Stepbrother Aflame (11 page)

“Oh my god, Addison Marie Andrews! What have you done?”

My eyes shoot open in horror. No, no, no. This is not happening right now.

My heartbeat starts to race. I need to start locking doors. I’ve had too many people walk in on me in compromising situations.

“Melinda, get the hell out of her bedroom right now,” Zeth growls next to me.

He taps my stomach, telling me to stay put. I gulp. I’m too terrified to look up. I don’t want to see the look on my mom’s face. I watch Zeth, the blankets covering up half my face. He wraps a sheet around his waist, careful not to uncover me, and gets out of bed.

My mom gasps. “You will not tell me what to do,” she says to him, anger driven with each word. “Addison, get up right now and look at me. Explain yourself.”

I’m a chicken shit. I’ll admit it. I’d rather get my fingers cut off one by one than face her right now.

“I said look at me!” She screams.

I inhale a deep breath. I need to put my big girl panties on. I can’t let Zeth fight this battle alone. My brain starts to pound against my skull as I slowly rise up to look at her.

Her face is red, pitted with hostility and hurt. I’ve never seen her look this distraught before. But then again, I’ve never done anything to disappoint her.

“You slept with him?” She asks, trying to hold back tears, her lower lip quivering. “You cheated on Cam with
him?
”

She looks at Zeth like he’s some incurable disease.

I clutch my blanket in my fist. “I didn’t cheat on Cam, mom,” I answer. “We broke up because
he
cheated on me with Savannah!”

“Then you will take him back,” she says, lifting her chin up in the air.

“The hell I will,” I screech, my voice raising. I will not let her dictate my life anymore.

“You will if you want a good future, people make mistakes Addison.” She looks over at Zeth in disgust. “Because you obviously have.”

“Listen, you old hag,” Zeth starts to say, taking a step closer. She backs away.

“Would you stay with Leonard if he cheated on you,” I ask, nudging my head to tell Zeth to back off.

“I’m not going to answer that,” she replies. Zeth listens to me and refrains from getting any closer to her. “Forgive his sins, honey. You know that’s what God would want you to do.”

“Get the hell out so we can get dressed,” Zeth yells. “Then you can try to talk her into making a stupid fucking decision.”

My mom surprisingly listens to him. She hurries backwards, out the room, and slams the door shut behind her.

“This is not good,” I mumble over and over again, jumping up and grabbing my robe. “This is not good at all.”

Zeth twists me around to look at him. He holds me in place, our bodies only inches apart, and plants his hands on my shoulders.

“Blame it on me,” he says. “Tell them I got you drunk or some shit. Blame it on me.”

I shake my head, pushing him away from me. “Nu uh, I’m not letting you take the heat for this. I wanted it just as much as you did. This is
us.
She can get over it.”

Two minutes later, the door opens again. “You done now?” My mom asks. “Are you done being a little slut?”

Zeth’s chest puffs up and the chords in his neck inflame. “Don’t fucking talk to her like that, you hear me? She’s a grown woman,” he yells, pushing me behind him.

“Who do you think you are?” My mom screams. “Talking to me like that under my own roof.”

“I’m the guy telling you to stop dictating what your daughter does in her life. You want her to stay with a guy that’s fucking other bitches. That’s fucked up. You don’t love her.”

I press my fingernails into his back and can feel the tears start to fall down my cheek. This is it. This is when reality decides to smack us in the face. This is the day my future with Zeth is going to be determined.

“How can you say that? I love my daughter more than anything,” my mom cries out.

“Then let her be herself!”

“You selfish little bastard. I let you come into my home and you do nothing but corrupt my daughter with your demons.”

“Mom, he hasn’t done anything I didn’t ask for,” I say, struggling to get around Zeth. I need to face her. She has to know not to blame Zeth.

“He’s been trying to sleep with you since the minute he walked through our front door.”

“Mom …”

“And you let him!”

“She hasn’t done anything,” Zeth blurts out. I ram my arm into his stomach to get him to shut up, but it doesn’t stop him. “We didn’t do shit. We were hanging out in here watching movies and we fell asleep.”

“You were watching movies
naked?”
She asks, insult clear on her face that we’d think she’d actually believe that ridiculous lie.

“No, we weren’t watching movies,” I say, keeping my voice level. “We were in bed because I’ve been sleeping with him.” She glares at Zeth, her eyes ready for the kill.

“You gave this guy your
virginity?”

“No! I slept with Cam before him. I’ve been sleeping with Cam for over a year.”

“God will forgive you for your indiscretions with Cam.”

“But not with me?” Zeth snorts in disgust. “Go fucking figure. Hypocritical assholes, that’s what all of you are.”

“Don’t you dare talk to my wife like that!” Leonard squeezes in the doorway and stands at my mom’s side.

Well this is all we fucking need. Shit is now going to hit the fan.

“Fuck you,” Zeth says.

He takes a step towards us. Zeth wraps me in his arm and pushes me back behind him again. “You little asshole, I let you come in my home and you disrespect me like this.”

Zeth pushes him away from us. I gasp when I lose his hold and he heads towards the door. “You won’t have to worry about that anymore, I’m out.”

I head down to my room, holding Addison’s sheet around my waist so I don’t give them all a show of my cock. I call a cab and start throwing all of my shit in my duffel bag at the same time. I strip off the sheet and get dressed quickly. I’ve got to get the fuck out of here before I do something I’ll regret.

“Zeth,” Addison yells, flying into my bedroom. Her eyes are swollen, her cheeks tear stained. She’s still wearing her robe and her hair is a mess.  “What are you doing?” Her eyes go from me to my open bag.

I zip up my bag, grab it, and then move around her. “It’s over, Addison. Our little charade is done. I did what I needed to do. You got what you wanted. I made you experienced, taught you what guys like in bed. Mission accomplished. Now it’s time for us to move on.”

I can hear her behind me, sobs mixed with begging pleas. I glance over my shoulder to see her short legs trying to keep up with me on the stairs.

“Stop following me,” I yell. She needs to let me walk out of here. I can’t face her. I can’t stare at the pain on her face that I know is caused by me.

She doesn’t listen. She runs outside with bare feet, chasing me as I wait at the corner for a cab.

“Stay, please,” she says, out of breath.

I run a hand over the side of my face. “I can’t.”

I’m trying my best to keep my emotions in check, attempting to act like walking away from her isn’t the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. I knew she was better than me. But hearing her mom say it and the look of disgust reminded me what I knew all along. This would never last.

She grabs my arm, her fingernails desperately tearing into my skin. “Stay. We’ll get our own place. We won’t have to see them again.” I shake my head. “I’m falling in love with you,” she says, her voice turning into a whisper.

I take a good look at her. Tears are barreling down her face and her lower lip is quivering. My blood runs cold, my entire body going rigid. Seeing her crying is killing me. But I have to do what’s best for us.

“We agreed this was only temporary, remember?” I remind her.

“You know that’s not true. You know what we have has never been temporary.”

I pull her hand off of me. She grabs for me again, but I lightly push her away. “It was nice while it lasted. My goal was to make you a better lay and to fuck a stuck-up princess. That’s what I did.”

“Don’t say that,” she sobs. “Don’t you dare lie to me! You wanted more, too.”

“Shit, you’re going to school to be a fucking doctor. I’m a tattoo artist who’s unemployed now. My future will never be what you’re looking for. I’ll never be an Ivy League graduate and become some doctor or lawyer. I’m white trash and I’ll always be white trash.”

She grabs onto my arm again, attempting to pull me back into the house.

“Please don’t, don’t do this,” I yell, nostrils flaring. I gesture between the two of us. “We are not in a relationship. We are not in love with each other. We’re only fucking, remember? I’m getting you ready for the love of your life, and princess, that’s not fucking me.”

I’m lying out of my goddamn teeth and I feel like a jackass. “This was us getting our socks off and that’s it. You’ll be off to school in a few months and I’ll be back in California. Our little summer fling will be long forgotten.”

My voice is cold. Harsh. She doesn’t deserve it.

“Then I’ll come there. I’ll move to California. We can be together!.

I shake my head, cutting off her wild, naive imagination. “It’s over.”

I brush against her when I see the cab pull up. Her steps are close to mine, on my trail, and she’s yelling my name. The pain is clear in her voice. I’m breaking her heart, but it’s better now than in six months. She’ll realize it’s for the best.

“Don’t do this,” she begs. “Don’t listen to them.”

I throw my stuff in the backseat of the cab. I can’t help but look at her one last time. She’s standing on the sidewalk, shivering in her robe, and looking like I’d just ripped her heart out and am taking it with me.

The truth is, I’m leaving mine there with her.

I give the driver directions. It’s over. I’m leaving like a coward, but I know the truth. I’d be wasting my time to think we’d ever be anything other than temporary fuck buddies.

She’ll find some perfect guy when she leaves for school and I’ll be long forgotten. It’s stupid to think it’s going to be any different. We come from two different words that were never supposed to collide.

I’m sitting on my bed going back over today’s events. It was supposed to be a good day. I was looking forward to waking up to Zeth’s warm body again. We were going to watch movies and hang out before he went to work. But he walked out and left me.

We weren’t supposed to go down like this. I told myself I wouldn’t care when he left. I shouldn’t be this heartbroken because I knew it was going to end eventually. I wasn’t going to marry Zeth … at least I knew that in the beginning. Now, it’s weird thinking about being with anyone but him. The thought of someone else’s hands on me makes me sick to my stomach.

I tried to go after him, but he wouldn’t even look at me. I begged him, but he didn’t listen. He had his mind set. He was leaving and going back to California, not caring if his decision would crush me into a million pieces.

I tilt my head back, trying to control the tears. I know it wasn’t only about sex with him. If he only cared about sex, he would’ve had Savannah in his bed every night.

He felt it something for me. The way he touched me and stood up for me told me everything I needed to know. He doesn’t think he deserves me, and that’s bullshit, because if anyone deserves me it’s him.

“I’ve given you time to get yourself together.” I glance up to see my mom standing in my doorway again. “I want answers now.”

I jump up from my bed. “You stay away from me. If you wanted answers, you could’ve asked me. Instead, you insulted Zeth and practically kicked him out!”

She’s staring at me, motionless, and I can see the shock etched in his eyes. It takes her a second before she says anything.

“Don’t talk to me like that,” she says. “I’m your mother. This boy … he’s corrupted you. He’s changed you into this terrible person I don’t even recognize.”

“You don’t recognize me because you don’t know me, mom,” I say, trying to control my breathing. This is my mother. I will always love her, but it’s time I stop letting her control me. “You’ve made all of my decisions, all of them, for years. I love you, but you’re not controlling my life anymore.”

“He’s made you a monster,” she spats out in disgust.

I take a step back when I see someone slipping through the doorway and into my room.

“What the fuck is he doing here?” I ask, my temper rising. I want to slap him across his arrogant face.

They both wince at my language.

“Your mom, she called me,” Cam explains, taking a step closer. I back away. I can’t even stand to look at him. He’s got a giant smirk on his face, like he’s about to win something here. Well, that something isn’t going to be me.

“You get the hell out of my room, cheating scum,” I say, pointing to him and then to my door. “Actually, both of you get out.”

Cam shakes his head. “What has happened to you? That guy, he’s ruined you, Addison. Sure, I’ve made some mistakes, but I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I hurt you. But you ran straight into his arms. You let him manipulate and use you.”

“He ruined me?” I hiss. “It wasn’t me catching you screwing my best friend? Who knows how many other times you’ve cheated on me, Cam! We’re done. I’ll never be able to trust you again. I’ll never take you back.”

“Let me explain myself,” he begs, his face falling when he realizes I’m not falling for his pathetic speech.

“There’s no explaining. Now both of you, out.” Neither one of them move. “Fine, you don’t want to leave? Goodbye.” My shoulders bump into Cam’s side. He tries to make a grab for my arm, but I pull away quickly.

I run down the stairs, get in my car, and drive until it’s dark. I ignore everyone’s phone calls, but keep my phone glued to my side in case Zeth tries to call me back.

He doesn’t.

I finally grab my phone and hit a name.

“Sally, it’s Addison. I need a favor.”