfriend.
Things were going amazingly with Julio and I. I liked him more than ever and he was a surprisingly sweet boyfriend; he walked me to class, carried my books, picked me up and dropped me off almost every day, and listened to me when I told him to stop yelling at people. He wasn't the kind of guy who'd take a girl out on fancy dates to impress her, but he'd definitely impressed me by being incredibly genuine.
Despite all of that, Chase probably wouldn't like him. He could've been a saint who volunteered at animal shelters and orphanages over the weekends, but that wouldn't have made a difference to my brother. Chase took overprotective to a whole new level.
I'd gotten my first boyfriend here, before we'd moved to San Francisco. He was this gangly kid named Johnny Johnson (this was his actual, legal name) and he was completely harmless. However, Chase, who'd been a seventeen year old high school junior at the time, had not liked him. Johnny broke up with me two days after he met Chase.
The same happened with the next two. The first was Mark Lorie in freshman year, and he lasted about four months before Chase managed to scare him off. The second was Liam Finnegan in sophomore year, and he broke up with me after we'd dated for nearly the entire year, when Chase's glares got to be a little too much.
I'd taken a break from dating my junior year and now, I just hoped that Julio's scariness balanced out Chase's and he actually lasted.
Honestly, though, none of that mattered in this particular moment, when I would see Chase in a matter of minutes.
I was a nervous mess in the arrivals gate of the airport, which was a two hour drive from my mother's home, and I was constantly checking my phone, both for the time and for a text from my brother.
Suddenly, a group of people came into view, filtering out to the gate with their bags in tow. Among them, I could see a very familiar head of blond hair.
"Chase!" I called, raising my arms in the air and waving, unable to help the silly grin that took over my face the second I saw him. I was garnering some weird looks from people, but I didn't care.
He looked up, smiling widely as he saw me, dropping his bag and holding his arms open. I didn't hesitate for a second, and broke out into a run, throwing myself at him in a bear hug.
"I've missed you so much." I said into his shoulder a few seconds later, feeling a little teary-eyed.
"I've missed you, too, baby sis." Chase kissed the top of my head and hugged me tighter. He smelled like airplane and his familiar spicy cologne, and his arms felt beyond comforting around me. We'd never gone this long without seeing each other.
When we pulled back, and Chase picked his bags up again, I let out a little sob, feeling a few tears trickle out.
"Why are you crying?" He looked out of his element, and glanced at me in confusion.
"I'm sorry." I said, furiously wiping at my eyes. "It's just that I haven't seen you in so long and, I guess I've just missed you."
"Like I said, I've missed you, too." He chuckled, throwing his arm around my shoulders and crushing me under his weight as he pulled me to his side. I was dying under the pressure, but I didn't really mind.
He shoved his bags into the trunk of the car and insisted on arguing with me until I gave in and let him drive. He snatched the keys with a pleased expression and announced that I'd be his official navigator.
"How was London?" I asked, as he pulled out of the parking space. "Did you have fun?"
"London was really great." He responded, before adding with a little more detail, "The accents were awesome, and they have some pretty great food. Classes are hard, but I can deal with that."
"Have you met any girls?" I teased, wiggling my eyebrows, despite the fact that he was watching the road in front and couldn't exactly see what I was up to.
"Yeah, actually." He answered, smiling to himself.
"OMG, really?! What's her name? What's she like? I need to know!" The last time Chase had ever dated someone was in high school. He'd always put his life on the back burner for me and he'd made looking after me his priority, which actually made me feel pretty guilty.
"Her name is Elizabeth, but she insists on everyone calling her Liz. She's an artist, and a really good one, at that. She's beautiful, too." He described, and I grinned, clapping my hands together excitedly.
"Do I get to meet her? Why didn't you bring her with you? Why didn't you tell me about her earlier?" I demanded, needing to know more about this girl.
"I'm Skyping her sometime soon. If she's cool with it, then you can talk to her. She has her own family to spend Christmas with, and I wouldn't bring her to this freak show, either way. And I didn't tell you about her earlier because this seemed like the kind of thing you talk to someone about in person." Chase said calmly, answering each of my questions in turn.
"I can't believe you're dating someone." I stated, having faded from excitement to disbelief.
"You don't mind, do you?" He asked, suddenly sounding almost nervous, "I mean, for so long, it's just been the two of us. I don't know how you'd feel about bringing Liz into the picture."
"Chase, don't worry. You've always put me first. You need to start putting yourself first sometimes, too. I'm happy for you. I'm really, really happy for you. You don't have to worry about my reaction because I love."
"Okay." Chase shook it off, speaking brightly because he was a male and was therefore unable to have a remotely mushy conversation without feeling the need to lighten the mood. "So, are there any guys in your life for me to threaten?"
The dreaded conversation. I should've known that this was coming. "Uh, maybe." I muttered, pulling at the rip in my skinny jeans.
Chase turned to look at me for a long moment, ignoring the fact that he was driving, almost to the point where I wanted to yell at him to keep his eyes on the road.
"Who is he?" Chase asked, still calm.
"His name is Julio, Julio Hernandez." I replied, knowing that he'd now insist on meeting Julio and would definitely, without a doubt, attempt to scare the crap out of him.
"And he's your boyfriend?" He said, and I nodded. "If he's anything like that Liam guy, I will definitely punch him and you can't complain."
To be fair, Liam was pretty slimy. He'd tried to feel me up when we were in the same room as Chase, my obviously protective brother.
"Okay. But, he's nothing like Liam. He's much more respectful." I wasn't lying. Julio was always asking if we were going too far or too fast. He didn't try to make out with me or anything in public, and he definitely didn't do anything I didn't want him to.
"He better be. I want to meet him before I leave." Chase ordered, and I nodded. While there were some who thought that Chase was too demanding, he was only being the parent he'd always filled in for when it came to me, and it was definitely a boyfriend thing to meet the parents.
"You're not going to freak out?" I asked, slightly shocked. I'd expected him to be more pissed.
"Taylor, you're almost an adult. You'll he eighteen in, like, a month. You're old enough to make your own decisions, and I trust you when you say your new boyfriend's a decent guy. I'm going to have to make sure of that for myself, but I'm not going to stop you from dating him. You're a smart kid."
"I'm only seven years younger than you are!" I whined, offended by the 'kid' comment.
"Only seven years?" He teased, taking great pleasure at my affronted expression.
The rest of the car ride was much more relaxed. He told me funny stories about things that had happened in England, and even a few about Liz while I filled him in on all the drama in my life, including the whole Chris-Charlie thing. I'd also told him how Julio and I had gotten together. Instead of being slightly put off like I'd expected him to be, he'd only chuckled and said something about that being very similar to how he'd asked Liz out.
I hadn't realized just how much I'd missed my brother until this very moment, when we were talking and laughing together, like we'd never actually even been apart in the first place.
A/N: I just finished this show called Dark on Netflix. It's German, but it's got English subtitles and it's amazing. It's honestly very addicting and it's the kind of show you binge. What are you guys watching?