Stepbrother Bestie (A Stepbrother Romance Novel) (19 page)

“Valerie…” I stood up and moved toward her.
“It’s okay…” I reached out to her and hugged her into my arms.

She sobbed loudly and began to cry. I felt
the wet spots lining my sleeve almost immediately. “It’s okay…” I answered
carefully. “Everything is okay…”

“No!” She yelled finally, now backing away
from me almost completely. “Everything is not okay, Shawn.” She sniffled and
narrowed her eyes. “I have lost everything! Everyone I know is mad at me, with
the exception of you and to be honest, I am still very mad at you.”

I nodded before I replied in a thoughtful,
considerate way, “I know you are and I don’t blame you. You have every right to
be furious with me, but I am here for you, no matter what you need.”

“I need this to be fixed!” She exploded,
now completely breaking away from me. “I need things to go back to the way they
were! We should have never done this!”

I tried not to take offense, but the
serious nature of her tone made me feel extremely bad. I didn’t want to be hurt
by what she was saying, but even with everything that happened, I didn’t think
that our relationship was a mistake. I liked the way our relationship was going
and I wanted to keep it working well. There was no reason that it shouldn’t,
once we got through this hurdle.

I was hopeful about it, but right now, I
certainly didn’t think that it was wise to tell Valerie that.

Instead, I just nodded, but didn’t say
anything, for fear of what might slip out if I opened my mouth.

She stomped around angrily for a moment
and then screamed, sharp and loud before she thrust herself back around and
demanded, “What am I supposed to do?”

I sighed, trying to remain calm. I wasn’t
growing angry with her, because I didn’t feel attacked, but I did begin to feel
a sense of unrest. I was growing agitated, seeing her in such distress.
“Honestly? I think that you should focus on the problem one step at a time
instead of focusing on the big picture.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” she
demanded, while her eyes glowed with hate and rage.

“Well…I mean…Take it one step at a
time…Have you heard from your mother since you left? Has she called you?”

Valerie stopped, shook her head and broke
down again. She ran to the couch and collapsed on it. “What did I do that was
so terrible?”
 
I really had no answer for
her.

I sat down next to her and thought about
something to say that might make her
 
take the pressure off of herself, if I couldn’t actually make her feel
better. “Family is supposed to be the only people on the planet that you can
count on for everything…But apparently, my family and your family were cut from
the same cloth.” I shrugged. “The only difference is that you were the good kid
until recently.” With a sinking heart, which compounded so much stress onto me
that I felt the weight of it heavily on my chest until I exhaled deeply, I
added sadly, “Because of me…” I looked up at her with a genuinely upset
expression. “God, Valerie, I am so sorry. I never meant for this to happen.”

I knew that this conversation was bound to
happen sometime and while I wasn’t exactly thrilled about it, I knew that if I
started it, or at least attempted to start it, I would have a prayer of getting
through it and having things improve, instead of getting through it and her
never wanting to talk to me again.

Yet, instead of opening a new dialogue, my
conversation inadvertently took a stunning turn for the worst.

Valerie stopped crying and froze in place
for a long moment before her reddened face and tearful eyes turned to glare at
me. “You’re sorry? I have no one left, all because of you and your stupid
mouth, but you’re sorry and that is supposed to make it all go away? You didn’t
pull my hair on the playground, Shawn, you ripped me away from my family. That
is going to take a hell of a lot more than just a simple, whoops, my bad!” She
stormed to her feet and was back in my room, with the door slammed shut before
I could call out another word.

“Valerie? Wait! Please!” I got up off of
the couch and ran toward her.

“Go away! I knew it was stupid trying to
talk to you!” she screamed from behind the door. “I hate you!”

At this, I stopped short. Her words cut
through my heart like an arrow, passing straight through and leaving a massive
hole. I staggered back and breathed, “You…” but could not bring myself to speak
the rest of the question aloud. It was just too painful and I realized that I
didn’t even want to try to give her a chance to clarify, because if it hurt this
much now, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like if she actually went through
with the confirmation of it. I felt like I was going to be sick.

However, as I turned around, I heard my
phone ring. Desperate for a distraction, I picked it up without even looking at
the caller ID.

“Hello?” A woman said. As my brain made
the connection to who the voice belonged to, I found that I was completely
stunned. “This is Diana…Valerie’s mom.”

“Hi…” I answered, now really feeling like
I was going to be sick, “Yes...Of course…” My voice sounded lame, but that
didn’t seem to matter to my stepmom.

“Shawn, I know you are probably furious
with me, but I need you to tell me the truth.” She sounded as though she was
crying and immediately, I feared for her safety, since her voice was frantic.

“Of course. You’re family. What’s wrong?”

“Is Valerie with you? I have been trying
to reach her…but her phone has been off.”

“Yes,” I responded quickly, even though I
had a million questions flooding my brain at the moment. “She is with me. She
is safe. She is fine.”

“Oh, thank God!”

Chapter
31

Valerie

The second I slammed the door shut, I put
my headphones in my ears and focused on the music. At first, I allowed myself
to get distracted by Shawn, but after I had said my piece, I just turned the
music up louder and drowned him out completely.

Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t hear him.
I didn’t want to hear him. I was so fed up with him and with the course of my
life that I just wanted to leave everyone behind and never come back.

I checked my phone again and began to read
through past text messages that were now almost two weeks old that my mother
had sent me.

She still hadn’t sent me anything and I
was beginning to be far more hurt than I was angry. The more time passed, the
more that the phone calls and text messages began to represent a life that I
had a very long time ago.

Like many other things that had happened
before the night that Shawn had single-handedly ruined my life, the simple
pleasures of talking to my mother were a memory, at least for now. However, I
treasured the reminders of the experience that I had and knew that no matter
what happened, I would always have these memories.

I wasn’t quite sure what had happened with
my mother, since she of all people should have been able to understand. She had
watched me grow up with Shawn. She had seen how I looked at him, even before I
knew what I was doing. She had probably known, long before I even had a hint of
how I would grow to feel about him and yet, it still seemed that she didn’t understand.
What was worse, she didn’t even want to try to understand.

I just couldn’t get it. If I couldn’t talk
to Shawn, which I obviously couldn’t, then who else was I supposed to be able
to talk to? I was scared and I felt increasingly alone; didn’t she understand
that?

What hurt the most of the whole experience
was my mother’s betrayal. Sure, I was angry at Shawn for being an idiot and I
could completely understand why my mom and stepfather were upset. But at the
end of the day, the fact that I didn’t feel like my mother wanted me anymore,
that her marriage was more important, not the relationship that she and I had
as mother and daughter, was increasingly hurtful.

Every second that passed without her
calling, even to ask where I was staying, cut me deeper. I didn’t want things
to be this way, and the idea that this might go on indefinitely was almost more
than I could stomach.

I sighed and my mind inadvertently focused
on the fact that Shawn was still residing outside of my bedroom door, probably
begging to be in. I heard him knock a little and I heard his voice, but I had
no idea what he was saying and I didn’t care. The last person I wanted to speak
to at the moment was Shawn.

So, I just told him to go away again and
focused on something else in order to drown out the sound.

Eventually, he gave up I supposed, because
after a little while, I didn’t hear him any longer. I was glad.

I enjoyed the silence for a little while
before I finally had to go to the bathroom. I didn’t want to have to leave,
considering I knew that if Shawn was home, he would probably attack me as soon
as I walked out. Then again, I knew that I couldn’t stay in here forever, so I
slipped my phone into my pocket and made my way over to the door. When I opened
it, I automatically saw Shawn sitting there, staring at my door with a hard
glower, waiting for me.

I tried to walk past him, but he stood up
and grabbed my arm. He yelled something, but I had my headphones up so loud, I
couldn’t hear him.

However, he was insistent. He finally pulled
one of my earbuds out and before I could say anything, he yelled, “Your mom
called me.”

I opened my mouth to retort, tell him
something nasty in hopes that it would wound him bad enough that he would leave
me the hell alone, but then, my mind caught up with what he said, seeing past
the anger and feeling a sense of anticipation and excitement. “Are you
serious?” While I spoke, I popped the other earbud out of my ear and paused my
music.

He nodded.

“Why did she call you?” I demanded, easily
finding something to be angry at him about; all I wanted to do was be angry
with him. It made me feel even the slightest bit better and right now, I needed
all of the help I could get.

Seeming as though my snotty expression
didn’t bother him he answered calmly, “She wasn’t looking for me. She was
looking for you…”

At this, I was suspicious of him, figuring
he was trying to fool me. He probably had the best intentions, because it
wasn’t like Shawn, even when he was angry to be spiteful, but intentions were
worthless. I needed solutions. “Why would she call you?” I spat. “If she is
this angry at me, she must absolutely hate you.”

I could have sworn I saw Shawn flinch at
that, but instead of coming back with a retort he answered, “She wants you to
call her. She misses you. She was really worried about you.”

“Then why didn’t she call my phone? I’ve
only been staring at it every second I am alone…” I wasn’t sure if I was angry
or just fed up with the situation, but either way, I didn’t need this right
now. I felt my eyes well up with tears. This was the absolute last thing I
needed today. I didn’t want to have him or anyone else meddling around in my
business and now, it just seemed like every day, someone somewhere knew more
about me than I even did. This whole situation was so majorly screwed up! I
just couldn’t take it anymore.

“She doesn’t know! She tried to call you,
but she says your phone has been off every time she has tried to call and her
texts are never responded to.” At first, he was yelling over me, but when I
stopped to actually listen to him, Shawn lowered his voice and squinted his
eyes in a confused manner. “And one more thing. She didn’t know anything about
the note.”

Chapter
32

Shawn

After I finally was able to tell Valerie
what her mother had told me, she raced off to call her mother, just as confused
as I was. I had no idea what was going on. It didn’t make any sense to me that
Valerie’s mother wouldn’t have been able to get in touch with her daughter.

Diana said that she had tried to call her
daughter many times before, but she was always unable to reach her. Since I had
no idea what was going on, I just answered her questions as best as I could. I
tried my best not to embellish, because I knew that I wasn’t entirely sure what
I was talking about and so, I didn’t want to do or say anything that would make
things worse for the two of them.

However, I was happy. I knew that if
Valerie was able to start talking to her mother again, the wounds might begin
to heal and life might eventually go back to normal, at least for Valerie.

I was happy for that and for once, felt no
jealousy. I had learned my lesson about that, or at least I hoped I did. I
certainly didn’t want to end up bitter and miserable. I had eluded that fate my
entire life. I would hate to have to start such an exhaustive, thankless and
demeaning lifestyle now.

Therefore, when her mother asked me if she
could speak to her, I told her the truth, that Valerie would be extremely happy
to hear from her mother once she spoke to me long enough for me to tell her.

When her mother seemed confused, I
explained that even though she was here and she was safe, she was ignoring me
at this particular moment. I was going to have to try to tell her that she was
looking for her as soon as I possibly could, when she stopped being so
stubborn, but as we both knew, that might take a while.