Stepbrother With Benefits 17 (Third Season) (10 page)

I
still haven't gotten
a text back from Ashley. This isn't for lack of trying, either. I've sent her plenty of texts today. I left her more than a few voicemail messages, too. I even checked Facebook, left a post on her profile,
and
I sent her a Facebook message.

Seriously, Princess, holy fuck.

It's been... hours? More than a few hours. I went to class, then I went to a short football practice, and now I'm back in my room. I grabbed dinner quick, too. I made sure to plug my phone in, so I don't end up with a dead battery again. Everything is plugged in. Even my laptop is plugged in.

I should probably be eating dinner right now. My container of food is open, and I have a fork on my desk, ready to dig in, but each time I go to take a bite, I change my mind. Nah, let's check my phone quick. No reply to my text, no missed calls, no new voicemail.

Facebook? Nothing. Is she online so I can chat with her that way, webcam and whatever the fuck? Nah...

Which means I should probably take a bite of my food before it gets cold, but... nah, let's check my phone quick.

I have no idea how long I keep this up. I don't mean to, but seriously I'm kind of depressed as fuck right now. I hope you'll forgive me for that, but it is what it is. I don't even fucking know how I managed to make it this long.

Fucking hours, man! It's been hours! Something like... five hours? Maybe almost six hours. Ashley definitely doesn't have class anymore, at least. She's out of class. What's she doing? Fuck if I know!

Suddenly I get a text message. Yes! Aw, fuck yeah! I can redeem myself! I have the opportunity to explain and apologize and... I'll grovel. I swear to fucking God I will grovel, Ashley. You have no fucking idea how much I will grovel. Just let me...

Fuck you, Caleb. Just go fuck yourself. This is the text message:

I start to type a reply, but... what's a polite way to say "No, go fuck yourself, but nicely, and I'll let you borrow my playbook later, it's not even important right now" without offending someone?

I mean, I guess I could just say that. Maybe add a "No offense, bro" at the end. Smiley face? Smiley faces make everything better, right?

Yeah, except when they fucking don't. I don't even have a chance to send anything or a smiley face when this asshole starts pounding on my door. Alright, so he's not actually an asshole, but I'm not in a good mood right now. Why are you doing this to me, Caleb?

"What the fuck was the text for if you're just going to come to my room?" I shout at him through the door.

Caleb just keeps fucking pounding away. Pound pound pound, knock knock knock.

I grab my football playbook off my desk, fully intending on opening the door, shoving it into his hands, and closing the door again, except none of this works. I'm confused as fuck and I have no idea what's going on anymore. Wow.

I do open the door. I have my playbook in my hand, and I'm about to hand it off to Caleb, but this isn't Caleb, it's someone else. It's a girl, and as soon as I open my door, she pushes me back into my room, slams the door behind her, and assaults me.

Seriously, she fucking slaps me. My cheek stings red and I just stand there like an idiot, holding my football playbook, staring at her and trying to comprehend the situation I'm in.

"You're an asshole, you know that?" she says. "Fuck you, Ethan! I'm mad at you."

Yeah, so... it's Ashley? Uh... what the fuck?

"What are you doing here?" I ask her.

"Don't you even dare!" she says, screeching at me, then she sees my desk. "Oh, you have food. I haven't eaten yet. We're going to share this, alright?"

"Uh... sure?"

She takes my food off my desk and brings it to my bed, then plops down. I can't really see or understand what the fuck is going on right now, partly because none of it seems real and also because she really fucking slapped me hard. It's not like I'm permanently injured here, but I think I've got a red Princess-sized palm print angrily throbbing on my cheek.

"Are you going to sit down and eat with me or what?" she asks me, all sassy as fuck. Holy shit.

I sit next to her and she moves close to me, shoulder to shoulder. She stabs one of the steak tips in the container, then smears it around the buttery mashed potatoes, and holds it out for me. I open my mouth and she stuffs it in. I think I'm supposed to chew now, but I forget how. She gets some food for herself and chews it while glaring at me.

"After we eat this, we're going to have a conversation," she says, glaring at me.

I
told
you to trust me! Yes, I know what you're thinking, but really now, do you think I'd do that?

You're probably shaking your head and begging me not to do it. No, Ashley! Don't bring Kevin back to your room and have sex with him so that you can get back at Ethan.

Well, duh? That's not even why I invited Kevin back to my room in the first place. Ugh!

Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm going to exact my revenge on Ethan. He's going to pay for what he did, or is doing, or what he's done, or... I don't know. I'm going to figure this out, and I'm really angry, but I'm not going to have sex with someone else because of that.

Especially not Kevin. Please don't tell him that. Sorry, Kevin. You look really hot with your shirt off, and maybe you're really good at sex, but I don't know you that well and that'd just be weird. I'm not that kind of girl. I'm still a good girl with everyone but Ethan, and I'm pretty sure Ethan's about to lose his Ashley bad girl privileges really fast, so...

But, yes, please don't freak out at me.

"So, uh... this is your room," Kevin says, looking around after I open the door.

"Right," I say. "Sit."

He goes to sit, but he looks confused as to where to sit.

"On Jacky's bed?" I offer. He shrugs and decides this is a good idea, too.

"I need your help," I tell him. "I'm going to get back at my boyfriend."

"Ashley, uh... I'm flattered, really, but I--"

Oh, no, I interrupt him before he gets too far. We're not even going there, Kevin!

"Here's my plan," I tell him. "I'm going to pack some things for an overnight trip, book a plane ticket, and fly out there. I'm not going to answer his calls or text messages if he tries to talk to me, either. I'm going to make him sweat, Kevin! Ugh! He's going to feel like such a jerk. I think. I hope. Wait. Oh no. What if he doesn't feel bad at all?"

Damnit Ethan Colton! You better feel bad. You better feel really bad, and... Scarlet? I'm really angry right now. I'm so angry that I want to slap him and yell at him, and...

But he's an idiot and he hasn't even charged his phone yet. Maybe he did it on purpose. Maybe I'll slap him twice? He's going to get slapped, there's no doubt about that in my mind.

"I'm a little confused right now," Kevin says. "What's going on?"

"Kevin, really? I just told you. I'm pissed off so I'm going to skip classes today and fly out to see my boyfriend so I can slap him and yell at him for cheating on me. I... I mean, alright, so I didn't see them having sex, but they were both basically naked and I didn't want to keep watching, but... maybe they stopped, because I did send a mean message and he might have seen it. What do you think?"

"I think you're not making a lot of sense right now. I don't get why you're flying out there. That doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever."

"That's why I'm doing it," I say. "Stop overthinking this. What do you think about whether they had sex or not? If they stopped right before and didn't end up doing anything, is that still cheating? I think in this case it's the intent behind it. Kind of like murder charges, right? If there's intent, it's a more serious crime, but if it's accidental, it's still a crime but there's usually less of a punishment depending on the situation."

"So you're telling me accidentally having sex is better than intentionally having sex? Yeah... so... Ashley... I'm not sure about you, but I don't even know how anyone can accidentally have sex with someone."

"I don't know," I say, thinking about it. "I guess if you just broke up with your boyfriend because he's an asshole and he said he wanted to have sex with other girls while you were on summer break. And then to make matters worse, when you get home, your parents are away and you're stuck alone with your stepbrother for a week. And then he offers to stay home with you and drink to help get over your ex-boyfriend, but then you start to kind of flirt with each other, and he's being a cocky jerk, so you dare him to have sex with you..."

I'm totally not speaking from personal experience here, I swear.

"Talking from personal experience?" Kevin asks, laughing.

"Shut up, Kevin. I am not. Stop laughing at me."

"I guess maybe there could be a misunderstanding or an accident," Kevin says. "About the sex, I meant. In which case, maybe you can find out what's going on, but... flying there? I'm not so sure about that part. It seems a little crazy."

"I didn't ask for your opinion," I snap at him. "Um... sorry, that was rude. I didn't mean to be rude. I'm going, though. You can't stop me. Are you going to help me or do I need to do this on my own?"

He shrugs. "Sure, I guess. I don't have anything to do for a little while. What am I helping with?"

"I have... here, let me write it down so you don't forget."

I rush to my backpack and get out my cute little notepad and my pen. Oh my God, I love this notepad! It's got hearts and flowers on it and I didn't think I'd get to use it for anything, but... nope, I'm using it for something.

I write everything down and hand Kevin the piece of paper from the notepad.

"Sorry," I say, apologizing in advance. "It's kind of girly."

"It's cute," he says, grinning. Then he reads what I wrote down. "Uh, Ashley?"

"Yes?"

"Your plan was to skip the rest of your classes today, but then why are you asking me to go get any paperwork and assignments you have for today's classes from your professors?"

"That's for tomorrow, too," I tell him. "Just in case I'm not back by then."

"That doesn't make any more sense."

"I'm going to skip class but I don't want to miss anything," I say, because, really, it's kind of obvious, don't you think? "I'll do as much work as I can on the plane and while I'm waiting in the airport, and if I have more I'll do it tonight. Oh, can you make sure that if I have to hand anything in tomorrow that it's alright if I email it to them instead? I don't think I have anything due, but just in case."

"You're probably the strangest girl I've ever met," Kevin says. "That's saying a lot, too, because I'm friends with Jacky."

"Shush," I say, pointing my finger at him. "I really need your help, Kevin. I'm going to get a plane ticket and then pack and I'll probably have to leave right away, so... please? Pretty pretty please with a cherry on top?"

"Whoa now... with a cherry on top? How can I resist that?"

"They have whipped cream and cherries at the coffee shop and they go really well with some of the coffee and hot chocolate blends they do, so I'll buy you one when I get back if you help me out with this."

"Deal!" he says, laughing. "I'll be back quick. I think I know where all of these professors are, or if they aren't there I can probably find an assistant or something. Give me... ten minutes?"

"Ten minutes!" I tell him. "That's all you've got."

Kevin grins before slipping out into the hall. Before he closes the door behind him, he turns to say something to me.

"You better slap Ethan hard, because if he's screwing things up with you, he's an idiot."

"Don't worry," I say. "I will."

And... well...

I search online and there's a ticket for a plane leaving soon. Not soon enough, but I guess... I mean, it's the soonest there is, so it's going to have to be soon enough. An hour and a half from now. The airport is about twenty minutes away. Kevin will take ten minutes. So...

I call my mom. "Um... Mom... can I use your credit card?"

"Sure, honey," my mom says. "Hello to you, too."

"Oh, sorry. Hi, Mom. How are you?"

"I'm fine, honey. What do you need my credit card for, by the way? Is it a good reason or a bad reason?"

"Um..." Honesty is the best policy, right? Something like that. "Probably a bad reason," I tell her.

"Does it involve prostitutes and cocaine?" she asks.

"Mom! Really? No! I don't even think you can pay for prostitutes and cocaine with a credit card. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't accept one."

"That's not true," my mom says. "Maybe not for cocaine, but if you go to one of those brothels in Nevada where prostitution is legal, I bet you could pay with a credit card."

"I'm not going to a brothel in Nevada," I tell her. "I'm buying a plane ticket so I can slap Ethan."

"Oh, for this weekend?" she asks.

"No, right now."

"Ashley... I know you must miss him. I'm not really sure what this slapping business is about. Is that supposed to be kinky? Really, though, what about your classes?"

"Don't worry. I'm getting my homework now and I'll make sure I do it on the plane."

"Oh, alright then. That sounds good. I still don't like you missing classes, but as long as you get your work done. Let's not make this a habit, though, alright?"

"I won't. I'm only going to slap Ethan this one time, and he's never getting a chance for me to slap him again if he screws up anymore."

"That sounds ominous. Should I call Ethan and yell at him?"

"No! Mom, seriously, don't call him, alright? Actually, if he calls you or his dad, can you not answer? Please? This is important."

"Maybe," she says.

Before she says anything more about that, she tells me her credit card number. I type it all in and order my plane ticket online.

"Thanks, Mom. I really appreciate it."

"You're welcome. As repayment, I expect you to call me later and tell me what's going on."

"I'll call you tonight," I tell her. "I promise."

"And as actual repayment, I really could use some help rearranging the kitchen sometime soon. Do you think you could come home one weekend for that? I want to reorganize the cupboards and shelves, so we'll need to take everything out and sort it, then put it back. It'll probably only take a few hours. If you're done slapping Ethan and he wants to come home that weekend, that'd be nice, too. Unless it's not nice, and then tell me so I can yell at him."

"That sounds good," I say. "Um... can we talk about that later, though? I'm not sure what's going on. I'm being a little crazy, maybe."

"A little crazy now and then is fine, dear," she says. "Just don't end up in jail, please? If you do, let me know so I can come bail you out, though. Preferably end up in a jail closer to home so I can get you out faster, but, really, you do you, alright?"

I roll my eyes. Ugh. Really, Mom?

"I'll try," I tell her. "Thank you for everything. I love you, Mom."

"I love you, too, Ashley."

And now to pack. If all goes according to plan, I should be able to be outside Ethan's dorm in about five or six hours...