WHEELER RAN DOWN THE STAIRS OF HIS HOUSE ONCE HE HEARD THE front door open and his older brother start shouting if anyone was home. Dax, his older brother, was a sophomore in college. It was rare when he would come back home, so Kip was always excited when he would come over. Even though he usually goes over to the frat house whenever they threw a party. Which happened to be every other week. Except, Kip didn't go to every single one. Only the ones that his brother didn't invite him to. Mainly because he knew that if Dax didn't invite him, then it would be a killer party.

      As soon as Wheeler heard his brother's voice echo in the empty house, he leapt off the few remaining steps and landed on the heels of his feet. Once he regained his balance, he sprinted over to his older brother and just as he was about to tackle him, Dax turned around to reveal a small white kitten in his arms.

      Kip stopped in his tracks and looked at his brother confused.

      Dax looked up from the kitten in his arms and at his younger brother, saying,"Don't tell mom."

      "Why the hell do you even have the lil dude in the first place?" Kip asked as he took slow steps over to his brother, reaching out his hand cautiously to pet the animal.

      "Long story short, I lost a bet."

      "What kind of bet involves a kitten?" Wheeler questioned in confusion.

      "Only the good ones," Dax then scratched behind the kittens ear, and it purred,"but the thing is, we can't have any animals in the frat house."

      "Why?"

      "Last time there was a house pet in the frat house, it ended up being breakfast the next morning." The older Wheeler replied, bending down and placing the kitten on the wood floor.

      A grimace came from Kip as he bent down and pet the kitten as he rubbed up against his leg. He didn't ask what happened. Mainly because he didn't want to know.

      The Wheeler boys looked nothing alike. Dax had light, curly brown hair while Kip's was dark and straight. Dax had bright blue eyes and was tall and full of muscle. Kip, on the other hand, had honey brown eyes and was a a bit shorter than his brother and thin. Despite their physical differences, they were still brothers nonetheless. Kip stood back up, his hands on his hops as he looked at Dax. His eyes darted back and forth from him and the kitten, who was still rubbing up against his leg.

      "I think he likes you," Dax smiled.

      "I'm not keeping your cat!" Kip exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air for emphasis.

      "Kip, please!" Dax whined. "It's just a kitten!"

      "I don't care how cute the little guy is, I can't keep him here." Kip argued, not wanting to come home from school one day and finding little kittens underneath his pillow because his brothers cat got the neighbors cat pregnant.

      "Then who else can I ask? You're the only one I can trust, and I'm sure as hell not going to ask cousin Duncan." Dax explained, leaning against the counter. A sigh passed his lips as he looked at his brother.

      Suddenly, Kip's eyes lit up and he raised his finger in the air. "I know someone who just so happens to be a cat lover." Dax looked at him as if to tell him to continue. "And that person is Brooke,"

      Dax sighed again,"You're still on her?"

      Kip nodded.

      "How long has it been?" His brother asks. "Three, four years?"

       "More like eight, but ya know, it's whatever," Kip shrugged his shoulders and rocked back and forth on his heels.

      "You've been chasing the same girl for eight fucking years?" Dax gawked. "That's dedication, Kipster,"

      "Please don't call me that,"

      As Dax opened his mouth to reply, the sound of a car door slamming alarmed the two of them. They both froze in their spot, staring wide eyed at each other.

      "They're home." Dax whispered, slowly lifting himself off the counter and taking baby steps over to the couch.

      "What the hell do we do?" Kip hissed, referring to the cat in the middle of room.

      "Take it to Brooke's!" Dax shouts as he hops over the couch and lands on his back.

      Just as the door opened and his mother walked inside, Kip swooped the kitten in his arms and darted up the stairs before she could see anything.
 
                                ✸

      Wheeler sat the box of pizza on the counter, holding the kitten wrapped up in one of his jackets. He was able to get inside because just as he pulled up in front of the house, Mr. Maddox was walking outside. He wasn't creepy and just walked in uninvited, no. Mainly because both of his hands were occupied so he couldn't exactly open the door by himself.

      After he set the box down, he ventured into the house to Brooke's room upstairs. Her room wasn't hard to find— he's been over to her house hundreds of times. Once he reached her door, he gently knocked on the hard wood. When she didn't answer, Kip let himself in. As soon as the door swung open, Brooke slammed her laptop shut and looked over to the doorway to find Wheeler standing there.

      "What the hell are you doing?" She narrowed her eyes at him, grabbing her blanket to cover up her top half of her torso.

       "I could ask you the same thing," he said, using his foot to shut the door behind him. "Let me guess, you have another study session with Branson,"

      Brooke didn't reply, but instead dropped the blanket and got up from her spot on the bed and walked over to her closet to get a shirt from off one of the hangers. Grabbing a tank top, she pulled it over her head and then grabbed a jacket and tugged it on.

      "Hm, no reply, I'm gonna take that as a yes," Wheeler sat on the edge of her bed, trying to not watch her as she put her shirt on.

      "Leave it alone, Kip," Brooke groaned, turning back around to face him.

      "It's just—" he struggled to find what he was trying to say,"you know what? I'm not going to judge you, because I have done way worse than you."

      "Like?" She quirked her brow, urging him to tell her whatever it is he has done.

      "For starters," he began,"I got you a kitten," he then unfolded his jacket in his hands to reveal the kitten that Dax brought home.

      A gasp came from Brooke as she ran over to Wheeler, her arms outstretched as she wrapped her arms around him tightly. She squeezed him as tight as she could, but also trying not to hurt the kitten in the process. Kip's heart was about to burst out of his chest. Sure, they've hugged plenty of times before, but this one felt different than the rest. He didn't know why.

        Brooke pulled away a few seconds later, and grabbed the kitten from Wheeler's arms. She lifted him up in the air and squealed as a little meow came from him.

      "Oh my god, Kip, he's so cute!" She squealed, a bright smile on her face. "What's his name?"

      "Uh," He trailed off, trying to think of a name,"Minou,"

      "Minou?" She quirked her brow.

      "It's French for kitty," he tells her.

      She then looked at the small kitten, scrunching up her nose and smiling at him. "Oh, you're so cute,"

      "Thank you," Wheeler grins, causing Brooke to turn around. She was currently trying to hide her smile, but was failing to do so.

      As she walked over to Kip, the smile continuing to grow on her face, she sat down on the edge of the bed beside him and leaned over to plant a kiss on his cheek. A small gasp came from Wheeler as she did so. Which, caused him to grip the hem of his shirt as he tried to remain calm and keep Wheeler Jr under control. Brooke slipped her hand behind his neck, using her fingers to lightly ticked his nape. Wheeler felt his cheeks begin to burn, and just as he was about to try making a move, Brooke pulled away and stared at him with a huge grin on her face.

      "Thank you, Wheels, I love you," she beamed, and the grin slowly started to fade off of his face. Yes, she loves him— but it's not the way that he wants her to. It's not the way that he wants her to say it. He wants them to be out dancing in the rain in the middle of the night. He wants the moon to shine in her eyes and make them sparkle even more. He wants to be kissing her and running his fingers through her hair. And now, they were totally not doing that.

      "Yeah," he breathed out,"no problem,"

      For the next hour or so, Brooke rolled around on the bed, playing with Minou. The entire time, Wheeler was taking pictures of her (she continuously told him to stop because she looked "disgusting" at the moment but he refused to listen to her "nonsense") and grinning as he went back through the pictures and looked at them.

      It wasn't completely quiet between them. Then again, they weren't nonstop talking like they usually were. Wheeler had brought the pizza up to her room, so they were currently munching on slice after slice as Brooke logged into her Netflix account.

      "What should we watch?" She asks him, eating the remaining few bites of her pizza.

      "Hm," Kip hummed,"let me see." He then grabbed the laptop from off her lap and began scrolling through the many different opinions. As he did so, Broke grabbed another slice and looked up at him as she took a bite. Wheeler looked at her as well, the edge of his lips twitching up into a sort of half smile. She copied his actions, feeling her insides begin to jumble up the longer she looked at him. Quickly, she whipped her head around and directed her attention to Minou. The kitten was curled up in a ball at her feet, his tail tickling her toes.

      Searching through Netflix again, Wheeler found a show that he and Dax would watch all the time before he left for college: Bob's Burgers. He clicked on the first episode, and leaned back into the pillows that sat against the headboard. Brooke did the same, trying not to make too much movement so that Minou were to wake up. Which, she failed because he jolted right up and his small head looked around the room.

      "I'm sorry, baby!" Brooke said in a voice that sounded like music to Wheeler's ears. Minou sat up and looked at her for a second before slowly walking over her legs and laying inbetween the two teens. Wheeler used one of his hands to scratch behind his ear, feeling how soft his fur was. Brooke then turned to Wheeler and said,"What did you pick?"

      "Only the best show to ever be created," he beamed as he pressed play, the theme music beginning to play.

      "Bob's Burgers?" She looked at the laptop on his lap in question, unfamiliar with the show.

      "Yes, I happen to love this show," he tells her, lifting up his arm and trying to put it around her to bring her closer to him. She didn't object, and instead she actually leaned into him. Wheeler wasn't expecting her to, so when he felt her nuzzling into his side, he felt his heart begin to race out of his chest and his breath hitched slightly before he bit the inside of his cheek and calmed himself down.

      "Kip?" Brooke spoke after they were about halfway through the episode.

      "Yes?" He replied, his eyes not leaving the screen of the laptop. He knew Brooke was looking up at him, and he didn't want to get caught in her enchanting gaze.

      "I'm glad I have you in my life," she said quietly, but still loud enough for him to hear.

      Kip's smile stretched from ear to ear as he looked down at the girl he's in love with and said,"Any guy would be lucky to have you, Maddox,"

      Which he thought was true. If she ended up with Branson, he was lucky. If she ended up with Jake, he was lucky. If she ended up with him, he was the luckiest guy to ever walk the earth.

✸

      "Alright, guys," Branson announced to the class,"phones down."

      "But that Brandon James gif put us on the map," Jake protested, his phone still in his hand,"we have, like, seven of the top ten trending hashtags right now."

      "Okay, maybe you should focus more on your studies and less on Lakewood's latest web buzz."

      "Who can resist the murder selfie?" Jake grinned at Will and Wheeler. Kip shifted in his seat, his eyes darting around the classroom before landing on Emma, who was giving him a weird look. He quickly averted his eyes and looked back at Seth Branson, who was sighing in annoyance.

      "Which is what the killer is counting on," Noah spoke from across the room. Noah looked at Jake, then his eyes wandered over to Mr. Branson, who sighed once again. Except this time, with a smile on his face.

      "Alright, Will Graham," Seth pushed himself off his desk and crossed his arms over his chest,"what is this 'killers design'?"

      "Well," Noah leaned forward in his seat,"murder is a lonely game, you know? I mean— you're the killer, okay. You sneak into Nina's house, skulk around and scare her and then you kill her; boom. But then what? You take a victory lap around the pool? You just stand there watching the blood spread out in the water while thinking your crazy guy thoughts?"

      "Creepy monologue alert," Brooke grimaced, reaching forward and grabbing the hem of Wheeler's sleeve between her fingers and folding along the stitched lines. Her fingers grazed against his skin, which made him shiver.

      "So," Riley interjected,"maybe it's no good if he's the only one who's watching."

       "Exactly!" Noah exclaimed. "It's the age of Instagram and YouTube and Tumblr and we need to share the things we do or it's like it never happened."

      "Follow me at fourwheeler," Kip announced to the class, a smirk on his face as Jake turned in his seat to look at his best friend.

      "I gotchu baby," Jake puckered his lips and pulled out his phone and went on Instagram to follow Kip. He's already following him, but he just wanted an excuse to look through his feed again to find the picture of the two of them from when they went to the beach last summer.

      "Jake, Riley," Branson warned,"phones off,"

      "Sorry, Mr. B," Riley apologized,"my friend from St. Mary just texted me. A girl that goes there died."

      "No way, who was it?" Brooke asked.

      "What happened?" Wheeler added to the list of questions.

      "It doesn't say," Riley replied to them.

      For a few seconds, it got quiet in the classroom. Nobody knew what to say. First Nina, and now some girl from another school. Who's next? After a while, Mr. Branson was the one who broke the silence, saying,"Um, I'm sorry to hear that, Riley. Why don't we go back to—"

      "Um, I have to... go to the bathroom," Audrey shot up from her seat, her phone in her hand, and bolted out the door. Everyone watched the door shut behind her, them all being confused.

      "Actually, let's all take a minute," Seth said to the class, spinning around and taking his seat behind his desk. As soon as he sat around, Wheeler turned around and faced Brooke with a huge grin on his face.
  
      "How's Minou?"

      "He almost peed on my pillow this morning, but since he's so cute it's okay," she answered, her voice reaching a higher octave than usual.

      "So, you're saying that if I peed on your pillow then I'd be off the hook?" He quirked his brow, the same grin still on his face.

      Brooke shook her head. "No, I did not say that, and if you ever pee on my pillow, then I will cut your balls off and feed them to the pigeons in the park."

      "Oh, I see you like it kinky," Wheeler chuckled, running his fingers through his hair as he turned back around.

      A gasp came from Brooke, even though she knew it was true. She was sort of the kinky type, but not so much. Kip, on the other hand, had no preference. Sure, he's had his kink moments. A lot, actually. More than a lot, but none that he would ever admit to. Especially because half of them were dreams involving him, Brooke, and a rubber duck.

(2849 words)

The cats name is pronounced me new btw lmao

Idk if I like this but oh well and dax is played by Daniel sharman and just a reminder, there will be sexual scenes in this story so I'd bring some holy water sometime soon :)  and thank you for 1.08k reads!!!!!

Let me know how it's going so far and if you like it!! And have a very Merry Christmas/ Hannukah (probably spelled it wrong so I'm sorry)

Adios hoes!!!