Silent Love

by Kenadee Bryant

  “Why not?” Macey asked, her mouth full of hamburger. I giggled behind my hand at the disgusted look Amy had on her face.

  “This is our first year of college. We don’t want to gain the freshman fifteen,” she said, her tone almost condescending. The exact same guy came back a few minutes later with her meal that consisted of a pathetic excuse of a salad and some drink that looked like tea. I liked salads as much as the next girl, but it had to be a great salad with substance.

  “Can you believe we are finally college students?” Amy gushed a minute later.

  “It is pretty exciting,” I said, taking a bite of my hamburger. I knew I was acting un-ladylike stuffing my face, but this burger was amazing.

  “Wow, Carter, that is sexy,” Amy said, shaking her head at me but smiling. She was used to my weirdness by now. The three of us made a weird group with a cheerleader, an outgoing person, and me, the nerdier one.

  “What, you wouldn’t get with this?” I asked around a mouthful shaking my shoulders and trying hard not to laugh. Next to me Mace choked, covering her mouth with her hand. I heard the bell chime from the front door opening, but didn’t really pay attention and kept talking, making faces with my mouth full.

  “Look, Luke, Carter is already eating the place out of business,” an all-too-familiar voice said, making me freeze on the spot.

  I looked up slowly, my mouth still hanging open. My blue eyes clashed with a familiar pair of blue-green ones. Standing in front of us was my brother Luke and his annoying, hot friend, Ethan Galloway. Luck must not be on my side today.

  Chapter Two

  I was hoping to not run into my brother and his best friend until later, but it seemed someone from above hated me. Don’t get me wrong; I loved my brother, but Ethan was another story…well, I actually loved him too. I was secretly in love with my brother’s best friend. Only Macey knew and no one else, not even Amy.

  Falling in love with my brother’s best friend was honestly the worst thing that could ever happen. One part of it was that if my brother found out, he would be pissed. But the other part was having to see Ethan every single day and falling harder for him each day. It was knowing that he would never know how I felt, and he would never reciprocate my feelings.

  The moment I stopped thinking of Ethan as just a friend was in the beginning of sophomore year. He had spent three months away with his family in Europe exploring, and I hadn’t seen him at all. I was going to go over there the day he got back, but since his plane got delayed he didn’t get in until late then the next day, when my mom dragged me out to the city. The first time I saw him since he got back was the moment I stepped out of my parents’ car. He was standing outside the front of the school by the steps, surrounded by everyone. The instant I spotted him through the crowd, my jaw flew open.

  His skin was tan from being in Europe, and his dark brown hair was slightly long, hanging in his eyes making him reach up and move it every few minutes. His baby cheeks had slimmed down and were now sculpted with high cheek bones and the start of a defining jawline. His body looked leaner, like he had worked out a lot over the summer, and he had grown quite a bit, towering over most of the guys. Everything about him screamed hot. He wasn’t the same boy I saw at the beginning of the summer; instead, he was the mini version of a Greek god. I knew when he got older he would look better and better. Kind of like Brad Pitt.

  After that moment at school everything started to change. With Ethan being the hottest guy at school, along with my brother, he became the sex god of Alexander High School. Girls threw themselves at him and guys wanted to be him. He had everything—the popularity, the looks, girls, money, and even the smarts. Basically a triple threat. As Ethan moved up in the chain that was high school, I stayed near the bottom and invisible.

  At school he didn’t ignore me like I thought he would. He always made sure I was involved and that no one was bugging me. It was the small things like that, or when I saw him help underclassmen pick up their books when they were tripped, bring my mom flowers on certain occasions, and even those moments when he’d come into the kitchen early in the morning and talk to me, that made me fall for him harder as the days passed. He didn’t know that those moments when he would invite me to play video games with him and Luke were some of the best times I’ve had.

  The only person I ever told was Macey; I couldn’t keep anything from her. She knew the moment I liked Ethan before I did. Like a true friend she never told a soul and stayed by my side when I had to see him with different girls and when he got his first serious girlfriend. If it wasn’t for her, I would have probably been in a pit of depression thinking about Ethan never being with me.

  “Did I kill her?” His voice broke through my trance. I blinked, clearing my vision to see him standing in front of me and feeling him poke my forehead.

  “Ethan, cut it out,” I whined, swiping his hand away. I ignored the tingly feeling I got up my arm when I touched him. I was really good at hiding and storing my feelings away when it came to him.

  “What are you guys doing here?” I asked grabbing a fry and eating it. I stopped feeling conscious eating around Ethan when we were kids. Since we always had him over at my house, the nervousness faded quickly.

  “Eating. What does it look like?” Luke butted in. I rolled my eyes and looked down at my plate just in time to see Ethan reaching for a few fries.

  “No! Get your own!” I yelled, going to smack his hand but he retracted it too fast.

  “Damn, woman, it’s just food,” he said around the food in his mouth. On any other guy it would be disgusting, but on him it wasn’t.

  “Food is precious,” I said in a low voice putting my arms around my plate. Both him and my brother rolled their eyes at me, used to how I protected my food. Don’t mess with a girl’s food!

  “Okay, I am going to go order. What do you want, Ethan?” Luke asked. As Ethan talked to my brother, I took that moment to look him over.

  Today he was wearing a tight dark blue shirt that made his eyes look blue and his arms appear bigger. He had on a pair of light blue jeans that hung low on his hips and had a few rips on the knees. His brown hair was cut short and coiffed in the front. Everything about him was sexy. He turned away from my bother with a heart-stopping grin. I didn’t think he realized what his smile did to girls…wait, let me rephrase that: he knew what it did, he just didn’t know what it did to me.

  “You girls coming to the game on Monday?” Ethan asked, grabbing a chair from the table that just emptied, and swung it around to sit on it facing backwards.

  “Of course, it’s you guys’ first game,” I said. Ever since they both started football in middle school and took it into high school, I never once missed a game unless I had to. I even went to last year’s college games. The games that I couldn’t go to, the team would lose, so after they lost two in a row when I was sick, they all decided I was their good luck charm, basically forcing me to come. Not that I really minded; boys in football pants was a nice sight to see.

  “Good, we need to win our first game,” Luke butted in as he came back to the table with his and Ethan’s food. So much for eating dinner in peace.

  “So you guys are starting? That’s pretty cool,” Amy asked, taking a sip of her weird tea.

  “We did so good last year that Coach immediately let us on the team,” Ethan boasted. That is pretty cool. Last year they were the only freshmen to start, and now they didn’t have to try out. That meant the coach liked them.

  “Plus, it helps us get the ladies,” Luke said wiggling his eyebrows.

  “Ladies?” Macey snorted. “Us ‘ladies’ wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole.”

  “You, a lady?” Luke shot back. I grinned, looking at the both of them. I know I shouldn’t, but I loved when Luke and Macey went at each other. It was just so entertaining. They really didn’t mean most of what they said; Luke loved Macey like a sister, so he wouldn’t intentionally hurt her feelings.

  “No, I’m a giraffe,” she s
aid sarcastically.

  “You couldn’t be a giraffe because you’re too short.”

  I sat there watching them go back and forth while eating the rest of my hamburger.

  “Are you going stop them any time soon?” Ethan asked next to my ear. I suppressed a shiver from feeling his warm breath on my neck.

  “Nah,” I said. I grabbed my last fry and stared at it sadly.

  “You are so weird with food,” Ethan said shaking his head at me.

  “You don’t even know the half of it. Last year someone knocked into her, making her lunch fall to the ground, and she went ballistic on the poor guy,” Amy commented.

  “I did not!” I shot back, giving her a death glare.

  “Oh yeah, I heard about that,” he said, laughing.

  “Haha, he already knew it!” I said smugly but then stopped. Wait, that was not a good thing. “How did you hear about that? You weren’t even there last year.”

  “I have my sources.” He made his voice low and mysterious.

  “So, Car, how were Mom and Dad?” Luke asked, finally done bickering with Macey. I wanted to tell him to not call me that, but it would be no use. With a name like mine there were no good nicknames, so Car was what everyone called me.

  “Yeah, thank you for coming over by the way.” I glared at him. “Mom wouldn’t let me go.”

  “I knew not to come over. Mom would have latched onto me and never let me go. That was one of the reasons I was so happy I had to move onto campus early for football. Mom would have been a mess if both of us moved in on the same day,” Luke said. “They dropped by our place, but I pretended to not be home.” He grinned over at me.

  “Yeah, thanks for the help, dear brother,” I muttered sarcastically.

  “Wait until tonight when she calls you every hour until nine, when you ‘should’ be in bed.”

  I knew my mom meant well, but calling me every hour was too much.

  “So are we going to a party tonight?” Amy asked suddenly. “Some guy handed me a flyer earlier about some frat party. We should definitely go.” Going to some party with a bunch of drunk college kids did not sound like my kind of fun. Instead I’d rather be at home watching reruns of shows while eating Nutella or cookie dough.

  “No,” I said at the same time as two other voices. Looking to my right I saw both Ethan and my brother shaking their heads. “Wait, what?” I asked.

  “You are not going to a frat party,” Luke said.

  “Excuse me?” I turned in my seat, looking at my brother.

  “You. Are. Not. Going. To. A. Party.” He spoke slowly, as if I were stupid.

  “We know what goes on at those kinds of parties, so you aren’t going,” Ethan explained.

  “I am eighteen years old for crying out loud! I can go to a party if I want to,” I bit out, glaring at the two of them. If they thought they were going to control my life here at college, they were mistaken. I put up with it in high school, but now I was old enough to make my own decisions.

  “Carter,” Luke warned, staring down at me.

  “I wasn’t even thinking about going, but now that you two said no I may just go.”

  “Carter is right, you guys. She is a grown adult and can make her own decisions,” Macey interjected. I sent her a grateful smile for backing me up. She knew how protective both Ethan and Luke were of me.

  “You guys can’t stop her from going.” Even Amy butted in. In your face, Luke and Ethan! Luke glared at me, his grey eyes flashing. I knew he was worried that I was going to get drunk and do something stupid with some random guy, but that was not me. I didn’t drink, and I had enough common sense not to mess around with a college guy, especially a frat guy. They could have some kind of sexual disease from sleeping around so much.

  Tense silence surrounded all of us as Luke and I stared at one another. The longer Luke stared at me, the more I could feel myself cracking. I didn’t like confrontation or Luke’s hard stare. It wasn’t like I really wanted to go to a party anyways; I just got here a few hours ago.

  “Fine, I won’t go,” I muttered, tearing my blue eyes away from his grey ones.

  “Carter!” Amy exclaimed.

  “Sorry I caved! Plus, I don’t really want to go anyways,” I said, grabbing my coffee. I needed to stand up against my brother and Ethan, but tonight I wasn’t in the mood.

  “Carter, we just don’t want you to get hurt,” Ethan said quietly to me. I huffed, sipping my drink.

  “We better get going. We are meeting some of the guys,” Luke said, standing up.

  “By that you mean going to go hook up with some girls before the party, aren’t you?” Macey said, staring at Luke. He sent her a goofy grin.

  “Of course.”

  I rolled my eyes trying to block out the sudden hurt and jealousy at Ethan flirting with some random girl and going to a party with her. A hand on my arm yanking me up had me yelping a second after I rolled my eyes. With a sharp tug I was yanked out of my seat and smooshed against a hard chest.

  “It’s great having you here, Car,” Luke whispered above me. I smiled bringing my arms up and wrapping them around his waist. I couldn’t stay mad at him. He only was looking out for me.

  “I’m glad you’re here with me too,” I whispered back. After one last tight squeeze he let me go, taking a step back. “I’ll see you tomorrow. We have to do our ritual,” he said, smiling. I grinned wider. I almost forgot about our ritual. Every year, the day before the first day of school, Luke and I would go out for ice cream and talk about our classes and random stuff. I can’t remember when it started, but it’d been going on ever since. “Have fun at the party. Call me if you need someone to pick you up,” I said shooting both him and Ethan a look. I did not want them driving while drinking.

  “I will.” Luke nodded at me.

  “So, Carter…where’s my hug?” Ethan asked stepping toward me.

  “You don’t get one.”

  “Aww, why not!” He whined almost like a three-year-old.

  “Because you smell,” I lied. Before I could even open my mouth, his arms shot out, grabbing me and pulling my body against his.

  “Well now you smell,” he shot at me, rubbing his body against me.

  “Ewww, Ethan!” I yelled, squirming in his grasp.

  “You’re welcome,” he said, letting me go a minute later. With a smirk at me and a small wave to us three, he turned and followed my brother out the door. Staring after them, I could smell Ethan’s cologne on my shirt. Damn, he smelled good. I breathed in deeply, loving whatever scent he used.

  “So you really aren’t going to the party?” Amy asked once I had sat back in my seat.

  “No. If I go, my brother will kill me. Plus, I don’t really want to go anyways. I’m tired from moving.” I shrugged.

  “Mace!” She turned to Macey, giving her puppy-dog eyes. “You are going though, right?”

  “I don’t know…” From the look on her face I knew she wanted to go.

  “You should go with Amy,” I commented. I only slightly cared that she went without me. But it was true: I was tired and partying wasn’t really my thing.

  “But what about you?”

  “I’ll be fine. I want to finish my painting anyways. You guys should totally go.” Thinking about finishing my painting actually made me giddy. Yup, I was officially an adult. I was getting excited over something stupid.

  “So will you?” Amy asked, or more like pleaded.

  “Sure, why not?”

  Amy grinned at her answer.

  “It is already almost six and the party starts at eight, so we better go get ready,” Amy said, standing up. “How about I meet you at your guys’ place in a little bit?”

  “Sounds good.” With that Amy nodded, walking out of the café. Shaking my head, I stood up as well, grabbing my almost empty coffee cup. I followed Macey as we left the cute café and headed back to our place.

  ***

  About an hour and a half later I was lying on Macey’s bed as sh
e moved around her room grabbing everything she might need. Amy was going to be here any minute to pick her up before they headed to the frat party.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to go?” Macy asked for the thirtieth time in twenty minutes.

  “Yeah, I’m sure. I’m fine staying here. You go and have fun. Today is probably the best day to go anyways. Tomorrow you aren’t going to want to since class is the next day.” She nodded. No one wanted to be hungover on their first day of college. “Just don’t get too drunk, and if you need anything, call me, okay?” I said sitting up, looking at her. “Watch your cup at all times. If some guy won’t leave you alone, knee him where the sun don’t shine. And if anything else happens, try to find my brother.”

  “Car, this isn’t my first party. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine,” she said. I couldn’t help it. She was like a sister to me and if anything happened to her, I’d die. “Okay, how do I look?” She turned around and struck a pose.

  Her caramel-colored hair was curled in soft waves around her shoulders. She put enough makeup on to look like she had it, but not enough to be overdone. A dark, strapless purple dress hugged her figure. A pair of killer high heels were on her feet, making me wonder how she wouldn’t fall. All in all, she looked gorgeous.

  “You look great, Mace. The boys will definitely be on you tonight,” I commented, wiggling my eyebrows at her before laughing at myself.

  “You’re so weird,” she said but smiled with me. A knock on our front door echoed through the apartment, making me get up. As Macey grabbed her bag and cell phone, I went to the door and opened it to find Amy. I stood there shocked for a second before moving to the side to let her in.

  Amy wasn’t dressed the way she normally did. Instead of the barely there dress, she wore one that went to her knees and didn’t bare her breasts too much. Her makeup was lighter like Macey’s.

  “You look great, Am’s,” I said finally. It was weird seeing her dressed this way.

  “Thanks,” she said smoothing out the fabric. “You really aren’t coming?” I mentally rolled my eyes.