Blended Hearts #2 (An Interracial Stepbrother Romance Book) (2 page)

I got up and literally
ran after Gaby down the hallway. I grabbed her by the arm and stopped her. “I’m
sorry, Gaby. I don’t know what’s going on with me. I am just not…”

“Stop it right there,
missy,” Gaby said, peering into my eyes. “You need to think before you speak,
especially when you talk to your only friend for miles around. Okay?”

I bowed my head in shame.
Gaby was right. She was the only one in this ugly world whom I could trust or
who would say more than two words to me any time of the day or night.

“I’m sorry, Gaby. I am on
edge. I am always looking over my shoulder to see if Daniel is anywhere in
sight. It’s not even being paranoid anymore; it’s a matter of not wanting to
know him at all. Period.”

“But what brought that on
all of a sudden? Last week you tolerated each other, if I remember correctly.
Now you’re acting as if he’s just returned from Africa and is spreading Ebola
round the school. What’s the matter with you?”

“Okay, I’ll tell you, but
not here.” I looked around us. Most of the students couldn’t care less about
the two of us, but I truly didn’t want to see Elise and her gang this morning –
not here, not now. We walked out to the school yard and sat on a bench.

Gaby returned to eating
the other half of her breakfast while I took a deep breath.

“Okay, Daniel is too
interested in me. And I mean that literally. He’s been hovering and trying to
make conversation when there’s none to make. He’s come to my room asking if I
was okay – like he cares…”

“Hold on to your horses
there Madison. What if the man really does care? What if he’s truly wondering
why you’re moping all the time. He’s probably feeling guilty and doesn’t know
how to handle you.”

“Maybe, but it’s no way
to get to me by following me around like a sick puppy. He’s too much. I can’t
tell you how many times I’ve told him to leave me alone. But he keeps on coming
back.”

“Are you in heat?”

The question threw me for
a loop. “What do you mean? I’m not a cat – not that I know anyway.”

“Then stop acting like
one. I told you last week; ignore him. When he asks a question; don’t answer.
When he goes one way, go in the opposite direction. Rather than yelling at him,
just demonstrate how you feel. Indifference and ignorance of him are your best
weapons.”

“But I can’t do that in
front of the folks, can I?”

“Well, short and terse
answers should suffice. No need to elaborate.”

I nodded and got up from
the bench. Gaby had finished eating by now. “Let’s get on with it then,” I
suggested.

“Right.” Gaby threw her
leftovers in the trash and fell in step with me. “I meant to ask; how did you
do with your essay?”

“You mean the one on
Friendship?”

“Yeah. Did you get your
seven-hundred words in?”

“I hope so. I didn’t do a
word-count, but I’ve got two pages, single-spaced. That should do the trick.” I
paused to open the door. “I don’t know if it’s going to get the marks I need,
though. It’s definitely not my favorite subject.”

Gaby threw me a strange
glance.

I had committed another
faux-pas, hadn’t I? “Sorry, I know I shouldn’t have put it that way. But you
were my example. You’re my only friend, as you said, so I’m grateful and that’s
what I talked about in the essay.”

“Alright,” Gaby said,
“but I think you should really sit down with yourself tonight and examine your
reactions toward Daniel and the other people in your life.” She stopped and
looked up at me. “I mean it, Madison, you’re going to put your foot in it all
the way to your knee and before you know it, you’ll be in deep shit with
everybody.”

I nodded and pushed the
classroom door open for her. I followed her in. Mr. Collins was already sipping
on a large milkshake. The
guy will need
his stomach stapled before the end of the year.

CHAPTER
3

Going home that night, I
chose to walk part of the way until I saw the regular bus drive past me. I
caught the next one and was glad to have made it
after
Daniel got home.

Mom was in the kitchen
preparing dinner when I opened the back door.

“Hi, sweetie,” she said
loudly to make sure I heard her. “How was your day?”

Much against my desire to
run up to my room, I made a ninety degree turn into the kitchen and plopped
down at the table.

“I have to say it wasn’t
too bad. Really. I’d wish they didn’t cram all of the classes I hate most on
Monday morning, though. Can you imagine three hours of math, physics and
political history?”

Mother turned around from
the sink, wiped her hands on the nearest dishcloth and came to sit across from
me. “I can’t imagine, no. Those are a little out of my league, truth be told
dear, but I suppose if you want to get to college or anywhere in life – that’s
to say if you want to have a choice – you need to be exposed to these courses.
So you’d know which you hate and which you might enjoy when it comes to a
career choice.”

My mother was a wise
woman. I always had to admire her for that sagacity of hers. I don’t really
know where she got it from, because she just went to high school (and nothing
as sophisticated as it is today) and then went to work for a department store.
Her paycheck wasn’t bad and she really had no more education afterward. Yet,
she was the one with the owl on her shoulder – the Wizard of my OZ. And today,
although I still had no intention of revealing what happened over the weekend,
I was glad she was there for me.

I got up, smiled at her
and went to plant a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll remember that next Monday.
Thanks for the pep-talk, Mom,” I added, taking my bag off the table and making
my way up the stairs.

I felt better.

It was only when I got to
the upper landing that I realized I was no longer alone with my mother in this
big house – Daniel lived next door to me.

He must have been
studying with his earphones on because I didn’t hear a sound coming out of the
lion’s den
, for which I was glad.

I plopped down on my bed
as soon as I had dropped my books and bag on the desk. I was tired. Going to
sleep at 2:00 a.m. after a session like the one Daniel and I had the previous
night was taking its toll on me.
 

After an hour of
reviewing my notes, I felt as if someone had opened the tap somewhere in my
brain and had emptied it from its content. I needed to get some food in me
before I passed out. Fortunately, it was nearly six o’clock and dinner would be
on the table in a few minutes. Even when there was only mother and me; we
always tried to have dinner at six. It was a time to talk, but no more. Not in
this family
, anyway. It was a time for
me to shut up, grin and bear it. I didn’t really care if Daniel was downstairs
already; I was not to care what he did, was I? Easier said than done,
unfortunately.

As I opened the door of
my room, guess who was waiting for me standing by the banister?

“Hungry?” Daniel asked. A
smile was plastered on his lips.

“Yes,” I answered,
stepping in front of him and rushing down the stairs.

As we reached the dining
room, Richard was standing by the head of the table, looking at us both.

“Come on, guys, let’s sit
down,” he said, as Mom came in with a large dish of what looked like lasagna.
I don’t believe it! Is she trying to sweeten
the pot so I talk to her?
She knows I love Italian. And lasagna is way up
there on top of my list of favorites.

“Wow honey, that’s smells
like another winner,” Richard said taking a seat, same as we did.

“Yes Janice, that looks
like it will hit the spot,” Daniel rejoined, smiling at Mom.

“Would you mind getting
the salad, Madison?” Mom asked.

I nodded and got up from
my seat as Mom sat down and began cutting squares out of the dish for everyone.

When I got back to the
table, Mom had already put a sizeable portion on my plate. I had to smile. I knew
she had cooked it for me.

Once again, we ate in
silence. There was nothing to say really. Mom and I had our little chat when I
came back from school, and whatever Daniel or Richard had to say wouldn’t
interest me in the least.

When we finished eating,
Mom asked me to get the coffee tray from the kitchen and to bring it to the
living room. As for Daniel, Richard told him to help with clearing the table.
It’s about time,
I thought. I hadn’t
seen him lift a finger since we moved in, except when he lent a hand to the
movers.

As he came into the
kitchen with a stack of dishes, he looked at me inquiringly. I just shrugged.

“Where do you want
these?” he asked –
as if you didn’t know?

I shrugged again.

He put them in the sink
and walked out. I shook my head. I hated men who had no clue in the kitchen.
Getting dishes in the dishwasher would not be too much to ask in my book, but I
wouldn’t open my mouth to tell him what to do.
If he wants to play dumb, so will
I
.

I took the tray to the
living room without a word, put it on the coffee table, smiled at my mother and
excused myself. As I went up the stairs, I heard Richard ask Daniel if he
intended to clear the rest of the plates and serving dish or if he wanted to
see them in the morning.

I laughed inwardly.

I spent the rest of the
evening working on my algebra and physics problems. After all, they weren’t as
bad as all that. As a matter of fact, other than a couple of jabs from Elise at
lunch time, all in all, it had been a rather good day. I was pleased when I thought
of Daniel doing the kitchen chores.
We’ll
get you trained yet, Mr. Daniel Robson.

However, my good humor
didn’t last but the first 24 hours of that week. The rest was a nightmare.
Avoiding Daniel proved to be a task all on its own. I had to calculate our
comings and goings so that we would NOT meet in the corridors, upstairs – in
the bathroom of course – and in most places at school. Since we were both in
grade 12 now with only months before we were done with high school, I figured
it would not be too difficult to adapt to the new “avoidance routine” and get
on with life.

But I had a recurring
problem. I was feeling like a traitor. Worse than that, I felt as if I was
betraying my own emotions. I could not admit it, but I wanted to be with
Daniel. I soon started to observe him. Perhaps it was for that very same reason
that he was hovering around me whenever I pretended not to be looking.

“You two should really
stop playing that silly game, you know,” Gaby said to me one morning as she was
eating another one of her muffins. “It’s getting really obvious.”

“What on earth are you
talking about?” I asked as innocently as I could. “You’re the one who told me
to ignore him or be indifferent, and that’s what I’m doing, isn’t it?”

Gaby shook her head. “Not
exactly,” she said, after she swallowed another spoonful of yogurt. “You’re
watching him to see if he’s looking at you. And when you’re not doing it, he’s
the one trying to see if you’re looking at him.” She wiped her mouth with her
napkin. “Truly, Madison, you’re acting like a twelve-year old right now.”

“What else do you want me
to do? I can’t very well go up to him and slap his face for looking at me, now
can I?”

“There you go again;
jumping into extreme action. You should really join one of these “
Xtreme
Sports” teams – I’m sure you’ll do very well.”

“Okay, okay, so what do
you suggest I do then?”

“How about sitting down
with the guy? At home. With no one around and have it out. Whatever is bugging
you two needs to come out before it festers and kills you both.”

I suppose it would have
been sound advice if it hadn’t been for the fact that we already “had it out”,
as Gaby proposed. We really had to mend what we had destroyed. We had destroyed
a budding friendship in favor of sex and an uphill battle with an impossible
relationship. If my mother had not married Richard and they had stayed in their
separate houses or even tried to live as common-law, Daniel and I would not
have been faced with this incredible guilt-trip. Correction: I was the one
taking a guilt-trip. I had no idea what Daniel was really thinking about all of
this.

I believed he was even
trying to break down the fences that I had erected between us since Sunday
night. It was fast becoming an untenable situation. I mean, even living
separate lives in the same house would have to come to an end. But how, was the
question. How do you keep ignoring someone who lives under the same roof as you
for months at a stretch? You don’t.

CHAPTER
4

Perhaps
Daniel felt the same about our situation as I did. One day, the following week,
I knew he did.

Elise,
Simone and Sylvia– came up to me as I was making my way to the school yard to
have a quiet lunch by myself.