Damon's face soured at the mention of heading over to my place.

"Right cause Ace wants me in his house." Oh right. I'd almost forgotten about the rivalry that existed between them.

"He'll pretend to. He's the golden child after all," I muttered under my breath. I felt a hand come up to clutch my upper arm. Damon looked at me with unmistakable concern for a flash of a second. I felt that glowing warmth in my chest once again.

"Something wrong?"

"No, everything's fine," I said and the two of us walked back to my car in silence.

We were currently seated around the dinner table eating my mother's famous lasagna. Ace was quiet as I'd predicted and disregarding the occasional glare he threw towards Damon, dinner was surprisingly pleasant. It was only when my mother served desert that the dinner started to spiral downwards.

"So Damon, Ace tells me you play soccer. You any good son," my dad asked. There was a bite to his words. It was like he was daring Damon to say that he was even with Ace, perhaps even better. My whole family was defensive when it came to the glory Ace had managed to earn over his years of playing soccer.

"I'm fairly good," Damon said noncommittally. I let out an unintentional snort. I'd seen him play for the past week now. He was even with my brother.

"He's brilliant at the sport. Just like Ace." Ace kicked my shin from under the table and I resisted the urge to shout out.

"Mom can I talk to Dare alone for a second?" Without waiting for her reply he got up from the table and dragged me by the arm to his bedroom. He slammed the door behind us with a loud thud before turning to me with a deadly glare. I realized with disappointment that I'd left Damon all alone with my parents.

"What the hell was that," he seethed. Very rarely did my brother lose his temper but when he did, it wasn't a pretty sight.

"You know it's true Ace. Give him credit," I pushed. If we'd been our five-year-old selves at this point, I'm sure he would have pushed me to the ground and tried to beat me up. I was honestly surprised he was holding out his anger for as long as he was.

"I can't believe you're sticking up for some guy you just met over your own brother," he lashed out.

"I'm not sticking up for anyone. I was just stating the facts. Stop being so dramatic Ace," I shot back. We were breathing hard and seconds away from a full out war.

"You know how important that position is to me, to our parents. I can't let some new kid take it away from me." He sounded pained and vulnerable. I felt my heart clench in response.

"Well then work for it. Be better then him. I meant what I said downstairs Ace. You both are even now but you can be better. You just have to put in the extra effort." I realized with shock that it had been awhile since Ace had ever had to work for anything. He was a born genius and he'd earned his captaincy position a year ago through hard work. Ever since then not one person had come close to threatening his post. He was scared he was going to lose face in front of our school and in front of our family.

"You're freaking Ace Coleman. You've been captain of that team for 2 whole years now. Do you seriously think you'll lose that post to some new kid," I asked. He muttered a small no and collapsed on the edge of the bed.

"He's good Dare, freakishly good. I've watched some of your practices on the field," he said with a groan. He'd always been the best and unlike me, he could never live in someone's shadow or handle someone being better than him. That was the difference between us. He'd work his ass off to be the best while I was mostly content being average.

"You're freakishly good too bro. I've watched you play since we were 10." He sat up then on his forearms and looked at me like he was seeing me for the first time. It was very rare that we had serious conversations.

"You're good too." I gave him a grin and he grinned back before throwing a pillow straight at my face.

"Not as good as me though," he said while sticking out his tongue. Nope, never as good as him. But that was okay. I'd get jealous a few times here and there when my parents' looked at him like he was god's gift from heaven but otherwise, we were okay. My brother and I would always be okay.