Brynn
Tuesday 24th September 2019
"I still don't know why you can't just stay with mum and dad, Coffee 'n' Chill Cafe is only a five minute drive away," my brother, Cooper, commented as he picked up a blush pink decorative pillow from the shelf and threw it into the shopping trolley that I was pushing around.
I looked up from the shopping list I was reading and quirked my eyebrow at him. "I didn't choose to move out, Coop. They kicked me out," I reminded him. "Why, do you not want me around?" I pretended to say in a sad voice in hopes he'd feel bad.
I had gone against my parents wishes and refused to attend University like my brother had, and so they gave me an ultimatum. They said I either applied to Brighton University and was allowed to live at home as it was only a few minutes away, or I moved out and found somewhere else to live. I had chosen the latter option, I hated living at home anyway. So, I'd asked my brother Cooper to take me in and I'd gotten a job as a waitress at a nearby cafe.
My parents hated this. They had always hoped I'd follow in my brother's footsteps and become an accountant like he was, but the thought of sitting at a desk all day every day made my stomach churn. I needed some sort of excitement in my job.
His eyebrows creased together in concern. "Course not, Brynn. Was just imagining my apartment covered in this shit," he joked, poking the same pink pillow he had picked up only a few seconds ago.
I rolled my eyes. "You can keep your apartment the same gross beige colour, this is just for my bedroom," I said, referring to his awfully boring beige and white apartment. He lightly slapped my arm, and I stuck out my tongue at him in retaliation.
"Mature," he retorted.
"Mature," I mocked back in a silly voice. "Now shut up and pick that rug up," I said, pointing to a pink rug that matched the pillow he had picked up.
Cooper and I had a typical sibling relationship where we would constantly bicker and argue, but if it came to it we would protect each other with our lives. He was also wildly protective, as many older brother's were, which drove me absolutely insane but was also oddly nice. There was a five year age gap between us, but you'd never be able to tell as I acted maturely and he acted like a sixteen-year-old stroppy teenager.
"Why didn't you ask to move in with James?" Cooper asked, referring to my twenty-three year old boyfriend. He was training to be a lawyer at his father's law firm and so earned decent money, enough to rent his own apartment near to the law firm.
I shrugged. "I asked him first but he said it was 'too big of a step too early in the relationship,'" I said with air-quotes. At the time I didn't remind him that we had been together for nearly two years, it'd just provoke him. "Anyway, the cafe is like a fifteen minute drive from his apartment anyway and I don't have a car."
"God I hate that guy," Cooper muttered under his breath and I rolled my eyes, choosing not to reply. Cooper always remarked on how 'strange' it was that when James and I got together, I was seventeen and he was twenty-one. From then he didn't like him at all.
I tucked a few of my ginger locks behind my ears as I looked back down at the list I had made, my eyes trailing over the different things I needed for my new room and en-suite bathroom. "Where will the bath-mats be?" I asked aloud, mentally ticking some things off from the list.
At that very moment Cooper's phone began ringing and he slipped it out of his pocket, looking down at the name that had flashed up with furrowed eyebrows. "Uh- they're over there near the toilet holders and things. You head over and I'll be right with you, gotta answer this," he said, pointing at the bathroom things on the other side of the shop.
I nodded, brushing off his sudden weird mood as I began walking off towards the bathroom stuff. As I walked away I heard Cooper greet the person on the other end of the line with a "hi man".
My mind wandered a little as I thought about who he could be calling that would make him act like he didn't want me to know. It couldn't be a secret girlfriend because he wouldn't call her 'man', but I couldn't think of who else it could be. I told myself to stay out of his business as I reached over to the shelf with the bath mats, selecting a light pink one to put into my trolley.
I was already perusing the washing baskets when Cooper returned, pushing his phone back into his jean pocket. "Who was that?" I asked, trying to act nonchalantly as I took one of the washing baskets from the display to look at it.
He shrugged. "Uh- just mum," he lied straight to my face. Mum would have burst a blood vessel if he had answered the phone to her like that, so I knew for a fact he was hiding something from me.
"Hm, what did she want?" I pushed a little to see how far he would take the lie.
"Just to see how we were doing. Did you find the washing basket you liked?" He asked me, blatantly trying to change the subject as he began inspecting the one I had selected.
"Yeah," I said, lifting the basket into the trolley.
He nodded awkwardly, avoiding my eyes as much as he could. "Anything else?" He asked and I shook my head.
"Nope, I got everything on the list. We can drop it off in my room now," I said with a childish smile, pushing the strange feeling from my body. He must have had his reasons to lie and it was none of my business to keep prying, especially as he was a grown twenty-three year old man.
"M'gonna just drop you off at the apartment after for you two sort this stuff out if that's alright," he asked nervously, not looking me in the eye. "I have something to do."
I eyed him suspiciously, but decided to drop it and break the tension instead. "Why so serious? Got someone to murder or something?"
He glanced up at me with a sour expression before breaking out into a smile. "Don't be stupid. C'mon, lets go buy all this shit," he said whilst ruffling my hair.
I grabbed his hand and pushed it away from me. "You touch my hair again and I will end your life. I know where you sleep," I warned him, flattening down my ginger locks.
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