Stepbrother Bestie (A Stepbrother Romance Novel) (16 page)

Every question he asked his son was
pointed and borderline, if not blatantly inappropriate, while each answer that
Shawn gave was curt and usually sarcastic.

My mother and I just sat across from one
another, giving one another eyes of what was going on. Neither one of us could
understand what was happening between Shawn and his father. Increasingly, we
were growing slightly concerned.

With each word exchanged between father
and son, it became even more obvious that this was not going at all the way
that my mother and I had planned. Yet, when our efforts to lighten the tension
failed, we believed that if we tried anymore, things would turn even uglier.

As it turned out, our input was not needed
to make anything worse.

When Paul brought up the new car, we were
sure this dinner was over. Unfortunately, it didn’t end there.

“So,” Paul exclaimed, almost as though he
was taking pride in the awkwardness that he helped to create, “did Valerie tell
you about her new car?”

“Paul!” my mother hissed, glaring at him.

Paul shrugged. “He’s a man. He should be
able to take it. He should also be happy for Valerie…if he is as good of a
friend as he claims to be.”

“Yes,” Shawn answered boastfully. “In
fact, if you noticed when you drove up, she was the one who brought me here.”

“What’s the matter? Your car didn’t hold
up?” he replied, almost as though he was truly aiming to taunt Shawn.

“Well, it definitely would have held up
better had I had a nice car given to me, but since I had to work for mine and
was limited in the selection that I had to choose from, then yes, it does come
with its challenges.”

“Well, if you weren’t so lazy and I didn’t
have to push you toward every inch you make in your stride, perhaps things
could have been different,” Paul shot back.

“Maybe if you would give me some credit
around here instead of trying to make everything I do seem horrifically wrong, then
I wouldn’t feel the need to give up so quickly.”

“Are you kidding? You give up on
everything.”

“Because you treat me unfairly.”

At this, Paul slammed his fist down of the
table. “I treat you like a man! I taught you to take care of yourself!”

“Yeah, by the very obvious favoritism. I
hope if I ever become a father, I am nothing like you! I want my children to
know that they’re worth something,” Shawn hissed back.

“Well, I hope your children are worth
something and actually apply themselves. Then they will have my respect.”

Shawn landed a low blow that spiraled
everything out of control. “What the hell, Dad? Do you think I’m jealous of
that stupid car? Do you think I care? You might think I’m worthless and that’s
fine, but what I don’t like is being compared negatively to some asshole who
treats his woman like crap.” At that, he shoved himself away from the table and
stormed to his feet. “Why don’t you be more like Zachary? Zachary is the wonder
child. He can do anything you can do but better…that’s what you’ve always said,
right? Well, guess what he can’t do better…be with Valerie.”

“Shawn!” I screamed, getting to my feet as
I felt my blood pressure rise. Immediately, I thought I was going to be sick.

Shawn glanced around at all of the
confused expressions and went on, now far too angry to quit. “Oh yeah…I don’t
know if Valerie told you, but Zachary cheated on her and do you know where she
came? She came to me and we fucked. We’re together now.”

At this, I heard my mother gasp as I
screamed an outraged, “Shawn, shut up!”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Paul demanded, now getting to his feet, immediately red in the face.

“I know exactly what I’m doing, Pops! I’m
fucking your princess and there is nothing you can do to stop me.”

Our parents’ eyes grew wide and I was sure
that I was going to be sick. I was about to sucker punch him in the jaw, just
like Dalilah had done, just to shut him up; but before anyone could fully
react, he stared at me and spat, “I’m sorry. As you can see, this didn’t go
well.”

Shawn pushed off of the table and stormed
out of the house, ensuring that he slammed the door behind him.

“And don’t come back, you ungrateful
little shit!” Paul screamed, running after him until he reached the front door.

However, with Shawn gone, the attention of
the parents then fell on me and I had absolutely nowhere to run.

Chapter
26

Shawn

I stayed home from school for the next few
days, because I was so angry over what had happened at dinner.

I did feel bad about what I had done to
Valerie, and I knew
  
I was still angry
and far too much of a coward to own up to it to try to make her feel better. But
I still wanted to make it work between us.

Still, I wasn’t sure how, seeing as I had
completely outed us to our parents and made probably one of the biggest
mistakes I could have with my entire family. But I still believed that my
father had done that to me on purpose.

The more I thought about it, the more it
made sense. I was fairly certain that he didn’t know what it was he wanted to
get out of me, but he figured that he would get me rattled and see what I
spilled. Unfortunately for both of us, I felt as though he had gotten far more
than he had bargained for.

However, on Wednesday, I figured that I
should probably go to school, because I did want to graduate and sitting around
here doing nothing wasn’t
 
working for me
anymore.

From the moment I went though, I regretted
it.

There were whispers circulating from the
moment that I walked in. Every time I walked down the hall, I heard people
talking about me, but no one had the guts to say anything to my face.

Yet, by lunch, nearly everyone had said
something and I was getting sick of it. So I asked my friends about it. I knew
that they would tell me the truth.

“Have you guys heard anything…weird about
me lately?”

“Well, duh…” One friend that I had for
years spoke up, “practically the whole school knows that you and Valerie were
together.”

“What?” I demanded as I felt the color
drain from my face. “Who told them that?”

I felt my stomach begin to churn into knots.
I wasn’t so concerned for myself, but I was fairly concerned for Valerie. This
whole experience must have been terrible for her.

One of my other, far dumber friends
followed up with, “Dude, that’s awesome! How was it?” He raised his eyebrows
expectantly and it was all I could do not to punch him in the face.

“None of your damn business,” I answered,
trying to control the seething
 
jealousy
coursing through me as I turned around and moved outside to get some air and
think about what was just confirmed.

I heard them continue to talk amongst
themselves, but I didn’t care. The only person I wanted to talk to now was
Valerie.

So as soon as school was over, I made my
way to her car. In fact, I had actually cut out early, just so I could find her
car before she got in it.

When I saw her approaching, I moved up
behind her. “Hey Val…”

She turned around and her face was that of
utter disgust. She rolled her eyes and continued toward her car, far quicker
than her original stride.

I quickened my pace as well and caught up
to her just as she was getting in her car. “Come on, Val. This is important.
I’m sorry…but I really need to talk to you.”

“Well, I have absolutely no inclination to
talk to you,” Valerie answered stubbornly as she started the car that had
inadvertently become the catalyst for this whole terrible situation.

Frustrated, I slammed my hands down on the
driver’s door and squeezed hard as I screamed, “Dammit! I’m not trying to
invade your privacy or your space, I am just trying to get to the bottom of who
told the whole school about us. Did you?”

“Are you kidding? Why would I say anything
like that?” she demanded, glowering at me. “This week has been awful!” It now
looked as though Valerie was close to tears. “And it’s all your fault!”

I felt my heart begin to ache for her and
I felt terrible, since she was right. This was all my fault, but I was not in
the mood to be emotional. Instead, I knew that I needed to fix this. “Well, I
know I didn’t tell anyone…at school, I mean, and you didn’t say anything, then
that means…” As the answer, which was so obvious struck me, I felt as though I
had just been sucker punched again, but by a bowling ball. My eyes grew wide
and my breath cut short. “Oh God…” I gasped and stared at Valerie, before I
answered as the epiphany hit me. “Dalilah!”

Chapter
27

Valerie

Today was turning out to be another day
during one of the worst weeks ever.

I was downright betrayed by Shawn; and
now, his girlfriend, who I had warned him about multiple times, had just made
it worse by telling the whole school about us.

I was disgusted. Even though Shawn looked
as shocked and as angry as I was, I couldn’t even look at him anymore. Instead
of staying to try and figure this out, which I was sure was what he wanted to
do with me, I just turned around and put my foot on the gas of the car that had
become such a bone of contention for us.

When the engine roared and the tires
squealed, Shawn had to jump back so he wouldn’t get hit.

“What the hell?” I heard him yell, but he
was already in my rear-view mirror. At this point, both physically and
metaphorically, that was where I wanted him to stay. I had no interest in
having this guy floating in and out of my life anymore.

He had all but ruined my life by his
betrayal at home, and now, it seemed that his stupid girlfriend, or
ex-girlfriend, whatever she was, was also behind the strange looks that I was
getting in school. This was rather aggravating for me, to say the least.

I sighed as I sat at a light, trying my
best not to scream out loud and bother everyone around me. I knew that wouldn’t
do me any good. I knew that getting angry about the whole thing all over again
was pointless.

After all, we had done what we did and
Shawn had said what he said and that was enough to be angry about. This new
development at school was all a part of the ripple effect from his loose lips;
nothing more.

There
is no use in getting all worked up over a ripple,
I told myself, even though my breathing was heavy and I felt incredibly sick to
my stomach.

I hoped that I would be able to make it
home.

Home,
I thought and rolled my eyes. That concept was nothing to me anymore. Ever
since Shawn had thrown the fact that we had slept together in my mother and
step-father’s face, neither of them had spoken to me after demanding to know if
it was true.

I did think about lying and telling them
that he was crazy. After all, what harm could it do? I already hated him.
However, even at that moment, when I had the choice to throw him under the bus
and run him over as many times as I wanted, saving myself in the process, I
couldn’t find it in my heart to do it. I loved him and that sucked.

The boy that I had grown up with had
turned into a man whose sense of self and morals I completely despised and yet,
I could not do to him what he had done to me. I could not stoop to his level
and try to cut him as deeply as the gashing wound he had left in my heart.

I even opened my mouth to try, utilizing
the searing pain and anguish that I was feeling to feed negative energy into my
words, but unfortunately all I said was a somber, truthful and incriminating,
“Yes, it’s true,” before I ran up to my room and locked the door.

Since then, no one had said a word to me.

I pulled into the driveway, thankful that
no one was here. I got out of the car and took a few calming breaths before I
made my way up the walk toward the house.

I shook my head, trying to think of other
things besides the pain I had in my heart, when I saw the door that Shawn had
slammed on his way out of the house and the table where the whole terrible mess
happened.

However, when I walked in the house, it
was kind of hard to miss the black bags that were piled high in the living
room.

There was a note taped to one of the bags.
Getting a terrible feeling in my gut, I walked over to the note and pulled it
close enough to read.

The letter was typed and it immediately
brought tears to my eyes, for before I even read it, I got the picture of what
was happening and it made me sick.

Valerie,

You
have made your decision and now, we have made ours. You have shown that you
think you can make ‘big girl’ decisions, so here it is.

I
have packed all of your belongings into these bags. You may take them with you,
but you need to find another place to live.