Stepbrother With Benefits 16 (Third Season) (2 page)

Alright, hold up.  This reminds me of something, and it's...

"You don't even fucking go to this school," I tell her.  "How'd you get into the dorms?"

"I'm an art major," she says, like this explains everything.

"I have no fucking clue what that means," I say.

"I do art and shit," she says.  "What the fuck, man?  I paint and draw and everything."

"Fuck you, I know what an art major does," I say.  "I meant how's that important to why you're here?  Did you break in or seduce the guy at the front desk or something?"

"Oh," Scarlet says, grinning.

It's an evil fucking grin.  She does this shit sometimes, and you can always tell she's doing something evil.  Or maybe she
just
did something evil.  It's one of those.

"Painting and drawing is cool," she adds.  "It's not like it's going to pay the bills, though.  The real money is in graphic design work.  Photoshop and stuff like that.  I borrowed Caleb's school ID, then scanned it into my computer, screwed around with it quick, and made a copy for myself."

She flips out a school ID from her pocket and tosses it at me.  I catch it and look at the thing.  It's...

Well, holy fuck, it's pretty realistic.  I pull my own school ID out of my pocket to compare.  Scarlet's has her picture on it, her name, all this junk.  Some made up school ID number, but whatever.  They don't even bother looking at those most of the time.

She grabs it away from me and pockets it quick.  "Yeah, don't tell anyone, though.  Our secret, alright?"

"What do you even need that for?" I ask her.

"Um... just hanging out," she says, elusive.

Her cheeks turn red.  Is she blushing?  No fucking way.  This is Scarlet and she can't blush.  It's impossible.

"With who?" I ask, suspicious.  "Caleb?"

"Wait, did he say something to you?" she asks, panic in her voice.

Oh, what's this?  Scarlet and Caleb have a secret?  Hmmm...

"Maybe," I say, shrugging.

"Liar," she says.  "Shit, I almost thought he'd told you."

"Told me what?"

"Nah, not telling you now.  Maybe later," she says.

"Alright, well, cool, so you're going to be stalking me with your fake school ID, and you won't tell me what you and Caleb talked about.  Why are you here again?"

"Oh yeah, the art experiment," she says.  "We're doing a multimedia type of thing.  It's supposed to get us ready for real world deadlines.  Kind of an experience type of thing.  Almost an internship, but we get to make everything up as long as it fits some general guidelines.  We're going to a bunch of different schools.  Basically a new one every weekend, with different events and exhibits.  Like a traveling art museum, but there'll be music, acting, plays, whatever."

"Sounds kind of cool," I say, muttering.

Not sure I should admit this to Scarlet.  She'll try to con me into doing something dumb with her.  I can do dumb shit on my own, Scarlet.  I don't need your help doing more.

"The best part is... guess where we're going this weekend?" she asks.

"What the fuck, you already have this all planned out?  This weekend is this weekend."

"Yeah, that's kind of the meaning behind 'this weekend,' Ethan," she says, rolling her eyes at me.

"Fuck you.  You know what I meant."

"We've been planning it since the summer.  Just an email chain kind of thing, but we broke into groups and set some stuff up.  I'm showcasing some of my art, but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about."

I stare at her, pointed.  Where are we going with this?

"The first one is at Ashley's school," she says, grinning.  "Just thought you should know, Mr. Moneybags.  In case you wanted to enact some revenge against the ex-boyfriend.  I could sneak you in with us or something."

"Yeah, hold on for a second," I say.  "How'd you and Caleb even know about that website?"

I thought it was kind of strange at first, but I figured maybe Ashley texted them or something.  After talking with Ashley, though... yeah... nah.  Scarlet and Caleb just fucking knew somehow, and it's kind of been bothering me.

"Some email," Scarlet says.  "It was on Facebook, too.  People forwarding emails and sharing Facebook posts.  Oh, I saw it on Twitter, too.  Tumblr... someone was asking about doing an animated version there."

"Uh, what the fuck?" I say.  "Animated?  It's a fucking picture, Scarlet.  It doesn't move."

"It's the power of science and computers, Ethan.  You can do anything if you put your mind to it."

I don't know if she's serious or not.  I stare at her.

"Are you serious?" I ask.  Yeah, that's it.  Just ask.

"With that picture it'd be kind of hard, but yeah, it's definitely possible," Scarlet says.

"Fuck," I say.

This coincides with one of the almost naked, huge breasted girls in the horror movie getting slashed.  Why the fuck am I still watching this?  I change it back to bowling and toss the remote onto the coffee table.

"It's cool," Scarlet says.  "I like Ashley.  She's nice.  I'll help you out.  Why's she dating you again, though?"

She laughs and I give her a dirty look, pushing her away.  Unfortunately, uh... fuck...

Her arm is still around my shoulder, all friendly as fuck over here.  I'm on the right, and she's on the left.  I can't push her with my left hand, so I do it with my right, except...

I basically just touch her breast.  I was going for the shoulder, but she tried to dodge me, and yeah, now I've got a handful of Scarlet's breast.  I've seen her in a bikini before, while we were camping and a few times when we all went to the beach together this summer: her, Caleb, me, and Ashley.  Nothing amazing, but now that I've got a handful, uh...

Yeah, they aren't so bad.  A pretty nice handful.  Wait, what the fuck am I thinking here?

Scarlet gives me a look, all nonchalant, trying to blow it off.  My hand is still groping her breast, though.  Fuck, man...

"We going to fuck or are you going to stop feeling me up?" she asks.

"Fuck off," I say, pulling my hand away.  "That was an accident."

"Yeah, well, you owe me one," she says, making a face at me.

"Go right the fuck ahead," I say, pushing out my chest.  "Have fun."

Yeah, I accidentally grabbed her breast, so I guess this is fair?  Fuck if I know.  She reaches out, but she doesn't grab my chest.  I have no fucking clue what's going on.

Scarlet reaches between my legs, puts her palm on my crotch, and then wraps her fingers under my balls while her thumb stays near my shaft.  It's just so fucking straightforward and unexpected, and holy fuck I don't know what's going on.

My cock twitches.  Not for Scarlet.  It's just, uh... yeah, the memory of the picture Ashley sent me, the one I looked at right before I came here, uh...

"What the fuck are you doing?" I ask her, trying to play this off.

"Nice cock," she says, smirking at me before pulling her hand away.  "Now we're even," she adds.  "Asshole."

"Fuck you, Scarlet."

"You wish," she says.

"What was, uh..."  Think, Ethan!  Think about... not about erections.  Think about anything besides erections.  "What was the point of the art shit you were telling me about?"

"The final event," she says.  "It's supposed to be a secret, but I think it could help you and Ashley out a lot.  I'll tell you about it later."

Then she just fucking vanishes.  Walks out of the common room and heads down the hall.  Fuck her.  Scarlet's insane.

I guess I knew this before, but I don't know what the fuck just happened.

Right then my pocket starts to ring.  It's my phone.  Shit.  I check to see who it is, and it's Ashley.  I pick up quick.

"Hey," I say, smiling, trying to act normal.  "What's up, Princess?"

––––––––

A
fter my shower disaster involving Jake, I don't know what to do.  I feel like the entire day's been a disaster, and this is just the rotten cherry on top.  Tomorrow's bound to be better, right?  That's what I want to tell myself, but I'm not sure if it's the truth.

When I get back to my room, my mom and Jacky are talking about something.  I'm kind of in a daze.  I don't know if Jacky notices, but my mom seems to.  She smiles at me, reassuring me, and pats the side of my bed.  I go and sit next to her and try to join in on the conversation, but I don't know what to say to either of them.

"Hey, I think I'm going to go to sleep soon.  Just need to use the bathroom quick," Jacky says.  "It's been a rough day, you know?  Packing, unpacking, registering for classes... ugh!"

I laugh a little.  Oh, if only my day was like that.  I had to deal with all those things, and more.  I don't blame Jacky for being tired, though.  I guess we're just different right now.  Honestly, I hope she never has to go through anything like what I've been through.

"I'm going to go brush my teeth, too," my mom says.  "Do you want to call Ethan and say good night, honey?"

"Yeah," I say.  "I'll do that while you two are gone."

"Should we stay gone extra long?" Jacky asks with a not-so-sly wink.  "Leave a sock on the outside of the door?"

"Um... I don't think this is going to be that kind of good night," I say, grinning.

My mom and Jacky leave to do their thing, and I pull out my phone from its hiding spot in my shower essentials case.  Careful, I open the plastic bag and pluck out my phone, making sure not to get it wet.  There's only a little water left on the outside of the bag, but better safe than sorry, right?

I don't even know what I'd do without my phone right now.  I feel like it's my lifeline in more ways than one.  After tomorrow, it'll be one of the only ways I can talk to my mom, and right now it's one of the only ways I can talk with Ethan.  We can talk over webchat, too, but that takes planning.  Sending someone a text message is easy.

I could even send him a text message while I'm in class... hm...

A lot of it's just lecture hall things, and we get handouts with notes after class, plus there's book reading and other assignments.  I don't know why I'm even considering this, because it's decidedly not a good girl thing to do.  It's pretty bad, actually.  Text my boyfriend during class?  Um... nope!

I might.  Just once?  Just once isn't so bad, right?  Maybe...?

It doesn't matter right now, because I'm just going to call him to say good night.  Yup.  That's it.  Just that.

Ethan picks up the phone after a couple rings, but he sounds weird at first.

"Hey," he says.  "What's up, Princess?"

"What's wrong?" I ask him.

"Uh... nothing?  What are you talking about?  You're the one who called me."

"You sound weird," I say.  "You sound like you've been getting into trouble..."

I don't even know what
trouble
sounds like.  I'm kind of going out on a limb here and suspecting he's getting into trouble, because when has Ethan Colton ever
not
gotten into trouble?

I don't mean to be
that
kind of girlfriend.  I really hope I'm not.  I don't expect him to tell me every single thing he does all the time, every day, forever, but...

I don't know.  I miss him.  I don't even mind if he's getting into trouble.  I just want him to tell me about it, because it makes me feel like we're closer.  We got into a lot of trouble this summer, but I think it was the good kind of trouble.  I want to remember it.  I want to feel like it's the summer for us all over again, even though our summer vacation is over now.

"Can you hold on a second?" he asks  "I'm in the hall.  Heading back to my room."

"Oh," I say.  "Um... sure?"

I listen to him walking down the hall.  This isn't very exciting, but I guess what he has to say is private, so that's kind of exciting?  I want to hear it.  No matter what it is, no matter what he says, I'm excited to hear about his day.  Uh huh.

"So, I don't know what just happened," Ethan says.  "I'm telling you this because I want to, uh... you know, be serious here.  This is serious, Ashley.  We're in a serious relationship, right?"

"Ethan, we've been dating for a little over two months now.  I'd say it's pretty committed."

"Yeah," he says.  "That's it.  It's committed.  I'm committed to you.  So..."

He trails off like he's about to say more, but then he doesn't.

"What?" I ask.  "Really, what happened?  Did you get into a fight in the dorms or something?"

"What?  No.  I don't fight people, Princess.  I mean, if I have to, I would, but it usually doesn't come up."

"Alright, so..."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I accidentally grabbed Scarlet's breasts.  Actually, just one breast, so that's only half as bad, right?"

I take it back.  I don't think I'm excited to hear about Ethan's day anymore.

"Why?" I ask him.  This seems like a dumb question to ask, even to me, but I don't know what else to say.

"It was an accident, Princess.  She had her arm around me, and I was trying to push her away, but the angles and shit... it's like physics or math or something.  You know how that works, right?  Angles and stuff..."

"Her arm was around you?" I ask him.  "Around your shoulder, you mean?"

"Yeah.  Uh... wait.  Fuck.  That makes it sound worse.  She was doing some bullshit buddy buddy friend thing, because she's fucking insane, and..."

"And then you groped her breast," I say, brow furrowed.  "Just one."

"Yeah, but that's just for context, alright?"

"Context for... what, exactly?" I ask.

"So, it was an accident, right?  And I pulled my hand away.  No big deal.  She said she owed me one, like... an accident or whatever the fuck.  I thought she was going to touch my chest, but she reached down and grabbed my cock, and—"

"Ethan, what the heck!" I say.

"Just fucking swear, Princess," he says.  "You can be angry with me.  I didn't mean for this to happen, but I get it.  Tell me to fuck off or something."

"Um... alright," I say.  I didn't expect that, but I've been given permission, so...

Wait, why do I even need permission?  What the heck, Ashley!  I mean, what the hell, Ashley!