My Brother's Best Friend

6--James

James' POV

Mitch ended up arriving a little later than the rest of us, so we waited for him until he arrived. The first thing I did when he got there was look for Ally, of course. But when no girl seemed show up as he began walking to us, I couldn't help but wonder what had happened to her.
But I wasn't the only one that had noticed her absence. Ben and Tyler were looking at each other, wondering the same thing I was.
"Dude...where's your sister?" Ben immediately asked as Mitch rejoined our group.
Mitch rolled his eyes with genuine annoyance. "Can we please not talk about my dumb sister, just this ONCE?"
Everyone was quite surprised with Mitch's snappy comment. Even me. But apparently, this wasn't enough for Jarrett. "But man....wasn't she supposed to come?"
Mitch let out another deep sigh. "She decided that she had better not come. She had....homework." Jarrett, Chad, Ben, Tyler, and I all looked at each other. The disappointment was written all over their faces.
I quickly looked away, cleverly hiding my own thoughts. I definitely did NOT need the guys to know that I, too, liked Ally. Especially not Mitch. If he knew that I liked his baby sister, I would be a dead man.
"Well," Mitch suddenly said, breaking the silence. "We had better get inside. I'm starving." We all followed his suggestion and filed inside, but I didn't hungry very much, anymore.
It felt as if something was missing, and that definitely did not fit right in my stomach. Every possibility that I could think of that would be the reason for this feeling didn't seem to fit. But when I thought of Ally, I instantly KNEW that she was the problem.
I knew that for sure, because as soon as I saw her beautiful face in my mind, I thought that I just might hurl. "I'll...be right back," I suddenly said, darting for the bathroom.
Of course, as soon as I got there, I wasn't able to throw up. Instead, I turned on the faucet and splashed cold water in my face. I stared at myself in the mirror, and instantly wondered how she felt about me.
I wondered if she would ever consider me as more than just a guy she knew. It was definitely true that you could hide so much just by putting on a smile.
When I was sure that I had pulled myself together, I dried my face, exited the room, and headed out to rejoin the guys.
Mitch was sitting at a large table with the rest of the team, and I silently slipped into the seat next to him.
"Hey, are you okay, buddy?" Mitch asked, patting my back. I nodded, though I wasn't really quite sure, myself. "Yeah, just had a little stomach ache." I slowly turned over to look and see what the other guys were doing.
"Oh hey, look!" Ben exclaimed. "Look guys, the pizzas!" Sure enough, four large pizzas were being carried by a few people over to our table. As tempting as they looked and smelled, I still wasn't feeling hungry for them.
"Hey man, eat something!" Jarrett said, devouring a slice of pepperoni pizza. "Yeah, buddy," Mitch said, agreeingly. "You need the energy. What you showed us today is what we need."
I smiled a little, politely. "Don't worry about me, guys. I am just not that hungry tonight." they shrugged it off and kept eating, while I just kept thinking. The thing I pondered the most, though, was, if I hadn't come to practice today...would I not have suddenly liked Ally?
Or maybe would I have suddenly begun to think about her in this way? I know I shouldn't be questioning the thought of what COULD have been, but it was killing me to not know what Ally thought if me.
The time slipped by faster than I thought possible, until it was now time for everyone to leave.
Mitch and I were the last to depart, and he was smiling hugely for some weird reason, and I HAD to know the reason.
"James," he said, before I could ask. "Look behind you."
Instantly, I did turn around, because of my wild curiosity, and saw nothing except a couple girls cleaning tables. "What?" I asked Mitch, confusedly, turning back to look at him.
"The girls. Look!" He hissed, and I quickly took another look. I found nothing especially striking about them, except for their good looks, which HAD to be what Mitch was all excited about.
"They go to our school," he informed me. I nodded, listening, but not really caring. These girls might mean something to my best friend, but certainly not to me. All I honestly wanted was Ally, and it was like, I couldn't think of any other girl in that way. "Aren't they freaking hot?" he went on, and I just shrugged. "Yeah, sure man."
Mitch noticed my uninterestedness, and groaned. "What the heck is wrong with you tonight, man?! You've been acting like you just got your heart broken or something."
I only shrugged at him, and he sighed. "You need to loosen up, man. Like....watch me." he quickly stood up, and began to walk over in the direction of the girls.
I watched him, just as he had told me to do, but without much interest. He seemed to have been talking to him, and as he began to walk back, then really pretty brunette with extremely curly hair waved and smiled at me weirdly. I quickly turned away, not even wanting to know.
"Dude, we now have dates for tomorrow night," Mitch exclaimed quite smugly, smiling at me. My mouth dropped open in shock. "You can thank me later," he quickly added.
"Mitchel Torres!" I tried to scold without yelling too loudly. "You have lost it!" he just smirked, and led me out of the pizza place.
I couldn't BELIEVE Mitch had actually set me up on a date with a girl I didn't even know!
I didn't want to do it. I couldn't! I had fallen for Ally, not this random girl!
Besides, he couldn't MAKE me go out with her. I would just kindly tell him I wasn't interested. But how exactly would I do it without making him upset?
As I wondered this, he and I split for the night, and I got into my car. "Oh well," I whispered to myself as I buckled myself and started the car. "I will talk to him tomorrow. It's getting late." I yawned, and pulled out of the parking lot, tiredly.