YOU AND I

She is, I'm not.

Chapter eighteen:-

SHE IS, I'M NOT.

Emarald's POV:-

My gaze followed everyone else's to see a man in crisp black suit with an unreadable annoyed expression on his face glaring at Brett a reaction which he mirrored. He must be the dad.

"Weren't gonna invite me in my family get together?" He voice with coated with ice and I felt sympathy towards Alana.

"You are still a part or did you leave that role that day?" An even icier tone came that made me shake in fear.

"And you are?" Now Mr. Hartwell's gaze was on mine, completely disposing off Brett's question.

"I'm Emarald. Emarald O'Connel." Every single pair of eyes were on my moves while only one mattered to me. I shifted in my place uncomfortably. My eyes fell on the forest greens that were darker a few seconds ago although now they were much lighter, much livelier. He came to stand beside me.

I looked up at the staircase again to find no one there. My brows furrowed.

"Where'd he go?" Tristan asked voicing my thoughts, even he was serious.

"He'll be present at dinner." Alana replied, her voice low deep in thought. Zach hugged her from behind comforting her, slowly all the boys made a circle around her now very small frame piling up one one the other. I stood awkwardly beside their hugging fest when a hand reached out from somewhere between the group and pulled me in too. It was Phil's. I know, he is very cute and I can't help myself but say that. We broke the group hug after a few minutes when Steve (short for Steven) accused Tristan of hogging him till he couldn't breath. A fight broke out between them. A verbal one.

I watched them amusedly from the side because their accusations were hilarious. I bit my lip to control a laugh from escaping and even had to put a hand on my face. I heard a yelp beside me. It was from Brett for the reason that Alana was twisting his ear.

"Mom, what?" He groaned.

"I was asleep when you came home and you left early to pick her up, without even meeting me. On top of all this it has been two days since you haven't been home without telling me where you were gonna stay it's good that I know Jake and I asked him." She placed her hands on her waist and she looked more intimidating than all of these guys combined even if she was short than most of them.

"Sorry, Mom. I won't do that again." He cringed saying that seemingly not sure of it and I pinched his back. He rolled his eyes at me first and then dived in to hug her. Aw. Returning it wholeheartedly she made a thumps up in my direction to which I chuckled.

"You better not." A mock glare came from her when they broke the hug.

"I'm taking Hazel to my room and are there any chips in the kitchen?" He took hold of my hand, taking me halfway to the stairs.

"Yes, there are and leave the room open, I don't want any grandchildren running around here although you'll both make really cute babies." I blushed profusely, looking at the ground.

"Don't embarrass her and me." His voice quietened in the end. He turned his head towards me.

"Go to my room on the second floor and wait, I'm just gonna grab something to eat."

"Wait, which room?" I called out to him and he turned back around.

"You'll see." He shook his head amused at, I'm not sure, my question and left to go to the kitchen while I followed the directions to his 'room'. I reached upstairs and there were only two doors on the floor. What?!!

I opened the one close to the stairs and stepped inside. s**t!! It was just wow. The room was filled with just black and white. It was plain but not exactly plain. It had black king sized bed in the middle which had black linen sheets and covers. A comforter was nearly placed on the hem of the bed. There were bedside tables on both sides of the bed. A study desk was placed on the corner too which had some papers scattered randomly. I moved around while studying the room, taking in the woodsy and citrus smell that Brett had which was all around the room. I took a deep breath. I noticed one particular thing though. There were very few pictures, all of him with his family just on different places. The view behind him was just as appealing as the view on the front of his crazy faced selfie. I smiled. I stopped analysing it and moved forward.

There were three doors inside the room, one might be to his closet, second might to the bathroom and third? What is the third door for? Just when I could act on my curiosity and analyse the room more and maybe go in to find the third door mystery the door of the room swept open and Brett stepped inside.

"I thought we'd watch some movie so I brought some popcorns too. Correction: Much more popcorns than some for you to eat." He smirked, that retard. I closed my eyes and rubbed my temple for extra dramatical effect.

"So, you think I'm fat?" I finally whispered, my eyes watering. I'm good at this stuff.

His eyes widened in realisation that he hurt me and he came up to me leaving the food on the table in far left corner that had a black couch placed before it.

"No, baby I wasn't saying that." What does he call me that?

"You said it so you must have meant it, right?" I placed my hands on my face covering it completely.

"No, I swear I didn't mean it." He pried my hands off of my face. I swear I heard him say something close to "You're perfect." at the end but that can't be true, we're friends and I can be imaging.

"I was just fooling around." He added when no reply came from me.

"Me too." I came out of my frozen state pretty fast and started laughing when that line came out of my mouth. I laugh like a maniac. I don't even know how to describe it because it's pretty much hyena like.

"You didn't!!" The word was stretched giving that 'ooh'  sound and I laughed even more to that. His jaw dropped to the floor and he pointed an accusing finger my way.

"You have an exact five seconds headstart." He looked at the time his phone and then looked at me, grinning. My eyes widened at his statement and I ran, to I don't know where, shrieking. I moved around the room dodging him every few seconds, I threw the papers on his table at him, I threw cushions placed on his bed at him nevertheless after all the tries I got caught. His arms encircled around my waist and we both tumbled in such a way that his legs twisted and I landed on him on his bed. My eyes closed and I cringed.

Slowly opening one eye I peeked at him and he, huh, he was smiling. My brows furrowed and I gave him a questioning glance. He tightened his arms around my waist which I didn't expect so my upper half that was in midair before fell on him too. He moved his head till his lips were directing in line with my ear and whispered.

"Caught you." I shivered, goosebumps erupting on my skin and my eyes closed on their own record. He shifted back again before his eyes could even more darken.

I tried to pry his arms away and they came loose and I didn't wanted that which scared me the most. He was my friend and will always be. Phew. I'm so hormonal.

Don't try to cover it up.

Shut up. I groaned internally.

I stood up and looked around his room again. There was so much in it, an Xbox was placed there too along with a TV. How much money does his family have? Like seriously!!

"I'm gonna choose the movie." Exclaiming that, I took my phone out to see any messages all the while pulling at him to get up. He's more than a ton, I swear.

"As long as it isn't something sappy."

"So that's what we're watching." I smiled brightly at him pocketing my phone, taking a note inside my head to talk to Justin and check Mike's message. What does he want to talk about? I made a face.

He muttered a low 'cruel' and turned on his heels to open one of the doors in his rooms. Uh, do I follow him? Like maybe he is going to use the washroom.

"Come, what are you waitin' for?" Again a bit of his British accent came up. I noticed that whenever he speaks something fast or in a hurry it comes up.

"Yeah coming." Dragging my feet I started walking behind him.

We entered a room having a small personal theatre with a few couch scattered and a table in the corner. A fridge was also present containing I guess, beverages. This room had a sky made on the walls and it was so awesome.

"Beautiful." Left my mouth as I took it in twirling on my place. Brett went ahead and sat on a black couch. Typical.

"Who painted this?" Still in awe I too followed his lead and sat beside him.

"Me." Shrugging, he pointed at the rack of movies stacked up on one side of the back wall.

"Choose whichever you want?"

"You did this?" I shrieked, facing him.

"Yeah, it's no biggie." He shrugged again. Remember when I said I'm gonna take him to see a doctor for shrugging, I'm gonna fix the appointment tomorrow.

"It is 'biggie' and did you just say biggie?" Pink tainted his cheeks and I laughed, pinching his cheeks to which he swatted my hands away.

"Whatever. I used to paint, stopped a few years back." He shrugged again. Why is he doing this?

Oh, I know. He's uncomfortable.

"Well it is just wow." Standing up I went to the wall behind us and went through with the movies and picked out the one which he didn't wanted to watch. Ha.

The movie started and he groaned. Yasss, another reaction. I knew he could do it and I also know that nobody should be able to read minds especially mine because I'll be embarrassed to death and that person might be traumatized forever. Sigh.

The movie was 'The Notebook'. Ha. It isn't my fault I love it and forever will. No kidding.

Halfway through the movie I took out my phone to look at what Mike sent me. Brett was so into the movie to notice, too much for a person to not like it. He'd even call out at their stupidity and immaturity every once in a while. Getting bored of him yelling at the screen I took out my phone.

Mike:

Were going bowling after school tomorrow, wanna come? You can invite Hubby to be too.

"Hubby to be? Really? Is that what you call me?" I groaned out loud. Why'd he text me that? God, why?

"Shut up!" He smirked at my lame attempt of a reply.

"Shut up! Don't have anything nice to say?" He mimicked me, pouting in the end.

"I don't have to say anything because you are my friend." Before he could say anything Jake entered the room.

"Dinner's ready wifey." He winked at me and spread his hands out to Brett in a 'hug me' kind of way.

"I'm your wife. If we were to get married you'd be my wife." Brett explained in a bored tone.

"You do know how bad that sounds, right? Especially when your love interest is sitting by your side." Winking at me again he started to leave the room when I called out.

"I'm not his love interest."

"Yeah sure." The 'sure' was stretched extremely long. And with that comment he left.

"When did he even come?" Muttering profanities along this line, he told me to follow him. I've been doing that a lot. It's irritating. I chuckled silently at his statement and went downstairs with him.

We entered the kitchen where Alana, Joey, Phil, Steven, Jake were sitting. Joey had a rubix cube in his hands, Steve was on his phone while Phil was singing songs, not rhymes but songs. Jake was grinning at us.

"You actually solving that?" Raising his eye brows at Joey, Brett took an Apple from the kitchen counter and took a bite.

"Nah, I was trying to impress Emarald with my smartness." I grinned and ruffled his hair, he grinned back.

"You stay clear of her way." A grumbling voice came from behind me. Brett.

"I can choose whoever I want." I reasoned.

"Not if it's my brother. Or anyone else." He grumbled yet again just mumbling the last part. It can be my imagination.

"Aw, you're both so cute together." Alana said softly.

"We're just friends." It was my turn to grumble.

"She is, I'm not." I laughed at our inside joke.

Really? 'The Fault in our stars'? My eyes asked him, containing humor in them.

Anything for you and well you did made me watch it. His replied.

"Did you just had a 'The fault in our stars' moment?" Jake countered at us, obviously the last one to get. All the while we grinned at each other.