𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟒

                                    

                                          

nila
Brian squeezed the bare side of my waist, rubbing his side up against mine, and I could feel his boner digging into my hip, literally. We were around the same height unfortunately for me which meant I could feel everything. "You never came to see me all summer." He pouted and I fought the urge to gag.
"I was busy. I'm also not going to travel all the way to Texas for you." Maikel chuckled at that and I realized we still had an audience.
"Who's this?" Brooke reached for her notepad again on instinct but I waved her off.
"We're basically dating." Brian answered for me and my patience ran thin. I had a mouth thanks, I didn't need him using it for me and with wrong information nonetheless. 
I slapped my hand on his chest to shut him up, but the idiot's hard on only grew more because of the action and I removed my hand just as quickly as I placed it. "We were friends in freshman year." Even friends was a bit of a stretch for me, we occasionally fucked when I felt like it. I cut Brian off when he clung to me all the time and started acting like we were an item. 
"Come on sweetheart, we were a bit more than that wouldn't you say?" His southern accent came out at the nickname and everyone, including Brooke, cringed. If this wasn't the most awkward interaction I've had in a hot minute. I wasn't okay with how Brian was holding me so tightly but I wasn't going to say anything to the group because a scene would probably break out. For now, I just had to plaster a fake smile and deal with it. 
"We used to hook up." I ripped the Band Aid off and elaborated to Brooke, her eyes going wide as she adjusted her glasses. No one spoke after that and I rocked back and forth on my heels, slowly stepping out of Brian's hold. Nevermind, this was more awkward. Maikel narrowed his eyes at my inconvenient stance since my waist was still glued to Brian's arm and my neck was turned away from him but I just rolled my eyes and looked elsewhere. The last thing I needed was for him to play the loving big brother role when we both knew he couldn't give two shits about my wellbeing. 
Someone could cut the tension with a knife with the way everybody was staring at each other, but I guess it was softened by Damian stealing some of Carmen's apricots. "Hey, Maikel. How you been, man?" Brian reached over the table with his empty hand went to dap him up but it kinda failed when Maikel's arms stayed fixed over his chest.
"I don't know you?" He scoffed and Damian let out a low whistle. Fucking shitstirrer. I stepped out of Brian's hold when his arm loosened as his cheeks turned red from embarrassment and moved closer to Brooke, the poor girl looking traumatized because of this conversation. How she survived freshman year of college was a mystery. 
Despite being called out like that, Brian kept his friendly face. "Sure you do, we're in the same frat." 
I bit my lip to hold back the laughter threatening to leave my mouth. Maikel being in a frat is something I'll forever take the piss out of. "Something funny, Nila?" He pressed.
"Nothing dad." I taunted and he sucked in a large breath. I swear on fucking anything if the purge ever came to be true, Maikel would be first on my hit list. 
"Shut the fuck up." Maikel pointed to me and I threw my hands up in fake surrender, playing dumb. 
Brian came closer to me and I smelt his disgustingly overbearing cologne which made my nose want to explode. "Hey man, there's no need for that." My brows raised at Brian talking back to Maikel since it wasn't something a lot of people dared doing. He was the school's golden boy, so his word was final. 
It should be sweet for him to stand up for me like that. My insides should be turning all mushy right now as butterflies fluttered in my stomach from Brian's response. But instead, all I got was nothing. In fact, it was the opposite of sweet. I didn't need his savior complex coming in to save the day especially if we weren't even a thing.