My Brother's Best Friend

Chapter 1

Edited: January 15, 2016.

If comments on this chapter don't make sense, it may be because I have gone back and edited already.

--

"Hey, Jazzy, are we still going out today?" Chresanto asks, causing me to nod my head, 'yes.'

The third of every month, for almost two years now, we've gone out. It's like a tradition. "Yeah, are we doing the same thing?"

"Yup, like always. But we're going somewhere else after." Santo informs me.

I run upstairs to get ready.

"Are you going out with Santo?" Ray asks.

I nod and smile at him. "As usual," I put my earring in.

"What do y'all do all day?" Ray chuckles.

"Things." I answer. No one knows where we go or what we do. It's not bad or inappropriate, just something we prefer to keep to ourselves. It's really special to us.

"Aight, leggo." Santo nods his head, making me laugh. I grab my coat because it's November and 52° outside.

Santo opens the car door for me and waits until I got in the car to close the door. I buckle myself up as he gets into the car. "Are we still going to the cemetery first?" He asks, buckling himself up.

I nod, "But, we gotta get the stuff first."

We actually don't go to visit my parents on this day, but someone very close to our hearts, the closest person, actually.

"I know, baby girl." He always calls me that. Everybody does, it's kind of a nickname.

We stop by the flower shop to get colorful roses, along with a stuffed bunny, because bunnies are just so cute.

Then we head to the cemetery. Chresanto and I sit in front of the stone on our knees. We placed the items down and just sat there in silence. That is until the tears came. I turn, laying my head on Santo's chest, his arms slip around me. I put my arms around his shoulders, crying my heart out. I feel a few tears drip on my shoulder, hearing Santo sniff. This type of pain is one that can't be compared with any other type.

After a few minutes of crying, we talked for about an hour. We talk about what life would have been like had there not been this terrible tragedy.

"Let's go get something to eat. We'll come back next week." Santo promises.

We come here every week for about an hour, but the third of December is a very painful day, and the third of every month, we just need to be there for each other, because it's another month we've gotten without this special person.

"Okay." I nod.

He helps me up and we walk the short distance to the car. "Burger King?" Santo asks, and I nod. "Do you want the usual?"

I smile at the fact that he remembers the littlest things. "Yes. Thank you."

He grabs my hand, "Anything for my princess." I blush a little bit, smiling.

---

We get the food, deciding to eat at the park.

We sit at the picnic tables, just talking.

"So, how's school going?" Santo asks.

I shrug, "Boring without the trouble makers there. I can't believe you got expelled for the rest of the year."

He had a few fights, and the school ended up getting tired of it. They want him to get his act together first, so he has to take anger management classes. Santo is actually really cool and chill; he just hates to be bothered.

"I just want to focus on getting money right now." Santo shrugs.

"So, what about you, how is work?" I ask him.

"Good, I guess. Kind of hard though." He admits.

He works at a loading place, he loads everything into the big ole' eighteen wheelers that you see. It's good pay though. Since Santo is already a legal adult, he doesn't have restrictions as to what he can and can't do when working.

"Well, at least you stay fit, lifting all those boxes." I joke, gesturing to his arms.

He chuckles, flexing his arms. "Yeah, that's true."

"Quit being conceited, it gets you nowhere."

"It got me here didn't it?" He smiles.

"And where exactly is 'here'?"

"With the most beautiful woman in the universe."

I smile, blushing, "Thank you, Santo." He nods his head, finishing up his food.

"So, do you wanna go swing?" I ask Santo, causing him to chuckle and nod.

We stand up and throw our trash away before going to swing.

"So, you're a what, junior?" Santo asks me, pushing me on the swing.

"Yes." I nod.

He got on the swing next to me and started swinging a little. "What are we doing later?" I ask.

Santo didn't answer for a minute, but once he notices that I was staring at him, waiting for a reply, his eyebrows raise, "I'm sorry, what'd you say?"

I guess he was thinking. "You said we were doing something tonight after everything else. What are we doing?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out." He answers, causing my lips to form a pout. He immediately looks away, ignoring it. "No, no pouting. You'll love it, I swear."

Since it obviously means a lot to him that it be a surprise, I drop it.

"Alright, where do you wanna go now?" Santo asks.

"Let's go to your mom's house." I excitedly clap my hands. He lives with us, but his mom lives down here, really close to us actually.

Santo chuckles, starting the car, "Call her and see if her and Pops are home."

She picks up on the third ring, which is something she always does. "Hey, Jazzy."

"Mommy!" I smile. She was a motherly figure in my life, since I can remember.

"What's up, sweetie?" She asks.

"Are you and Pops home? Santo and I want to come over."

"Yes, hurry up and get over here."

I laugh, "Okay, we're on our way now. I love you."

"I love you too, sweetie. Be careful."

"We will, see you soon."

Then we hung up the phone.

"They are home!" I cheer.

"You get more excited about my mom than I do." He laughs.

I shrug, cutting the radio on. Nothing good was on, so I decide to plug my phone up. I play 'The Show Goes On' by Lupe Fiasco. It's an amazing song. Santo raps along, while I do it in a more sing-song way. I'm not a very good rapper.

"So, what's up?" I ask Santo, he was in deep thought again. Santo always thinks a lot, but he never has that look on his face. Since he was so deep in thought, I decide to look out of my window and observe the beautiful scenery we were passing, rather than bother him.

Growing bored with just staring at everything that passed by, I get out my sketch book, continuing to sing along to 'Marilyn Monroe' by Nicki Minaj. I decide to sketch a picture of Santo driving, since he was the only thing that wasn't passing by too quickly for me to capture the details. He has many beautiful features, I enjoying drawing his picture. From his facial expressions, you could tell that he was still in deep thought, so I tried to capture that as well. I get a pretty detailed start on the sketch, but still take a picture in case I missed any. I can finish it when we get home.

My brother, Ray, actually gave me lots of helpful advice when it came to drawing. It's one of the ways that we bond.

"Why are you taking pictures?" Santo asks.

"Because I drew you, but I don't have enough time to finish." I explain to him.

"I wanna see it then."

By this time we were at his mom's house, so I hand him my sketch book. Rather than just looking at that one, he flips through the whole book.

"You're really good." Santo compliments me.

I smile, thanking him. We get out of the car, walking right in when we reached the door.

"Mommy and Pops!" I cheer, running to hug them. They all laugh, but return the hug, nonetheless.

"Hey, Mom. Hey, Pops." Santo greets, hugging them.

We walk to the living room, sitting on the couch. "How are y'all?" Pops asks.

I shrug, "Okay. It's still hard, but we're getting through it. Aren't we, Santo?"

"That's right." He nods, changing the subject. It was a touchy subject for the both of us. "Look what Jazzy has been drawing. They're really good."

He hands them my sketch book, and they flip through it. "Wow." Her draw drops. I look at it, noticing it was a picture of Santo.

"That took almost a whole week." I giggle.

"It's very detailed." Momma says.

"Thank you." I smile proudly.

---

"Santo, where are we going?" I ask.

It was already dark and he was still driving. "Relax, baby girl. I got you." He chuckles at my frustration.

I stare at him, hoping he'd just tell me where we going. "Can I have my face back?" He chuckles after about five minutes of me just staring at him.

"But I wanna keep it." I pout, laughing a little. He joins me in the laughter.

Finally we arrive, but he had parked on the side of the road.

"Santo, where are we?" I ask with a smile, it looked familiar.

He gets out, going around to the passenger side to help me out. "At our place."

I smile, knowing that we were at The Bullhole in Cooleemee. (It is a real place in NC; it is like a river/lake. It us really fun but the rocks are slippery, so it's a bit dangerous at certain times. But there is also a very pretty waterfall.)

We walk down the trail, and Santo grabs my hand, lacing our fingers together. We sit on the bench and I look up, seeing the stars, it's beautiful. "I should have brought my sketch pad. It's a beautiful night." I say.

Santo nods in agreement, looking from up at the stars to me. "That's why I brought a beautiful girl with me."

"Do you say all these things with the intention of making me look like a strawberry?" I ask, referring to the fact that this has to be the millionth time I've blushed and smiled tonight.

"Maybe," He smiles. "I like seeing you happy."

"I like seeing you happy." I agree.

"Let's go to the water." Santo stands, pulling my hand.

I disagree, saying, "I didn't bring extra clothes."

He holds up a bag that I hadn't noticed he was holding, and roll my eyes. Of course, he comes prepared. "Alright, let's go." I agree.

Santo leads the way because he only brought one flash light. "You brought towels right? Because I refuse to run cold and wet if we get caught being down here when we're not supposed to." It's closed right now, which is why we had to park on the side of the road.

He chuckles and nods. "Santo, what if I fall?" I ask, grabbing his hands which were now holding my waist.

He chuckled and held on to me. "I got you, baby girl." Santo whispers since were right by my ear. I looked turned my head a little so I could see his face.

Since his lips were by my ear, they are now by my nose. He smiles, kissing my nose. I look up at him, laughing. He does the same, looking down at me. "Alright, ready?" Santo asks.

I nod, stepping into the water. "Oh, crap. It's really cold." I wince.

He chuckles, "It's November, remember?"

We keep walking until we get to the other side, the water never rising above our ankles.

"Why did we come here, Santo?" I ask him, truly curious.

He shrugs, "Because it's our day. And I wanna ask you something."

I look up at him, "What is it?"

He takes a deep breath, "Well, do you remember a couple years ago, when we agreed that maybe later in life we could give us another try? Well, it's later, and I really want to try this."

I smile, "So let's do that."

This time, he smiles. "Will you be my girlfriend then, again?" Santo asks.

When Santo was sixteen and I was thirteen, we tried a relationship, but it only lasted a week, because of the age difference. I was in middle school, he was in high school. We agreed that since we still had feelings for each other, and were only breaking up because of the age difference, that we would wait until we were older to give it another go.

Ray didn't know that we were dating or that we have dated. No one really does.

"Yes, but let's try to make it longer than a week this time, okay?" I ask with a smile.

He chuckles, putting his arm around my shoulders and pulling me closer to him. "Okay." Santo agrees.

"You wanna go in the waterfall?" I ask him. There are little cave-like things in the waterfall. Santo stands up and we make our way to the waterfall.

"Baby girl, be careful. If we come home and you have as much as a scratch, Ray will kick my-" He starts, I cut him off.

"Hey, no swearing." I smack his arm, making him smack his lips. "It's not that hard."

"It is, speaking of hard; don't hit your head or foot or toe or back or arm or leg or finger." He replies seriously.

I laugh at him, but I honestly don't blame him, Ray would kill him. While we're speaking of Ray, a question pops into my head that we should probably talk about before we go home.

"Hey, are we gonna tell Ray?" I ask, and Santo shakes his head.

"Let's wait a little bit. Wait, are you talking about us now, us before or the other thing?" His eyebrows pull together.

After thinking for a moment, I answer, "Maybe we tell him about us first, but not right now."

Santo agrees, nodding his head. We end up leaving after that, since it was already around ten.

"Did you have fun?" Santo asks, keeping his arm around my shoulder as we walk to the car. We had changed into our dry clothes in the bathroom before walking up this way. We may have splashed each other a few times.

"Yes, I did, very much actually. Did you have fun?"

He pulls me closer to him. "I did," he nods. I kiss his cheek before getting in the car.

He gets in and we buckle up, then he takes us home.

---

"Hey, guys. Ray went to Val's house." Jacob informs us when we walk into the living room. Valentine, Val, is Ray's girlfriend.

"Okay, I need to go take a shower so I can go to bed." I tell them. Santo sits on the couch, making small talk with Jacob. I head upstairs, going straight to my closet.

After about ten minutes of searching for my fuzzy pajamas, I feel arms slip around my waist. I smile, looking up Santo. "Have you seen my fuzzy pajamas, the onesie?"

"Which one of them?" He asks.

"The unicorn one."

"I think you put it in the drawer." He answers.

"Thank you." I smile, going to check the dresser. It was in the top drawer. "Now I can take a shower." I grab my tank top and shorts.

Santo nods, plopping down on my bed. "I'm taking a nap in here."

"Okay." I shrug, heading to the bathroom.

There were three bathrooms, Ray and Jacob shared one, Craig and Santo shared the other and I had my own, since I'm the only girl. They didn't want my makeup and hair everywhere in their bathrooms. Santo and Craig have the cleanest bathroom out of the guys, Ray and Jacob's is kind of messy.

After finishing my shower and brushing my teeth, I brush my hair into a bun. Then I go back to my room, seeing that Santo was no longer sprawled out on my bed. He must've gone to shower.

I sit at my desk, looking at my sketches and drawings. I have a few of Ray's as well, he's really good.

I hear the front door slam shut and go downstairs to see what happened. I see all the boys and Ray, who looked highly upset. "What happened?"

Ray looks up at me. "She cheated on me, I walked in and he was there." He explains. Ray and Valentine have been together for two, almost three years. I give him a tight hug.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

He nods, smiling and hugging me back. "Yeah, I beat the sh-crap out of him." Ray answers, avoiding using a swear word. I don't like when people swear.

Someone bangs on the door, and I go to answer it, already know it was most likely Val. "Where's your brother?" She angrily asks.

"He's in the house, why?"

She pushes past me, barging into the house. That's her first strike.

I follow her, seeing she gets right in Ray's face. "Why would you do that?! I was trying to tell you what happened!" Strike two.

"Because you cheated on me, I don't want to hear anything you have to say." He looks away from her. "Back up."

"No, that's disrespectful; you didn't even listen to me." She swings on him. That's strike three. And we all know what happens at the third strike, you're out.

I grab her arm, twisting it behind her back. "You do not swing on my brother knowing he isn't gonna hit you back." Ray would never put his hands on a female, even if she punched him first.

She swings on me, catching me in the jaw. I recollect myself in seconds, c*****g my fist back and landing a punch right on her nose. She groans, grabbing it. She tries to hit me again, but I dodge it. I hit her two more times in the face, causing her to fall on the ground. Rather than continuing to fight her when she's down, I go to walk away. Instead of making the smart decision of letting me, she grabs my ankle, almost making me fall.

Seeing that she obviously wants a fight, I give her just that. Getting down on the ground, I punch her a few more times, waiting for her to stop yelling curse words at me. Eventually, she doesn't have enough energy to fight and talk, so she shuts up.

Santo pulls me off of her, taking me a few feet away. "You got lucky! Wait until they're not around!" Val yells as Ray removes her from our house. Being the bigger person, I don't say anything back.

Eventually, Val left with all her stuff. "Jazzy, you didn't have to do that." Ray tells me.

I shrug, "You would do it for me."

He smiles, giving be a hug. "I love you, baby girl." See, it's my actual nick name.

"I love you too big bro." I hug him back. "I'm going to go to bed. Night, love y'all."

I hug everyone, getting ready to go to sleep. When I was hugging Santo, he says, "I'm gonna go help you clean those scratches." Valentine got a few hits in, she was wearing rings.

"Okay, thank you." I smile, walking upstairs with him.

He cleans the few scratches on my face, then my knuckles. He puts ointment on the scratches and bandages on my knuckles, then smiles at me. He lifts my hand, kissing the back of it. "All done."

I hop off of the counter, walking with him to my room. I like talking to Santo at night. "Do your hands hurt?" He asks, running his thumb lightly over my knuckles.

"No, I'm just tired." I lay my head on his chest, yawning. He wraps his arms around me, letting me get comfortable.

"Can I sleep in here tonight?" He asks.

"Yeah." I nod. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Jazzy. I love you."

"I love you too." Santo and I are best friends; I always tell him I love him before I go to bed, just like I do with Jacob and Craig. Slowly, I drift off to sleep, with Santo rubbing small circles on my back.

So, what do you think? Vote/comment. Sorry this one wasn't very good; it's just the first chapter. Thanks for reading!

~Michele