There’s something I want to talk to him about, but I’m not too sure how he is going to take it. After talking this through with my oldest brother, Ryan, and both of my parents, they think that I must be suicidal to undergo this conversation with Brandon. She is, after all, his best friend. “So you and Erin are just friends, right?” I begin. Here it goes, the moment of truth. Brandon looks over the top of his beer to where I am and places it down on the table slowly, deceptively calm. His brown eyes look black in the night sky. For twenty-two years old, he’s big; muscular, not fat. He is fit and his gaze is zeroed in on me. “No,” is all he says in response. “What?” I ask, offended. I have a whole argument to present before he can have a say. I have thought this through. Thoroughly. “No, Cole. Erin is off limits to you.” Anger surges through me. I’m offended and pissed off that he thinks that he has that say.
