She was altered to her core. [Chapter 5]

When Brandy got to her room, she shut the door softly and went to go get her smartwatch. Sean's words weren't intended to alter her...but he was still very much in love with Brandy, so his words still had the romantic connotation for love behind it when he spoke them. As the tall young woman strapped her watch back on she needed to reaffirm her platonic love for Sean as she thought, "I'm not in love with him, right? That's what all the fuss was about last year." She replayed the memories from that night in detail:

Roughly One Year Ago:

Brandy was sitting in the recliner reading a book on modern artistic techniques when Sean came out of his room looking serious, and if she was honest a bit nauseous. He sat on the couch and looked at her with his big blue eyes.

"Brandy, I have to tell you something or it's going to eat me up inside." He was definitely serious, and this was no joke, "I love you." He sighed deeply and leaned forward, taking her hands. "I love you with a kind of romantic love I may never feel for any other woman." Brandy sat there open mouthed and completely surprised, but Sean continued, "You are the perfect partner for me in so many ways I can't even count. I know it's a cliche at this point, but I really understand what Tom Cruise was talking about when he said, 'You complete me.'"

Brandy's heart was beating a million miles a minute. For an instant it was like one of her brothers was admitting these things to her, but then her heart leapt. Thinking to herself, "Sean loves me?!" Before the truth of the matter hit her and she decided she didn't want to lose her greatest friendship over something like love or a failed relationship.

Back in the present:

Brandy frowned and shook her head, that's not how it went...was it? Yet every time she replayed things in her head they ended the same way, with her telling Sean she didn't want to lose her friendship with him over a relationship if things didn't work out.

She spent the better part of a week trying to love Sean that way. He would be such a good boyfriend...for someone else. She tried to picture herself on dates with him, sleeping with him, and being married to him. Only once, for a brief moment in a dream did she get even the most remote feeling of romance when thinking of Sean. It had been so **** that she couldn't say anything about it...now though? That moment had much more weight than it had in the past.

Each time she replayed things, she realized her brief moment of romantic love for Sean were getting stronger and stronger until..."Holy shit. I love Sean...I-I think I always have!" Her hands were covering her mouth, even as she spoke the words. It almost didn't seem real, and yet every time her eyes went to the picture of them at Valley Fair last year, she could picture herself kissing him, and holding him tight. The thought gave her stomach butterflies, and a bright red flush came to her cheeks. She did, she actually loved Sean deeper than she ever realized before.

Just as she was about to leave her room and confront him about these newfound, no. Long standing, deep seeded feelings for her best friend, the doorbell rang.