Tomorrow's Blues

13. The Moment

"Who was that guy you were talking to?" Harry questioned when I sat back down next to him.

I waved my hand dismissively. "Alice's brother. We don't like each other very much."

He frowned. "Alice has a brother?"

"Yeah. Joseph. I don't think they like each other very much either." I shrugged.

"Hmm. You sure he doesn't like you?"

No. Yes. I honestly had no idea. I merely said to Harry, "Yep. I'm 102% sure. Why?"

He smirked slightly at me. "Just thinking about competition."

Like the oblivious – and slightly drunk – person I was, I repeated stupidly, "Competition?"

Harry didn't reply but a smile grew on his face, and he raised his eyebrows at me. We were suddenly interrupted by a certain someone unceremoniously planting themselves right in the middle of us.

"Sorry, mind if I just–" Joseph sat down, shoving Harry over a bit, "Just thought I should introduce myself."

Was he serious? I glared at Joseph, but he wasn't looking at me. So, he wasn't jealous, but here he was, acting protective, and, yeah, pretty damn jealous.

"I'm Joseph," Joseph introduced himself curtly, his voice a little aggressive. I was actually going to kill him.

"Harry." Harry shot Joseph a distrustful look. God, I really did not want to be in this situation right now. "You're Alice's brother, right? And wait, didn't you–"

"I'm just Alice's brother," Joseph said firmly.

I looked suspiciously between them. It was almost like they knew each other, or at least knew who the other was.

"Harry, hey!" Millie suddenly appeared in my field of vision, and I looked up at her into surprise.

Harry's face broke into a grin. "Millie!" He got up and gave her a big hug, and I looked on in confusion. "How have you been?"

I glanced over at Joseph, but he seemed to know that they knew each other. While Harry and Millie seemed to be catching up, I scooted over to Joseph and asked forcefully, "What are you doing? Are you trying to scare him away, or something?"

Joseph turned towards me, a neutral expression on his face. "I told you. I don't like him."

"So?"

"So, yeah. I hope I scare him away."

I merely stared at him disbelievingly. "What is wrong with you?" I got up and began to march over to Alice to get away from Joseph, but he followed me, grabbing my arm to turn me around.

"Are you angry at me?" His voice, while irritated, stayed low. "Just because I don't like him?"

"No, I'm angry at you because you can't just interfere like that, like you have the right to do that, or something," I hissed, pulling my arm from his hold. "You don't even know him."

Joseph's face hardened. "I know more than you think, Lily."

"Well, I guess I wouldn't know that since you don't tell anyone anything about yourself," I snapped. "You know, Joseph, I don't get you. I mean, one minute you make me feel like I know more about you than anyone else, and the next minute you make me feel like crap."

Joseph didn't say anything for a moment. "Why does that matter to you?"

Stumped, my anger faded for a second. "What?"

"Why does it matter to you that you know things about me?" His eyes were intense.

I blinked and looked away. "It...it matters because I don't hate you, Joseph. I couldn't." I glanced back at him, then down at his lips before snapping my gaze away. "Maybe I just feel like you're the only one who... gets me. I don't know what you've been through, but you've been through something, and I guess that sort of means that you're... important to me, okay?" Did I seriously just confess to actually caring about Joseph? I looked up at him. His eyes were stormy, his jaw clenched. I had no idea what he was thinking. I couldn't tell if he was angry, surprised, confused... I was currently feeling all those things, personally.