My Stepbrother-Too Hot To Handle

DABBY:

Ryder high.

“You came at the perfect time. I couldn’t have asked for more,” I said to Mason, when we made our way into the class.

“Did anything happen between you too? The tension was quite intense when I came,” Mason stated his observation, and I didn’t say anything. There was too much tension between me and Damien, and they were about things that we could never tell anyone.

“I don’t know. He was trying to be a jerk for some reason, but everything is fine now. How is the cafe running? I feel so guilty for having to take days off for my family vacation,” I said truthfully, diverting the topic of our talk from Damien and me.

“Everything is fine, except that we missed you. You wanna hang out later? At an arcade? Play games together?” He asked me, and I nodded with a smile.

As usual, I was announced as the person who was first in every test we did in class, and the sneers that people passed to me weren’t as glaring as I expected. Everyone had probably learnt how to accept fate, and mind their business.

“I cannot believe that this is my result. I didn’t even read for these tests,” Mason exclaimed when he checked his test results on the school portal.

“I think taking notes for me sure had an impact. Imagine being able to do well by just taking notes. You will do even better by just reading. Let us give it a shot,” I tried to encourage him with a grin stretched on my lips, and he groaned.

“I really don’t think I’m ready. I’ve been doing sports all my life. Trying to study is too late,” he groaned.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

“Your mum wants you to study……” I stressed on the last word, “We can give it a trial. You can become anything you want with time. A sports director, couch, anything,” I said again, trying my best to convince him to join me. He had the potential.

“I probably should. It is just weeks away from high school. It wouldn’t hurt to have my first best result,” he shrugged childishly, and I patted his hair roughly.

I didn’t see Damien in school throughout, and even when we went for social sciences class. He didn’t come around to the cafe during lunch too, and I tried not to think of him as much as I wanted to.

My mind often darted to mum before the end of classes, and I wondered if she was angry about what happened between us in the morning. She was not used to having a rebellious daughter, so it was probably going to be hard for her to comprehend why I was being like that.

I didn’t know what was wrong with me either. I was just angry at everyone and everything, and I didn’t know his to feel better.

After school ended, Mason dropped me off in front of our house, and drove off to his afterwards. I changed my clothes after having my bath, and went into the kitchen afterwards to eat lunch. I didn’t understand why either, but I was having the appetite to eat more often than before. I had a nap after, before setting out to go to the cafe by evening.

The orders for food had increased even more, because a new branch of a broadcasting company opened nearby. Mason’s mum hired more people for delivery services, and a manager to oversee everything instead of Mason being the one to do all the job.

I and Martha went grocery shopping, and we exhausted everything we bought in hours before night time. It was a massive sale for that day alone, and I was really delighted that everything was going fine.

We closed minutes later than we used to, and Mason offered to take me home on his bike. I told him to drop me off miles away from our house, because I didn’t want my mum speculating things and teasing me unnecessarily.

I got off and he rode away after bidding me a farewell, and I walked slowly from where I alighted towards the house. The street was so silent with an eerie feeling, except that the streetlights were doing their jobs perfectly.

Miles away from our house, I saw Damien’s car parked with its front view facing the direction I was coming from. I wondered if he was still inside the car, as I moved closer without making it too obvious that I was looking in that direction.

I thought that I was starting to hallucinate, with the scene that played before me.

He was sitting in the car, and there was another person too by his side. I could see their faces almost colliding from the angle that I was standing at, and the other person locked lips into his, like they owned it.

My heart dropped immediately when I saw that, and it hurt my heart even if I had imagined a scene like that a hundred times in my head.

I wasn’t supposed to be sad because Damien wasn’t my boyfriend or anything, but just my step brother whom I should show my support to. Even if he was kissing another girl, it shouldn’t concern or disturb me because we were nothing but siblings to one another.

Yet, I felt pain in my heart. My throat became so dry and parched, that I felt the need to cry immediately. My lips were trembling so badly, as I tried to stop the water that had pooled behind my eye lid. There was nothing between us, and yet I felt so betrayed.

When they both separated their lips from wrestling with one another, it soon dawned on me that it was his girlfriend, Debby.

Quickly, I turned away and hid into the shadows, so that she wouldn’t see and recognize that it was me. I squatted at the corner that I siddled to, and cried terribly like something had beaten me.

Minutes passed with me still standing at that spot, and I think a cab arrived to pick her away from where Damien’s car parked. Immediately I peeped and saw that there was no one outside any longer, I dried my face clean and made my way towards the house quickly.

I stormed into the compound so angrily, and someone grabbed my hand as soon as I was halfway into the compound. My senses could recognize him anywhere.

“Dabby, wait!” He called probably because he saw me before I hid, but I was too angry to stop, until he grabbed me so tightly which made me turn so furiously.

“Let go of me, Damien,” I warned icily, with intense anger flashing through my eyes for him. He had done nothing wrong if he kissed his girlfriend, but I was still so angry that I had to witness something like that.

“What is wrong with you? Why are you acting like this and getting so angry?!” He half-yelled with a stern face, and his blue eyes were really shiny even in the poorly lit compound.

‘Just how could I be noticing all of this, amidst my anger and trying to forget him?’

“Nothing is wrong, except for the fact that you are holding me. Why are you holding me?” I almost spat at his face, frowning really seriously like a sulking child.

“You said we should be normal. You were already doing that even if things were still awkward between us. You made it so crazy to handle, and I felt that you were really over ever. And I am trying to move on too, so why are you so mad?” He asked frustratedly, finally voicing out to know why I had been acting weirdly lately. Finally saying everything he wanted to say.

“And who says I am angry?” I scoffed at him with a glare, because that sentence was even making me angrier knowing that it was true, “And do I look angry? It would be better if you do not say things that you do not know,” I denied blatantly.

“I know you are angry, Dabby. You saw Debby and I in the car, and that was probably what triggered all of this,” he persisted.

“I said that I am not pissed. Why are you trying to put words in my mouth?” I got angry again and again, because he knew exactly the truth of what was going on with me.

‘Was I so predictable? I hated that.’

“And it would be nice, if you can date another girl whose name doesn’t rhyme with mine. It is sick to hear,” I sneered.

“Why are you trying to frus……” He stopped abruptly, like he saw or heard something. And I heard too. It was mum, and she was running from the direction of the main door.

“I have been waiting for you guys for so long. I’ve called your phones too,” she said while trying to catch her breath, when she got over to our side.

“Is there anything wrong?” I asked immediately.

“Yes. Spencer’s father is here for the first time after our marriage. And he said that the old man is really meticulous about everything. Please be a good family. Relate well. Better and normal than you have ever done. This is a chance for your father!” She begged.

‘Just how was I going to act normally to the guy that I was so madly pissed with?’