My Stepbrother-Too Hot To Handle

Dabby:Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

Despite my heightened awareness of the situation, no one else seemed to notice that something was amiss. I was the only one obsessing over every detail of everything around me, and no one else seemed to care or be aware of what was going on with me.

‘Would they even care? Of course, not. How could they know? It was a word never to come out to anyone.’

During the first class, I found it difficult to concentrate due to Damien’s threatening words echoing in my mind. He had never spoken to me before ever since we had been in school together, and our newfound relationship was anything but friendly.

I struggled to take notes and keep up with the lecture, because my whole mind was in disarray. Skipping breakfast for the first time in a while only made things worse, as my stomach growled with hunger and pain. It was as though the juice I drank made everything worse.

I usually avoided lunch most of the time to steer clear of any potential conflicts, with the various cliques of students that dominated the cafeteria during lunch. It was always a constant arrangement filled with narcissists and mean people.

For Damien, it was he and his closest friends Bryan and Xavier, who were also very popular and wealthy guys, that matched his high-class level. His girlfriend, Madison had her best friend Maeve and some other popular girls.

I was always alone and had no real friends, with only a few online ones to keep me company. This was likely due to me and Mum’s frequent moves from town to town when I was younger.

As soon as the fourth period ended and it was time for the lunch break, I rushed to the cafeteria to get my food before crowds of students would arrive.

‘If I could get served within the first ten minutes of getting to the place, then I was going to be able to finish lunch in ten minutes too,’ I thought to myself.

I needed the well-strategized plans before Madison and her friends would even think of coming to eat, because I wouldn’t want anyone to ruin lunch or the end of the day for me.

Feeling I had done justice to my hasty movement and calculations, I got to the cafeteria in a few minutes only to be disappointed with the number of students there already. It seemed like every student was starving that day.

I waited patiently for my turn eyeing the menu hungrily, hoping in my heart too that things would go as planned. Once I had my tray of food served to me, I retreated to my corner to eat in peace.

Within minutes, the school’s most popular students arrived to indulge in Postmates, which had been banned from school grounds. It was another way to assert their superiority.

And from nowhere in my subconsciousness, I knew that someone had entered through the door as the whiff of the cologne he used that morning, permeated my sensory nerve. The same one that almost choked me in the car.

‘How could he arrive this fast? OMG, that means Madison might soon be here.’

Realizing that what I had been avoiding would take place soon, I quickly shoved the last piece of cake as dessert in my mouth and stood up. I decided to take the longer route to the doorway by the other side of the room, hoping to avoid being seen.

As I walked carefully with my eyes trailing accordingly on the floor tiles, someone stumbled upon me and the next thing I felt was a splatter of something on my face and glasses.

I shrieked and compulsively paused on my tracks, as I raised my face to see what had happened, and who was before me. A loud laughter broke into the hall as others followed suit.

My heart shattered mercilessly when I saw who it was, with the realization that it was done on purpose. There was red sauce all over my clothes and face which came from the plate she was holding, as she stared at me with a derisive smirk stretched across her lips. Her friend was standing behind her too.

“Oops. You should watch where you are going next time, or get an exchange for your blind glasses,” Madison uttered in a mocking tone, as the people around her broke into another round of laughter. I was mortified.

And now standing just a few miles away from the scene was the group of the most popular guys, and my eyes could only see Damien among them who was looking directly at me. Maybe it was an irritation that made him lower his eyes at me, but I certainly was not expecting any help from him. It was just so hard to move from the spot.

“Now if you would excuse me,” Madison shoved me aside roughly and walked past with her friends, as she went over to where Damien was standing to give him a peck on the cheeks. It wasn’t anything new. Maeve, who was dating Xavier too, went to stand possessively beside him.

Trying hard to hold my tears, I picked up my tray that had dropped to the floor, as people still chuckled and mocked my appearance as I walked out. The moment I got to the nearest bathroom to take refuge in, I allowed the tears to drop endlessly from my peppered face.

Watching the sauce off my face and glasses would be easy, but the shirt that I was putting on was a mess already. There was no way to leave school that early without having a reason, and I could not stay in class too because my clothes would be wet, and lunch break was ending minutes away.

As I shed uncontrollable tears and watched the sauce out in the basin, my mind traveled to the fact that Damien always kept extra clothes in his car. Though the one he brought to this new grade was different, it was still going to be the same routine. But there was no way that Damien would give me his shirt, ever.

Having no choice of what to do, I pulled off the shirt anyway and was left in my sports bra, as I moved to gently wash every affected part. Lunch break was over and the bell had rang for everyone to enter their classes, but I was still in the bathroom waiting for the hand dryer to dry my clothes in the best way.

I hated the fact that it was like this. My life would have been better if it was I and my clumsiness alone, but I had to be so conscious and cautious because of Damien now. It was so frustrating to know that I was in a really suffocating situation.

Knowing that I had to miss the first period after the lunch break, I entered one of the bathrooms and brought out my phone from my bag. I sat on the toilet lid comfortably, and went straight to my social media page to see if anything good was up. My online friend had dropped a message.

I started chatting with Mason months ago from a random friendship group I once joined to find friends, and we have never met before because he lived in another city away from here.

He said he was staying with his father, and that his parents were divorced. Considering how boring people said I was, Mason had never said anything like that before, which made me wonder how we had managed to keep up for months.

We really never had much to talk about apart from school, but he was like someone I had closest to a friend who lived around. He was cool and nice, so I never had to bother about how I talked the few times we have Facetimed. At least, dumb Dabby managed to get herself a hot and handsome friend.

Telling each other things wasn’t even a problem, because I felt like we had never seen each other before, which would probably remain like that till we stopped being friends. We often told one another what was bothering our minds, and let it all go, like we actually met in reality to talk to each other.

I didn’t know if I actually liked Mason or anything personal, but I was really so comfortable with telling him my worries, even if we were still close to being strangers. The night I got a stepbrother on mum’s wedding night, I texted him about the latest sad thing that was going on in my life.

I opened his message to see what he had sent, and was quite surprised by what he had texted. He and his father were having problems, and he was tired of living in his house. Another message dropped again immediately after, which indicated that he was not too busy to reply to me.

[Are you okay? Have you resolved the issue with your dad?] I texted back.

[Not at all. He has been too crappy nowadays because he has a new girlfriend, and I think she wants to break up. I wouldn’t let him dump his frustration on me ] he replied.

[I am sorry about that. Have you now made up your mind?] I typed again.

[Mum has been offering that I come over to stay with her. She says she has a stable job now, and has permanently moved to a new town] he messaged back.

[Since your mum wants you to come over, I think you should consider it. Changing your environment might help you feel better. What town is it? Hope it isn’t too close to where you were before?]

[I have made up my mind actually, and I should contact her before the end of this week. She said somewhere in California too. Maybe Ventura, Santa Paula, or Saticoy]

Immediately I saw that, my heart skipped a beat. It was just going to be a few miles away from where we were living.

‘What kind of turn was my life taking?’