Good Stepbrother (Love #2) Read online

  A slow smile crept across my face and I wiped my tears with the back of my hand. Yes, that would do nicely. If I stopped trying, he’d have to talk to me. He’d have to help me.

  My plan was perfect.

  ***

  My plan wasn’t perfect. But I’d set my course and I didn’t know how to change it. I did all of my work, but I made sure to get the wrong answers. It perplexed my teachers. Several of them talked to me, but I would just play dumb. My grades dropped like a stone sinking in the sea. I started fifth grade as a star pupil. Teachers from fourth grade had bragged about me in my paperwork.

  “Brielle is brilliant!” they wrote. “Truly a force to be reckoned with. We’ve never seen such drive.”

  I sat in my English teacher’s classroom after the class ended. She wanted to speak with me. I swung my legs back and forth while I waited for her to get to the point.

  “Brielle, dear,” she called softly, and I glanced over at her.

  “Yes.”

  “Is something going on at home you’d like to talk about?”

  “Excuse me?” my nostrils flared in anger. “What?”

  “Are you safe at home?”

  “Of course I’m safe at home!” I snapped. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “Something had to happen over the summer. Your teachers gave you glowing reviews. I was looking at your spelling tests from last year, and you never missed even one word. Now you act like you don’t know how to spell.”

  “I forgot over the summer.” I insisted.

  “Come now, let’s not do this. Is everything okay?” She leaned over her desk and steepled her fingers together under her chin. “You’re in a safe spot.”

  “Everything is fine. Can I go?” I growled, and she shook her head and sighed.

  “You can go. But if you can’t at least pass your classes, we’ll have to hold you back. I’m pretty sure someone with as much drive as you have wouldn’t want to see that happen. So, whatever’s bothering you...you have to pass the classes. Give yourself that much.”

  I jumped out of my chair and grabbed my backpack. “Thanks for the advice,” I garbled as I ran out of the room. I was late for lunch, not that I wanted to eat anyway, so I ran for the playground.

  “Carter!” I screeched from across the playground.

  He turned from his position under the tree and looked for me. I stuck my bottom lip out and let the tears come. I had an idea, and I would need his help. I had to make sure that things looked good for my teachers. If I had a tutor…

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, his smile falling as I came to his side.

  “I failed the spelling test and Mom’s gonna be so mad!” I sighed, flopping down on the sand beside him.

  “I’m sorry. We could study more,” he offered. He already “helped” me most afternoons. This would mean giving up Saturdays too. He did care.

  “Sure! We could study. Thanks, Carter,” I breathed, leaning in to press my lips against his cheek. All of our classmates teased us. “Bri and Carter, sittin’ in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

  I knew he liked me. I liked him too, but just as my friend. I didn’t want to feel anything for anyone. I had to figure out how to keep him in the dark on my plans. I didn’t want him to know I was playing dumb. So instead, I watched TV the whole time we were supposed to study. It drove him insane, I could see that. He wanted to help me. I didn’t need the help. But I couldn’t very well say I was pretending to be stupid to get attention from my father. That sounded absolutely pathetic, and that was one thing I refused to be. Pathetic. So he could never know.

  “Brielle?” he called my name.

  “Yeah, Carter?” I glanced at him. “What?”

  “Would you ever want to maybe…be boyfriend and girlfriend?”

  He looked so hopeful and I had to squelch that fantasy fast. Carter was one person I never wanted to hurt. So if I kept him at arm’s length, he’d be okay. “I can’t date until I’m sixteen. Daddy says so. Sorry, Carter.” I looked back at the TV and I figured it was over.

  We studied every Saturday all through fifth grade, then the summer before middle school, we played together almost every day. Well, until I met some girls at the mall with my mom one Saturday afternoon. Then I had girlfriends, not a geeky, sweet boy to play with.

  Jennifer and Britney Partridge were twins, and new to town. We clicked immediately over clothes and MTV, which I watched a lot of to keep Carter off my trail. They were pretty too, both with long blonde hair and brown eyes, but I was the prettiest one. Everyone said so.

  By the time school started again, I morphed from a gangly little girl into the queen bee. Everyone worshipped at my feet and mimicked my style. With Jennifer and Britney at my side, I was unstoppable.

  Carter and I still studied just so I could keep up appearances. I almost hated wasting his time every Saturday. But there was something about him and I just couldn’t give him up. He was my security blanket and I still needed to tote him around like a child. Just knowing he was in the same room as me made my life worth living. He was my rock in the storm going on around me. I couldn’t tell him that, obviously, but I felt it, all the same. He promised he would always be there. Unconditionally.

  “Carter?” I turned off the TV and glanced over my shoulder at him. He sat in my pink chair at my desk and turned to stare at me.

  “Yes?”

  “Why do you still help me study?” I asked, needing to know why he insisted on being there even though I wasted his time.

  “Because. I’m your friend.” He smiled tiredly. “I just wish you’d actually study. Your grades suck.”

  “I’m passing.” I sniffed.

  “Just barely.”

  “But I am.” I shifted on the carpet and pressed the power button on my remote. MTV came back on and I watched music videos. Carter sighed loudly behind me and I heard him gather his things. “Leaving?”

  “Yeah. Time’s up. We made it through five spelling words.”

  “Progress.” I smiled and he rolled his eyes.

  “I guess. See you at school on Monday.” He slipped his backpack on and strode out of the room.

  My smile fell the second he stepped into the hallway. Wrapping my arms around my middle, I squeezed myself, trying to put together all my broken pieces. My glue was gone and I was falling apart.

  Monday morning, my phone rang beside my bed and I groggily answered it. “What?”

  “Omg, are you ready for this?” Britney squealed in my ear.

  “Ready for what?” I groaned.

  “Jameson Keller has the hots for you!”

  I sat up quickly and my heart trilled. “He does?” Jameson Keller was a big deal. A year older, the most popular boy in middle school. And he liked me!

  “Yes! Mariah called me, and told me he was asking her brother about you! Eek!”

  I fell back on my bed and squealed. Jameson Keller was the cutest boy ever. He was tall and muscular and liked me! Reality came crashing in suddenly. “I can’t date him.”

  “What?” Britney gasped, “Why not?”

  “My parents won’t let me, not until I’m sixteen,” I groused, rubbing my eyes in frustration. “What am I gonna do?”

  “Well, you better snap him up before someone else does and knocks you out of Queen Bee status,” she mumbled. “I know at least three girls he could have just like that.” She snapped her fingers and I groaned.

  “I’ll figure it out.”

  “You better, Bri. See you at school.” Somehow, I managed to keep Jameson Keller interested in me for almost a year before I gave him a yes to being his girlfriend. I was gorgeous, and I learned real quick what he liked. When he’d get frustrated with me for not wanting to date him yet, I’d give him a quick kiss or run my hand down his pec. I’d look up at him with big blue eyes and bite my bottom lip. I was learning how to be a tease, a minx, every man’s fantasy.

  The saddest part was that I was only twelve.

  Sometimes I wished my father cared enough to stop m
e from going down the wrong path but he was too busy. I wished my mother instilled in me that I didn’t need to be viewed as a sexual being to have worth. But she was too busy trying to keep my father interested by being the perfect housewife.

  It didn’t work. He still cheated on her. I knew he was cheating when I saw him cuddled up to his secretary one afternoon at the mall. They came out of the lingerie store and my girlfriends and I saw him.

  “Bri, isn’t that your dad?” Jennifer hissed, pointing across the mall to a tall man with salt and pepper hair in a pinstripe suit.

  “I doubt it…” I started, narrowing my eyes and looking closer. He had his arm wrapped around a redhead wearing a skin-tight green dress and heels. From the back, it looked an awful lot like his young new secretary.

  “Bri, that is him!” Britney gasped. “Omg, he was getting lingerie for her!” They whispered back and forth, speculating on why he was buying sexy, lacy panties for a woman that wasn’t my mother. I should’ve been paying attention. I couldn’t. Because I knew it was him. He flicked his arm in the air to check the gold watch that we’d gotten him for Christmas. The bastard.

  I stalked down the black and white tile, fury propelling me forward. Britney and Jennifer tried to hold me back, but I was a girl possessed. I grasped the arm of his jacket and jerked firmly.

  “Why are you here?” I growled.

  He turned and his eyes widened and his mouth fell open. “Brielle! What are you doing here?”

  “I asked you first. What are you doing here with her?” I wrinkled my nose and shot his secretary a nasty look.

  “That’s not your concern. Go home.”

  “No, I’m not going to go home. I’m asking you what you’re doing here with her. Buying lingerie.”

  “It’s a present for your mother. Now, take your little friends and go home. Immediately.” His cheeks flushed and he refused to meet my eyes. He was lying through his teeth. I hated him.

  “You’re a liar.”

  “And if you don’t go home immediately and stop making a scene, I’ll have you sent to boarding school. Do we understand each other?”

  We stared each other down, and I was the first to blink and look away. “Whatever, come on girls. The mall suddenly reeks of rat.” I stomped away, my entourage following close at my heels. I didn’t say a word the whole walk home. I just steamed.

  “Bri, what are you gonna do? OMG, you guys should go on a daytime talk show.” Britney suggested and Jennifer echoed her thoughts.

  “Go home. I want to be alone,” I snapped, leaving them standing confused on the sidewalk. I broke into a run and ran all the way to Carter’s house. I needed some stability.

  Knocking on the peeling green paint of his door, I waited for him to come to the door so we could talk. His mother opened the door. “Brielle! What are you doing here?” She self-consciously straightened one of her long blonde curls and smoothed a hand down her shirt.

  “Is Carter home?” I rasped, emotion clogging my throat.

  “No, I’m sorry, he’s at his friend Kirby’s house. You could call later, though…” she suggested.

  “Yeah sure.” I wouldn’t call. I felt like an idiot even showing up at his house. Carter was busy. Too busy for me and my drama. I backed off the steps and smiled tightly. “Don’t bother telling him I came by.”

  “Is everything okay?” she asked, concern knitting her brow.

  “Sure, it’s fine,” I lied through clenched teeth. “Just fine. See you later, Mrs. Travis.” I bolted home and stumbled up the stairs. I would tell my mother what I’d seen. She would believe me.

  I burst through the door, screaming, “Mom!”

  “What is it, honey?” She came from the living room in a rush, turning a bracelet on her arm. “Look at this lovely bracelet your father brought home. He’s taking us out for dinner. You better get ready!” She waggled her arm in my face and the tens of diamonds stuck into the gold sparkled.

  I looked behind her to see him leaned against the door jamb, a slick smile crossing his lips. He’d made it home before me, and he’d bought my mother some trinket. She’d never believe me now and he knew it. Rage simmered through my veins and I pasted a sweet smile on. “I’m not feeling so well. I think I ate something bad at lunch.”

  “Oh, no!” she simpered, pressing her cool hand to my forehead. “You are awfully warm, let’s get you upstairs. Maybe we should postpone dinner, Ed?”

  “No, you two go out to dinner,” I interrupted. “I’ll just go lay down.” I ran upstairs, tears streaming down my cheeks. Opening my door, I slipped inside my room and slammed it shut. I threw myself across my bed and wept. I’d never felt more alone.

  Chapter Three

  By my seventh grade year, my parents were falling apart and the wreckage was massive. I was one of the casualties of their love affair exploding. Neither of them had time for me, and I was left to fend for myself. I was a fledgling plant in the family garden and I was soon choked out by weeds and left to fester in my own mess. I rebelled like any other teenager in my position. I drank. I played with drugs, little white pills that Jameson would slip me after football games.

  “It’s just E, babe, it’s nothing heavy,” he’d whisper as he’d kiss me. I don’t know where he got the E from, but he always had a ready stash. All the older kids were taking it to party, so I thought it was okay for me to take, too. I’ll spare you some of the darker details, because I’m not proud of who I used to be.

  I did things no teenage girl should’ve done, with too many people. I loved being loved. It felt good. It made me feel alive when nothing else did. My grades plummeted to just above failing. I did just enough to skate by and nothing else. My mother did notice the bad grades and continued to have Carter come over on Saturday mornings. I wanted so desperately to tell him what was going on with me, but that would’ve involved having feelings, and I established long ago I never wanted to have those again.

  “Carter, we’ve been at this for like two years. I cannot spell. I suck at it so bad!” I tugged my hair in fake frustration. I knew how to spell all of the words. I just didn’t want to do anymore work.

  “It’s not so bad. You’re getting better,” he reassured me, his warm hazel eyes shining sweetly. I knew he loved me. Everyone loved me for one reason or another, but Carter? He loved who he believed I was. I had to break that image and make him stop caring about me. How could I have someone so wonderful care about me when I hated who I was?

  Taking in a deep breath, I set to breaking his heart. “Mom’s just glad I’m not failing,” I sighed and tossed down my pencil. “But I have to make a B on this next spelling test or I can’t go to the eighth grade dance with Jameson.” Looking over at him from the corner of my eye, I saw his face pale and he gritted his teeth.

  “You’re going to the eighth grade dance with Jameson?”

  “Yeah, we’re dating, you know that, Carter. I’m the only seventh grader to be asked to the dance. It’s like a freshman being asked to the senior prom! I have to go. I have this gorgeous blue dress that will look amazing with Jameson’s tie he’s got picked out, and I want to go so much. All of my girlfriends are completely jealous.” I rambled on, my heart twisting slightly as I wounded him. I’m so sorry, Carter.

  “Your dad’s okay with you dating?” he asked softly, his throat working as he swallowed.

  “Mom and Dad are having issues,” I smirked. “He’s too worried about losing Mom to worry about me. They’re talking about a divorce, but you didn’t hear that from me,” I laughed airily. “It’s perfect for me. Jameson is such a catch. No other seventh grader has an eighth grade boyfriend. I’m moving up in this world.” I hated every single word that tumbled from my glossy lips.

  Carter looked down at his paperwork and his shoulders slumped. “I see,” he said softly. “I need to go.”

  “Why? I thought you were going to help me study!” I knew then I’d hit the mark and he’d never be back. I’d done what I felt was right. I pushed him away to sav
e him from my darkness. He loaded his books up into his backpack and blinked back tears. It killed me to know I’d hurt him, but it was what I wanted, or so I thought. I had to protect him from me. “Talk to me, Carter,” I begged. I wanted to know what was going through his head. Did he hate me yet?

  He shook his head and darted out of my room. I heard him open the front door and tell my mother to find another tutor. He was gone. I gently closed my bedroom door and leaned against it. I squeezed my eyes shut and warred with my emotions. I hated hurting him but I couldn’t take him down in the undertow. I was the reason storms were named after people. Hurricane Brielle, Category Five. The destruction would be massive, and I only wanted to wreck myself.

  ***

  “Come on, babe,” Jameson whispered against my neck. “Let me feel you.” His hands pawed my chest and I struggled against him.

  “I don’t wanna. I’m gonna be sick.” Bile skittered up my throat and I shoved it down. I’d had too much punch at the dance and I couldn’t think.

  “God dammit, Bri! I’m tired of this. You’re such a prick tease!” I wasn’t prepared for his beefy hand coming across my face. The sharp slap jolted me out of my alcoholic haze.

  “You hit me,” I whispered, nursing my cheek with my hand. “You hit me.”

  “I’m tired of this!” he growled, pushing me back against the bleachers. “You want to act like a slut, you’ll be treated like one.”

  Again, you’re being spared from some details, because I don’t want to relive the memories. I wish I could say I left Jameson Keller the second the pimply-faced dick dared to slap me in the seventh grade. But I didn’t. I stayed with him for a little while longer. Boys are assholes. I did what I thought he wanted me to do, what would make him happy, because if he was happy, I was loved.

  I met my next boyfriend, Toby McLean, at a football game, where I was supposed to be cheering on Jameson. My eyes strayed repeatedly to his tall form as he leaned against the fence, cigarette smoke circling his head. Streetlights danced on his black leather jacket. He was hot.