Best friends brother

Lisa and I both released a satisfied exhale after taking the first sip of our cold sodas. It was late July almost August, and the recent heat wave was killing everyone. The air was thick and all anyone would hear were the buzzing of insects. Regardless of the weather, we never stopped this tradition, of drinking sodas in the town green. I’ve been clinging on to any tradition that we have, lately, because of Lisa's new boyfriend. I have no problem with the boy himself and i'm glad she's happy, but it's hard to know that it's not just us anymore.

Although Lisa and I hadn't been close since we were young, in the past few years we had created a very strong bond. I could and have showed up at her house at 1 am and no one including her family has a problem with it.

Once we were all done with our drinks, we started heading back to her house. While walking our bikes up this insane hill neither of us wanted to bike up, Lisa started talking about her boyfriend. “ We bought matching bracelets for each other, omg it was so cute”. It made you happy to see Lisa smile so much when she talked about him, but you still felt a pang in your heart. You were so lonely, making it hard for you to have to hear Lisa talk about her boyfriend. “I’m sorry for blabbing on and on about this.” Said Lisa realizing it was a hard subject for you. “It’s okay, i’m glad your happy.” I said not wanting to ruin her moment. “So, is there anyone who you’ve been crushing on?” Lisa said, wiggling her eyebrows. Yes, but I could never tell Lisa. I had been crushing on this person ever since Lisa introduced me to them. I liked Lisa’s older brother Spencer. I brushed off Lisa’s question as naturally as i could, not wanting her to suspect anything.

We rode into Lisa’s driveway and leaned our bikes against her tree. I threw my helmet off, disgusted at the sweat on it. I fluffled up my hair with my hands realizing how bad my helmet hair must’ve been. We walked into her dark living room, the flashing of a movie caught my attention.

“Jazzy!” Lisa’s brother Spencer said playfully. “Hey” I said weakly, hating all the attention being on me. I was surprised that Spencer even noticed me. I acted like I didnt care and waved while making my way to Lisa’s room.

I had no idea why I liked Spencer. There were so many reasons why I shouldn’t, he was 2 years older than me and my best friends brother. I didn’t know what I saw in him, he had been raised in a certain environment and acted a certain way because of it. He was a sociable guy but never showed his emotions. Not even his own sister knew how he was feeling half the time. He was popular at our high school and dated the girls in that basic popular group.

We were so different, but something in me couldn’t help but crush on him so hard. Maybe it’s because he was off limits, and it makes it more exciting or because he would never like me back in a million years and it was like a challenge. Despite my feelings I knew, it was hopeless and stupid for me to ever think we would work. I was so different from the girls he liked. I didn’t look like them, I didn't have straight hair, and I wasn’t very thin at all.

And yet I still liked him. I mean he was attractive. He is tall and slim, but has muscular arms and legs. And don’t get me started on that luscious curly black hair, that I’ve always wanted to touch.

“Jasmine, You want ramen?” Lisa asked, snapping me out of my trance. “ Yeah sure.” I said, ramen was another tradition with Lisa. We would always have ramen for dinner when I was sleeping over at her house. Once the ramen was done Lisa and I watched cringey tik toks. We laughed the rest of the night.