Chapter 157

"Do you think they will last?" I ask Oakley, and for a moment she looks at me like she has no idea of what I'm talking about. I tilt my head slightly using my chin to point out to the pretty picture, the really pretty picture of my brother laughing maniacally as Adrian practically hugs him and tickles him at the back of his neck.

 Her face falls at this, it falls and it lights up, then it falls again, and it goes like that and like that, like she's trying to battle the sort of depression the answer to my question has brought on her, all the while still trying to enjoy the sight that they paint. I don't think I've ever seen my brother this happy actually.

I haven't seen him laughing unrestrained and giggling like this, I haven't seen him being this care free in a very long time now, I haven't seen him rid of the serious expression that is always on his face, and acting so pleasantly as he laughs and doesn't care about anyone else looking at him.

Self consciousness has always been something of a problem with Scott, he's self-conscious to a fault. If you asked me I would say, he's always been self-conscious about how he looks or how every other person sees him. He's always been so self-conscious about how anyone else regards him, always trying to make himself look tough and menacing at the same time.

With Adrian though he doesn't look tough and menacing at all, he looks cute and adorable as he practically coughs as he's been laughing too hard. He cops so hard that Adrian has to abandon his tickle quest, and wear a concerned expression, before running away the moment Scott starts to chase him around the practically free Fashion house.

The fashion house is practically free now except for the four of us and the rest of Adrian's guards. I shift my gaze back to Oakley and I can see that the delight on her face is gone, she's bereft of it now as she looks at me with something of a sorry gaze in her eyes.

"Do you really want to know the answer to that question?" she asks, and for a moment, I think she's taking this the wrong way. For a moment I actually thought Oakley would actually be considering the fact that I was feeling a huge wave of jealousy at seeing my favourite male model acting all mushy mushy with my brother, or I would feel something of resentment or disgust at this, and I was also prepared to feel disappointment in her. If she thought I was that shallow minded and inconsiderate then it goes to show she doesn't know me at all.

But here and now, the look in her eyes isn't what I was expecting. It isn't the look of being ready to defend whatever is happening between Adrian and Scott, it is something of a sorry expression, a sorry expression at the fact that she knows exactly what the answer to my question is, but yet she's afraid the effect it will have on me.

She's afraid of the effects it might have on my emotions right now. I'm also afraid of that too.