Best Friend’s Brother: Best Friend's Brother Romance

  Best Friend’s Brother

  Introduction

  I want to thank you and congratulate you for downloading“Best Friend’s Brother”. If you’re looking for a magical tale of friendship, love, and poetry then you’ve come to the right place!

  “Best Friend’s Brother” is a wonderful story that will have you believing in true love again. Follow the lives of three young people fresh out of college, and one home from war. This story will take you on their journeys and show where their paths intertwine, and where they are separated from each other.

  I hope you fall in love with this book as much as I fell in love with the characters while writing them.

  Thanks again for downloading this book, I hope you enjoy it!

   Copyright 2014 by Rémi LeBeau - All rights reserved.

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  - From a Declaration of Principles which was accepted and approved equally by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations.

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  Prologue

  There was no explaining it. There was no hint or warning from the universe. Tongues, and teeth, and lips, and limbs all fumbling around in confusion. Searching for each other. Colliding with each other. Not ever wanting to let go. They connected like magnets.

  Zooey smiled as she reminisced. She licked and bit her bottom lip pensively.

  Had that really been last night? It had felt more like a dream from a long time ago than anything. Something too good to be true, but somehow, it was just that. True.

  What now? The question kept coming to her. Like a slow tide, breaking away then washing in and over her. She didn’t want to drown in questions. She wanted to drown in him again. Maybe that’s all she’d ever wanted. It was hard to tell now.

  Zooey lay with her belly on her bed. She flipped through her thoughts like an old slideshow in search of memories before last night. Trying to find what time they had together that was significant. That hinted at all that it would have led up to a kiss that left her weak in the knees.

  The kiss was all that mattered. It was all she could really focus on. It was one of the defining moments of her being back in town. Maybe of her life. She didn’t want to think too much or too hard. Who said it was going to happen again? Drunken lust that ended as quickly as it began. Both stopping themselves and each other.

  She smiled when her mind conjured up a memory. One of her favorite ones. It was the first time she knew that she and Lauryn were going to be best friends.

  Zooey placed her head down on her pillow, and let her thoughts take her back to one of the best and worst days of her life.

  Chapter One

  “Zoe, you ok?”

  Skinny. Tall. Long-legged and long necked. Lauryn Savage could have been a model from age 12.

  “I guess. I mean, I think…” Zooey said. She didn’t make eye contact with her friend. From the corner of her eye, Zooey could tell she was being studied.

  Zooey and Lauryn were walking home from their middle school. It was spring of 2004. They were both almost finished with the 6th grade, and were already ready for a new year to begin.

  Lauryn nodded when Zooey answered, but it seemed more like a nod for herself and her thoughts than it was to acknowledge what Zooey had said.

  “Do you ever talk to your dad?” Lauryn blurted out. Somehow she could tell that this was what was on Zooey’s mind. They were normally singing and dancing in the street, making asses of themselves.

  “Not really,” Zooey said. She kept her gaze a few feet ahead of her, and never fully turned to face Lauryn.

  “Does he talk to you?”

  The questions were starting to aggravate Zooey. She just wasn’t in the mood to talk. She didn’t even really know Lauryn all that well.

  They met in January. Zooey transferred during a really strange time in the school year. They started talking when they noticed they had similar bus routes, and that in fact they lived just 3 or so blocks away from each other. Instead of taking the bus, they opted to walk home together. It was a lot more fun for them. It was good to have a friend during the spring of 2004.

  “Not really,” Zooey sighed finally. Lauryn nodded once. She stopped with the questions.

  The two walked side by side in silence. Zooey looking down and fiddled with her nails, while Lauryn bounced almost happily alongside her. It was so weird for them not to talk. There was always something to say. Lauryn had never had as much in common with anyone in her young life, except her brother. But he was family, so she expected that.

  “Hey, is it ok if I sleep over?” Lauryn said after an eternal silence. She finally turned her head all the way to face Zooey. They were close enough to her house for her to pack a bag.

  “Umm…”

  “Please! My brother has some dumb guys over, and I don’t wanna be the only girl. They’re gonna make me listen to shitty music.”

  Truth was, Lauryn didn’t hate the shitty music, or the fact that she’d be the only girl. Something inside her told her to ask. She would always be grateful for that feeling. Inviting herself over was what changed everything.

  “Umm sure…” Zooey gave in. She didn’t really have much of a reason to say no.

  They stopped at Lauryn’s house, and Zooey stayed outside by the gate to wait.

  “Zooooo!” A voice called out from a window upstairs. Lauryn’s older brother, Jakob was waving his arms wildly and screaming at them. Zooey smiled up at him and waved.

  “You comin’ in, Zoo?” his nickname for her was out of endearment, he promised, for he didn’t “actually believe she was a place to store animals”. That kind of humor ran in the family.

  “Nah, Laur’s spending the night!” she called back up to him. He pouted.

  Jakob leaned over the edge of the window.

  “You should sleep over. Got some friends here. We could make it a party,” Jakob wiggled both eyebrows. He pulled out a soda can from behind him then. He tried to act like it was beer, but even from down below Zooey could see it was a can of ginger ale. Jakob tossed h
is head back dramatically, and took a swig. That made Zooey smile. He was so silly. How could he be on his way to high school already?

  “What the hell are you doing? You’re gonna fall out of that window one day, Jake, I swear to God,” Lauryn had stepped out of the front door of her house. She had a small purple duffel bag.

  “Thought you’d like being an only child, Snow,” that was Lauryn’s middle name.

  “Only if it means getting your room and your closet space.”

  “Chaaarming,” he called out to them. He took another swig of his ginger ale, and shut his bedroom window as the two girls walked away and headed to Zooey’s.

  *

  It was really quiet in Zooey’s house. Like no one had lived there for years. That was weird, because Zooey’s mother was a musician, and there was always something playing in the house.

  Zooey called out to her mother, but there was no answer. She turned to Lauryn and shrugged.

  “Maybe she’s out,” she said. Which would have still been weird to her. Zooey’s mom wasn’t really the going out type, especially after the divorce came through at the end of last year.

  Zooey’s mother Kady buried herself in yoga and music after that. If she stood still for too long, she’d cry, or lock herself in a room listening to Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable album on a loop. Zooey’s parents always danced to that album. They’d sing it together in the car when she was a baby.

  Her mother, with a voice like liquid satin evaporating into the atmosphere. She could sing better than Natalie Cole, Zooey would tell her. Not because she was her mother, but because whenever Kady stopped to sing ‘Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup’ all the fire and passion lit up in her eyes. It was impossible for someone to be fire and water all at once, but when Katelynn Danielle Adler sang, the world stopped, and liquid flame poured out of her soul.

  “Want anything? I’m gonna go change,” Zooey said. There was worry on her face, but she tried not to let it show.

  “Nah, I’m gonna go raid your fridge, and chill in the garden,” Lauryn smiled. Zooey took her duffel bag upstairs, and Lauryn explored the living room.

  She rummaged through a never-ending CD collection, not knowing who the hell Sam Cooke, or Bob Andy, or Miles Davis, or Peter, Paul, and Mary were. She opened the fridge and decided on a small fruit cup and a glass of almond milk. She was just like Zooey’s mom in that regard. Slim, but always trying to eat healthy.

  Something caught Lauryn’s eye by one of the CDs. There was the corner of a piece of paper sticking out in between a pile. She lifted up a Natalie Cole CD-at least this she knew-and pulled out the paper.

  “To my beautiful Zooey…” it started. Lauryn gasped and let go of the paper like it had bit her. She sucked in a breath and started shaking. Lauryn bent down and picked up the paper again. She didn’t read it. She didn’t want to know more. She ran as fast as she could up the stairs to Zooey.

  *

  Lauryn was weeping by the time she was all the way up the stairs. Zooey was running a comb through her thick curly hair when her friend burst in.

  Zooey didn’t have time to ask what was wrong. Lauryn was blubbering and wheezing too much to speak. She pushed the note toward Zooey and started pacing back and forth in the room. She didn’t look up to watch Zooey read the note. She started to chew on her pinky fingernail.

  “Where did you find this?” Zooey broke the silence finally. Her face was contorted in a grimace.

  “I-It was stuffed between a bunch of old CDs,” Lauryn sputtered.

  “Did you read it?”

  Lauryn shook her head. Zooey crumpled the letter into a ball, put it in her jeans pocket, and walked out of the room. Lauryn followed her silently. Zooey walked into her mother’s room, and then into her bathroom. She flipped the light switch, and a row of round bulbs above the bathroom mirror flickered on.

  Zooey opened a medicine cabinet. She rummaged through it and took out every pill bottle inside it. She walked over to the toilet and opened the lid. One by one she opened the pill bottles and poured the contents down the toilet. Lauryn watched without a word. Zooey didn’t speak either. Her focus was on the pill bottles before her. Her expression was almost calm.

  Zooey put the bottles back into the cabinet and left her mother’s room. She flicked off the light switch before she left. The two young girls walked silently down the stairs. Zooey made it to the kitchen, and was starting to remove the sharp knives that were around.

  “Take these,” were the first words she said. She handed Lauryn a few large knives by the handle.

  “What do I do with them?”

  “Who cares? Toss ‘em,” Zooey said. That was when the front door opened.

  “Zoe? Zooey? Helloooo. Anybody home? Oh, Lauryn is here. Hi Laur...What are you doing with all those knives?” Kady Adler stepped into the kitchen. She had a large eco-friendly bag full of fruits. She was smiling until she saw the look on her daughter’s face.

  “What is this?” Zooey put her hands in her pocket and brought out the crumpled note. Kady knew right away what it was. She looked at her daughter, and then at Lauryn. She hung her head, embarrassed. She put down the eco-friendly bag and took a step toward Zooey. In return, Zooey took a step back.

  “I didn’t remember that…”

  “You didn’t remember what? That you have a kid? That you woke up one morning, decided to write this, then just changed your mind? How the hell do you forget this?” Zooey shrieked. She was fuming. She knew her mother had depression. It had spiked around the end of her parents’ marriage.

  Kady walked about like a zombie for weeks. Nothing inspired her. She sulked or cried for sometimes days at a time. The night she signed the final paperwork for her divorce, Zooey crawled into bed with her mother and played with her curly hair while Kady cried herself to sleep.

  Zooey had to turn into an adult from a young age. Taking care of who she felt needed it most.

  “I’m sorry. It’s not like that…”

  Zooey shook with anger but said nothing. Lauryn walked over to her and put her arms on her shoulders. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, keeping a firm grip on Zooey’s shoulders to steady her breathing. Zooey was on the brink of a panic attack.

  “Baby...You know you mean everything to me…” Kady started to cry too. She took another step forward, but Lauryn shot her a glare. Kady stopped mid-stride and stayed put. “I have some things to work out. You know I love you. It’s just so hard being sad.”

  Lauryn’s expression softened. She wanted to protect her friend, but Kady looked so hurt. She was in pain too. Lauryn didn’t know what she must have been going through. Kady was embarrassed and found out, and Lauryn didn’t want to make her feel worse because of it.

  “Kady,” Lauryn spoke. Her voice was low. Zooey was still shaking, but her breathing had returned to normal. Lauryn didn’t let her go. “Zooey’s gonna stay with me a few days. You should call someone. Talk to someone. I’ll make sure Zooey calls you every day.”

  Kady smiled weakly at Lauryn. She admired how together she was for a 12 year old, not knowing that just a half an hour before, Lauryn herself was a blubbering mess.

  Lauryn sat down in the kitchen and spoke to Kady while a shivering Zooey went upstairs to pack some things.

  Lauryn never told Zooey what she and her mom talked about, but even after a decade of friendship, Kady Adler never had a bad thing to say about Lauryn Snow Savage.

  *

  “That boring at Zooey’s house?” Jakob opened the front door of the Savage house. There were voices coming from the living room. All of his friends were already there.

  “Shut up jerk,” Lauryn walked inside. She took Zooey’s bag from her, and headed upstairs with it.

  “You ok?” Jakob looked concerned. Zooey was quiet, and her gaze was down. This wasn’t how she was acting just over an hour ago when she was at the house.

  “Fine.”

  “You sure?”

  Zooey nodded once. She did it in such a way that Jakob knew t
o stop asking questions.

  “How great my grief, my joys how few,

  Since first it was my fate to know thee!

  - Have the slow years not brought to view

  How great my grief, my joys how few,

  Nor memory shaped old times anew,

  Nor loving-kindness helped to show thee

  How great my grief, my joys how few,

  Since first it was my fate to know thee?”

  Jakob recited. He put on an English accent when he spoke.

  “What?”

  “It’s Thomas Hardy. He’s my favorite poet,” Jakob beamed with pride.

  “Maybe don’t admit that to normal people,” Zooey said.