BROTHERLY LOVE
By Sarah Wartman
PART SIX
“We better get you home before Chris kills both of us,” Justin said, guiding me into the taxi. We had been at my friend’s party for quite some time and decided to take a cab home, since both of us had been drinking. I wasn’t drunk, but had had enough beers to get my mouth flowing.
“I can’t believe you all aren’t going to be at my graduation. And you’re gonna miss my birthday too!” I shrieked.
“Isabelle, how many times can I apologize? You should be used to this by now,” he told me.
“I know,” I said and sighed. “But it’ll be my eighteenth birthday!”
“I’ll be there in spirit, doesn’t that count?” he asked me.
I crossed my arms and pouted. “No!”
“Anyway,” Justin said, eager to change the subject. “Who was that guy you were with tonight?”
“What guy?” I asked, trying to play innocent.
“The one you were talking to all night,” he asked, grinning at me.
“Oh, you mean Bryan.”
“Yes, I mean Bryan. What’s up with you two?”
“Nothing,” I said quickly and looked out the window.
“Liar.”
“Okay, we’re talking, no biggie.” I admitted.
“Does Chris know about this?”
I turned on him and said, “no, and that’s the way it’s gonna stay.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Why? Hello, you know how Chris is. He always scares my boyfriends away! And Bryan technically isn’t my boyfriend, so there’s nothing to tell Chris, got it?”
“I’m not gonna lie to him Belle.”
“I didn’t ask you to, just don’t volunteer the information, please?”
“Okay, but if he asks, I’m not gonna lie,” he told me.
“He won’t ask,” I said.
“He might,” Justin said softly.
“Why do you say that?”
“He knows how close we are, Isabelle.”
“Well, I still don’t think he’ll ask,” I said and looked out the window.
~*~*~*~
“You’re late Isabelle,” I heard Chris yell from the living room the second I shut the front door.
“Sorry dad,” I yelled back as I hung up my jacket.
“Where were you? You weren’t doing anything too illegal, were you?” he asked as I walked into the living room.
“I had Justin keeping an eye on me, remember?”
“I know, but I still worry about you.”
“Why? I’m home in one piece, aren’t I?” I asked him, growing upset.
“Yes, but you know I can’t help it. You and mom are all I got, so I can’t help but be overprotective.”
“Yes, I know,” I mumbled.
“So, Did Justin find any ‘fly honeys’ tonight?” Chris asked me with a smile.
“He’s Justin Timberlake. What do you think?” I asked, slumping into a chair next to him.
PART SEVEN
Graduation came and went with a blink of an eye. I missed the guys terribly and all five called to congratulate me, but it just wasn’t the same. A couple days later, I found out I was accepted to the University of South Florida, which made everyone happy. Everyone except for Justin, who was rooting for North Carolina. Which seemed stupid to me, since I hadn’t even applied there.
It was now mid June and the guys were home for a couple of days before going back out on the road. I had hardly seen any of them. On their down time, I hardly did, they usually slept. Justin took me out to eat once, and that was about the extent of my time with them.
I was currently seeing Bryan regularly and he was now in the boyfriend status, which Chris took shockingly well. He didn’t grill him for an hour every time he came to pick me up, which always surprised me.
But today wasn’t one of our “better” days. We had been fighting a lot lately, and today was no exception.
“No, Bryan!” I yelled into the phone. “That’s not how it is at all!”
The screaming went back and forth for maybe ten minutes before I heard a banging on the door. I yelled one more time at Bryan and hung up the phone.
“What?” I asked, jerking my door open.
“Isabelle Marie, you shush up this instant,” my mother said softly. “Chris is resting!”
“Chris is resting,” I mimicked the second I shut my door. “Chris this, Chris that. Chris Chris Chris Chris Chris. No, ‘Isabelle, what’s wrong? Why are you upset?’ No, it’s ‘Isabelle, shut up, your brother is sleeping. Isabelle, talk softer, your brother is reading.’ I’m here too, you know!” I screamed at the door.
People just assume having a famous brother was all fun and games. But that was hardly the story. To be honest, I hated it. I couldn’t go anywhere without a ten year old stopping me. And I always get asked the same questions. ‘So, what’s your brother like?’ they would ask me. Instead of yelling at them and saying, ‘he’s an overprotective jerk with smelly feet!’ I smile politely and say, ‘he’s a great guy and we have a lot of fun,’ like I was trained to.
I threw myself on my bed and just stared at the ceiling for what seemed like hours. My phone rang and I picked it up quickly.
“What?” I asked, assuming it was Bryan again.
“Hi to you too, Belle.”
I sat up quickly. “Oh hey JC, what’s up?”
“Nothing, just wanted to see what you were doing,” he told me.
“Just laying here pondering how exactly I should kill myself. I’ve narrowed it down to overdosing on Vitamin C pills or stabbing myself to death with a pencil.”
He laughed. “Trouble in paradise?”
“Bryan and I are fighting. Big shocker, huh?”
“Nope. I know how to get your mind off of it, go shopping with me. My little niece has her first birthday in a couple of days and I have no idea what to get her.”
“I don’t know JC, I have so much to do here,” I said, grinning from ear to ear.
I heard him sigh. “Okay, I guess I could ask Lance to go. I’d ask Joey, but he usually tries to see how many phone numbers he can get.”
I laughed. “You always know how to cheer me up. Yeah, sure I’ll go. When did you want to go?”
“How about now?”
PART EIGHT
“I’m going to the mall with JC, I’ll be back in a bit,” I yelled to my mom. I ran out the door before JC could reach for the knob. He was dressed in khakis, a navy blue sweater vest and a navy baseball cap, turned backwards. He looked really good, and I looked down at my jeans and t-shirt and felt sloppy.
“So, what’s up with you and Bryan?” JC asked me as he drove towards the mall.
I sighed and said; “I don’t know Josh. I mean, he’s cute and everything, but ninety percent of the time I want to push him into oncoming traffic. He’s so cocky and irritating.”
“Then dump him already.”
“I know, I probably will. But he can do that amazing thing with his tongue that just drives me crazy,” I jokingly said, smiling widely.
“Okay, a little more information than I needed to know,” JC said as he pulled into the parking lot.
~*~*~*~
“I don’t know what size to get her,” JC whined, holding out two different shirts.
I looked at the tags. “Go with the eighteen month one instead of the twelve. You always get things for infants bigger than they are, so they can grow into them.”
“You’re so smart Belle,” JC said, putting the one shirt back. “What would I ever do without you?”
“Buy too small of shirts for your niece,” I answered.
He paid for the shirt and we walked back out towards his Jeep. We walked past Musicland and JC stopped.
“Mind if you go in here for a second?”
I shrugged. “I don’t care.”
A second turned out to be forty-five minutes. JC was looking for this certain c.d. by Sting, and couldn’t find it anywhere. He ended up ordering it from the store manager after searching the stacks for thirty minutes, trying to locate one.
“I just love Sting, they’re my favorite band,” JC told me for the hundredth time.
“Yeah, I know JC.”
“You know, I was drunk one night and almost got a tattoo of Sting put on my arm,” JC told me as we walked back to his Jeep.
“Oh, whatever, JC. Everyone knows you’re a wuss and afraid of needles. The day you get a tattoo….”
“I did, I swear! But I decided not to at the last minute. Tattoos are kind of permanent, you know? But now I’m thinking of getting a different one.”
I chuckled. “Oh, really? What’s that?”
“I was gonna get ‘Isabelle’ put on my back, in big letters,” he said, grinning widely as we approached his Jeep.
I laughed. “Why didn’t you? It would have been cool!” I told him, opening the Jeep door and hopping in.
“Cause it would have hurt! Did you know your name is really long?” he asked me.
“You could have just put ‘Belle’ on it. That’s only five letters,” I said, testing him.
He sat back and thought for a moment. “But I know so many Belle’s, it could get confusing, you know. I wouldn’t want them thinking it was for them.”
“You know so many Belle’s, huh?” I challenged.
“Uh, yeah, I do,” JC said, nodding his head, starting the engine.
“Yeah, whatever Josh.”
PART NINE
“I can’t believe I forgot my wallet!” Zack said for the hundredth time.
“It’s no big deal, Zack, I can pay for dinner,” I told him as we drove back to his house.
“You’re not gonna pay for your birthday dinner, Belle. What kind of a friend allows that?”
“It’s no big deal,” I said softly.
“I know its not, that’s why we’re going back.”
He pulled into the driveway and turned to look at me. “Coming?”
“No, I’ll just stay in the car.”
“Oh, come on Isabelle. I’m sure my mother would like to wish you a happy birthday.”
I moaned loudly as I reached for the door handle. Knowing Zack’s mom, we’d be here for an hour, at least. He opened the front door and the entire house was pitch dark.
“What’s going on, Zack?” I whispered.
Before he could respond, the light was switched on and dozens of people jumped out, screaming ‘Happy Birthday’ and ‘Surprise’. I turned to my right to see Chris, Lance, JC, Justin and Joey run towards me from behind a sofa.
“Oh my God!” I shrieked. JC reached me first and hugged me tightly. I wrapped my arms around his neck and basked in the scent of his cologne. He already had a beer in his hand, which made me smile.
“Happy birthday, Bella,” he whispered. I loved it when he called me that.
All the guys took turns hugging me, Chris being the last.
“You little shit,” I said, slapping his chest. “How did you manage this?”
“We have our ways, baby sister. Happy birthday!”
“Thanks,” I shouted, hugging him. Justin handed me a two dog and I twisted it open.
“You drink those slowly,” Chris warned.
“Right bro, whatever you say,” I said as I took a drink.
~*~*~*~
“Open my gift!” Joey yelled over the crowds of people.
“Okay!” I yelled as Joey handed me a sack. I pulled out a book, Chicken Soup for the College Soul, and smiled at him.
He laughed and said, “dude, I knew you liked to read. Right?”
I laughed loudly and hugged him. The others gave me their gifts, which consisted of a couple of shirts, stuff from Bath and Body Works and a Fossil watch from Chris. JC was the last one to give me his gift.
“Hope you like it,” he slurred in my ear.
I smiled at him and ripped into the sack. I found a sterling silver necklace with a beautiful dark blue stone, my favorite color. There were earrings to match. I knew it had to have cost him a fortune. Shocked, I looked up at him.
“JC, you shouldn’t have,” I whispered.
“Oh, sure I have. I gots to spoil ya, Belle!” he yelled over the music.
“Thank you so much,” I said as I put the necklace on around my neck. I looked down at it and back up at him. “How does it look?”
“Beautiful,” he said and smiled. “So, where’s Bryan? I want to meet him,” he said, looking around the crowded house.
“We broke up a couple weeks ago, Josh. I’m sure I told you.”
He shook his head. “Nope, I would have remembered that. So he isn’t here, is he, to ruin the fun?”
“Nope, don’t think so.”
“Good,” he said, putting his arm around me and throwing me a smile.
PART TEN
I was on my sixth lemon two dog and feeling pretty good. I was sitting on the sofa with a couple of high school friends when I heard someone call my name. I looked up to see JC running towards me. I was about to stand up, but before I knew it, JC had plopped right down onto my lap.
“Oh, Belle, where were you, I missed you,” he shrieked, laying his head on top of mine.
“JC, how many of those Coors Lights have you had?” I asked him, giggling.
“Two. Ten. What’s the difference?”
I shrugged and laughed. “I don’t know.”
People slowly started to saunter out and they came over to me to say goodbye. I pushed JC off of me so I could stand up and say goodbye. After a couple of people left, I felt someone standing next to me. I turned to see JC grinning widely at me.
“Let’s go outside and get a breath of air,” he told me, grabbing my hand and pulling me outside before I could even protest.
“Have you had a good birthday Belle Belle?” JC asked me, swaying around on Zack’s front deck, being careful to avoid the few smokers that had collected by the front steps.
“Yep yep,” I answered, finished my two dog.
“Good. Oh, before I forget, I’m having a party this weekend, just so you know.”
“Thanks JC, but I’m sure Chris doesn’t want me there.”
JC looked at me as if I had just told him my feet were on fire. “Huh? What do you mean?”
“I mean, don’t you guys ever get tired of me tagging along everywhere?”
“Isabelle!” JC spit out. “How dare you think such a thing? We love you!”
“That may be so, but still, I’m sure it gets old.”
“No way! You’re fun to hang out with. It’d hurt my feelings if you didn’t come,” JC said, leaning over to pout right in my face.
“Oh, okay,” I said and giggled. I leaned over so our foreheads were touching.
“You got a big nose,” I said in a little kid’s voice and touched the tip of his nose.
“Everyone has a big nose up close,” he answered, touching the tip of mine with his finger.
“Hey. What are you two up to?”
We turned to see Chris looking at us. We pulled apart and I giggled. Chris studied us for a moment before going back inside with a disapproving look on his face.
JC looked at me and giggled. “What a dork,” he muttered and I laughed.
~*~*~*~
I awoke and sat up quickly, unsure as to where I was. The room started spinning and I moaned. I layed back down and turned to see where I was. I recognized Justin’s guestroom and JC was conked out right next to me, snoring loudly with his mouth wide open on the pillow and I giggled.
“If only I had a camera,” I muttered. “Perfect blackmail material.”
Suddenly, the room started spinning and I immediately felt nauseous. I got up quickly and ran to the bathroom. I fell to my knees and lifted the toilet seat.
All of a sudden, I felt a pair of hands gather my hair and hold it back behind me as I lost everything I had consumed the day before.
TO BE CONTINUED