Page 8 of No Summer Hotter than You

I looked directly at my friends in the eyes. “It’s just a crush.”

This was the first time I was admitting to my friends about my crush on Anthony while my two close cousins and Andy had already known about it for several months. I’ve been hoping the feelings I have for him would be under wraps and maybe I would eventually stop feeling the way I did. However, now I was telling them the truth, it all felt too real and raw.

Jackie leaned forward, her eyes searching mine. “Shoua, come on. You can’t ignore the way your face lights up when you talk about him or how protective and clingy he is with you. I think there could be something more going on between you two.”

Alicia frantically nodded in agreement.

“Anthony’s only overprotective because of my car accident last year,” I stated. “There’s nothing more to it.”

Both my friends shrugged in unison. “Sure, that’s what we all said about how overprotective Andy was of Julie all throughout high school and they’re now together,” Jackie said.

“Yeah, remember the way he almost got into a fight senior year with Theodore Ngo at school because he broke Julie’s heart and made her cry during lunch? I get why Andy was angry, but he didn’t need to escalate to that point,” Alicia said, laughing. “There’s a reason why no boy wanted to ask her out after that, and it was because of Andrew fucking Hughes.”

It was true; no boy had bothered to try to date her because they knew they’d have to go through Andy first. He was always trying to shelter her from any heartache, especially after the whole ordeal with Theo.

I chuckled at the memory. “Yeah, Andy had quite the reputation back then. But what are you even trying to imply? That Anthony is overprotective because he’s in love with me?”

“Well, they are twins,” Alicia stated, as if we didn’t already know this.

“So?” I cocked an eyebrow at them.

“They’re brothers. If it’s not nurture, then it’s nature,” Jackie said.

I shook my head at them. “Nope, definitely not with that. Anthony’s not the overprotective type. But I know Andy can be. He can also get jealous easily.”

“How are you so sure of that, though?” Jackie asked.

“Because I’ve seen him in relationships and he’s never been like that,” I said.

“We’ve all seen Andy in relationships throughout high school too and he was never like that with any of his exes. Except when it came to Julie,” Alicia said.

“Exactly, and now they’re together,” Jackie said.

“Stop it, you two. There’s nothing more to his overprotectiveness. Just like how there’s nothing more to this stupid crush I have on him.”

“But what if it’s not just a stupid crush?” Alicia asked.

A moment of silence fell over the table as I glanced at my friends. My heart began to pitter-patter in my chest at the thought of being in love with my best friend.

“We’re just saying that there might be more to your relationship than you realize, Shoua,” Jackie said. “Sometimes the line between friendship and something more can blur without us even noticing.”

I was about to shake my head when my phone vibrated loudly on the table, drawing all of our attention to it. Three quick, consecutive pings from the devil himself—Anthony.

Three texts? What was going on? We all stared at my phone notifications with his texts on full display.

Anthony

We’re best friends and

You’d do anything for me

Right?

I shared a raised brow with my friends before I typed back.

Me

It depends.

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