Chapter Ten: Talk About It
Warning: Some language and slight mentions of adult things.
Brooke's POV-
You know that feeling you get when you first wake up and before you open your eyes you already know to expect to see your room, but then when you finally open them, you're some place completely different?
Waking up on top of Leigh's bare chest with a dribble of drool running down the side of my agape mouth was not what I had expected that Saturday morning. I quickly shot up before realizing that I had spent the night with him. I, Ms. Goody-Two-Shoes Taylor had spent the night at a boy's house that I had only known maybe two weeks, and he wasn't even my boyfriend…yet.
I was surprised at my boldness, but felt better realizing that most girls my age weren't even virgins anymore.
I glanced over at Leigh, who was still sound-asleep, breathing lightly. His arm was raised over his head, and I could see his eyes flickering from behind his eyelids. He must be dreaming. I gushed at how adorable he was for a moment, before realizing I was being a bit creepy, watching him sleep. I never pictured myself being the clingy type that watched cute boys as they dreamed and before I wrote myself off as obsessed, I sprung up and hobbled over to the bathroom to fix myself up for the day.
When I realized that Leigh was not planning on waking up any time soon, I decided to go down and see if Lysander was awake before I drove myself to wake Leigh from his dreams.
As I crept down the stairs, I heard boot-wearing footsteps coming down the hallway, and peered over the side of the stair railing to see who it was from above.
Lysander walked below me, wearing his usual elegant attire already despite the early hour, but soon noticed someone was watching him and stopped, looking up at me.
"Brooke?!" He exclaimed. I smiled and trotted happily down the last few steps. His eyes followed me the whole way down.
"Good morning Lys!" I chirped.
"Yu-you stayed the night?" He softly and yet sternly asked me, a very concerned look on his delicate face.
"Yeah, the storm got pretty bad so Leigh didn't feel comfortable driving me home." I explained.
He scratched the back of his neck. I never knew Lys to have a hard time finding the words to say to someone, but here he was in front of me, obviously scrambling to find what to respond with.
"Did you-?" He asked, implying what didn't need to be said.
"Oh, no! Not at all! You know me, Lys. I'm a good girl. Not that type, remember?" I said, flashing him an innocent smile.
"J-just checking…all I know about Leigh's former sex life is that it was very much so existent. I know he's that type." He told me.
I turned red. I had assumed Leigh wasn't a virgin, but I didn't know he was some kind of sex fiend.
I squint one eye and tilted my head.
"So you're saying he's a womanizer?" I asked him.
Lysander scrunched his nose in embarrassment.
"No, no that's not what I intended to mean. I just meant that with his previous relationships I have not known him to be shy with his sexuality. Oh dear, maybe this is coming out all wrong. Don't worry about Leigh, he is a little older and therefore has had more experiences than us. All I meant to inquire about was you. Don't worry about his past." He spewed, obviously feeling flustered.
"It's okay, Lysander. He didn't try anything, so I guess maybe he senses that I'm not like other girls." I told him.
"Forget I said anything. I do apologize for intruding, but that also goes with saying that I am proud of you for keeping your innocence as long as you can." He said to me, bearing a warm smile.
"B-but, you would tell Castiel and I if ever something were to happen, right?" He asked me.
Lysander was suddenly being a little nosy, but I didn't mind. He and Castiel were my best friends, after all. I had no reservations telling them all the juicy details if they would hear me, I just didn't think they'd ever want to know. I didn't really have a girl friend to talk to, so I was actually quite relieved that Lysander cared about my love-life, even if it was with his brother.
"Of course, what are best friends for?" I said, shrugging my shoulders.
Lysander smiled and gave me a nod.
"Not that I would be of any guidance. I haven't yet crossed over to that phase of manhood…" He said, now beginning to blush.
I loved that Lys was opening up to me about this; it made me really feel that we were close friends
"I haven't either, you know, done it." I told him, sheepishly.
"Leigh knows this, right?" He asked me.
"Well, no…we haven't really talked about anything like that." I said.
"It's probably best if he finds out that you're a virgin soon, just to avoid any misunderstandings. Leigh has always been the type not to hold back from getting what he wants in life." He told me, raising his eyebrows.
"Really? Well, I guess I should tell him then." I said, shrugging my shoulders.
"Has…Cas ever- you know?" I asked him, a little awkwardly.
"Well, yes- but unfortunately it was not under the best circumstances." He told me as we walked into the kitchen together and sat at the table.
"What do you mean?" I asked. I suddenly began to worry for my other best friend.
"He had been seeing someone who was of ill intentions and used him for her own greed. If he could take it back, I am willing to believe he would." He told me.
Wow, I never knew that. Maybe that's why Cas is so reserved now.
I nodded my head, my mouth askew in thought.
"Girls can sometimes be horrible…" I sighed.
"People in general can tend to be horrible." Lysander said, nodding his head.
Just then, my stomach growled an angry growl. I realized I was quite hungry, and Lysander glanced over at me.
"I can't help but notice that maybe your stomach is trying to tell you something important…" He said with a sarcastic glimmer in his yellow eye.
I giggled and shook my head.
"I guess I haven't eaten in a while…" I asked with a snicker.
"Well, the kitchen is mostly stocked with easy-to-make things, like cereal and microwave dinners…I must admit Leigh and I being teenage boys, we don't much like to prepare big meals." Lysander told me.
"But please, help yourself to anything you can find." He added, nodding over to the refrigerator.
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"Of course I am sure- you are not just a guest here, you are my best friend and my brother's girlfriend. Make yourself at home!" He said with a smile.
"Well, I wouldn't exactly call myself Leigh's girlfriend…" I said, tilting my head.
"Oh? Well it would appear to the outsider's point of view that you are…what would you call yourself then?" He asked me, now crossing one leg over the other and resting his hands on his knee.
"Um…I mean Leigh never asked me to be…but we're obviously not just friends." I sighed, just as confused as Lys was.
I know Leigh and I had only been really 'seeing' each other for only a short while, but I didn't like these confusing, hard to define kind of relationships. After the way we've been taking things so fast with each other, I would have assumed he would have asked me out by now, but I was trying not to get myself too worked up.
"Leigh sometimes has a difficult time showing how he feels towards girls…he can be rather difficult. I can't tell you how many times I had to play messenger between him and Ro-I mean, his previous girlfriends." He told me.
It seemed like he was about to say a name but out of respect for me stopped himself. I wouldn't pry as to not seem too crazy about Leigh's past. I didn't care about Leigh's past as much as I did our future.
"Well, I hope he figures things out soon. It seems like he really does care about me. I like him, a lot." I told Lysander, now getting up and moving over to the refrigerator to look and see if I could find anything to eat.
"I hate to be so curious again, but it does seem as though you and Leigh are taking things a little fast…" Lys said to me.
"Is that…bad?" I asked him, scratching my neck.
"No, not necessarily. I had just noticed, is all." He said, now turning his head to look out the window.
I scrunched my nose, now trying to figure out if things between Leigh and I were going too fast. I really liked him, a lot. I liked where we were, and how we felt about each other, and to tell you the truth, I liked the pace we were moving. Maybe things were moving fast, but I decided I would let them run their course.
"Mmm, bacon!" I exclaimed, spying the package of raw bacon in the fridge.
"I don't even know why Leigh buys bacon. He never ends up making it, and it always spoils." Lysander said, rolling his eyes.
"He wastes bacon? Lys, I assure you this bacon will not go to waste. Do you and Leigh like omelets?" I asked, pulling out the package of bacon and a carton of eggs.
"Who doesn't?" He asked, with a snicker.
"Very true, my friend." I said, placing the items in my hand on the counter and then pulling out a few more ingredients.
"I'm going to go and make a phone call, if you'll excuse me." Lysander said, getting up from his seat.
"Okay, you know you don't always have to be so polite to me, loser." I told him with a giggle, playfully nudging him as he walked past. He laughed and turned to me.
"Sorry, it's kind of just my way…I'll try and remember that though." He said, walking down the hallway to his bedroom.
I found myself a few frying pans and a mixing bowl, and started cracking eggs while I laid the bacon out on the oven to start cooking.
I was taught at a pretty young age how to cook all kinds of things since my parents were so often working or away in some foreign country, but I actually enjoyed cooking, especially for other people. My tiny kitchen in my apartment was no inspiration to play chef though, so this large kitchen was definitely refreshing, and motivated me to want to whip up a feast.
I fried up the entire package of bacon and made six omelets, some with different ingredients in them like cheese, tomatoes, diced ham, and onions, since I didn't know what all they liked. I also managed to make biscuits from scratch ingredients I found by searching through the entire kitchen, and in no time the entire house smelled like breakfast. Just as I was finished, I heard the shuffle of tired feet trudging down the stairs, and looked over my shoulder to see Leigh coming around the corner, rubbing his eyes.
"I smelt bacon." He at first said, groggily before rubbing his eyes a second time to see me standing in the kitchen, now wearing a cute, frilly apron I had found hanging in the pantry (no idea why two boys would need a girly apron…) while I flipped the bacon with my tongs.
His eyes grew wide and a not-so-tired smile grew onto his face.
"Are you…cooking?" He asked me.
"No, I'm building a house…" I said, sarcastically.
"Hallelujah!" Leigh gasped to the sky in a joking manner before trotting over to me and grabbing me from my waist, kissing my cheek.
"Good morning beautiful." He whispered. I turned my head and my lips met his as he pressed them down on mine.
"You have NO idea how happy I am that you cook…" He said, now glancing over my shoulder at the food on the stove.
"And well, too, from the looks of it. I am so tired of eating frozen toaster pastries every morning." He added.
"Don't get too excited, you haven't tried it yet." I said, now blushing and instantly becoming modest.
"I can already judge it just from smelling it." He said with a smile.
"So, you don't like to cook?" I asked him as I flipped the bacon one more time.
"No…not at all. Cooking does not work for me. I shouldn't even be in a kitchen with all of the destruction I cause to food when I try to prepare it. I can hardly even make cereal without spilling milk all over the place." Leigh admitted.
"I'm sure you just haven't been taught right…" I told him, reassuringly.
"No, that's not it…I took culinary in high school and my mom tried effortlessly…I'm telling you…" He said with a laugh.
"OUCH!" He suddenly yelped, holding a spot on his arm. I knew right away that he had probably been burned by splattering bacon grease.
"SEE! Food hates me…and I don't understand why because I love food…" He said, stilling rubbing his arm as he admired the bacon.
I chuckled to myself before turning the oven burners off and pulling the bacon onto a plate, along with the eggs. I opened the oven and took out the tray of biscuits and placed it on top of the stove.
"Biscuits, too?" Leigh squealed. He sounded like a kid on Christmas morning.
"LYS! Soups on!" I yelled, hopefully loud enough for Lys to hear me.
I heard his door shut and his boots on the hardwood.
"Thanks so much for making all of this, Brooke." Lysander said as he peered over all of the food, grabbing a plate.
"It's my pleasure, really. I like cooking!" I told him.
When the two boys had started eating, I dished up a plate of food and sat at the table, blowing delicately on the food to cool it down. We ate quickly as we were all pretty hungry, and when everyone was finished, I got up and started taking the dishes to the sink to wash them.
"Let me do that!" Lysander said, taking a plate from my hand.
"Oh, no that's fine! I used them, so I should clean them." I told him.
"Nonsense, you just cooked this fantastic meal for us, you shouldn't have to do the dishes as well!" Lys told me, sincerely.
"Well, okay…if you want to." I said, reluctantly.
"It's no trouble at all!" He smiled, taking the rest of the dishes from my hands and headed over to the sink.
Leigh went over to the sink and washed his hands and I leaned up against the wall to wait for him. When he was done, he looked to me with a smile and I started over to him, but a dreadful noise stopped me in my tracks.
'Riiiiip' I heard, and looked down at the seams of my night gown. I had been leaning nearby a nail in the wall (why it was there, I did not know) and the night gown had become caught in it. When I pulled away, it ripped a huge hole in the back.
"Oh no!" I gasped, looking down and immediately covering the exposed skin with my hand.
"Did you rip it?" Leigh asked me, tilting his head.
"Yes…I am SO sorry…" I huffed, completely flustered.
"For what? That's no problem at all! Come with me…" He said, taking my free hand and leading me up to his bedroom.
"I ripped the night gown you gave me…" I said, somberly.
"Did you forget that I make clothes? Therefore I have some knowledge on how to repair them as well…" He said as we entered his bedroom.
"Oh…are you sure it's not ruined?" I asked him.
"Not in the least!" He cooed, walking over to his nightstand and pulling out a few things.
He had a strange looking wrist band with a big, plump, purple pin cushion on it that he strapped to his wrist by brown leather straps. It was littered in many different colored pins, and he took a small travel sized sewing kit out with it.
"Just stay standing there." He instructed, now kneeling down and taking my night gown in his hands, pulling it flat and pinning a few sides straight, before skillfully pulling the thread through a needle and quickly starting to sew. It was almost cool watching him and how practiced he was in doing this.
"There, good as new!" He said, now standing.
"Wha- you mean you're done?" I asked, looking down, unable to even find where he had just sewed.
"Yeah, it wasn't a very big hole." He said.
"Yeah it was! Wow Leigh, what are you some kind of human sewing machine?" I asked him playfully.
He snickered.
"I guess you could say that…" He said.
He then looked at the clock and exhaled.
"I have to be getting to the shop soon…" He said, skewing his mouth to the side.
"Oh…I forgot you had to work." I said, grudgingly.
"Yeah, it's a blessing and a curse. Guess we should get dressed." He sighed.
"Uh…yeah, about that- can I use your washing machine? I can't put on what I was wearing yesterday until it's been washed. It's still damp and wrinkled from the rain…" I told him.
"Oh, well you didn't expect me to let you go home without a new outfit, did you?" He said, his face now lighting up.
"You already gave me these pajamas!" I exclaimed.
Leigh scoffed, before happily trotting to his closet.
"Let me see here…" He said to himself from inside, fishing through the hangers.
I rolled my eyes at his kindness, still feeling a little guilty for taking so much from him.
"Here!" He said, before coming out of the closet with an outfit in hand.
He held up another dress, medium in length and black all over, with pink straps, laces, and buttons. It was stunning. My eyes grew wide as he handed it to me.
"It's beautiful!" I exclaimed, taking it from him and studying it.
"You like it?" He asked me.
"I love it!" I squeaked, happily taking it to the bathroom.
"Let me know if you need help with those laces!" Leigh called from behind me and I laughed at our now running joke.
I quickly went into the bathroom to change into it, almost eager to let Leigh lace me up rather than attempting to do them myself.
I came shyly out of the bathroom to see Leigh, now dressed in brown slacks and a deep purple jacket, just buttoning the cuffs on his sleeves. He looked up at me and smiled, before coming over instinctively and lacing up the back.
"Made for me?" I asked him, teasing about the line he never failed to use.
"Exactly." He said softly, moving his finger and motioning for me to turn around. I did a twirl and he sighed.
"I wish I didn't have to leave this pretty sight." He said, his face dropping sadly.
"Maybe I'll come and visit you sometime today." I told him happily.
"That would be nice..." He said with a grin before stepping towards me.
He wrapped his lanky arms around my waist and pulled me close, before leaning down and pressing his soft lips against mine.
"I'm falling for you, Brooklyn Taylor…" He whispered, now running his fingers through my long hair.
I took a deep breath in. Yes, things were definitely moving fast, but as the butterflies practically chewed off the inner lining of my stomach, I took a gulp before looking back into his eyes.
"I know how you feel…" I said, donning a playful grin.
"I can honestly say I don't think I've ever really felt this way about a girl so quickly before." He told me, seriousness on his face.
"And I can tell you that I've never felt this way about a boy before, ever." I matched his words.
He set another tender kiss on my lips.
"Leigh, can I ask you something?" I said, tilting my head and lining my eyes with his.
"Anything, baby." He said, calling me baby again. I felt the warm sting of a hard blush on my cheeks.
"What…is this? Are we together, or-…" I tried to ask but my words fell short.
"Well, I would be quite upset if I ever saw you with someone else…" He told me, tousling my hair through his fingers.
"So does that make us a couple?" I asked him, cautiously.
"Essentially, yes. If-if that's what you'd like, that is." He said, his face nose slowly turning a light shade of pink.
"I'd like that." I smiled, still gazing into his eyes.
"Me too…" He said, before giving me yet another kiss.
He glanced up at the clock and sighed.
"I've got to get to the shop and open up…" He muttered, obviously not happy about it.
"Oh, I'm sorry for keeping you…" I said, looking at the ground.
"Don't you ever apologize for being with me." He told me, picking my chin up and lining it with his own.
I blushed again and sighed happily, before we made our way down the stairs to the car. I said goodbye to Lysander, and we were off to the school first so that he could drop me off to get my car, and then after a sweet and short farewell, Leigh left for work.
So I guess he was my boyfriend now. I felt frazzled as I drove to my apartment, just trying to process my good fortune. All at once I went from being a nobody back at my old school to dating the 19 year old owner of the coolest clothing shop in the area. I had two great best friends, and a few others at Sweet Amoris, and I felt for the first time in my life that I really meant something.
Castiel's POV-
"So is that all she said?" I asked Lysander, my whole body hurting from hearing about Brooke and Leigh's little night-in.
"Yes, that was quite it. I think it's inevitable that they start going steady soon…but I just don't see them lasting a long time. I don't know why. Something is not right how fast they are moving in this relationship." Lysander told me.
"Lys you don't have to try to make me feel any better. How could I be so stupid as to think that anyone could love me? I'd never have a chance with her anyway. I'd rather see her happy with someone else, because I know she'd never go for me anyway." I sulked, feeling depressed from head to toe.
"Castiel you know that is not true. You are a great person…" Lysander said, trying to cheer me up. It wouldn't work.
There was a part of me that hated Brooke just because of the way she let out my true emotions when I had worked so hard to push them down to the pits of my soul. I had been so strong and secure before she came into my life. She was making me face my feelings and I hated it.
"That's not true, Lys. I'm a terrible, mean, rude person. Everyone I meet I instantly attack so that they don't try to come into my life and hurt me like everyone else besides you has. Everyone at school hates me. Brooke was the only one to look past my attempts to push her away…and now she belongs to Leigh so it doesn't even matter anyway." I scoffed.
I pulled a cigarette out of my pack and lit it letting it dangle in my mouth as I glanced over Lysander's back porch and out to the mountains beyond.
"You shouldn't smoke, you know…" Lysander said, like he did every single fucking time I lit one.
"No shit. Yet another desirable quality about me, I smoke, I drink, I cuss, I don't try in school. I'm a loser." I huffed angrily.
"But Brooke smokes as well…" Lys said.
"And she shouldn't, it's bad for her…" I said before taking a long drag of nicotine into my lungs. "What does that even have anything to do with?" I asked him.
"Smoking doesn't make you a bad person. So you aren't perfect…neither is Brooke." He told me.
"Yeah, she is." I growled.
"No she isn't, Castiel. She smokes, cusses , skips class with you, drives too fast, and kisses boys she doesn't know at masquerade balls – just to name a few. No one is perfect. I'm not, you're not, Brooke isn't- neither is Leigh. The point is finding someone who sees those imperfections as perfect." Lysander told me.
"That's just the thing…that's how I view Brooke. I just don't think anyone could ever see past my imperfections." I told him.
"Then make her see." He said, putting a hand on my shoulder.
"What's the use in trying…she's Leigh's now. I should back off." I scowled, blowing puffs of smoke up to be caught and carried with the wind.
"I feel as though the best thing you could do, as I have told you before, is to be there for her and if anything at all at least you can say you did everything you could. You really think Brooke is going to spend the rest of her life with my brother? He has had so many girlfriends in his life that I have lost count. Just when I thought he found the one he was really serious about spending his life with, he apparently dumped her." Lysander told me truthfully, talking of Rosalya, Leigh's most recent ex.
I looked out into the sun and nodded.
"Why are you always so…optimistic?" I asked him as my pessimistic scowl burned the tips of my mouth.
"What's the point in always waiting for bad things to come?" He asked.
"At least I'm never disappointed." I sighed.
Lysander always made me feel better about things, but my stomach was still sick with the fact that Brooke and Leigh were serious about each other. I was nauseated with thoughts of them cuddling, kissing, and being together in a way I could only dream to be with her.
The weekend crept along like a bad case of the flu, and when I normally despised Mondays, they became better with the promise of seeing Brooke in the morning. I looked forward to hopefully spending some more time with her teaching her to play the guitar, and hoped it would bring us closer- even if as just friends.
Monday came as it always does, and when I walked into the school I did my normal stop into the bathroom to check out my appearance, making sure I looked decent before presenting myself in front of Brooke. When I walked into the hallway, I heard the clicking of heels headed and saw heads turning towards the sound, and so I turned my head with them to see what they saw.
My eyes grew wide when I found the source.
Hey guys! Sorry for this filler chapter, but I needed to get everyone's feelings out in the open before the real drama starts! Hehehe. Please review, they keep me motivated to write updates faster for you, and as always, thank for SO much for your continued support and following of this story.