The early morning sun glared through the window, hitting Brynn’s face harshly and waking her from her slumber. Even before she opened her eyes, she knew that this room
was not hers. The sheets didn’t smell like Armani Code Pour Femme, the room was way too bright, and most notably, there was an muscular arm snaked around her torso. The last thing she remembered was Sean picking the lock of a room in El Jefe’s house… was she still there? Brynn’s eyes fluttered open to find it wasn’t the same room as the one where they first...well, you know.
I guess this must be Sean’s room…I’m at the Sterling’s she thought to herself gazing around at her surroundings.
... Selena is going to kill me. Brynn concluded, mentally preparing herself for the backlash. The details of how she got here were
incredibly fuzzy, so she’d have to get Sean to fill in the missing pieces later.
Turning her head slowly, Brynn looked back at the sleeping blonde behind her. Sean looked so peaceful, so she tried her best not to let her movements wake him up. This was a fantastic opportunity to stare at him
without him yelling at her for it. She admired his facial features and noted the large tattoo on the side of his neck.
I’ll have to ask about that later... Deciding that she had stared at him long enough, she nestled back down into the covers, trying to close her eyes and go back to sleep, since she didn’t know when the boy would wake up. After all, she was confined to the bed until he did. The only issue was that a pounding headache was beginning to form. Brynn knew she shouldn’t have had that extra drink.
As the minutes ticked on, it seemed possible that Sean would
never wake up. If it weren’t for the steady rising and falling of his chest, it would have been fair to think he had succumbed to something and tapped out. Forever. Eventually, though, his eyes creaked open.
He didn’t speak at first, instead he just looked down at the head resting on his chest.
Oh yeah. I brought her home… Sean thought back to the night’s events: the food, the dancing, the fun at Damian’s, then leaving shortly afterward and coming back home for… more fun. A lot more fun. Enough that it was worth bringing her home, he decided.
“Hey, Brynn…? Are you awake?” Probably not; she had been… pretty fucking trashed.
Hearing Sean’s morning rasp brought Brynn right out of her daze. Even better, he remembered her name. You’d be surprised by the number of guys who’d forgotten her name the morning after, the lack of respect evident in their breath. But Sean was clearly one of the good ones. Without opening her eyes, she responded.
“Yeah, I’m alive… barely.” The tequila headache was beginning to become more evident, so Brynn tried her best not to let it show. Nothing kills the mood like a bad hangover.
Sean nodded, running one hand through her hair while his other reached down off the side of his bed.
“You drank too much.” He said, and though his voice was still soft, still tired, it was undeniably reprimanding her. His hand came back up and placed on his chest, near her face, a bottle of Excedrin extra strength.
“Chew two, give it ten minutes.”“Tell me something I don’t know.” Brynn stated, enjoying the feeling of Sean’s fingers combing through her hair against her pounding head. It was both relaxing and comforting, two things that were quite necessary to nurse this hangover. It took her a second to realize what Sean had placed in front of her face, but after finally opening her eyes, she was face to bottle with the answers to her prayers. Taking the medication off of his chest, she followed his orders and took two of the pills.
“I could seriously kiss you right about now.” She mumbled, resting her head back on his chest, closing her eyes once more to block out the light.
“Yes, you could. But, for some reason, you didn’t.” Sean sighed and closed his eyes as well, pulling her more snugly to him. She had been drunk last night, and he had been able to handle that. Bringing her to his house and allowing her to wake up in his arms, meant that he had to handle the hangover that came with her buzz.
“I usually sleep like... many, many more hours than this, but when you’re ready, we can go downstairs. I’ll get you some pancakes, or… something. Hangover food. I don’t know.” He wasn’t perfect, okay?
Brynn smirked at his comment, and after opening her eyes just enough, let her lips find their way to Sean’s. She kissed him delicately and then retreated back to her prior position.
“There, now I did.” A smile could be felt through the tone of her voice. The thought of food made her stomach churn, as well as did the likelihood of bumping into Selena, so she opted for the first option.
“Let’s stay here for a little bit longer so you can fill me in on how much of a fool I made of myself.” The offer of food was sweet, not many guys did that for her, so she’d have to take him up on that after.
“You didn’t make a fool of yourself. I, uh, kissed Owen. To stop him from killing Marshall? At least, that’s what I felt was going to happen. Then we went inside and Marshall ran off to the bar to get smashed, and we went to get some food. It was delicious. You got a little more drunk, then we went and danced — I taught you how to ballroom dance, you did pretty good for your first time. I twirled you into my arms,” for emphasis, Sean twirled some of her hair around his finger, smiling down at her.
“I kissed you, then I took you upstairs. We had sex, like once or twice at Damian’s and came back here and did it until you said ‘if we keep going, I’m gonna fall asleep during.’ So, I kissed you again. And we went to sleep. And, here we are. I think I covered everything?”The brunette couldn’t help but laugh softly under her breath.
“You forgot to mention you picked the lock so we could get into the room at the party, it was really hot.” She opened her eyes again to look up at Sean.
“I remember everything up until round two at Damian’s. Sounds like I blacked out for the majority of the fun part of the evening.” Brynn pulled herself closer to Sean, if that was at all possible.
“Maybe you can reenact what I missed?”Their morning fun was about to be cut short before it could even occur, so it seemed. Selena Sterling, who was miraculously hangover free and perfectly glammed up for the day, stood outside of her brother’s door. There were only a few days before school started for the second semester of their junior year, and she had some adventures planned for her and her twin to go on in these remaining days. Sel knocked thrice on the wooden door frame. She always knocked three times in a row, with a distinct pattern, so there was no mistaking who it was, especially when it was followed with,
“Seany~”Brynn moved in towards Sean, their lips just about to touch, when the legitimate worst sound rang through the room.
A knock on the door. Even worse was that the voice that followed belonged to none other than the person Brynn feared the most in this very moment.
“Shit, it’s your sister, she’s gonna kill me if she finds me in here.” Brynn clung to the sheets that were wrapped around her body, gazing around the room for an escape plan.
Sean stared at Brynn as if she were crazy. No one would kill her, especially not his sister — that was foolish. Rather than help her find a way to escape, Sean instead turned his attention to the door.
“It’s unlocked, Sel. Come in.”“No, don’t say that!” Brynn knew it was too late for a viable hiding spot, so as the doorknob began to turn, she pulled the covers over her head, careful not to move a muscle. She was about to be murdered.
“Oh!” Selena exclaimed from the other side of the closed door. He was awake already… that was odd, at least for new Seany. He hadn’t woken up on the brighter side of noon since he had arrived back home. His sister took this as an overwhelming success of having brought him to the party last night. Maybe it was helping with his sudden and complete depression. She opened the door and walked in holding a mug of coffee.
“You’re already up, that’s wonderful! I brought you coffee — three big spoons of sugar, whole milk, and some mocha syrup.” Selena said cheerfully, offering him the steaming mug, completely unaware of the other person in the room.
Sean listened to what Selena had to say, and paid no mind to Brynn hiding beneath the covers. He sat up and reached out for the steaming coffee cup.
“I don’t know what mocha syrup is… but thanks. Yeah, I got up because I was waken up…” Sean shrugged his shoulders, drinking from the coffee…. which was delicious. All his life, he’d only had black, bitter, gross coffee, but it did what it needed to: wake up a bunch of groggy young men training to be soldiers.
“Selena, this is awesome. Do we have more?”Brynn tried her best to stay still, but with fear filling her entire body, it was hard to remain calm. Selena was standing mere
inches away from her. When Sean moved to grab the coffee cup, the covers began to reveal her chocolate brown hair sticking to the sheets, so quicker than lightning, the girl grasped them and moved them out of sight. Hopefully no one noticed.
“Of course we have more, silly!” Selena said with a warm smile and turned to sit on the bed next to him. She continued talking while doing so.
“I was thinking that you and I should go have breakfast at a diner. There’s this really great place called The Sunshine Diner, the pancakes are to die for. Maybe even better than mom’s, but shhh, don’t tell her that.” Sel’s genuine giggle was cut short when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Was that… brown hair… next to her brother?
“Seany?” She asked, her eyes trained on the evidence that they were not here alone.
“Yes, Sparkles?” Sean asked simply, sipping at the drink some more. The mention of pancakes had peaked his interest, and he was growing tired of Brynn’s game — but he didn’t understand women. So he’d let them play, and then Brynn could pay for his food in return. It was the least she could do.
Selena stood up from the bed like she had sat in something gross. Really gross. Worse than seeing your brother naked with your gay friend next to you, gross.
“Who is that?” She asked rather accusingly.
“Why is there a girl in your bed? Is she hiding? Is she naked? Are you… were you?!”“Because I brought her home. Yes, though I don’t know why. Not entirely, just topless. No, but we were about to until she dove under the covers. Tell me more about these pancakes.”Doomsday had arrived. The world was about to end, and Brynn could hear the disgust in Sel’s voice.
Well, it was fun while it lasted… bye Sean. As slow as she could manage, Brynn peeled the covers off of her face.
“Hii~ Sel…” She nonchalantly greeted, an awkward expression plastered onto her face.
“Fancy seeing you here…”“Here?” Selena asked in a voice that almost sounded sweet, you know, like antifreeze… poison can be sweet. The blonde blinked rapidly at the familiar face in her brother’s bed, tilting her head and smiling, before purring out more barbed words.
“You mean, here? In my home? Where you most definitely don’t belong?”. The crown princess gave the little candy a moment to speak, if she so wished. It would be her funeral.
“I’m just saying, but I brought her here. And it’s also my home. So she belongs.” Sean paused to sip from his coffee.
“There are more important matters to discuss, including that of the aforementioned pancakes.” Women. Honestly.
“Oh yes, there are more important matters to discuss. Like getting you to the STD clinic, you might need a shot after riding the town bike.” Selena said harshly, very much unlike the girl that he used to know as his sister. It seems that both of them had changed since he left for
school, and neither one of them seemed to have been changed for the better. She had her reasons, and she kept them hidden, just like the rest of their family did. The Sterlings were full of secrets.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that one of Ophelia’s tarts would jump at the chance of getting with my brother, none of you could keep your eyes off of him yesterday. I should be even less surprised that it’s you, isn’t that right, Brynn? Did you really think you could get away with hitting and quitting a Sterling?”Sean listened to Selena’s rant, and chose to write it off to early morning grumpiness. He felt like pancakes would certainly brighten her mood, but he chose not to say that. Instead, he decided to point something out to her. After all, what she’d said was
minorly incorrect.
“There wasn’t any ‘hitting and quitting.’ There was a lot of hitting. Very little quitting.” Sean said, before sipping his coffee again.
Brynn couldn’t exactly hide from this situation. There were no covers she could pull over her face to escape from this one, and she couldn’t bury her face into Sean’s chest either; it’d just make everything worse. Her face turning bright red, she didn’t want to dig herself deeper into the hole she was currently sitting in. But little miss princess pants was making her
mad.
”Honestly Sel, I think you’re just a little jealous that your brother rode BHHS’s communal bike before you did. I can’t help that he’s hotter than you...”“Hmm…” Selena responded in a laugh that didn’t even receive any breath, it sounded more like a hum than anything.
“Yes, I’m sure that’s what it is. We might be friends, but I’ll say this here and now, you better not treat him like the others. That wouldn’t really go over well.” Sel turned her attention to her brother once again, and smiled. Deep down, she did hope that this might be more than just an alcohol-fueled mistake for them. She touched his cheek warmly and spoke.
“If it makes you smile, then I might be okay with it. That being said, this does not derail my plans for the day. Brynn can come, if she dresses herself.”Sean took a deep breath at the realization that he understood women perhaps even less than he’d originally thought. His sister and Brynn had been at each other’s throats, but now they were playing buddy? Senseless mayhem. Pointless attacks on character. This would never fly at the Academy. But, he wasn’t there anymore. To ensure she didn’t say anything out of turn again, Sean put his hand on the back of Brynn’s head and guided her to his chest, before he spoke firmly to his sister.
“Sel. I understand where you’re coming from, trying to… protect me. And I really appreciate it. But I have had a terrible, terrible month. It may just be a one time thing — I hope it isn’t. But with Brynn’s help I smiled a little. And it was nice. Please don’t be rude, because of that.” Sean paused to let Selena digest the words, before he moved onto the thing that mattered most.
“Now, about those pancakes…”Sel nodded at her brother’s words. Of course her twin would understand why she acted the way that she just had. Six years apart couldn’t sever the bond that they shared, even if it was the worst six years without him. But, of course, Brynn was there, so she wasn’t about to get emotional.
“I… hope it isn’t either.” Selena responded and stood a little bit straighter as she did so.
“Be downstairs in fifteen, we’ll take the Maserati.” She said before turning on Louboutin
heel and heading out of the room.
Brynn couldn’t process what was happening fast enough. One second Sel was slut shaming her, and the next Sean was defending her? With her head rested on his chest, Brynn could feel his heart beating fast, and she felt hers beat at the same rate.
This boy is something else. She thought to herself, bashfully staring down at the duvet.
“I’m really sorry about that.” Brynn stated with a small laugh, trying to diffuse the tense situation that just took place.
Sean shook his head, leaning his head down slightly and giving Brynn a gentle kiss on the lips.
“Please don’t be. I’ve had an awful month, year even. She’s worried about me, that’s all. Okay. You can wear one of my shirts, if you want. I don’t know what you actually have on hand to change into…”
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