Stepbrother Bestie (A Stepbrother Romance Novel) Page 8

  This was probably a ploy and I accepted that. In fact, I was fairly certain that somehow, this would likely come back to haunt me. But I still didn’t want that idea to ruin the feeling that I was getting; the illusion that she was actually caring about my feelings, instead of just herself.

  I had to do a lot of that lately, but my biological mother had always and continued to give me good practice, so I had learned well. At the very least, my mother gave me that.

  I nodded “Yeah…Thank you.”

  “Well, if you need anything…or want to talk, even though I know that you probably don’t, but if you do, I am here for you.”

  “Thanks…”

  “And don’t worry about a thing.” She smiled at me. “Your secret is safe with me. Unlike everyone else that you seem to have in your life, I would never betray your trust.”

  I stared at her strangely for a moment before I tried to figure out what she meant by that. I wasn’t sure though and so, once again, I simply opted to take her at her word. I smiled and pretended, at least for the moment, that nothing negative was going to come out of this experience. I pretended that she was really a person who cared for me and respected my wishes.

  Deep down, I knew that wasn’t true, but like a lot of things in my life, I decided that “here’s to hoping” was the only way I was ever going to find true peace, even if it was only for a moment.

  Even still, that moment passed rather quickly, when she, apparently deciding that we had mourned for enough time, said, “So, what do you want to do today?”

  At first, I was slightly taken aback at her brusqueness, but then I remembered, not only was that just the way Dalilah always was, but I was also basing our entire interaction on a lie. So it probably didn’t really matter how she reacted to it.

  At least she’s reliably crazy and careless with feelings, I thought to myself as I smiled, happy to have gotten at least one person back in my corner.

  “I’m kind of hungry…” I mentioned, realizing now that I was so distraught over the past few days that I hadn’t eaten much.

  “Sure. You can take me to that new hibachi grill.”

  “What? Isn’t that place expensive?” I demanded, slightly shocked. “I don’t have…”

  She interrupted me immediately. “You never tell a girl that you don’t have the ability to fulfill her desires, in any capacity. That is strictly for her to decide.” She smiled in more of a devilish way. “I’ll be ready in five minutes.”

  Chapter 17

  Valerie

  About halfway through the school day, I saw Dalilah coming up to me. I was surprised to see her in school. Most days, she cut class and urged Shawn to do the same; yet another reason why I simply couldn’t stand her.

  However, after the last time we had talked, the fact that she was heading straight toward me made me wish that she wasn’t in school anymore. After all, I would not want to be the source of her anger, at least to the capacity that she would try anything. She had been in plenty of fights before and I had seen her be pretty rough on Shawn as well. And while I wasn’t afraid of her, I also didn’t want to get suspended over the likes of Dalilah.

  The really sad thing was though, part of me was afraid of what I might find out about Shawn if she ever did start anything with me. Would Shawn come to my aid, or would he side with his girlfriend? I really didn’t want to find out.

  Therefore, seeing her barreling toward me like a bull, practically mowing down students as she walked, I wanted to run. In fact, I almost did turn around and bolt down another hallway, knowing that no interaction with this woman was ever going to be a pleasant one.

  But before I could do that, I heard her call my name, loud enough that if I did turn around and run, it would be far too obvious. I sighed, trying not to let her see me roll my eyes. “Hi Dalilah.”

  “Hey…” She answered, almost as though we were old friends. I knew that couldn’t be good. When she got a little closer to me, she lowered her voice. “I just wanted to let you know that we’re cool.”

  “Oh…okay. Great,” I answered, even though in the back of my mind all I could think of was, No, we most certainly are not. Until you stop brainwashing my friend into being with you, we are certainly not cool… Although, I figured that a ceasefire between me and Dalilah could only help the odd relationship that I was trying to have with Shawn, so I just smiled.

  “I…um…I heard about your mother,” Dalilah answered, as though she was truly concerned.

  I was thoroughly confused. “Well, I didn’t…” I said before I could stop myself, “What about her?”

  Dalilah looked confused right back for a moment before she answered, “It’s okay. Shawn told me what happened. He told me that your mother is sick and that you were talking to him about it the other night.” She smiled. “You’re a good friend; keeping him in the loop, even though you aren’t talking to him.”

  At this, I wasn’t sure if I was more outraged at her for bringing it up, or furious with Shawn for telling her that. “My mom is fine,” I answered, far ruder than even I intended. After all, if there was any truth to it, at least she was trying to be nice.

  I had no doubt there was an ulterior motive, but still, until I knew what it was, I couldn’t fault her for asking about something like that; if there actually was something like that going on, which there wasn’t.

  “It’s okay,” she answered carefully, “I completely understand. It’s really hard to have something like this happen. I totally get it and Shawn told me that you wanted it to be kept a secret…I will respect that. I promise.”

  I narrowed my eyes and sputtered through my growing sense of rage. “Shawn told you that?”

  “Yes.” She nodded carefully, as though she wasn’t quite sure whether she was able to get an accurate reading on my reaction. “But in all fairness, I kind of forced it out of him. We’re not going to focus on the details, but long story short, I saw you two meeting secretly in the park the other day and so, obviously, I had some questions.”

  I shook my head in an effort to clear it before I glowered at her angrily. “Dalilah, I swear to you, there is nothing wrong with my mother.”

  Still, she didn’t seem to understand. She narrowed her eyes at me and peered intently into my gaze. I decided to spell it out. “He lied to you.”

  At this, she reared her head back and instantly grew nasty. “I was just trying to be nice. You don’t have to go on the offensive.”

  “I’m telling you the truth,” I insisted, now too frustrated to stand here and argue with her when my blood was boiling over Shawn’s horrendous indiscretion.

  She rolled her eyes at me and hissed, “Okay…Whatever…” before she turned quickly and stomped away from me.

  However, now I didn’t care that she was gone. In fact, I was glad. After all, the only person I wanted to talk to at the moment was Shawn.

  I quickly pulled out my phone, not wanting to completely freak out on him in public and sent him a text message. We need to talk. ASAP.

  Before my next class, I received a text back. Okay. What’s wrong?

  You are a deplorable human being, I answered. And you have a lot of explaining to do.

  After class, I received his next message. What did Dalilah tell you?

  Can you meet me after school?

  Sure…

  The rest of the day I was in a red-sighted haze. I couldn’t believe how angry I actually was at him. There was no reason for him to be acting like this. She’s your girlfriend for God’s sake. The very least you could do was make up a better lie.

  Now, I understood why he would feel the need to lie to her. I really did understand. I saw firsthand how manipulative and crazy she could be, so I could see telling her almost anything to get her off of his case; but the opportune word there was almost.

  After school, I stomped to the park, where we had met last time and thankfully, we were alone. The last thing I wanted to do was have some neighbor overhear me and get the wrong idea about my fami
ly. After all, the she-devil herself already had the same idea stuck in her head and apparently refused to yank it out and therefore, I didn’t want the same thing to start circulating between the neighbors.

  The last thing I needed was for Shawn’s stupid lie to get back to my mother. It might not bother her, what was being said, but I knew who was saying it would probably bother her quite a bit.

  Chapter 18

  Shawn

  I had a slight pain in my stomach all day, wondering what could have happened. I knew that Dalilah was behind whatever it was, because that woman would not go down without a fight and she loved to concoct plans behind everyone else’s back, thinking that she was far smarter than everyone.

  However, I couldn’t imagine what had gotten Valerie so upset.

  Yet, when I saw her face, glowering at me from across the park, I had a pretty good idea that my inclinations about what Dalilah had shared with her were fairly spot on. For the entirety of the day, ever since I had received that first text message from Valerie, I had tried to convince myself that as rough as Dalilah was on me and as sneaky as she was, there was no way she would betray my trust.

  However, now, I knew the truth and it made me extremely angry. I knew that I shouldn’t have trusted her, even with a lie, but now that I had, it hurt me that she would go behind my back, stab it and turn the knife so methodically.

  As I walked up to Valerie, I figured that my best shot at a saving grace was telling her, “I am so sorry…”

  “Yeah, you should be,” she spat without the slightest sense of empathy. She lay into me, heavily and angrily, but I knew that she was hurt, which made the scolding even worse. “How dare you! Why would you tell her anything about my personal life, whether it is true or not? You had no right to incorporate me or my mother into your lie…and to say what you said about her…That’s awful!”

  “I had to say something,” I blurted, realizing what a lame defense that was, but not really caring all that much.

  “And that was the first thing that popped into your mind?” she demanded. “That’s terrible! Next time you have to lie and you feel that it needs to be so absurd, tell her that your own mother is sick and leave my mother out of it…at least then, you wouldn’t actually be too far from telling her the truth.”

  I opened my mouth to retort, but then was struck with a sense of anger and hurt. Now, it was I who could not believe what Valerie was saying. I felt my eyes narrow as I glared at her. My breath became slightly heavier, before I answered in a cold, hurt fashion, reflecting all of the terrible thoughts that were rumbling around inside of my mind at the moment, “You know what really sucks? The fact that if I tried to be so concerned for my own mother, she wouldn’t have believed me. I care about you and I care about your mother. I used to think that you both cared about me far more than either of my own parents did, but the more this…whatever this is that keeps going on between us lasts, the more I am starting to realize that this has nothing to do with you wanting me to come home, or even…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it, but I was sure that the look in my eyes gave it away. I peered at her intently, willing her to see me the way that I saw her, but the look that I received back confirmed that I was not that person to her and I probably never would be. “But lately, she is the only one who is there for me. Like her or not, she is the only constant in my life.”

  At this, Valerie stepped back, as though I had slapped her, and scoffed at me before saying, “You’re the one who left…and if you remember, you’re the one who called it off the first time, so don’t try to turn this all around on me and make me out to be this terrible person. I was right…” She hissed, looking me up and down with a sense of disdain in her eyes. “You are despicable.”

  With that, she turned around and began to walk away. But after a moment and a sigh, through which I released all of my aggravation and anger, I couldn’t bear to let her walk away from me like that again. “Valerie, wait!” I ran after her. She turned around and stared at me, as though she was trying to pierce me with laser vision and turn me to dust. Still, I took solace in the fact that she had stopped.

  I knew then that I had a chance.

  “Wait…” I exclaimed again as I caught up with her, sighing heavily. “I’m sorry.”

  “For what, exactly? It’s a pretty long list.” She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at me, as though to increase her concentration so that I would inevitably fall into a pile of ash on the ground.

  Since I was still standing there, however, I figured it hadn’t worked. “For everything. I know why you are upset about what I said…and I am sorry that I hurt you. I was angry then. I didn’t realize that I had hurt you…”

  “You didn’t care, either,” Valerie replied earnestly, now making her eyes wide as she spoke.

  I nodded and after careful contemplation, I replied, “You’re right. I didn’t care. That’s on me. When our parents announced they were getting married, almost to the day, I was going to ask you to go out with me. I knew that it was strange, being that our parents were dating, but they had dated for years, so I figured that we had a shot of it not actually being strange. By that point, I figured they were content in their relationship and would never take the next step into making it official. I had never thought that their status would change. They were always just…dating. So, when they said that they were getting married and that we were going to be living together as brother and sister, I was angry. Everything changed and then, to make matters worse, even my relationship with my father changed and that screwed up the whole dynamic.”

  She nodded, showing that she was listening to me intently.

  “Therefore, I never told you how I felt and when you came to me that day with your suggestion, I was scared. Everything was happening so fast…and I didn’t want to have to worry about losing you too. I thought if we could stay friends, without the complications of a relationship, especially of our relationship, given our new parental status, that I would have a better shot of things never coming undone between the two of us.”

  “But you hurt me,” she said again and as I looked in her eyes, I saw that she was remembering the words that I had said to her.

  Reluctantly, my mind flashed back to that as well and I heard my own, panicked voice ringing in my ears; “Eww…We’re about to be step-siblings. We can’t date now…Besides, I never felt that way about you anyway. We’re friends, Val…That’s all we can ever be.” I then remembered her heartbroken expression, which was a lot like the one she was wearing right now. When my mind came back to the present, I grasped her hand and pulled it toward me. The familiar feel of her skin was comforting, even though in my mind, I was a barrel of nerves. “Look…When I said what I said, I wasn’t telling you the truth. I only said that so that you would stop making me hope for an us, but at the time, I did mean that I thought all we could ever be was friends.”

  “But we’re not even that now…”

  I nodded solemnly. “I know and I want that to change.” I grasped her other hand and brought it toward me. I rested her touch against my chest and looked deeply into her eyes before I told her honestly, “I know I have made a lot of mistakes and I probably will make a lot more, but I still want a chance. I want to be what I told you we could never be…Forget what everyone has to say. I want to give it a shot.” I smiled at her, but my heart began to ache when she did not smile back.

  I could tell that she was thinking about it though, which gave me hope, until she lightly pulled her hand away and began a justification of her own. “That explanation is great. I completely understand,” Valerie answered finally and I was once again hopeful that I had just read her initial reaction wrong when she paused; but then her voice dropped in that pause. “But, unfortunately, as always, the truth and the explanation for your actions came about two years too late.” She backed up from me, ignoring the blatant sense of hurt that was clear on my face. “I’m sorry, Shawn.” Then, she turned and walked away from me…again.

/>   Chapter 19

  Valerie

  I didn’t know what to do. I was so distraught and angry, now feeling even worse than I did originally, but for more internal reasons.

  Part of me wanted to know what the big deal was. So, he has a crazy girlfriend and so to get her off of his back, he told her a lie. Why does that bother you so much? That thought was especially brought home when I thought, after all, the alternative of him telling her the truth was far more detrimental. Especially since nothing happened.

  I needed something to take my mind off things so I called Zachary. He didn’t answer his phone though so I decided I would walk around the mall.

  It wasn’t any fun by myself and I knew that from the start, but besides Shawn, the old Shawn and Zachary, I really didn’t feel like being with anyone else.

  Even though I couldn’t pour my heart out to Zachary about what was going on, for obvious reasons, I still wanted to be with him. He brought me back to reality and calmed my frantic nerves. It was comforting to be with him. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Yet, by the time I had taken the bus to the mall, he still hadn’t called or texted back and so, I figured I wasn’t going to hear from him today.

  I had noticed lately that Zachary was acting strange, but then again, I also wasn’t acting quite myself. So I knew that I shouldn’t really be trying to find an explanation or accusation toward him when he could easily turn around and say the same thing about me, with more accuracy and proof of my odd behavior.

  Therefore, I refused to let his silence bother me. Instead, I made it a point to have a good time, even if I was slightly lonely. That was okay. I would make do; I always did.

  I grabbed a large cup of my favorite coffee and wandered around a couple of my favorite stores, trying to convince myself it was better to be able to window shop at my own pace, without a boy telling me how they were done looking five minutes ago literally six minutes after we walked into a store. I was never one to be overly girly or have many friends that were girls. In fact, I had always preferred to hang out with the boys; but right now, I kind of wished I had a girl that I could trust to talk about my predicament with…and to shop, because I just wasn’t into it.