Page 7 of Love Never Happens with your Brother’s Best Friend

I slow my Dodge into park down the side street outside The Half Moon Café and cut the engine. Before I get out of my car, I pull my cap down covering my eyes like a criminal, which feels ridiculous, so I turn it around and wear it backward. More casual. More me. I stand on the sidewalk for a minute, suddenly feeling like the fifteen-year-old version of Brodie Kent. The Half Moon Café wasn’t here before though. It’s new. Looks nice. This is where I arranged to meet up with Dylan.

We haven’t connected in years, but Dylan was my best friend when I lived here. We mucked about at school; in and out of each other’s houses; tearing up and down the streets on our bikes; building forts and generally creating mayhem. We lost touch a bit since I left. I mean, we still message on birthdays and Christmas, but we haven’t seen each other for ages.

I’m not worried though. I’m guessing he’s just the same as he was at fifteen. I don’t feel that I’ve changed that much. The friends you make when you are a kid are still basically those same friends.

I’m excited to see him and reminisce about our school days. And also, I’m looking forward to seeing Rita, his little sister. My first love. Probably my one and only love. The massive teenage crush I never got over. I wonder if she’s in town. I hope she is, but I can’t imagine she would want to see me.

Thinking about Rita hits me like a lightning bolt. In a split second, I am transported back ten years to the exact moment when I told her that I loved her.

It was the start of summer. We had just finished school and we couldn’t wait to get outside into the fresh air and sunshine. Like wild animals let loose from a cage, Dylan and I raced to the river with some other kids. We were all so happy to be out of school. Finally. Even the kids who would be working over the summer break felt free that afternoon.

Rita was there with her friends. She jumped onto the rope swing from the bank and shrieked as she splashed down into the swimming hole. Then she swam to the bank and laid down on the grass in the sun to dry. I tried to get her attention by showing off. I pretended to be Tarzan and swung from the branch of an ancient oak tree. She laughed and said I was more like a big ape.

“Brodie Kent is a big ape!” she yelled at me from across the river.

“Say that again, Rita, and I’m gonna get you.”

She stood with her arms folded and a gleam in her eye, head on one side, as all the other kids stopped what they were doing and watched.

“Brodie Kent. Is. A. Big. Ape.”

I jumped into the river and splashed over to the other side in double quick time. Rita screamed and ran off down the riverbank. Everyone else was laughing and shrieking. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I caught her. I thought I might tickle her until she begged me for mercy. I didn’t have a plan. Rita was a fast runner and she dodged me when I caught up with her. She hid behind a tree and giggled and squealed when I finally got hold of her arm.

“Take it back! I’ll make you.” But as I said the words I didn’t know how I was going to make her.

I had Rita pinned against the tree trunk, holding her wrists above her head. She could have escaped at any time, but she didn’t. We were laughing, and panting, and exhausted from running so fast.

Rita laughs and shouts at me, “Let me go, Brodie Kent, you big ape!”

So, then I take my hands away, but she doesn’t run. We’re still laughing then she grabs my hand and holds it in hers. We’re quiet for a minute.

“What happens now?” she asks, looking up at me, her wet hair plastered to her head; eyes sparkling with youth and fun and all the promise of her life ahead.

“What if I wanted to kiss you?”

Rita laughs, screws up her eyes, and pokes out her tongue at me.

“That’s ridiculous,” she snorts. “Why?”

“Cos I like you… A lot.”

She presses her lips together forming a tight line. Then wrinkles her nose.

“No, you don’t, Brodie Kent. I have freckles. And skinny legs.” Rita grins at me and points to her mouth. “And braces on my teeth.” She’s making an ugly face but the way she says these things, with her cute lisp, melts my heart.

In the distance, kids are yelling by the swimming hole. Summer green leaves above dapple sunlight onto our faces.

“Alright,” Rita says, fixing me with her eyes. Serious. As if it’s a dare. “Go ahead.”

My pulse races. I lean down and put my lips on hers and it’s the nicest sensation. I stop for a second then do it again. Rita relaxes and kisses me back. A warm dreaminess washes over me, and I want to kiss Rita Carmichael for the rest of my life. But then she starts giggling.

“Dylan’s going to kill you when he finds out,” Rita says before scampering away.

“Wait. One minute,” I want Rita to come back. I don’t want her to go. Rita stops and turns back to face me.

“What Brodie Kent? What now?”

“I love you, Rita. Now and forever. That’s all.”

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