All That Matters

by Michelle Congdon

“Don’t mention it.” He lifted his gaze from his phone and looked to me. “My brother can be a prick. I know he means well, but he has a funny way of showing it sometimes. I think he likes you, though.”

  I snorted. “I doubt that very much, but it’s not something that bothers me anyway.”

  “Are you sure? You always seem irritated around him and he seems to enjoy the way you talk to him, for some strange, unknown reason.”

  “Yeah, he frustrates the hell out of me, but it doesn’t get to me. Not. At. All.” I began shaking my head and stopped when I caught sight of the conversation he was having with someone on his phone. “Who is that you’re texting?”

  “Oh, it’s Jackson…”

  What the hell did he want? “Why? We just left him.”

  “Yeah, well, he wants to know what movie we’re going to see and which cinema.”

  “You have got to be kidding me!” I snapped, suddenly irritated. “You haven’t told him, have you?”

  When Blake didn’t reply immediately, I forced myself to keep my cool; losing it on Blake wasn’t going to solve anything. After all, he hadn’t done anything wrong but fall for his brother’s scheming ways. What was Jackson’s problem anyway? Did he seriously not trust me to hang out with his younger brother? And why couldn’t he just stay out of my business!

  As soon as I spotted Harper and Blake standing in front of the house, I was instantly curious about what they were doing. I knew Blake had a soft spot for her and would happily do anything she’d ask of him, and I knew Harper enjoyed taking advantage of my brother in that way, but it still surprised me to see them together, looking as though they were friends off to hang out.

  Ashamed of everything I’d said to Harper last night, I decided to act as though nothing ever happened. It seemed an easier option to let her think I was too drunk and couldn’t remember anything. That way, we could both ignore the awkward conversation that was sure to follow from it, at least until we could talk about it when we were somewhere private. To be honest, I really wanted to apologize for being a drunken idiot and admit to her how embarrassed I was for the way I behaved and everything I’d told her.

  After I watched the two disappear around the corner in the cab, I stormed inside and grabbed my phone from inside my sports bag. I sent a quick text to my brother demanding he tell me which movie and cinema they were going to. Blake replied saying the name of the movie and the time they had booked for. I texted back saying I really appreciated it, hoped he had a good time, and if anything went wrong, to call me immediately. When he didn’t reply, I couldn’t help but become irritated. I knew I was being irrational; I didn’t even ask a question, so there was no reason for him to respond, but I couldn’t control it.

  A thought struck me: Would it be strange if I turned up during the movie? No, that would be ridiculous. I had no reason to do that to my brother; I trusted him. They’d be fine…

  Before I knew it, I was jumping back into my truck and driving to the city. With luck, I managed to find a car park not too far away from the cinema where they were. I fed the parking meter as many coins as it took to get me four hours and raced toward the cinema building. Judging by my watch, I was only around fifteen minutes late. That meant I’d only missed the previews; those things went for ages anyway, and were so boring I was glad to have missed them.

  After I got my ticket, I headed up to Cinema Two. The lights had already dimmed and the movie was playing, which made it hard to see. Knowing my brother well, he would have asked to sit up near the back in center seats, but even with that information, it wasn’t going to be easy to locate them in the dark in a cinema almost full of people. Just how many people loved this Sci-Fi bullshit?

  I thanked the stars when the screen flashed brightly, long enough for me to catch sight of Harper’s messy hair and my brother in his Yankees cap at the very back. There was also a spare seat next to Harper. BINGO.

  I half-hoped they hadn’t seen me, but judging by the way Harper’s demeanor changed as soon as I sat down beside her, she’d already known I was coming.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” she hissed, loud enough that the couple sitting in front turned around.

  “I wanted to see this movie, too,” I whispered back, shrugging.

  Harper didn’t respond, but I could only imagine the glare she was giving me as I kept my eyes focused at the large screen.

  “Yeah, right,” she eventually scoffed. “Don’t you have studying or something else to do?”

  “Nope.” That was a lie. There was a new assignment I needed to start on, but she didn’t need to know that and plus, I’d cleared my evening to study.

  “You seriously didn’t trust Blake and me to go into the city together?”

  “I trust Blake.” I turned to find Harper with a predictable, yet still terrifying, scowl on her face. I had to force back a smile; I said it because I knew it would annoy her, not because I didn’t trust her. Even though a part of me knew she enjoyed getting up to mischief, I knew she wouldn’t do anything to endanger my brother’s life. I truly believed that. She liked the guy.

  Just for fun, I decided to antagonize her further. “Can I have some popcorn?” I asked with a grin.

  “No,” was her blunt reply. To prove her point, she moved the large box of popcorn further away from me and closer to Blake.

  When I saw my brother reach over and take a handful for himself and Harper didn’t seem fazed by it, it was my turn to scowl. I glanced over at my little bro, who was looking my way with a smug look on his face.

  I ignored the burning feeling inside my chest and went back to the movie to act as though seeing Harper and Blake getting along didn’t bother me. However, it didn’t take long until I grew bored. Whose brilliant idea was it to gatecrash a stupid movie about aliens? I leaned closer to Harper, who to my surprise seemed to be enjoying the film, and asked, “Don’t tell me you love this sort of stuff?”

  “Shhhhh!” hissed someone in front of us.

  When my eyes met Harper’s, she had a sly grin plastered on her face. “They beat me to it,” she whispered, tilting her head toward the person who’d hushed me.

  I rolled my eyes. “I don’t think I can take this much longer.”

  “No one is holding you hostage. You can walk right back the way you came.”

  “You’re not being very nice.”

  “Neither are you.”

  “Seriously, can you two shut up?” hissed Blake, which caused more people to turn and hush us.

  There were a few minutes of silence before a young, teenage boy walked up and shined a flashlight directly at the three of us. “I’m sorry, but I need you guys to follow me outside, please.”

  I didn’t have time to question him as Harper groaned and stood up, rather aggressively bumping my legs as she passed; I was certain it was on purpose. Blake followed her and threw up his middle finger right in front of my face. With no other choice, and no other reason to stay back and watch the movie, I got to my feet, disregarding the guy in front who called out, “Good riddance.”

  Why did he have to come? Seeing Jackson at the movies ruined a perfect day. Yeah, okay, so it hadn’t been anywhere near perfect from the start. As soon as Blake and I walked into the building, curious eyes fell on us. Those looks quickly turned into whispers and soon, I had small groups of kids with their parents and young teenagers crowding around, just waiting for someone to make the first move and ask if I was the Harper Hudson. I wasn’t in the mood for taking photographs or signing my autograph so instead of causing a scene, I handed Blake my credit card and told him I’d meet him inside the cinema. But not before I warned him that if I noticed any strange transactions on my account, I’d suffocate him with his own pillow while he slept. Too harsh? Probably, but he never did abuse my credit card. Not that I ever thought he would. On the plus side, the movie had turned out to be not half bad, and Blake was actually a fun person to be around. When he sensed the change in my mood, he tried cheering me up by telling funny storie
s. And it had worked; that is, until Mr. Mood-Killer appeared out of nowhere.

  “Thank you, idiot, for getting us kicked out of the movie,” complained Blake from behind me.

  I followed the usher with my head down, hiding a smile as the two boys continued with their argument. It thrilled me to see someone, other than me, get annoyed with Jackson.

  “It’s not like I meant to!”

  “But you did! You just had to sit there and keep talking, didn’t you?” Blake continued in a sarcastic tone.

  I stopped walking as soon as I sensed the young usher come to a halt. “Sorry, guys, but someone complained about the noise. Oh, my God, it’s you! I mean, sorry… I’ve never met anyone famous before.”

  Paying no attention to anyone, I stood there and waited patiently for the usher to get on with his standard speech about not talking in the theatre while the movie played and then tell us to leave etc. etc. It wasn’t the first time I’d been kicked out of the cinema; I’d started popcorn fights and had my feet up on the seats many times, but it was the first time I’d been kicked out where it hadn’t been my fault.

  “Err… Harper?”

  I’ve never noticed it before, but it sucked to be kicked out, forced to leave when all you were doing was enjoying the movie because some idiot beside you couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

  “Harper!” I glanced up after hearing the sound of my name and found everyone staring at me with odd expressions. Blake was smiling and shaking his head, Jackson was watching me carefully as if he were studying my features to detail, while the usher had a stupid, goofy grin from ear to ear and was staring at me wide-eyed.

  “Dave is a big fan of yours,” Blake said, still smiling.

  My brows came together in confusion. “Who’s Dave?”

  Without their expressions changing or looking away, the two brothers simultaneously pointed toward the usher who was now beaming with excitement. Oh, no, I’d seen this look before. If there was one thing I’d seen plenty of, it was young boys who had ridiculous crushes on me.

  “He’s really sorry for kicking us out, and you and I are more than welcome to go back in, if we’d like,” added Blake.

  “But not me? I don’t see how that’s in any way fair,” Jackson interjected.

  “You were the sole reason we got kicked out in the first place,” Blake pointed out.

  “I wasn’t talking loudly.”

  “You were still talking!”

  While the two boys continued with the bickering, I glanced around and spotted small groups of people whispering and pointing in our direction. I had exactly less than five minutes to break up the little quarrel and get myself away from the open before somebody pulled out a camera phone. I didn’t need this to hit the headlines. Even though it seemed small in comparison to past situations I’d been in, the media always had a way of blowing things up and exaggerating the story. And if my mother saw it, it would give her the perfect opportunity to keep me in this stupid country longer.

  I took a step back away from the boys so I stood closer to the usher, leaning in to whisper into his ear. “Dave, if you let both my cousins back in, I’ll let you get a photo with me, and I’ll even give you a kiss on the cheek in front of all these people.”

  The poor guy got such a shock from my unsuspected proposal that he nearly fainted right in front of us. His strange behavior caused the boys to stop arguing, and they both turned to face us with puzzled expressions. “Su…Sure… I… I guess I can do that. Just promise to stay quiet,” Dave replied, digging into his pocket, pulling out his cell phone and handing it over to me shakily.

  I grinned. “You have my word. Thank you!”

  “What’s going on?” Jackson asked warily.

  “You, my dearest cousin, will take a photo of Dave and me together.” I forced the phone into Jackson’s hands and threw him a smart-ass grin when he responded with a blank look.

  “I don’t—”

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake, just take the damn photo, Jacko,” Blake growled at his brother. Jackson cast him a glare but went ahead and took the picture.

  As I got closer to Dave and put my arm around his shoulders, the clicks and flashes of other cameras filled my vision. Voices erupted all at once asking whether they were able to have their pictures taken, also. I anticipated something like that happening, which is why I had to work quickly. “Dave, one more thing: Please help us get through this crowd,” I begged. “And I haven’t forgotten your kiss.”

  The kid’s eyes lit up and immediately he sprang into action, directing us back into the safety of the cinema while he ordered fans to keep their distance. He wasn’t the only one that surprised me. As the crowd drew closer, Blake and Jackson wedged themselves on either side of me and kept them from getting at me. I was also very aware that Jackson’s arm was firmly wrapped around my waist, guiding me through the growing mob.

  Once we were away from everyone and standing in front of the closed doors of the cinema we’d been kicked out of earlier, I carefully unattached myself from Jackson’s grasp; it was the only way to stop the tingling and heat from pulsing through my body.

  “Wow. That was incredible. Does it always get like that for you?” asked Dave.

  “Pretty much.” I shrugged, embracing the cool change in my skin.

  “Shouldn’t you have a bodyguard or something?”

  “Hey, what do we look like?” teased Blake, lifting his arm up and tensing his bicep. I raised my eyebrows. I was impressed; for a computer geek, the guy had some serious muscle.

  “No offence, dude, but you and your brother aren’t doing a very good job.”

  I chuckled. “I made the mistake in thinking I could get away with not having one today, but the boys did an all-right job, and so did you.” I gave Dave a wink and took a step closer forward. “Thanks again, Dave. You’ve been so kind.” I gave the kid a kiss on the cheek, since I never liked to break my promises, and patted him on the shoulder before glancing behind me at Jackson. “Give him back his phone, and let’s go see if we can catch up on this damn movie.”

  Jackson, however, was paying no attention. He was staring at a spot on the wall, deep in thought, with his brows pulled together. Thankfully, Blake was, so he ripped the phone out of his brother’s hand and handed it back to Dave.

  “Thanks, bud. You’re awesome.” Blake slapped Dave on the back and proceeded to open the door. “Oh, and we’ll make sure this one is quiet.”

  Dave nodded and stood there holding the door open as Blake, myself, and eventually Jackson entered the cinema in single file.

  “Old seats?”

  I nodded and proceeded to follow Blake up to our original seats; that is, until Jackson grabbed hold of my hand and pulled me back toward him.

  “Thank you for doing that, Harper. You didn’t have to—”

  “Shut up,” I interrupted without turning around. I shook my hand loose and caught up to Blake. I had nothing to say to him at that moment, and I definitely didn’t want to get kicked out of the cinema twice. That would be plain embarrassing, and it would also jeopardize Dave’s job. I didn’t want the poor guy to get in trouble or worse, lose his job because of us idiots. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say I was starting to care about other people other than myself. What was up with that?

  It’d been three days since I’d last seen or spoken to Harper, and even though I was busy with uni, football training and hardly home, I got the feeling she was avoiding me. Ever since the movies where I gatecrashed her and Blake’s day/date/whatever the fuck it was, she’d been keeping her distance. What had I done wrong? Sure, it was my fault we’d gotten kicked out of the cinema in the first place, but we were let back in, I’d apologized and I was quiet for the rest of the afternoon! I even left them when the movie ended, so they could continue with their ‘shopping spree’. What more did I have to do for her to see I wasn’t as bad as she made me out to be? Why couldn’t we have the same friendship as she had with Blake? Fuck. What the hell was wrong with me? I
was stressing over a girl who literally had no interest in me. Why did I care? Why did it matter so much? And why the fuck did it sound like I was falling for my cousin?

  I threw down the highlighter I was using in frustration. I was in the middle of completing an online class quiz the professor had set for us, highlighting key paragraphs in my textbook I knew I would need for future references. The quiz was due tomorrow morning, and I still had twenty more questions to complete. I’d be further into it had I not been staring at the bright screen for the past half hour thinking about Harper.

  I scrubbed my face with my hand before bending down and deliberately smacking my forehead against the thick textbook. I was ready to throw up the white flag and give in; how could I focus when there was only one thing on my mind? I slowly lifted my head and glanced at the time in the right-hand corner of my computer; it read 2:15 AM. Focus, Jackson! Focus on what Dad will think if you fail this assessment! What my dad would think… It was always about what he thought in the end. The only reason I was pursuing a degree in medicine was because of him. During high school, I was into sports, rugby mainly, and was fortunate enough to have been picked to play for the Waratahs squad straight out of school. But that wasn’t good enough for my dad. He wanted more from me; he wanted me to follow in his footsteps, even though I knew it wasn’t what I’d wanted. I was never one to disappoint, and I never had the courage to disagree with Dad. So here I was sitting in front of my computer in the early hours of the morning, trying to complete a quick quiz after a tiresome day of rugby training, then classes, and then fighting off thoughts of Harper. No wonder life had led me to drinking. I wasn’t proud of it, but any chance to escape from my hectic schedule was something I was willing to do.

  I groaned before slowly rising to my feet. As tempting as an alcoholic beverage was right now, I fought against the strong urge; I needed the quiz finished. I walked around my bedroom, stretching so I could wake my body up again before sitting back down at my desk. I had to put the thoughts of Harper to the side, no more distractions until morning. Tomorrow, I could confront her and demand why she was staying clear of me. I’d make sure she gave me an answer, too; if she refused then I’d refuse to leave her alone.