Page 1 of Gorgeous

“Brannon, is your family religious? Because your sister is the answer to my prayers.”

“Shut up before she hears you.”

“I’m serious, Brannon. Is your dad a terrorist? Cause your sister is the bomb.”

“Captain Jameson, sir. She will hear you.”

“Hey, Brannon’s sister that’s looking hot as fuck in theSpidermantank top. Are we in a museum? Because you’re a work of art.”

“Drew! Stop it with the lame pick-up lines before your brother kicks your ass for hitting on Brannon’s sister.”

“Lewis, Cade is too busy entertaining himself elsewhere to worry about what I’m doing. Shut up and go annoy someone else. Brannon and I need to chat with his sister.”

The video on my laptop is blurry and slow to load, but the pick-up lines come through loud and clear, and I turn the volume down so I don’t wake up Jess in the next room. She’s a night owl and considers the sun a devil. I don’t know how we’re best friends despite being total opposites. The only thing we have in common is our love of movies; superhero movies to be specific.

“Really? He’s not here? Move so I can look. I can’t see over the enormous beaver you call a head.”

“Suck my nuts, Lewis. My head is not shaped like a pussy.”

With all the shit talking and pick-up lines on the other end of my laptop, my small bedroom feels much like a bar right before closing.

I’m ready to fire back at the obviously bored Marines when my brother’s big brown eyes and his even bigger smile fill my laptop screen. Lopsided and curious, Bennett’s grin reminds me why I look forward to every Tuesday. At nineteen years old, Bennett Brannon has become my tribe. My slaymate. My weirdo. My bubba. My annoying big brother. He’s the only good that has come out of the Brannon family besides yours truly, of course.

Best friends seems cliché for what Bennett and I have, but that’s exactly what we are. Only a year and a half apart, we complement each other in the strangest of ways. He’s lied for me. He’s fought for me. And he won’t ever admit it, but he’s cried with me, too. The goofball is all the family I have, and the throb in my chest proves how much I’ve missed him these past six months while he’s been deployed.

“B!” His bottom lip pulls to one side, showcasing the subtle chip in his front tooth —a teenage injury from when he hoped to be a pro skateboarder (insert extreme laughter here). The slight flaw is all that limits his smile from being labeled as perfect. I’m grinning back like a total weirdo when said smile drops into a frown, his eyes narrowing at the camera. “You’ve been working too much,” he accuses me from the other side of the world; pushing back at a fatigue-clad leg whose face I can’t see. “You’re in college. Aren’t college freshmen supposed to bepartying? Have fun, B. You deserve it.” He hesitates, staring behind him at something I can’t see before he whispers, “Have you been getting the money I’ve been sending?”

I swallow hard and sell him a feigned smile that will convince him everything is peachy. I don’t need him worrying about me when his company demands his focus. The military doesn’t allow him to reveal where he is or what missions he goes on every day but I recognize the misery in his eyes when he struggles to crack a joke about how badass he and the other Marines are and that I shouldn’t worry my pretty little head about him.

“I’m—”

“Hook me up, dude,” someone whines behind him.

My eyes widen before I’m full-on grinning.

These idiots make me laugh so hard.

“Who is that?” I ask Bennett, my head tilted to the side like it will help me see around his enormous head which practically covers the whole screen.

“Captain Drew Jameson, the major’s brother,” he explains, gathering up the cords to the laptop he’s using to Skype me. “It’s been a long few weeks, and he’s getting out of hand.”

Light flashes on the screen and it goes quiet. “Ben? You still there?”

His once pale face fills the screen looking tanner than I’ve ever seen it. “Yeah, I’m here. Sorry. I only have so much room with the cords.” A door closes behind him and he turns the screen, leaning his back against something hard, giving me a view of his face and something like an alley between their military tents. “Okay, sorry. Is that better? Can you hear me better out here?”

I take in his tired, worn face and give him a smile. Damn I’ve missed him.

“I can hear you much better,” I confirm softly. “How’ve you been? Are you guys still playing softball in your downtime?”

Bennett has always had a ton of friends, unlike me, who prefers to keep to herself. I have one friend from school I’ve hung on to for the past several years named Jess. Then I have Milos, an online friend. And that’s it for my limited social circle. It’s not that I can’t make friends. I’m just overly selective. I’m not a personwho can handle fake bitches.

Bennett, however, could make friends with a rock. A social person just like our mother, he makes friends wherever he goes which, if I’m being honest here, makes me a little jealous. Joining the military was a dream Bennett had as a child. He was determined not to inherit a position in our father’s corrupt business. Once he turned eighteen, he gave my father the proverbial finger and enlisted against his wishes.The Jacob Brannonworked so hard to raise ruthless heirs to his poisonous throne, and we let him down by being decent humans. After Bennett made it through basic training and my father realized he was never coming home, he cut off every accommodation —including care packages —while Ben was overseas.

He’s a royal asshole.

Bennett was a hero in my mind. He pursued his dream and let no one or nothing stop him. I admired the hell out of him and I wanted to be just like him. So, on my eighteenth birthday, I moved out of my parents’ house, too. I wasn’t going to college for business when I had my heart set on culinary arts. And I needed to give my father a colossal fuck you for abandoning Bennett when he joined the military.

I haven’t seen or spoken to them in a year. Bennett continues to send me money every month to use for student loans and housing, but I don’t. Instead, I’ve been saving it for when he returns home, if he ever does. I spend five days a week working at a coffee shop, paying my own way. Bennett has sacrificed enough for me. I wanna be sure he fulfills his dreams, too. It’s the least I can do for him.

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