Fakers
1284 Words
"Good evening, Ches--"
Like the last time Kimberly stepped into that place, Jace opened the door in the most unwelcoming way. Knitted brows over cold coffee-colored eyes. Who in her proper state of mind wouldn't feel the hate?
"I didn't know you change career. Guarding the house now?" were the first few words she was able to say while indifferently looking at him. Intentionally bumping her shoulders to him, she went straight into the house without much looking back.
"If you're looking for my brother, let me tell you he isn't here," Jace snapped from behind, and only then that Kimberly realized he followed her to the living room.
She pretended not to hear him and continued looking left and right. It took a few more minutes before she finally turned to him and irritably spat," I'm taking my words back. You're not a guard, Jace. You'll do better as a wall. None living, flat, and boring."
Her comment didn't earn more than a glare. It was evident that Jace just got home from work. He wasn't any close to looking like a guard. He was wearing a dusty pair of shoes, a long sleeve shirt folded up to his elbows, and a pair of equally dirty jeans. He was low maintenance type of handsome—the type who could wake up in a dumpster and still looked like he a pin-up model.
"Again, Kimberly, my brother is not here. You may leave."
That emotionless statement from him made Kimberly furrowed her eyebrows. Then as if on cue, she turned to their wall clock hanging on the wall. It was already eight in the evening. Chester was supposed to be home by this time. More specifically, he was supposed to be sitting on that single-seater sofa, which was his favorite spot while watching TV.
"Where's your brother?" Kimberly anxiously asked before walking to the dining room.
"How am I to know? Do we look like working for the same company? Chester is a grown-up man. Let him do what he wants." Shrugging his shoulders, Jace pointed to the door before sneering, "Out."
She didn't speak. There was this sudden worry attacking her, and her intuition wouldn't stop alarming.
"What's up with your brother?" she worriedly asked, although she didn't want to talk with him anymore. She forced herself to looked back at his coffee-colored eyes and then added, "Is there something wrong?"
Jace didn't say a thing. Then wordlessly, he c****d his head to the direction of the door.
She didn't move at first, but then, realizing that he wasn't lying, Kimberly ended up dragging her feet on her way to their door. Her mind was reeling, and she couldn't help wondering.
'Where's Chester?'
.
.
.
"HELP ME, THINK. "
Chester started with a low voice. They were sitting at the mini pavilion at the front of their house while drinking their guts out.
Jace couldn't point out what was wrong with his brother, but Kimberly seemed to be right earlier. Chester's just looked different now. Was his brother depressed? That was unlikely since Chester wasn't the type to overthink anything. "So, what's your issue?" he thoughtfully asked.
"Kim."
Hearing the woman's name, Jace straightened his back and looked at the man before him. His interest in Chester's problem multiplied by hundred folds. Trying his best not to look too nosy, he gave asked another one-liner question. "What happened?"
"I found the one for me," Chester whispered as if it was difficult for him to say those words. He was not happy, which was something ironic given that something nice happened.
"I see. So you have finally decided to date Kimberly?" Jace tried to laugh, but his laughter sounded out of tune even to his ears. Thus, he just shut his mouth instead and ignored the sudden rush of blood to his fist. Not wanting to react violently, he bottomed up his beer and then quickly opened another one. He gulped his beer again straight until it was half empty before looking back to his brother. "So.." he coughed when his following words choked him. Nonetheless, he still managed to ask what was inside his mind. " When are you guys going to start going out?"
Chester let out a heavy sigh before raking his hair with his fingers. He then shook his head and glared at Jace. "You're not getting it."
"What part?" Jace tried to laugh again but failed to sound convincing. So, to shut himself again, he just gave his beer one more gulp, completely emptying his bottle. He could feel his insides burning, but then he forced himself to smile. "I'm more than sure that she will be the happiest woman in the world once you tell her that...".
"Can't you just stop concluding?" Chester took a drink from his bottle while glaring at him sideways. Putting his beer down, he said, "I fell in love with someone else. Not with Kim. I fell in love with Jackie, my officemate."
Jace's hand froze from lifting his beer. Unbelieving, he shot his brother a 'you-got-to-be-kidding glanced as something warm crossed his chest. "The f**k?"
As a reply, Chester just nodded his head.
"What the hell are you going to do with Kim then?" Jace couldn't understand where his fear sprouted from. The truth was he never wanted Chester and Kim to be together because he swore that 'that' happening would be worse than having a nightmare in broad daylight for him. However, his chest couldn't stop aching on her behalf either, silently at least. "Have you already told her? You need to let her know."
Seriously, Kimberly was a beauty. No man with a fully functioning d**k would have the strength to turn her down, and he was not an exemption to that. He couldn't even count how many times she had been in his lucid f**k dream! Once? Twice? He had lost counts.
"I don't want to hurt her." Chester inhaled after a moment. "I don't dare to tell her neither. She has been expecting for a long time after all..."
"What are you planning to do, *ass!"
"Why are you screaming at me?" retorted Chester when his voice came out louder than he intended. "If you want her, then take her, Jace! Just take her!"
That made his jaw clenched. The disclosure sounded perfect but at the same time wrong. Frustrated, he ended up palming his face. "You can't just throw her like a rag doll. She's not a goddamn toy."
"A sister," Chester answered quickly. Then sincerely, he looked at him as if making him understand. "I love her, but not the way she wants me to. I love her like she is our sister. She is nothing but a sibling to me."
"No way."
"Jace..."
"I-I mean... No way. No." He shook his head repeatedly. "Chester, you grab a hammer and knock it on your head. "
"Hold on. You never liked her, didn't you?" Crunching his nose, his brother looked at him, confused. "What's with that reaction, Jace?"
Caught like a deer hit by a headlight, Jace just stared at his brother. He wasn't sure where the urge to hurl the bottle he was holding against his brother's face came from, but what he said was maddening him. Just imagining Kim crying was already urging him to strangle Chester. However, on the contrary, he couldn't deny how breathing went a lot easier after that awful news.
He inhaled and filled his lungs to the brink. Then unconsciously, his right hand found its way to his nape, massaging the aching part there.
'Damn you for still driving me crazy after all these years, Kimberly.' he thought.
- Writer
