A Little More You
Day One
"Aha! Chucky!"
"What the– who picked that movie?!"
"Who enjoys watching you piss on your pants the most? Of course, Brenda did."
"Thomas! Why the hell did you make her choose? It's supposed to be my turn to pick the movie for tonight!"
"Well, you were too busy showing your guns to those new pretty neighbors next door and we got too impatient so I chose for you. Ain't I the nicest best friend ever?"
"But it's horror–"
"Just get your sissy ass down here and let's start the movie, will yah?"
With a scowl etched in his face, Minho flopped himself to the couch next to Brenda who was sitting next to me, already munching on the large tub of popcorn on her lap.
I felt her nudged me on my side. "Thomas, make sure you turn the volume to its maximum so Minhoe suffers big time." Brenda said, and I did what I was told. Though he looks tough and brave with all that abs and muscles, Minho is a big ass coward and we really do enjoy watching him turn into a pansy when it comes to blood and whole lot of gore.
Last Halloween, Brenda dressed up as Sadako from the movie The Ring and pranked him. Minho hated that movie so much. Let's just say they were lucky that I lived on the same house and knew the emergency number of the nearest hospital.
There's a reason why I anointed and always reconsidered myself as the most mature and responsible one among the three of us –though there are a few times I do let myself lose, too.
"Man, if I get nightmares after this and don't get my beauty sleep, it will be your fault and I'm going to blame it to you two for the rest of eternity. Ugly don't suit me!"
"Minho, will you shut the fuck up and just watch the damn movie?"
"Hell, no, honey pie peaches!" he whined back at her, earning an exasperated groan from Brenda as Minho leached himself to her as the scary music of the opening credits started. "I swear, Tommy boy, that shuck-faced Chucky doll will give me night terrors!" He was legit scared. His facial expression says it all.
"Ugh…" Brenda passed the tub of popcorn to my lap. "Minho, I swear–"
"Wait! Is that my boxers?"
"Minho, you really should shut your hole because Brenda looks murderous–"
"And is that Newt's hoodie?! Oh boy, he'll flip shit at you, again!"
"Brenda, where are your clothes?" I tried to ask nicely, but Brenda was already annoyed.
She took the remote from my lap and pressed pause. "Damn it! You two shanks say another word and I swear I'll invite Gally here right now to watch with us."
"No!" Minho and I screamed in chorus. Gally was our other neighbor and also our frat buddy. He's more annoying than Minho and he literally doesn't shut up, even impossible to make him shut it. He's also got a thing for Brenda and has been asking Minho and I to help him win her for more than two years now but still no luck. Brenda was different from other girls. Being friends with a whole bunch of frat boys and growing up to his adoptive father Jorge, also our frat leader slash founder, it'll take a lot of guts to ask someone like Brenda out.
And just like Gally, Minho has the very same dilemma –even longer than Gally's.
Only, unlike Gally, Brenda considers Minho and I her closest friends. We're partners-in-crime. Since the tender age of ten, Minho, Brenda and I have been inseparable. We've been through everything together. We experienced life all together; our first joint, our first drunken accident, heartbreaks and all teenage grunge and shit. We knew each other more than our own parents knew us. He's probably just like a brother to her, much to Minho's dismay.
"Now, you two little fuckers watch this movie with me in peace. If I hear any one of you shuck-face complains how scared you are of an ugly possessed doll, you're not going to like the consequence I'll put you through."
One thing about Brenda is sometimes (read: most of the times) she can be a huge bitch. She does the worst things to terrorize Minho and I when we get to her nerves –often when we remind her that she's a girl so she needs to act like one even though she's an official member of a frat club. That is only because her father is the founder and she's an asset to the fraternity for so many ways.
"And to answer your question Tom, I borrowed some of yours and Newton's clothes because I washed my clothes and everything's still drying in the dryer." She explained to us. "Or would you two rather I start romping around the house in my underwear?"
I shook my head quickly at her. Yeah, Brenda is really gorgeous and a very interesting girl once you get to meet her but it'd be awkward to see my girl best friend walking around with nothing but her undergarments. Totally not appropriate.
Although I don't think Minho agrees on me with that.
She's got a nice ass to be quite honest and Minho's boxers aren't much of a help with hiding that fun fact for his very own sanity.
But then again, it's a sacred oath that there would be no best friend tapping around this household. Number one on the best friend's rule book: 'Do not fall in love with your best friend'. I know the fact that Minho's been fighting all his might not to break that rule himself, and I also know the fact that he's quite struggling with it. Nobody could resist Brenda. Even I can't help myself adore her once in a while and go ask myself how in the world someone as pretty as this girl is in a fraternity with ugly shanks like us.
When neither Minho nor I said a single word back at her, she resumed the movie and finally we watched in peace.
We never got the chance to finish it because Brenda got bored with it and was fast asleep 30 minutes into the movie. Minho was way too scared to continue watching it so he excused himself and brought Brenda to her bed, muttering endless curse words how his ego's been smashed down yet again by a stupid horror movie.
I kept on watching, waited patiently because I already knew Minho would want to talk.
A few minutes later, I heard Brenda's door close. Minho has flopped himself back at the couch next to me but kept his gaze down, and it's not just because he doesn't want to see Chucky and shit on his pants.
"Dude, this whole thing just keeps getting worse." He told me.
I kept my eyes glued at the television screen, and then I told him, "It'll pass."
"Thomas, you've been telling me that same shit for three years now. It's not helping."
"Well what do you want me to say huh?"
"I don't know," he shrugged, "Be honest with me? Make me realize something so I could quit whatever this feelings I harbor for her."
Though were best friends, this whole problem is really tiring to think about.
I frowned back at him, a definite scowl in my expression which I reckon Minho didn't even understood the annoyance behind it. "You want me to be really honest with you?"
He nodded, eagerly.
And so I said, as a matter of fact, "Minho, stop hitting on everyone who's got a vagina on."
Dumbfounded, he asked me back, "Are you calling me a manwhore?"
"Why? Aren't you?" I scoffed.
"I am not!" He defended himself.
"Man, you're a pro in flirting 101. You've got a nice track record with girls. Even Brenda noticed how you flirted with the newbies next door, Minhoe. How do you expect her to take you seriously and see you more than a best friend for her when you act like that all the time?"
"I do not!
"You do too, shuck-face!"
"I don't flirt with every girl I meet, Thomas."
"Oh yeah? Name one girl you've never–"
"Brenda." Minho stated even before I could finish my sentence.
"Dude, that's different."
"Yeah, Brenda's different in so many fucking levels and that's what makes it a whole lot of worse."
I hate to admit it but he's got a point.
Minho sighed before he buried his face in his hands, clearly frustrated with it. "Man, this is so fucking cliché. Of all the girls, why does it have to be her?"
I stopped the movie. Having enough already of this whole topic we've been arguing for years, I stood up the couch and walked towards my bedroom. "Come on, let's just go to sleep." Minho followed my suit, not saying a word anymore. Smirking to myself, I even joked at him, "Just think of all the freshmen you'll get to meet tomorrow and maybe somehow you'll magically forget that you're in love with your best friend."
But before I shut my bedroom door, I called Minho once again.
"I think…maybe you should remind yourself every once in a while. It's against the rules."
-(A Little More You)-
I almost fell off my chair and could've accidentally stabbed myself with a fork. Minho almost dropped the last batch of pancakes he just prepared. Someone decided to wreck the wall and destroy our front door.
"Rise and shine my dear fellas! Newt and Alby are ready for breakfast!"
In chorus, Minho and I let out an annoyed cry.
Breakfast is always chaotic when Newt and Alby are around.
"Our house isn't a fast food joint, you lanky crank!"
"Good morning to you, too, Minho."
"Your ugly shuck-faces ain't good for the morning." He retorted.
"Why so bitter?" Alby asked as him and Newt took their seats in the table.
"Brenda still won't blow his morning wood." I sniggered.
And with that, the entire table erupted to a loud fit of laughter that only made Minho scowl at us even more, throwing the last batch of pancakes with a loud klunk at the table before us.
"M' boy, when will you accept it that our Brenda will never like you?"
"Yeah, asking permission to love like Brenda is like asking to be murdered on purpose –both from her and Jorge!"
"What a bunch of nice friends I have, really." Minho said as he shoved Newt aggressively, almost making the skinny English boy fall off his chair if it wasn't just for Alby sitting next to him.
"Speaking of, where is the little bitch?"
As if on cue, a still sleepy looking Brenda came out of the bathroom,
"There she is! Good morning, sleeping beauty!" Newt greeted, only to be gone ignored.
"Don't tell me you sleep walked to the bathroom?" Alby asked.
Yes, I am best friends with a narcissistic Asian dude and a sleep walker. Oh, the joy of living the life of Thomas Murphy.
"I don't know." She slowly muttered as she rubbed the sleep off her eyes. "Either that or one of these shanks thought I look like a big piece of klunk and made me sleep on the bathroom floor."
Both Minho and I shook our heads to her. "We wouldn't do that to you."
"Newt might do that, but not us." And then I added, "In fact, Minho carried you to your bedroom after you fell asleep last night. He made it sure you were tucked in your bed so you get a good night sleep."
I glanced back at my stunned friend. Minho, my man, you owe me big time.
"Really?" Brenda asked, surprise evident on her tone, stopping just behind Minho's chair, making her oblivious of the deep scarlet blush that resurfaced in Minho's face.
And even before he could say anything, she pressed a kiss on top of his head.
My jaw dropped, same goes my fork.
Then Brenda smiled down at him as she sweetly told him, "Thank you, Minho."
Minho froze. Newt and Alby exchanged appalled looks. I almost gagged.
It was too cute. It was too sweet. It was so not typical Brenda.
"Who are you and what have you done to our best friend?!" Nice Brenda only happens once in a blue moon.
Brenda shrugged back and started eating the stack of pancakes on the plate in front of her, which were actually Minho's food.
"Anyways, you know you can still move out and live with Newt and I instead."
"Yeah, since you already have the habit of taking my clothes. I want that hoodie back, woman!"
"Oh yeah, and what? Make me vomit like I'm a shucking bulimic whenever I see you and Alby make unicorn love together? Ha, I don't think so, Newton."
"You never fail to remind me why you're such a bitch on a daily basis."
There was no seat left for her so Brenda sat on Minho's lap, again, almost made me choke my entire meal out. "Now why are you two fuckers out of your rainbow castle and decided to spread your gayness in my house?" she asked them as she continued to munch on the pancakes.
"Alby didn't want to cook. Where else can we get food?"
She looked back at Newt with her eyebrows raised. "What do you think of this place? McDonalds?"
"Yeah, and you're the kiddie crew." Newt answered.
Brenda started bouncing up and down on Minho's lap, mocking Newt with her fake little girl giggles as she did so. Minho, on the other hand, was undoubtedly suffering underneath his own boxer shorts with the way she continuously bounced up and down on his lap.
"So, are you guys ready to meet the new recruits today?"
"Oh, Thomas and I can't be there to help you lads." She told them nonchalantly. I just nodded.
"What?!" Newt shrieked, spitting some of the food from his mouth straight to Minho's face. He shoved him away, disgusted. "But Brenda, you have to be there! You're the reason why we get loads of recruits for three years straight!"
"We'll I'm sorry but you'll have to do it today without me."
Newt didn't let it rest. "But why?!"
"We've got double shift on the record store. Winston announced Sale Day for the freshmen today and they get 50% off on selected items." I told them. Brenda and I do part-time job with under a minimum wage at the campus' only record store within fifty mile radius. It's a small old shop that most of the time gets unnoticed by the college students because we don't sell albums that came out for the last two decades.
"What are we gonna do without you then?"
"Ooh! I know what to do!" Newt suddenly shouted. "Let's make Minho our official mascot! With just a massive costume on, he'd surely attract a lot of people! Maybe then he'll even get Brenda–"
Newt ended on the floor after getting his seat pulled backwards.
-(A Little More You)-
"If someone asks me again if we have the new One Direction album, I'm going to punch them on the face!" Brenda whined to me as she shut the door with a loud bang. "I can't believe we missed recruiting newbies just to get annoyed by boy band obsessed freshmen."
I was sat behind the cash register, just as annoyed and bored as her. "I don't remember making a sale for the ten days. Do you think we'll still get paid?"
I am a broke college student with a shit ton of student loan. Forgive me if the first thing I worry about is money. Brenda gets free tuition because her dad is a professor in the school while Minho earns a decent amount of money from his modeling and his extra roles in some indie movies. I have nothing.
Brenda sat next to me and said, "Let's just close this damn shitty music shop, Thomas. Winston isn't even here so we can just scoot and go to the student ground. I bet it's so much more fun out there."
"If you really wanted to, you go ahead. I'll just wait until the shift's done and meet you guys back at the house."
"As much as that sounds better than being here, I just couldn't leave you alone." she said, smiling at me.
Whether I admit it or not, I stared at her a little longer than what's supposedly necessary.
She was really beautiful. It's no wonder Minho got smitten by her. Anyone wouldn't have a problem falling in love with someone like her.
How about me? I'm not going to lie. Maybe I do, somehow. But the problem is; it's Brenda.
It's against the rules.
Surprisingly, Brenda was the one to tear her gaze at me. "Thomas, I need to tell–"
She was cut to continue on when we heard the front door open and someone entered the shop.
And I swear, in that moment, I found the one.
-To Be Continued-
© Andie Hernandez
End Notes:
And there we have the intro chapter! Yay! Welcome to A Little More You and I really do hope you liked this as much as I did. What are your thoughts? Please let me know what you think! Honest reviews are much appreciated.
-Andie
