Page 92 of Sweet Twins For My Brother's Best Friend

Quietly, Chris says, “You’re my best friend, Tyler. I needed advice, but I wasn’t ready to tell you that it was Hannah I cared about.”

“Then you weren’t ready for my advice! God, so all this time that I’ve been wondering where you’ve been, you’ve been withmy sister?”

“I didn’t know you were wondering where I’ve been. You could have asked me to hang out. You could have asked me what was going on.”

“And we could have talked about Samantha? This is…you’re sick, man. You’re a decade older than she is. You used to come to my house on breaks from college, and she was in third grade. You knew her when she was like eight years old.”

Chris lays his head down on the back of the couch. “It’s not like I was attracted to her then, Tyler, Jesus. The two don’t correlate.”

“So you don’t think that’s weird at all?”

Tyler turns to look over at me, his mouth still open. “And you don’t think that’s weird, either?”

“Tyler, the fact that we were acquainted through you when I was in third grade is not relevant to this conversation or this situation.” I realize I am feeling very protective of the feelings Chris and I now share.

“That was a long time ago. I’m not eight anymore, and he’s not 22 anymore. He’s not some kind of pedophile. He’s attracted to an adult woman, not a child. Not to mention that we happen to love each other.”

Tyler sits up and leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Hannah, this man,” he points at Chris, “is a certified player. He has been through a woman a week for years now.”

“That was only after Julie,” Chris mumbles, not putting up much of a fight, his voice quiet.

Tyler shoots daggers at him with his eyes.

“Julie dumped youfive years ago. That hasn’t been a valid excuse for about four years.” He looks back at me. “You are making a mistake with him, Hanny.”

“And just what part of this is the mistake? The baby or Chris?” I ask with venom in my voice.

“All of it, Hannah! What the fuck? You just got this business started. Why would you do this?”

“Dowhat?”

“Make a baby withhim!”

He points at Chris and shakes his arm. His face is all twisted up, sweat beading up around his hairline. His freckles are popping out amidst his red face. Combined with his pointing, he looks like he’s shaming the town dunce.

“You’re being mean, Tyler. I need you to stop this now. I need you to think about the fact that you care a great deal about us both.” I tell him, crossing my arms.

“I’d rather you think I was mean now than hold in my thoughts and feelings and watch you do something you’ll regret. You’ll thank me later, Hannah, I mean it.”

He slurps his drink noisily, and I feel annoyance and disgust coursing through me watching him enjoy a beverage on the couch of the man he’s demeaning.

“If Chris such an awful person, someone so bad that you can’t trust him with your own sister, then why is he your best friend?” I ask, blood rushing to my cheeks as my voice rises.

Tyler opens his mouth, and I hold up my palm.

“Now, I want the next words out of your mouth to be an answer to that question and not another insult. I want you to seriously tell me about why you’re running around town with someone who is supposedly your best friend, but is evidently someone you don’t respect or trust around women.”

Tyler sits back and doesn’t say anything. “Come on, then, answer me.”

“Just because someone is your best friend doesn’t necessarily mean you think he’s father material. Chris didn’t grow up with a father. How do you expect him to be one?”

“That’s cold,” Chris says quietly at the ground, his eyes not moving up to look at either of us.

“Get out, Tyler,” I say much more softly than I thought myself capable of.

“What?”

“You’re my big brother, and I’ve always deferred to you, but if you think that gives you the right to display some sort of ownership over me, then I don’t want you here. You aren’t being a good brother at the moment, and you certainly aren’t being a good friend. Look at what you’ve done to Chris!”

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