The Perfect Touchdown

“Aiden, what the fuck? Stop, man!” Avery and Carter rushed out and tried to pull the two away from each other, but Aiden was too far gone. He cut free of Avery’s grasp and went at Noah once more, another swift right-hand hook to the jaw.

I rushed up and grabbed his arm. “What are you doing?” I asked in a low voice.

“I could ask you the same thing?” he growled and turned back to Noah. “Who the fuck do you think you’re trying to lock lips with? What the hell is wrong with you, you of all people?”

“I-I’m sorry, man,” he muttered through a busted lip, his eye had already started to shut and turn purple. But it was too late, and my brother had already heard what Aiden said.

“Wait…you tried to kiss my sister?” It was Avery’s turn to lose control, but at this point, a few other partygoers had shown up to the scene and broke up the fight.

“Everyone, please, stop!” I screamed and stood in the middle of everyone. “Avery, Aiden, go the fuck upstairs.” I turned to Noah and narrowed my eyes, then looked to Carter. “You, take him to the corner store and get whatever supplies I know you don’t have here to fix his lip.”

“Ryles,” my brother tried to say.

“Shut. Up. Party is over, everyone. Go home.”

They didn’t need to be told twice and the crowd filed out. I turned back to the ridiculous frat boys I ended up babysitting every weekend it seemed.

“I don’t want to know what is going on, I just want to pretend like this night never happened and I suggest you do the same,” I said directly to my brother. He was still fuming in the corner as he side-eyed Noah.

“Can I at least say I’m sorry? I misunderstood something, clearly,” Noah pleaded.

“What could you have misunderstood? I have never come onto you and never would, I have a–” I was about to say ‘boyfriend’ but clamped my mouth shut just in time.

“You have a what?” Avery asked. “Were you about to say boyfriend?”

“Moral standing, I was going to say that, but then it sounded really mean. I just meant I won’t date someone so close to my brother, especially not one of his frat brothers.”

Aiden coughed slightly to stifle his laugh.

“Yeah, because I’d never allow it. I made that pretty fucking clear from the start, Noah,” Avery yelled and got in his face again.

“Okay, enough, Avery. Can everyone please leave so I can talk to Noah?”

Aiden narrowed his eyes at me, but I gave him a silent look that pleaded with him to just understand, for now, we could talk about it after. I needed to fix things with Noah first to avoid this turning awkward in the future.

“One wrong move, and you’re out,” Avery warned before he headed upstairs.

“Look, you don’t need to apologize for what you did. If you honestly thought I might have feelings for you, you could’ve just asked me instead of going right for it. Just a piece of advice for your next female encounter, we tend to frown on stuff like that and really just prefer that you tell us flat out that you’re interested.”

Noah blinked at me. “Is this a joke? You aren’t mad?”

“Oh, I’m pretty mad, but you have enough to worry about. You live under the same roof as Avery and Aiden, neither of which are happy with you right now.” I grinned.

“You know, I’ve never seen Aiden get that angry before. He scared the crap out of me.”

I chuckled. “I could think of a few times.”

We hugged it out and thankfully there was no awkward tension between us after that. He retired to his room after that, and I went out onto the deck to get some fresh air after all of that. Not long after, I heard the sliding glass door and turned around expecting to see Aiden, but it was Avery instead.

“Hey, you mind if we talk?” he asked.

I patted the empty spot on the patio swing, and he walked over to join me.

“Are you doing okay and being honest with me?” he added.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

He frowned. “Ryles, you were assaulted at a party and just now were pretty much almost assaulted here, at a place you thought you could trust.”

I groaned. “How did you find out about Jacob?”

“One of the guys from his team told me, said he filed a report for you with their school and that asshole has been suspended for the rest of the semester.”

“Well, poop.”

“Rylee, I’m being serious. It’s not easy to go through things like that and be completely normal afterwards. Tell me how you’re really feeling, please.”

I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to say. Yeah, it was traumatizing what happened with Jake, but it probably would have left a bigger scar if Aiden hadn’t shown up and saved the day. If he hadn’t stayed with me that night and soothed away the worries and fears, I probably would’ve ended up a lot worse.

But I couldn’t very well tell him that, he would freak out even more.

“I’m really okay, Avery, I promise you. Aiden was there for me after, and he made sure that jerk got what he deserved.”

Avery chuckled and nodded. He seemed satisfied with this answer.

“You know, as much as I sometimes joke about you two, there are times when I’ve wondered if he would ever actually fall for you, even though you aren’t really his type.”

‘Oh, how much you don’t know, brother.’

“Why would you have such an issue if we started dating? Do you honestly believe we would ever let you suffer from losing a friend or a sister?”

He sighed and it looked like it really was much deeper than that.

“Honestly, I don’t know why I’m so against you two. I just really don’t want to picture you two together, you guys are my best friends and we’ve done everything together since we were in diapers. It’s hard to wrap my head around the idea.”

“Is it because you can’t wrap your head around the idea that we’re growing up? That we aren’t those little kids anymore, and we won’t ever be again.”

He was silent for a while. “Maybe it’s just you. I can’t get over that you are growing up and are old enough to date someone like Aiden. You’ve always been my little sister, and I’ve seen the way Aiden acts, it’s similar to myself and I would never want you dating someone like me.”

“I would be proud to find a partner like you, Avery. They would probably make me the happiest in the world, and just because you sleep around that doesn’t mean you would make a terrible boyfriend when you do get serious about someone. The same goes for Aiden, you guys aren’t terrible people just because you are honest about your intentions.”

“Huh, I never really looked at it like that,” he shrugged. “You still aren’t allowed to date him. Anyone but him, and Noah…and Carter. How about Ryan?”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m certain he has a thing for my roommate.”

“Oh, that’s right.”

I sat up straight. “Does he?”

“Ah, shit. I wasn’t supposed to say anything, you just said you knew!”

“I said I’m certain, but that doesn’t mean I’m 100% for sure!”

We continued to bicker back and forth with each other and for a moment I was brought back to the past, to when we were just small kids with no worries in the world.

“So, where are you staying tonight?” he asked. “You can always use my bed, it’s not as big as Aiden’s but I can sleep on the couch.”

I shook my head. “I sleep in Aiden’s room to avoid you sleeping on the couch. His bed is big enough that we don’t ever touch, even accidentally, I promise.” I added the last part when he narrowed his eyes and glowered at me.

“You’re lucky I trust him like a brother,” he said and turned in for the night.

That statement hit a little close to home and stung a lot. I couldn’t imagine how Aiden would feel if he was the one to hear that.