“Brother?” Isaac rumbles, and I can feel a blush spreading across my cheeks. Charlie is a boy, Isaac is a man—the thought has never been more apparent to me than at the moment they meet.
“Dude, chill.” Charlie laughs, and I inwardly groan as Isaac raises an eyebrow.
“Isaac, this is Charlie,” I introduce, trying not to stare into Isaac’s brooding eyes. “Charlie,” I step away from Isaac, who gives me a questioning look. “This is my… this is my… my… Isaac.” I can’t bring myself to say cousin. Every time that word hits my brain, it tells me my feelings for him are wrong… bad… dirty. He’s my cousin, and although legally I could still be with him, people would judge. I know he’s not my blood relative, but people would still cast aspersions. It shouldn’t matter, but the truth is my family would judge, and I couldn’t bear that.
Isaac holds out his hand, and Charlie slaps it in an awkward high-five motion. I cringe and close my eyes hoping that when they open, this scene playing out in front of me is just a bad dream. If I’m lucky, I’ll wake up in A Level English naked in front of the class... anything has to be better than this.
Two hours later, and Charlie is wasted. “Come on, I’ll take you home,” I tell him with a sigh.
“Babe… you’re the bessst,” he drawls, clinging to my shoulder and using me as an anchor to hold himself up. We slip out of the party. I’m not quite sure how I manage to get out unseen, what with me being the birthday girl, as well as having a drunk man-boy whisper shouting and hanging onto me as I try to make it through the door sideways. I realise I haven’t gone unnoticed when only a few feet outside, Isaac appears. Wordlessly, he grabs one of Charlie’s arms and hauls it around his shoulder taking his whole weight and dragging him out to the kerb, past my little red car—the one my parents bought for me last year for my seventeenth birthday. While it’s cute, it’s also old and tiny. Instead, he walks over to a black, shiny truck beeping the locks. Pulling open the door, he pushes Charlie into the passenger seat and then spins around to face me.
“Come on.” He grabs my hand, and I feel the spark ignite between us as he leads me around to the other side. “Get in,” he tells me, opening the driver’s door and nodding. I furrow my brow, confused as to why I’m getting in the driver’s side, but he nods again, and I climb in. Then I see there’s a bench seat, so I scoot to the middle. Isaac climbs in after me, and the minute he’s in the cab he fills the space both with his stature and his aura—dangerous.
I let my eyes roam over the interior space.
“I’ve spent a fair bit of time overseas, I like the American trucks,” he explains and I shrug. “Where does your boy live?” he asks.
“London Road,” I tell him. He starts the engine and it judders, rocking from side to side, before he pulls away.
“So you’re okay?” I ask.
“Yep. I’m all good, Via, you?” he replies.
“Fine.”
“Good.”
I wonder why things are suddenly so awkward.
“You didn’t write,” I whisper the words. I’m not sure I want him to hear, or to answer, but it’s something I feel the need to say out loud.
“No.” He doesn’t speak again, and we ride in silence to Charlie’s house.
“Here… this is it,” I tell him as he slows down on London Road. He pulls up and jumps out, helping me get Charlie to his house. I knock a couple of times. Charlie lives in a shared house with three other guys, but I only know two of them, Spence and Calum. After knocking again Calum throws the door open and immediately spots Charlie.
“Oh fuck, not again. I don’t know why you put up with him and his shit, Olivia,” Calum says groaning. He grabs Charlie from our grasp and pulls him inside giving a small chin lift to Isaac.
I walk back to Isaac’s truck saying nothing to him. As he drives along I concentrate on the movement, which sways me as I lean against the passenger window.
“What did he mean?”
I turn to face him. “What did who mean?” I ask confused.
“The guy at the door. He said he didn’t know why you put up with his shit. What did he mean, Via?”
I feel my stomach tighten with nerves and my eyes dart from left to right. “Oh, just that Charlie is stupid and gets drunk a lot.”
“Hmmm,” Isaac responds, but then he allows silence to descend again. My eyes close for what feels like a second, but when I reopen them, we’re parking in the driveway of his house.
“Isaac, what are we doing here?”
I turn toward him again and watch as his head drops backwards. He looks to the roof of his truck and closes his eyes. “I don’t know,” he tells me.
My breathing picks up alongside my heartbeat. “Come on,” he demands and pulls me out of the door after him, dragging me up the path and into his house. Once we’re in the hallway, he slams me against the wall. For a very slow moment, he just stares at me, his guard dropping from his eyes, and the Isaac I know and love is finally staring back. It awakens me, and without thinking, I move forward touching our lips. That’s all it takes—my flame—it ignites the fire, and before I know what’s happening, I’m being carried up the stairs and then bouncing as Isaac throws me onto his bed.
