I looked back and forth between Nathan's hurt eyes in confusion. "Explain fucking, what? I didn't do anything?"

"Are you kidding me? You were standing half-naked in the corridor with Noah. The same brother, I distinctly remember you promising me that you weren't going to go after. What the hell, Sophie? Is this the only reason you agreed to come with me? So, you can live out your sick fantasies with one of the guys on your stupid 'man, I want to fuck' list, huh?" he scoffed.

I recoiled back at his rapid accusations. "Would you stop jumping to conclusions and listen to me. I bumped into him when I was heading out of the shower, and he grabbed my waist to steady me," I explained.

He stared at me in silence, then slowly he averted his gaze to the floor as though embarrassed. "Oh," he said simply as he backed away from me.

 He rubbed the back of his neck over and over before turning to face me. "Sorry for snapping at you; it's just seeing him with you. It just..it just.. never mind," he trailed off.

Moving to his bed, he flopped down onto his back before letting out a long, frustrated groan. "I didn't even know he was going to be here," he grumbled.

Retightening my grip on my towel, I slowly made my way over to him and softly took a seat by where he'd laid his head. "Come on, it might not be that bad. Maybe he's changed and will apologize for whatever the hell he did," I piped in optimistically.

Nathan let out a bitter laugh. "Trust me, the last thing on earth he'd do is apologize," he muttered as he stared aimlessly up at the ceiling.

We sat in silence, and the room deafened to an uncomfortable degree. Soon, my eyes wandered around his room. It was quite similar to my guest room but was more cluttered with random knick-knacks and photographs that he had collected over the years. 

My eyes then drew to his nightstand and I took notice of a picture of a little boy about ten or so in age. He looked strangely similar to Nathan and was pulling a funny face at the camera. 

"Aww, is that a picture of you when you were ten," I smiled.

Nathan sat up a little to see what I was talking about, and as soon as his eyes caught the picture, his whole body went still. His eyes, empty and cold stared aimlessly through the picture as though it wasn't even there.

"No, it's not. It's just a picture," he murmured. His reaction took me by surprise, and I was smart enough not to probe further. 

My eyes drifted away and soon found something of interest on his top shelf. There were trophies, tons of them.

"Hey, what are those for?" I asked as I nodded my head up to them. 

"Nothing," he said rather quickly.

 This only spurred my curiosity, and before he could object, I hopped off the bed and made my way over to the shelf. I squinted my eyes to read the engraving at the bottom of one rather large trophy. "First place, Maths junior tournament," I read out slowly. 

"Sophie," Nathan hissed warningly as he made his way over to me. I niftily dodged his hands as he tried to pull me away. 

"Oh my god, Chess tournaments? Spelling bees? Academic contests? You were totally a nerd," I said with a disbelieving chuckle as my eyes flickered over more and more engravings on his collection.

"I wasn't a nerd. They're my brother's trophies, not mine," he stammered quickly. 

"Nathan, they've literally got your name on them," I snorted.

He remained silent as his eyes rapidly darted around the room. "Well, whatever, fine. I did a couple of chess tournaments, big deal," he grumbled with the roll of his eyes.

"Hey, it's nothing to be embarrassed about. It's just strange. I didn't expect you to be the kind of kid that was into that stuff, that's all," I shrugged.

Nathan's eyes narrowed. "So, you thought I was thick," he asked slowly.

"Not exactly, I just thought you were more...you were more athletically inclined," I explained with an innocent smile.

"So, thick," he said bluntly.

"Okay, fine, maybe a little," I mumbled with a nervous laugh. He threw me an unpleasant look.

 I cleared my throat. "No offense, but what happened? As in why don't you care about education anymore? I mean, the younger you seemed to care an awful fucking lot," I snorted as I nodded my head back to his trophy shelf.

"Well, younger me grew up and realized trophies and grades don't matter for shit," Nathan spat bitterly. 

"I disagree, " I said boldly. "I mean, I admit grades don't always matter, but education does. You shouldn't hide how bright you are, Nathan. You could really make something of yourself," I said honestly, startling myself by how much I meant it.

 Nathan stared at me with a contemplative silence before slowly pulling his eyes away.

I went back to looking back at his shelves, and as I did, I felt Nathan's heated gaze move my way. He swallowed thickly, and for whatever reason, I felt his gaze drift kind of low. 

Feeling suspicious, I glanced his way. I was taken aback to find his pupils noticeably engorged while trailing up and down my body shamelessly. When his little endeavor had come to a halt at my chest, I let out an awkward cough.

 He snapped his eyes up to mine sharply, with visible guilt shining through his eyes. It was the guilt of someone who had got caught.

"You've erm...only got a towel on," he pointed out stupidly.

 I raised an eyebrow. "Well, yeah, that's kinda what happens when you grab someone before they get a chance to change," I snorted.

He swallowed. "Oh right, yeah, that's a fair point. I guess...I guess I'll let you go get changed," he murmured, his eyes still occasionally dropping to my chest.

It was clear, Mr-I can't-keep-it-in-my pants, was getting worked up by the sight of me in a towel. So, naturally, the inner devil in me soon rose to the surface and decided to fuck with him.

"Can I get changed in here?" I asked boldly.

As those words left my mouth, Nathan did a double-take and whipped his head back up to mine at a frighteningly quick speed.

His eyes flickered back and forth between mine in disbelief. "Seriously? I can-, you want me to watc-Yes!" he finally spat out with a little more enthusiasm than I expected.

No longer able to hold it in, I let out a long snort and shook my head at him. "God, you're horny," I snickered. "Sorry, Natalie but the day I let you watch me get unchanged is the day I admit myself into a mental hospital," I chuckled as I skipped my way to the door. 

"I-It was disgustful curiosity, that's all. I don't care to see what's underneath your towel," he yelled out at my retreating figure.

"See you at dinner, Natalie," I called out with a laugh before closing the door behind me.

Once I had changed into my little sundress, I knocked on Nathan's door, and we walked down to dinner together. He kept spitting out reason after reason for why he wasn't sexually attracted to me and I responded to each of them by reminding him of the boner he got when I was playing just dance.

Nathan led us to a dining room table where his dad was sat. "Aww, the two love birds have arrived," his dad called out in greeting. 

 "For the one-hundred and thirteenth time, dad. Sophie and I are not dating," Nathan sighed as he pulled out a seat and flopped down beside his father.

 "But you wish you were," his dad coughed, not so slyly under his breath,

I smiled awkwardly and pulled out the seat next to Nathan. I surveyed the table and smiled as I saw a buffet-style arrangement in the middle containing everything from mashed potatoes to roasted chicken. 

"Wow," I stammered as my eyes took in more and more of the extraordinary decoration.

"Yeah, my older son, Noah, made it," his father admitted with a proud smile.

"Why is he here, dad. You distinctly told me he wouldn't be here," Nathan interrupted, his eyes fiery with betrayal. 

His dad smiled sheepishly. "Well, it was the only way I was going to get you to come. What else was I supposed to do?" he trailed off awkwardly. 

Nathan scoffed. "I don't know, perhaps not inviting Noah, the backstabbing piece of sh-"

"Good to see you too, Nathan," a voice chuckled lowly from behind us. 

Turning around, I saw Noah stride into the dining room before confidently pulling out a seat directly opposite Nathan. He had a devilish spark in his eyes, which I knew meant trouble.

"Rot in hell," Nathan said without missing a beat. 

"You first," Noah bit back.

 "Boys, be civil; we have company," their dad scolded.

Noah's eyes drifted my way, and his eyes sparkled with intrigue the moment our eyes met. "That we do," he drawled, his eyes dropping down the length of my torso. 

It was as though he was doing some weird assessment of me. Or being a perv, I wasn't entirely sure.

Finally, Noah's eyes returning to mine, and he smiled. I could tell it was a well-practiced player type of smile - the kind of one that was likely designed to get girls to fall at his feet. 

"And what's your name, beautiful?" he said smoothly, his voice lowering slightly in a likely attempt to sound sexier.

 He flickered his eyes over to Nathan's as though he was waiting for a reaction. I internally rolled my eyes, knowing he was being overly flirtatious for the sole aim of riling up his brother. And from the look of Nathan's face, it certainly looked as though it was working.

 Nathan's poor fork was clutched in a deathly tight grip, and he was practically boring holes through the side of Noah's head.

I cleared my throat to get Noah's attention back on me. "My name's Sophie," I said simply. 

His smile grew wider. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Sophie. I hope we really get to know each other well," he smirked, seeming to look at Nathan more than me as he said that.

 I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. "Er...yeah, sure," I said awkwardly.

"Noah," their dad snapped abruptly. 

"Yes, dad," Noah said as he glanced over at his dad with innocent eyes. 

His dad swallowed back his mouthful of food and waved his fork between the three of us. "Stop flirting with Sophie; she's your brother's girl. Have some respect," his dad scolded as though it was a confirmed fact that Nathan and I were dating. 

I stifled a snort, and glanced over at Nathan, waiting for him to have his usual hissy denial fit. But it never came. Instead, he moved closer to me and wrapped his arm around the back of my chair, all while glaring at Noah.

 I snapped my head towards him, and gave him a funny look, wondering if he had lost his mind or something.

Nathan didn't bother to return my gaze and cleared his throat. "Unfortunately, dad, some people don't know the meaning of the word respect, isn't that right, Noah?" Nathan asked, spitting his name as though it was bile.

Noah smiled. "I don't see anything wrong with flirting with girls that aren't taken. I mean, you're definitely not with her, that's for sure," he scoffed.

Nathan looked about ready to jump across the table. "Sorry, are you trying to imply something?" he snapped.

"Lord, give me mercy," their dad sighed as he rubbed his temples as though he was rethinking his decision to have kids in the first place.

I was tempted to join him in the same position as the back and forth between Nathan and Noah was starting to drive me insane.

Noah let out a little chuckle. "I know you well, Nathan, meaning I know when you're chatting shit. I bet you and Sophie haven't even so much as held hands. Pretend all you want, but you'll always be the same pathetic boy who hasn't got the guts to go after what they truly want, won't you?" he taunted. 

Nathan stiffened, his words seeming to strike a chord with him. 

His brother completely unbothered remained sharp eye contact and smiled. "But it's fine; there will always be someone to take what you don't have the balls to get," Noah whispered. 

There was a deafening silence, his words seeming to hold some kind of deeper context. I turned to Nathan nervously and found him staring fixedly ahead with almost soulless eyes.

Suddenly, a harsh screech played out in the air as Nathan lurched back in his chair. Then without a word, Nathan grabbed his plate and marched up the staircase without a second look back. 

---------------------

Author's note:

Any theories about the drama between the brothers?

Also, it's double update time, so swipe for more :)