My Best Friend's Brother

Dinner With The Devil

As I walked home in the pouring rain without an umbrella and my best friend, I realized how f****d over my life got the second Hunter came back into it.

I mean, the more I think about it, the more it irritates me.

But the most shocking part of it all is that I haven't gotten pranked from Hunter yet. I couldn't tell if I was thrilled or scared considering he was going to be at my house in less than an hour.

The sound of thunder grew louder as I finally made my way to the gate of the white picket fence in front of my house. I opened it and walked inside into the dry atmosphere of my house. The smell of my mother's cooking filled my nostrils as I closed the door behind me.

"Oh great, you're home!--Oh my, what happened?" My mother questioned worriedly as I was drenched in rainwater.

"Emma had cheer practice, so I had to walk home. In the rain." I smile sarcastically as I kicked off my drenched converse by the front door and tucked my loose strands of wet hair behind my ears.

"Well, go get ready. And hurry, they should be here in less than ten!" My mother shouts as I was already walking up the stairs. "Look presentable!" My mother finally calls after me as I was already halfway up the stairs.

I made my way to my room closing the door behind me as I made my way to my closet looking for something that screams, 'I'd much rather not be here', but sadly failed to so I decided with a pair of skinny jeans with a half-sleeved maroon top.

As I brought myself to the middle of my room, I grabbed the bottom of the soaked shirt until I found a shirtless Hunter in the house next door.

He looks over to me and I quickly look away hoping he didn't realize I was staring. 

All he did was seem to wink, which made me very uncomfortable. I walked over to the window as did he, sending him a misleading smile until grabbing both the curtains from either side of me and pulling them shut.

God, he is so irritating. But I had to admit, shirtless Hunter wasn't a bad sight...

Ew gross! Pull yourself together Ryleigh, this is Hunter Dawson we're talking about.

Double no.

I was quick to change out of my wet clothes and into my dry ones before rushing to the bathroom to comb through my mess of hair.

As I began walking downstairs, the doorbell rang. 

"Ryleigh! Ryleigh, can you get that?" My mother shouted desperately from the kitchen.

"I've got it," I called back with a sigh as I made my way to the bottom of the stairs opening the door to be greeted with a greeting smile from Ms. Dawson who was followed by her husband close behind her.

"Nice to see you again, darling! You look beautiful." She nicely compliments me. 

That was the thing about Hunter, he is nothing like his parents. 

"As do you, please come in." I smile, stepping back to allow them to step in the house. Both Ms. And Mr. Dawson enter the house and made their way to the kitchen, as I turned my head back to the doorway to close it, I was startled with another figure.

"Saving the best for last I see?" Hunter smirks, leaning against the doorway. 

I raise my eyebrows pressing my lips together. "If by best you mean the worst, then sure," I said pushing the door back to close until he stops it with his foot before pushing it back open.

"You're funny, Adams." He says sarcastically walking into the kitchen to get greeted by my mother with suffocating hugs and a kid on the cheeks with her cherry-red lipstick.

Good, he deserves it.

As I enter the kitchen, we all settle down around the table, and with my luck, I happened to be forced to sit with Hunter.

Even greater.

I mean, there's nothing he can do with both of our parents with us, can he?

As we all grab some spaghetti to put on our plates, we began eating. Thankfully my mother's cooking was quite good as I savored every bite.

"So, how was Military school Hunter?" My mother questions, wiping away the excess spaghetti sauce from her mouth. 

"It was great. It's honestly and truly shaped me as a person." He smiles as my mother sat in awe.

Lies, lies, and lies!

"We are all just glad he's back home. We've all missed him, haven't we Ryleigh?" My mother questions, catching me off guard as I was in the middle of slurping some noodles into my mouth.

"Hmm?" I question as the noodles stopped in between my lips. I didn't realize what I had just done until I saw my mother's expression change. I know how she gets about table manners.

I heard a chuckle come from Hunter, which made me feel like an even bigger i***t. I quickly finished off the bite, picking up my napkin to wipe my mouth to speak.

"Sorry, what was the question?" I ask embarrassed already from my previous actions.

"Aren't you glad Hunter's back?" My father asks.

Nope, not one bit. I was having dinner with the devil himself.

"Of course..." I lie.

"May I be excused to the restroom?" Hunter's voice butts in. I was surprised he used such big words.

"Why of course sweetheart. Do you know where it is?" My mother questions as he gets up from his seat.

"Why of course." He replies before leaving the room. 

Something seemed off as he left the room giving me one of his signature smirks that tells me he has something in mind before leaving the room...

Who am I kidding? It's Hunter Dawson! Something was going on behind my back, which explains why he would go use the upstairs bathroom instead of the one downstairs!

"I'm going to go fix my hair real quick..." I lie to my mother as I got up from my seat and walked slowly out of the room to a point where I could not be seen, and that's when I darted upstairs to find the bathroom door wide open with no one in it, and that's when I saw him exiting my room, closing the door quietly behind him.

Oh no, he doesn't, not this time.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I question crossing my arms and I arched my eyebrows.

He lifts his head, seeming to be surprised by my appearance. "Nothing yet, babe."

And that's when I saw a familiar pink journal that had my name on the front in hot pink glitter peering out of his jacket. "Is that my journal??" I question furiously.

He pulls it out with a smirk. "Oh, you mean this thing? Well, gee, I don't know. Shall we start from page one and find out?" He says with a wicked smile.

This was my prized possession from middle school. He had every embarrassing memory I can remember and secrets, and now that the devil himself has his hands on it, what can I do?

"Give it back right now!" I yelp launching in his direction but he holds it out of my reach.

Sometimes being 5'3" sucked.

He maneuvers himself around me as he ran down the stairs laughing with my journal in hand.

As we both reach the kitchen he slips the journal back into his jacket as I run into him.

Everybody seemed to be cleaning up as the Dawson's stood up from their seats landing their eyes on the both of us.

We both try to normalize the scene a bit from the disturbed expressions on both of our parent's faces.

He runs his fingers through his hair as I tuck mine behind my ears and fix my shirt.

"You both look...out of breath." Ms. Dawson comments bouncing her eyes between the both of us. 

Shit, s**t, shit...

"We were just playing...hide and seek," Hunter speaks looking at me for back up. "Weren't we, Ry?"

That jerk, who does he think he is expecting me to back up his lie? But I knew he had his hands on my journal, which left me with no choice.

"Just like old times." I fake a smile toward both of his parents.