Stepbrother With Benefits 16 (Third Season) (6 page)

I've been here for about an hour.  It's probably just about time for the afternoon classes to get out.  If I leave right now, then Jake will never know I was here.  Yes, that kind of feels like running away, but maybe I should never have come here in the first place.

It just feels safer, I guess.  More public.  I don't know why, considering Jake practically dragged me through an airport when he was going to blackmail me before and that was pretty public, too, but this is different.  It's not as crowded here, and also I think I was a different person back then.

I'm stronger now.  I don't have anything to hide.  I...

Well, if I wanted to walk out and leave before Jake showed up, it's a little too late right now.  Ick.

He walks in the front door, just swaggering on through, looking like a complete jerk.  He glances to the side and spots me sitting in my booth, but he ignores me for now.  Instead, he goes up to the counter and orders a coffee.  While they make it, he stands off to the side, looking over at me now and then.

I have my own coffee.  I ordered one when I got here, along with a muffin top as a special treat for myself.  I got another coffee after I finished slowly sipping at the first, and that second one is still warm and half full.  I take another sip now and decide I'm just going to ignore Jake and go back to my homework.

Maybe if I ignore him enough he won't even bother coming over here.  What do you think of that, Jake?

I am extremely sad to say that my plan doesn't work.  After the barista at the counter hands him his coffee, he immediately comes over to my booth and sits across from me.  Ugh.

I continue to ignore him while I finish reading from one of my textbooks.  He clears his throat and smirks at me.  When he reaches out to try and close my book, I snap it shut on his fingers.  That wicked smirk of his vanishes pretty quick after that.  He winces and flinches, pulling his hand back.

"You're more feisty than I remember," he says, sizing me up.

"It's
feistier
, Jake," I say, correcting him.  "Also,
feisty
has the connotation of being playful or cute somehow.  If you meant
fiery
, you'd be correct, though.  I'd say
furious
works, too.  As in, I'm furious with you."

Jake doesn't say anything for a second.  I glare at him.  Then... he laughs?

Yes, Jake is laughing at me like I'm nothing.  I thought I sounded kind of awesome right then.  Maybe even, um... badass?  I think Ethan would have said I sounded badass, but I'm not sure how that works.  I don't know exactly what attributes make someone a badass.

"Thanks for the vocabulary lesson, Ash," Jake says.  He lifts up his coffee and takes a sip, looking down his nose at me.  "I didn't come here to fight with you, though.  I came to see if we could put this whole thing behind us."

"Sure," I say, sugary sweet.  "Just take down that website and publicly apologize to me for everything you've done.  Tell everyone you're sorry and that it was wrong of you to do that.  Then we can try and put this all behind us, except I never want to talk to you again, Jake.  Never."

"Listen, beautiful," he says.  Somehow he makes the term of endearment sound vulgar.  "Yeah, I can take down the website.  I can even apologize.  Publicly?  Uh... let's not get too carried away here.  I'll do it in front of a couple of your friends, but I'm not going to go in front of an assembly of the entire school or anything."

"I can do all of that," he continues.  "But what are you going to do for me?"

"I shouldn't have to do anything for you, Jake," I tell him.  "You're the one who keeps trying to hurt me."

That's basically what this is about, right?  I never did anything to him.  He's the one who has always hurt me.  Even before all this, when we were dating, he never wanted to stay with me.  He never wanted to cuddle or hold hands with me.  The... ugh... the times we had sex, he didn't even think about me.  He only thought about himself.

I thought we were being closer, but I guess I realize that maybe I didn't even know what
close
was back then.  Yes, we were touching, and, yes, we were technically physically close, but physical closeness can't even compare to the complete and immense satisfaction of being emotionally close with someone.  Or being mentally close to them.  Of just being able to look at them and see happiness in their eyes.

I tried to see happiness with Jake, but I don't even think he knows what happiness looks like.

I see happiness with Ethan all the time, no matter what.  It's like Ethan can't show me anything but happiness.  I don't think he even wants to try showing me anything but happiness, either.

While I'm trying to think of a good way to explain this, because for some reason I feel like if I can explain it Jake will understand, um...

I don't even know why I think that.  It's just ingrained into me, I guess.  With class and school, you have to explain your reasoning, and then you get good grades, right?  I know this isn't class or school.  Jake is not even remotely close to being like one of my professors, either.  It's just a bad habit of mine, I guess.

It's a bad habit that has currently put me into a bad predicament.  While I tried to think of a way to explain this to Jake, he snakes his way out of the booth and comes to sit beside me, pushing me into the corner and away from my only means of escape.  I'm trapped now, confined in a booth in this coffee shop with a complete jerk, and to make matters worse I picked the absolute worst place to sit, too.

This is my usual spot, and my usual booth.  I like it because it's a little quieter.  It's further back in the coffee shop, far in the corner.  It's easy to ignore things back here.  It's harder to notice someone back here, too, because it's not as bright and it's quieter.

I guess instinct and familiarity led me here, but if I'd stopped to think about it for a second, I would have realized how bad a spot this was.  I should have sat at one of the small tables at the front, so I could have easily gotten up and left if I wanted to.

I just... I don't know... I never expected Jake to do something like this.  I don't know why.

Jake tries to sidle closer to me, but I scoot away.  I don't have a lot of room to scoot, though.  Eventually he gets as close to me as he wants.  I try to push him, but it's hard in this confined space.

When I still try to push him, Jake slides his coffee cup closer to my open laptop, making a show of partly tilting it over.

"I'm trying to be nice to you here, Ashley," he says, glaring at me with a fake smile on his face.  "If you keep it up, I might accidentally spill my coffee all over this nice laptop of yours, though.  I don't think either of us wants that to happen, do we?"

"Why can't you just leave me alone, Jake?" I ask, frustrated.  "Honestly, don't you have better things to do with your life than harass me?"

"Harass you?" he asks, laughing.  "You would see it that way, wouldn't you?  I don't, though.  I'm not harassing you, Ash.  I'm trying to get what I deserve.  You were holding out on me the entire time we dated, don't you think?  I tried to be slow with you, because I figured it'd work out in the end, but when summer came and you only put out, like... what... twice?  Yeah..."

"Just because we dated doesn't mean I was ever obligated to have sex with you," I say, narrowing my eyes at him.  "You weren't nice to me, either, Jake."

"Waah waah," Jake says, making some fake crying sounds.  "Oh no, Ashley doesn't think I was nice to her.  Poor baby.  Do you need a pacifier?  I'd rather give you something else to suck on.  Apparently you just send sexy texts to your brother about sucking his cock, so why not give me a sample for old time's sake?"

"No," I tell him, trying to push him away again.

He grabs my hand and squeezes my wrist hard.  It hurts, but I try not to show it.  I try not to flinch or wince or show him that he's hurting me, because I feel like if I do that then he'll win.

He pulls my hand down and hides it under the table.  He forces my palm onto his knee and slides it up his thigh.  I try to clench my hand into a fist in defiance, but he's squeezing my wrist too tight and I can't close my fingers completely the way he has them pressed against his leg.

He pushes my hand into his crotch, my palm touching against his pants-covered cock.  He twitches beneath me, excited, then looks over, grinning at me.

I try to slap him with my other hand.  I'm about to scream out, too.  I am
not
going to let this happen.  I'm stronger than that!

I can't slap him the way I'm sitting, though.  I don't have to scream, either.

"Hey, Ashley," someone says next to us.  "Sorry I'm late for our study session."

I don't know when he showed up, or what he's doing here, but it's Kevin, my roommate's friend.  I guess maybe he's my friend, too?  Maybe not close friends, but I did know him in high school, so...

Kevin's sudden appearance surprises Jake, who lets go of my hand before looking over to glare at Kevin.

"She's busy," Jake starts to say.

He only says part of that, though.  With my hand free and Jake distracted, I clench my hand into a fist, lift it up slightly, and then slam it hard back down.

So basically what ends up happening is Jake says...

"She's bussseeee—ahhh, fuck!"

While he's attending to his... problem... I push him halfway out of the booth with my arms, and then kick him the rest of the way out with my feet.  Jake slides across the smooth seat, then slips off the edge, landing on his ass on the floor.

Kevin makes a show of helping him up.  Jake's too confused and disoriented to realize what's going on, though.  Kevin does help Jake up, but then he pushes him away towards the door.  The coffee shop barista behind the counter looks over at us, unsure what to do about the sudden commotion.

I smile and wave at her.  "Don't worry.  He fell when he was getting up!" I tell her.  "He was just leaving, though."

Jake turns around to glare at me.  It looks fierce, except for the fact that I can't help but laugh.  He's bent over slightly, clutching at his balls, trying to yell at me but he can't seem to get more than a gargled noise out.  This is kind of what I imagine a rabid animal looks like.

"This isn't over," Jake finally manages to say.

I shrug, feeling much better now.  I take Jake's mostly full cup of coffee and pick it up, then scoot out of the booth and toss it into the trash closest to me.  I feel like that's the cherry on top, you know?  Not only did he get a punch in the balls and fell on his ass, but now he doesn't even get to drink the coffee he paid for.

It serves him right!

Jake gives me one final glare before shuffling off.  He tries to act cool, playing it off and standing tall, but he staggers and sways on his way to the door.  He kind of reminds me of a penguin, except penguins are adorable and Jake's just a huge asshole.

Kevin laughs and sits down with me.  He sits across from me, though.  Distant, but close.  Friendly.

"You looked like you could use a little help," he says, smiling.  "Sorry if I overstepped my bounds."

"No, um... thanks," I say.  I don't really know what to say right now, but I'm definitely thankful.  "Jake's just a jerk.  I thought I could handle him, but... I think I made a mistake coming here."

"Hey, you can go wherever you want," Kevin says.  "It's a free country, right?"

"I guess," I say, shrugging.  "He sent me a text saying he wanted to talk to me about putting this behind us, but I just don't think I should have come.  I shouldn't have believed anything he said.  I didn't actually believe him, but I thought maybe there was something I could do."

"Yeah, well, hindsight is twenty-twenty," Kevin says, with a sort of 'What are you going to do about it? Stuff happens' look on his face.

"Why were you here?" I ask.  "I don't think I've seen you come into the coffee shop before."

He gives me a goofy look, like,
really?

"Um, not that I'm not grateful!" I add.  "I am.  I was just wondering.  Um..."

"It's cool," he says, smirking.  "I'm just teasing you.  Nah, I don't come in here often, but I jog by a lot.  I used to be on the track team in high school.  Our school doesn't really have anything like that, though.  I still like running, so I usually jog past here when I go for a run.  Was just going for a walk today, though.  Wanted to make sure I could keep the same route as last year.  You never know when something's going to change, you know?"

"Like those cartoons where they fall into potholes in the street," I say.

And... wow, did I really just say that?  Yes.  Yes, I did.

Kevin laughs, but he's not mean about it.  "Yeah, something like that.  Or construction, you know?  Having to dodge around burly guys with jackhammers really isn't my thing."

Without thinking first, because apparently I'm not very smart right now, I blurt something out that I just realized.  "Oh!  Wait!  I think I've seen you!  You usually jog by shirtless, right?  When it's not too cold, I mean."

"Yeah," he says, giving me a weird look.  He smiles, too, though.  "That's me.  Unless there's another shirtless jogger around.  I haven't see any, but I always keep an eye out."

"Yup, um..."  I need to explain this!  I don't even know how to explain this?  "I study here a lot.  Sometimes I would come with someone else, and... we used to see you.  Your behind, I mean.  Um... I mean, from behind.  You were jogging past.  Er... I mean, we
could
see your butt, but you were wearing shorts.  Without a shirt.  So that's why I asked.  You have a nice back.  I mean, my friend always said that.  You do, though."

As if all of this isn't enough and I haven't buried myself in deep, I finish with, "Don't worry, I have a boyfriend."

Silence.  Everything is silent.  Kevin looks at me.  I look at him.  I try to look at him, at least, but then I blush, flustered, and look away.  Then I look back.  He raises one eyebrow at me.  A slow grin creeps across his lips, filling out his cheeks.  Finally, he laughs.  It's loud and silly and it makes me laugh, too.

"It's cool," he says, winking at me.  "I totally get it.  A shirtless guy running by the coffee shop might attract attention.  Thanks for the compliment about my back.  Thank your friend for me, too."