HUGE X3: A MFMM Menage Stepbrother Romance (7 page)

5

The house is quiet when I open the door.
 
It must be about 6:30am so I don’t know why I
was hoping mom would be awake.
 
I need
her but I’m not ready to go and wake her to deliver such difficult news.
 

I make my way up the stairs, drop my stuff on the bed
and head to my bathroom immediately.
 
I
wish so hard that I was in a different place mentally right now. I should be
sitting on my bed, giggling and reliving it all blow by blow.
 
As I undress, I look at my body in the mirror
and see the evidence of what I shared with Austin and Jason; the sore tips of
my nipples and little red marks where they nibbled my thighs and stomach.
 
Between my legs, I’m sore but not
uncomfortable. I cup my hand over the place that was the source of so much
pleasure and try to remember how amazing it all was
before
.

I fire up the shower and wait for it to run hot
enough.
 
When I’m standing under the
water I gently touch the breast where the lump is.
 
I do as Austin asked me to do and raise my
arm in the air.
 
It’s definitely a lump.

Tears stream from my eyes and my heart races with the
knowledge that this is real.
 
It’s real
and I’ve been ignoring it for weeks.

I wash quickly, swiping at my face and scrubbing at my
body with anger.
 
For fuck sake, I’m only
twenty-one.
 
This kind of shit isn’t
supposed to happen to people like me.
 
I
haven’t done anything with my life yet.
 
I’m
only just starting to feel like I’m living.

In the bedroom, I towel myself dry and put on some
yoga pants and a slouchy off-the-shoulder shirt that has an angry looking
graffiti tag on the front.
 
Something to
match my mood.
 
I hear mom flushing the
toilet and then making her way downstairs.
 
In the mirror, my eyes look puffy but I don’t do anything to cover it
up.
 
I want mom to ask me what’s wrong
because I don’t know how to start the conversation where I tell her.

I take a seat at the kitchen table and wait for mom to
turn from the coffee maker.
 
As soon as
she sees me her face changes.
 

“What’s wrong, Kitty Kat?
 
Is everything okay?”

I’m in tears before I can say a thing and she’s across
the kitchen and folding me into a hug before I can utter a word.
 
“Hey, baby.
 
It’s okay. It’s okay,” she murmurs and I wish it were true.
 
I wish she could kiss my hurt better like she
did when I was a kid.
 
I wish that life
were simpler.

“I found a lump, mom.”

She goes so still and quiet.
 
I can feel that she’s stopped breathing.
 
She pulls back to look at my face.
 
“In your breast?”

I nod and she gets the same expression on her face
that she used to wear when we visited Auntie Marie in the hospital.

“I’ll make an appointment for you to see a
specialist,” she says.
 
“It’s probably
nothing, but we need to make sure.”
 
She
smooths away my tears and kisses my cheek, then she’s all in business
mode.
 
Mom always gets like this when
she’s worried. She doesn’t deal well with emotions and stress.
 
The house will be spotless by this afternoon
because she’s about to go on a cleaning frenzy, I can tell. Anything to take
her mind off what is really going on.

“Thanks,” I say.
 
I guess there’s nothing more to add.
 
I can stress about this or do what Jason said and deal with it as it
comes.

I feel my phone buzz in my pocket and I tap in my pin
to see who’s messaging me so early.
 
It’s
Jason.
 
They asked for my phone number when
we said goodbye.
 
I feel my cheeks flush
as I remember how he kissed me outside my house.
 
It was so gentle and tender.
 
Not what I expected at the end of a one-night
stand.

J – You okay, Katelin?
 
Did you tell your mom?

K – Yeah. Just now.
 
She looks really stressed but she’s gonna book an appointment for me to
get checked out.

J – Good.
 
Try
not to worry.
 
I know it’s easy for me to
say.

K – Thanks…you know.
 
For being so kind.
 
Did you talk
to Bryan?

J – Yeah.
 
He’s
pissed.
 
But he’s also worried as fuck.
He’s gonna be in touch.

K – Okay.
 

I swallow around the lump that seems to have taken up
permanent residence in my throat.
 
I’m
not the kind of girl that enjoys a pity party but something about knowing that
people are worried about me warms my heart.

J – Everything will be okay.

K – I hope so.

J – If you need anything…

I know it’s gonna be at least a day before I can get
an appointment with a specialist.
 
What
am I going to do with myself all that time?
 
I’m definitely going to need some kind of distraction.
 
I could call Jenna or Carrie.
 
I could see what Abi is up to, maybe head to
the mall for some retail therapy.
 
Somehow none of those options seems as appealing as spending time with
the twins.
 
I consider asking if they
want to do something but I’m nervous. What if they don’t want to see me again?
What if the thing with Bryan is too much for them to get past?
 
I guess that I don’t have much to lose.
 
If they say no, they say no.
 
It’s not like their approval is something I’m
seeking.
 
I just like the idea of being
with them.
 
I know they’d help me take my
mind off things without too much pity and worry.
 
I think my friends are going to freak out
when I tell them what’s going on, and I’m not sure I’m ready to deal with that.
 
I reply to Jason with a light invitation and
a small bubble of hope in my heart.

K – This town doesn’t have much going on.
 
You like movies?

J – Sure.
 
You
wanna hook up later?

K – I think so.
 
Drive thru?

J – Sounds good.
 
I’ll tell Austin.

I pause for a moment.
 
Of course Jason would tell Austin.
 
They’re on vacation together and after last night it would just be weird
if he didn’t.
 
But what about Bryan?
 
I feel like I have to ask.

K – Okay…what about Bryan?

J – You want me to tell him too?

Now there’s a question. I can’t exactly say no.
 
That wouldn’t be fair.
 
But saying yes has all kinds of strange
connotations.
 
He knows what I did last
night.
 
Will he feel like a tag-along?
Maybe he’ll think we’re heading out on a date before more sex.
 
I’m too confused about everything and
overwhelmed by what is going on to worry about too much of this.
 

K – Yeah.
 
Tell
him.
 
No problem.

If Bryan has a problem with me, he’ll say no.
 
If he comes along, who knows how that’s going
to work out, but I guess I might be about to find out.

6

I chill and watch some TV while mom does exactly what
I thought she was going to do; the extreme clean combined with much
conversation in hushed tones in the kitchen.
 
There is nothing really on that holds my attention enough that I can
forget what might be lurking beneath my clothes.
 
I check my phone sporadically, but it's
quiet.
 
That might be a good thing or it
could be a bad thing.
 
For an instant, I
imagine there being a physical fight between Bryan and his brothers, and then I
scoff at myself.
 
Bryan has had years to
make a move on me so he has absolutely no right to be getting funny about me
having a good time with someone else.
 
Maybe he will be jealous.
 
Maybe
he just won’t like the idea that I had a threesome.
 
I would think most guys would find that a bit
hard to deal with, at least without being judgmental assholes, but then again,
Bryan is friends with Eth and Nath and he respects them.

When the doorbell rings I assume it’s probably one of
mom's friends or a door to door salesman of some sort.
 
I leave mom to answer and hear hushed
conversations coming from the hallway.
 
Then the door closes and there are two sets of feet making their way
toward the den.

I’m pretty stunned when I see Bryan coming up behind
my mom.
 
I thought he'd call.
 
It never crossed my mind that he might appear
in person.
 

"Hey, Katelin," he says, meeting my
surprised gaze with a look of embarrassed concern.
 

"Hey," I say.
 
"Whatcha doing here?"

"I thought I'd come by...you know."

There’s an awkward silence where my mom looks between
us as though she's trying to work out what’s going on.
 
She looks more stressed than she did before
and I can’t think why.
 
Maybe she thinks
Bryan is going to upset me or maybe she's worried I'm going to cry in front of
him and be uncomfortable about the whole thing.

"Sure.
 
Do
you want to go sit outside?" I say, thinking on my feet for a way to get
whatever conversation we’re about to embark on out of my mom's radius.

"Yeah."

I offer Bryan a drink and fix him an iced tea on our
way through to the backyard.
 
We don’t
make small talk.
 
I guess the time for
that passed us by when he spotted me doing the metaphorical walk of shame from
his pool house.
 
I close the door behind
us and we walk to the corner where mom has a bench beneath a pretty arch of flowers.

It's weird to sit in my home environment with
Bryan.
 
Although we've known each other
from college, neither of us has ever been to the other’s house. I thought I
knew him quite well but the events of the past 24 hours have shown me that I
don't.
 

"So," he says, resting his drink between us,
then leaning forward to place his forearms on his thighs and his head in his
hands.
 
Poor thing looks like he has the
weight of the world on his shoulders.
 

"So."

"So you met my brothers."

I take a deep breath and nod.
 
It's annoying me that he won’t cut to the
chase here.
 
We both know that we both
know what happened last night.
 
Why the
hell is he beating around the bush like this?

"I guess you could put it that way," I
say.
 
Bryan glances over at me, his eyes
searching my face.
 
In all the time that
we’ve known each other, he has always laughed at my sass mouth.
 
Today he doesn’t seem so amused.
 
"You never told me you had
brothers."

"I guess I didn’t," he says.

There's another uncomfortable silence and I look
around at the garden, focusing on a plant that is swaying in the gentle summer
breeze.
 
It is so peaceful out here,
enough that I start to feel calmer myself.

"Look," we both say at the same time, and
end up laughing together.

"This is awkward, huh?"

Bryan nods.
 
"I don't talk much about my family."

"Why?" Now that he's said it, I realize how
little I know about his home-life.

"It's complicated."

"Aren’t most people’s these days? I’m hardly from
a mom, dad and two kid family myself."

He nods and runs his fingers through his hair.
 
In that one action, I see Austin.
 
When he sits back in the chair and fidgets
his leg up and down, restlessly, I see Jason.
 
It's strange to find that I know their mannerisms better than I know
Bryan's after all this time.

"Austin told me…"
 
Bryan looks so uncomfortable, and for a
minute, I think he’s going to ask me about the sex.
 
“…about the lump.”

I flinch when he says it like that; so matter of
fact.
 
I nod and watch as his pretty
green eyes look me over.
 
His gaze drifts
down to my chest as though he unconsciously wants to see if he can see
anything.
 
Then he realizes what he’s
doing and looks away.

“You’re going to get it checked out?”

“Yeah.
 
Tomorrow.”

“Good.”
 
He
takes a long swig of tea and exhales a deep breath.
 
It feels as though there is so much unsaid
between us.
 
Reams and reams of
conversation that will probably never be verbalized.
 
I’m not really expecting it when he stands,
though.
 
“Look. I think I should go.”

“Okay.” I sound confused.
 
I am confused.
 
I thought he was here to give me a hard time about
what happened.
 
I thought maybe he might
be here out of jealousy; I guess I was hoping from the dropping sensation I get
in my gut.
 

“You know if you need anything.” I nod, watching him
fidget, putting his hands into his pockets and then pulling them out
again.
 
His eyes are soft and concerned
but he looks so damn uncomfortable.
 
I
know how he feels.
 
I felt exactly the
same way whenever I went to visit my Auntie.
 
It’s like you can smell sickness and want to back away from it in case
it’s contagious.
 
Ridiculous, but that’s
how it is.

“I’ll walk you out.”

We shuffle through the backyard, not really talking,
and I take him around the side of the house.
 
When we reach the driveway, he turns and puts his arm around me, pulling
me against his chest in an awkward but fiercely tight hug that takes me by
surprise.

“It’s going to be okay, you know.” His voice seems
thick with emotion and I don’t know how to react.
 
I want to slip my arms around him and weep
against his chest.
 
I inhale and catch
the scent of him that is so much like Austin and Jason and that just makes the
craving even worse.
 
He smells good, like
alpine forests and warm summer breezes.
 
I
feel secure in a way I haven’t for a long time.
 
My heart hurts because even though he’s here
and he’s being kind, it still as though there’s this barrier between us.
 
Why doesn’t he want me in the way his
brothers did?
 
Why does it feel like he
cares for me, but then he’ll just walk away and leave me with nothing
real?
 
I want to ask him, if only so I
can stop asking myself all these damn annoying questions.
 
But he pulls away before I have a chance to
pluck up the courage.
 
He waves in a
manly laid back way but walks to his car with his shoulders slumped.
 
I stand, bare-footed and horribly bereft and
watch him walk away.