Loving My Brother's Best Friend

I woke up the next morning to my phone ringing. My head was killing me from all the crying I’d done last night, and I didn’t want to deal with anyone.

I looked at the caller ID on my phone and saw it was Luca’s name. I immediately sent it to voicemail and put my phone down. I thought he’d realized how much he’d hurt me.

My phone went off again, this time alerting me to a text message. I rolled my eyes, because I thought it was going to be Luca, but it was Austin.

Maybe Austin was the right guy for me. I mean, he was nice, and I enjoyed spending time with him. Maybe over time, I’d fall in love with him.

I knew that wasn’t fair to him, but I had to get to know him to find out if I loved him, right?

I should tell him about what happened between me and Luca so we can continue to be honest with each other.

***

Austin was right on time in front of my house at 11:30 a.m. I was excited about hanging out with him. Austin was easy to talk to and easy to be around.

“So, where are we going?” I asked as I was buckling my seat belt.

“Do you like pizza?”

“I love pizza; who doesn’t?”

“Great. There’s this perfect pizza place near campus. We can go there, and then after we eat, we can hang out.”

“Sounds good.”

It didn’t take long for us to get to the pizza place. It was the perk of living in a semi-small town.

Our town was small, even with the university and having students here. Most of our residents were college students or people who had summer homes here.

“What do you want on the pizza?”

“Can we try one of their specials? I enjoy trying different things from places I’ve never been to.”

“Sure. Can we get the owner’s special?” Austin looked at me after ordering. “Is that okay? It has barbecue sauce, hot sauce, chicken, peppers, onions, and mushrooms.”

“That sounds delicious.”

The cashier handed us a number, and we went to go pick a table.

“Thanks for bringing me here.”

“You’re welcome. I’m excited to get to know you,” Austin stated.

I was kind of nervous. I’d dated guys, but they’d been high school guys, and I was afraid Austin wasn’t going to like that I wasn’t experienced.

We found a table in the corner where we could see the whole pizza place. It would be a good spot if we’d just wanted to sit and watch people.

“So, before we go any further in whatever this is, Austin, I need to tell you something.”

“Does it have to do with last night?”

“It does.” I took a deep breath in and out before speaking again. I wasn’t sure how he was going to react.

“Luca kissed me last night after you said you’d give me a ride home, and he told me it was a mistake. I can’t continue down this road with you unless you knew about it.”

“Thank you for telling me. I already knew what happened. I was going to turn back around and ask you something else when that interaction happened. Now can I ask you something?”

“Yes.”

“If we continue this relationship, will I have your attention, or will it be stuck on Luca?”

“I’ll be with you. Last night was an eye-opener. He was drunk, and as soon as he realized what had happened, he regretted it. You seem like a cool guy. I’m comfortable with you.

“I think you’re attractive, and I want to get to know you better. Now, we may decide later that we’re better off as friends, but we shouldn’t deal with that right now.”

“I agree,” Austin said.

***

The pizza ended up being delicious; we ate every single piece, and I wouldn’t have minded going back.

“Man, how did we eat all that?” Austin asked.

“I don’t know, but I feel like I’m going to be waddling away. We won’t have to figure out what to do for dinner since we’re so full.”

Austin let out a sigh. “I don’t think I can think about food right now.”

“Okay, so let’s think about what we can do now that we’ve stuffed our faces,” I said.

“Do you like movies? If you do, we can go back to my house, and we can watch a movie or two,” Austin suggested.

“That sounds like what we need. It’ll give us time to digest all that food or fall asleep, whichever comes first,” I said jokingly.

“All right, then, let’s go,” Austin said, grabbing my hand.

***

On the way to the house, we asked questions. I found out Austin had one older sister, his parents were divorced, and he was majoring in business with a concentration in computer software.

I found out he broke up with a high school girlfriend before starting college this year because she didn’t want to be tied down to someone while in a new “phase of her life.”

It surprised me to find out he was a year behind Will and Luca, since Luca had said he was too old for me. By the time we got to his house, I felt like I knew him a little better.

“Not to be a creeper or anything, but it may be best if we watch the movies in my room, in case some of the other guys come in,” Austin suggested.

“Are you trying to make a move on me without me realizing it?” I jokingly asked.

“No, I really mean it may be the best because of the other guys. They’re usually rowdy, and they’ll make comments.”

“I’m joking. I trust you. You’ve been honest with me, and if you wanted to do something, you would have done it at the party.”

I followed Austin up to his room. I was feeling a little awkward, or maybe I felt nervous, and I was just confusing it for awkwardness.

The only other guy that I’d been alone in the room with was Connor, and Connor was gay, so there hadn’t been a chance of anything happening between us.

“So, what do you want to watch?” Austin asked me as I sat on his bed.

“What do you have?”

“You’ll have to scroll through Netflix to find something.”

“I’m sure we can find a movie that neither of us has seen before,” I stated.

Austin turned on Netflix and started searching through the movies, and we finally decided on some Netflix original movie that neither of us had heard of.

It wasn’t all that great, but it gave us something to watch instead of trying to fill the silence.

“That movie officially sucked, and I’m going to get something to drink. Do you want anything?”

“Yes, what do you have?”

“Water and soda.”

“Can I have a soda? And while you get that, I’m going to use the restroom.”

“The bathroom to use is down the hall and to the right.”

I followed his directions. It wasn’t hard. There were two bathrooms, and if I’d found one of them, I’d have been fine.

Right when I went to go knock to see if someone was in there, Luca opened the door, wearing just a towel.

“Henley? What are you doing here?”

“I’m hanging out with Austin. I just needed to use the bathroom.”

“Sorry,” he mumbled and moved out of the way. I didn’t even say, “Thank you” before shutting the door on him.

I took a few extra minutes to calm myself down after I used the restroom, so Austin wouldn’t know something was wrong.

When I got back to the room, Austin was already back on the bed with our drinks, and he handed me the soda.

“I hope a Coke is okay. It’s room temperature, so I brought you a cup of ice.”

“Thank you.”

I opened the drink and poured it into the cup of ice and took a sip. I smiled at Austin because I noticed he was staring at me.

“Can I kiss you?” he asked, and I nearly choked on my drink.

“You’re a little forward, aren’t you?”

“Sorry, I was thinking about kissing you, and I just blurted it out.”

I wouldn’t have guessed Austin to be shy around girls. He seemed like a guy who could have any girl he set his mind on.

“Well, stop thinking about it and actually do it,” I said.

Austin smiled as he took my glass away and placed it on the nightstand and moved closer to me.

He was sitting on his knees, and he gently cupped my face before he pulled me in for a kiss. This kiss was not like Luca’s. This kiss was soft, almost like he was cherishing it.

He wrapped his arms around me to pull me closer to deepen the kiss. The kiss continued to escalate, and I’m not sure how we shifted, but I ended up straddling his lap.

I pulled at the hair on the nape of his neck, and he let out a little groan and bit my lip. I could feel his erection through his pants, so, as payback, I circled my hips over him.

He slid his arm down my back and under my shirt to slide it off me. I’d never gone this far with a guy before, and I wanted to continue. I didn’t care about losing my virginity; I just wanted to feel wanted.

Austin placed his mouth around my nipples over the bra.

A knock at the door ruined our concentration, and I told Austin to ignore it, but the person knocked again.

“Don’t stop,” I begged him as he sucked on my nipple.

Without a third knock, the door opened, and all hell broke loose. Will and Luca were ready to tear Austin apart.

“What the fuck are you doing with my sister? I thought I made it clear she was off limits to you jackasses.”

“You did this on purpose. You wanted to sleep with Henley to get back at me for getting benched.”

“That’s not what this is about. I like you sister.”

“Will, you’re being a jerk, and you just insulted me. You need to go.”

Will wasn’t listening to me, and he punched Austin in the face. He was going to keep punching him, but I grabbed his arm, knowing he wouldn’t physically hurt me.

“You and Luca need to go. You’ve done enough damage, and I don’t want to see either of you for the rest of the night. I wanted this; he even asked me if what he was doing was okay.

“I’m not the little girl that follows you around anymore. I’m an adult who has a mind of her own, and I don’t need two guys who think so little of me to watch over me.”

“That’s not what I meant, Hen.”

“Really? Because you don’t think Austin is with me because he wants to be. I’m done with the two of you for now. Leave us alone.”

“You can’t see him” was all Will said.

“Why? It’s my decision.”

“I don’t want you hurt.”

“Too bad. Hurt is part of relationships, and I’m going to date or sleep with whoever I want. You have no room to talk about me getting hurt, because what you said hurt me.”

Will didn’t hesitate to leave, and he grabbed Luca’s arm to drag him along.

“I’m sorry about that,” I said to Austin.

“It’s not a problem. I expected it at some point.”

I let out a sigh. “It was probably a good thing they interrupted, though. I’m…a virgin.”

Austin stared at me. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have taken it that far. Your first time should be special,” he said with regret in his voice.

“I wanted it to go that far, so don’t blame yourself,” I reassured him.

“Well, now that I know, we’ll take it slower.”

“Let’s get you cleaned up.”