Stepbrother, Sort of... Read online

  “Romilly!” my mother’s voice called from down the hall. “I think that boy is here to pick you up!”

  “Oh, God.” I wanted to throw up. My first date. And it was happening so quickly.

  Dominic followed me out to the living room, where my mother was now chit-chatting with Chauncey. Chauncey’s face lit up when he saw me.

  “Hey, Romilly,” he said with a million dollar smile. “What’s up, Dominic?”

  Dominic perched on the edge of the sofa, arms crossed, and looking Chauncey up and down for a few seconds.

  “Movie stars in fifteen,” Chauncey said. “We better get going. Nice meeting you, Mrs. Drake.”

  It was weird hearing someone call my mom Mrs. Drake. All my life I’d only known her to be Mrs. Furler.

  As I climbed into Chauncey’s BMW, I thought about how Dominic had said I looked sort of pretty without my glasses. The boy who every girl in school wanted to be with, the boy who wouldn’t give me the time of day, thought I looked sort of pretty. I smiled.

  “Why’re you smiling?” Chauncey asked, amused as if I were smiling because of him.

  “No reason,” I lied.

  ***

  After the movie, Chauncey drove me home.

  “I had a good time tonight,” he said. “Movie was funny. We should do that again soon.”

  “Oh?” I said, surprised. “Um, sure. Yeah.”

  “Hey, Amber Reagan is throwing a party this Friday,” he said. “You wanna come with me?”

  Amber Reagan was one of the popular girls in school. I’d seen her do some pretty vicious Mean Girl things to some of the other girls, but she’d never said two words to me. I was off her radar, thank God. I had no reason to shy away from her, and as long as I was Chauncey’s date, I’d hopefully have an automatic in.

  “Sounds like fun,” I said.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “Can I borrow your jeans again tonight?” I asked Dominic Friday after school. He was perched on the end of his bed, playing a video game.

  He paused his game. “What? Why?”

  I bit the corner of my lip. “I’m going to a party tonight.”

  “Where?”

  “Amber Reagan’s house. Her parents are out of town. Chauncey’s taking me.”

  Dominic scratched his head. “Yeah. I guess. They’re hanging up over there.”

  Ever since he helped me get ready for my date earlier in the week, he seemed to be more and more approachable. He even said hi to me at school in the halls, which he’d never done before.

  I begged my mom to let me get contacts the day after the date, and after seeing how excited I was to be getting attention from boys, she caved and splurged on some for me.

  “Hey, Dominic,” I asked softly as I wrapped his jeans into my arms.

  “Yeah?” he said as he turned his game back on.

  “Do you think you could take me shopping sometime?” I asked. “We don’t have to go shopping at the mall here if you don’t want. We could go to Civic View Mall over in Scotts Bluff.”

  It was a good two hour drive. No one would know us there. No one would be there to judge him for spending a day with me.

  “I’ve just never paid much attention to fashion before,” I said quietly. His lack of an immediate response sent my blood pressure soaring.

  “We could do that,” he said after careful consideration.

  “Thanks, Dominic.”

  He paused his game again, looking me up and down as I headed towards his doorway. “I’m going to that party tonight too.”

  “Oh, yeah? Well, I guess I’ll see you there.”

  ***

  “A beer for my lady.” Chauncey sauntered up to me, a red Solo cup in his hand. I’d never drank alcohol before, but I had to play it cool.

  “Thank you.” I took a sip of the tangy beverage. It wasn’t sweet and it didn’t even taste that good, but I forced it down.

  “Let me know if you want another,” he said a few minutes later, noticing my drink was getting low. “We can keep ‘em coming all night.”

  “Chauncey, what’s up!” a boy from school said as he ran up and high fived him. It felt so good to be included amongst the upper crust of Johnson Valley High School for the first time in my life. I leaned against the wall with my beer in one hand and my other hand resting in my pocket, my body relaxed and cool. “Who’s this chick? She doesn’t go to our school does she?”

  Did I look that different?

  “This is Romilly Furler,” Chauncey said.

  The kid scrunched his face as if he’d never heard of me before, which wasn’t shocking. A lot of people at school barely knew I existed.

  “She’s Dominic Drake’s stepsister,” Chauncey added.

  The kids face lightened up a bit and he smiled at me as he gripped my shoulder. “Well, she’s cool in my book, bro.”

  Several drinks later, the room was beginning to spin. Chauncey hadn’t left my side all night, telling me how pretty I looked practically every half hour and using any excuse he could find to touch me or run his fingers through my hair.

  I wanted to kiss him. I’d never kissed a boy before, but I wanted to kiss him. He’d be my first. I also wanted to do other things with him, but that was probably the alcohol talking.

  Every so often, I’d glance around the room to see what Dominic was doing. People always seemed to go where he was. To say he was the life of the party would’ve been an understatement, but every time I seemed to find him, he always seemed to be watching me. With an unreadable expression on his face, our eyes would meet for a second, and then Chauncey would pull me back into his world for a second and I’d forget Dominic even existed.

  “It’s getting loud in here,” he said, resting his hand on my hip and making me feel as if he were my boyfriend. “Wanna go upstairs? Find a quiet spot?”

  I bit my lip. My inhibition had vanished about two drinks ago.

  Maybe he wants to kiss me?

  He took my hand and let me upstairs where we found a room that looked like it belonged to Amber’s older brother who was away at college. He sat me down on the edge of the bed, atop a dusty, plaid comforter, and sat next to me.

  “Thanks for bringing me tonight,” I slurred. “I’m having so much fun.”

  “Thanks for coming,” Chauncey said, scooting in closer. I could feel the heat of his breath against the exposed skin of my neck, and I swallowed the lump in my throat. My heart raced a million miles an hour. I’d never been alone with a guy before, not to mention a guy who thought I was pretty and wanted to take me on dates.

  His hand reached over to take mine, interlacing it and giving me that boyfriend/girlfriend vibe once again.

  “Romilly?” he asked.

  “Yes?”

  “Would it be alright if I kissed you?”

  I licked my lips as my mouth suddenly ran dry, and I struggled to catch my breath. I couldn’t speak. I could only nod ‘yes’.

  Chauncey leaned in, pressing his full lips against mine. I felt lightheaded with his kiss, and it wasn’t from the beer. The rest of the world disappeared, and I parted my lips the second I felt his tongue begging to enter my mouth. Our tongues danced and soon his hands were all over my body, slipping under my shirt and cupping over the cups of my bra. By the time I realized what was happening, we were both horizontal on Amber’s brother’s bed and he was working on unbuttoning my jeans. Er, Dominic’s jeans that were on my body…

  “What are we doing?” I asked, breathless.

  “God, I want you so bad, Romilly,” he panted as he peppered kisses into the flesh of my neck. His words were like magic, giving him access to any part of my body, and he knew it. I rolled to my back, unbuttoning my shirt as he slid my pants down. He pulled out his wallet, where a condom in purple packaging emerged. I wanted to ask him if he always carried those, but I didn’t want to ruin the moment. He ripped it open and slid it over his dick. My eyes fixed on his erection, since I’d never seen a real one before.

  “This is going
to be so good, Romilly,” he said, a devious smirk on his face as he positioned himself for entry.

  Searing pain ripped through my lower abdomen as he pressed himself inside me, but after a few thrusts the pain was replaced with immeasurable pleasure, like nothing I’d ever experienced before. I gripped the sides of his hips, feeling his body move with each thrust.

  I opened my lips, silently pleading for a kiss. I wanted romantic sex, not dirty sex, but his lips were nowhere near mine. He didn’t even look at me. He kept his eyes closed as his hips pistoned in and out of me.

  And suddenly I felt dirty.

  Used.

  Violated.

  Gone was the guy telling me how pretty I was all night. He’d been replaced with a horny guy who just wanted to snag a trophy for his collection. I concentrated on the creaking of the bed until it was over. I think it may have been five whole minutes. He pulled himself out of me and tossed the used condom in a trash can.

  I couldn’t find my clothes fast enough. My hands searched in the dark room until I’d located everything and slipped them back on. Chauncey said not a word as he buttoned his jeans back up.

  I finger-combed my hair back into place and bolted for the door, running down the stairs and out the front door. Though when I got there, I didn’t know what I was going to do. Tears brimmed in my eyes at the thought of having to call my mom to come pick me up like some junior high dork.

  “Romilly!” a guy’s voice called from behind me. I turned to see Chauncey bolting out the front door to catch up with me. “Why’d you run off?”

  I glared at him. “You know what you did.”

  He shrugged. “You wanted it just as bad as I did.”

  “You knew it was my first time,” I said, wiping itchy tears as they streaked down my cheeks. “You took advantage of me. You got me drunk. You had this planned all along.”

  “What’s going on out here?” Chauncey whipped his head around. Dominic stood in the doorway, arms crossed. “Oh, hey man, what’s up?”

  I couldn’t look at Dominic, though I could feel the weight of his stare.

  “Romilly, you alright?” he asked, though I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t speak. “Romilly, I asked if you’re alright.”

  “She’s fine, man,” Chauncey said with a casual laugh. “Girls, you know? They get in these moods.”

  Dominic stepped down closer to Chauncey, though he towered over him. “Did you touch my sister?”

  My sister?

  “Your stepsister?” Chauncey corrected him. “I mean …”

  “You’ve been talking to her, what, a whole week?” Dominic said, his blue eyes burning into Chauncey. “You think that gives you the right to touch her?”

  “We didn’t do anything,” Chauncey lied.

  Dominic shot me a look. “That true, Romilly?”

  I didn’t feel like discussing my brand new sex life with anyone, especially not him. It was no one’s business. I’d been manipulated, yes, but I was a willing participant. I just didn’t expect for Chauncey to be a giant asshole who was just using me. If anything was bruised or hurt, it was just my ego.

  I turned on my feet and headed down the street. Our house was a good two-mile walk, but I could make it. I needed a brisk walk. I needed to drink in the cool, night air and clear my head.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  I snuck in through the back door and bypassed the family room, where my mom and Dominic’s dad were watching a late night talk show, their eyes half open. They were out of it. I tiptoed to my room and stripped off my clothes, burying my head in the pillow and letting loose.

  Soft cries escaped my lips as I gulped for air. I was angry with myself for believing for one moment that Chauncey had good intentions.

  Seconds before I felt myself drifting off, the buzzing of my cell phone on my nightstand took me out of the sweet surrender. I grabbed it and flipped it over. An unknown number flashed across the screen.

  “Hello?” I asked, pulling the phone away for a second to see that it was two in the morning.

  “Romilly,” a guy’s voice said. “It’s Dominic.”

  “Oh,” I said. He probably needed a ride home. Lucky for him my car was back from the shop. “You need a ride?”

  “I need bailed out,” he said, his voice hushed. “I sort of beat Chauncey up tonight. I’m at the Johnson County jail right now.”

  “Dominic,” I sighed. I sat up in my bed, fully awake.

  “Don’t tell my dad, okay?”

  “I won’t.”

  “There’s a sock under my mattress with some cash,” he said. “Bring it with you.”

  ***

  “Why’d you beat him up?” I asked, once I’d bailed him out of jail and we were headed back home. “You didn’t do that for me, did you?”

  Dominic leaned against the passenger door and shrugged one shoulder. “I had to right some wrongs.”

  “I let him have sex with me,” I said, emotionless. It felt weird talking to Dominic about sex, but on the other hand it was slightly liberating.

  “You were manipulated, Romilly,” he seethed. He reached his hand up to his forehead, where a cut with dried blood made him wince as he grazed it.

  He had a point.

  “I really thought he liked me,” I huffed, shaking my head. “I guess I just got caught up in being like … you.”

  “Like me?”

  “Yeah, you know. Popular.”

  Dominic rolled his eyes and smiled. “It’s not all it’s cracked up to me.”

  “Easy for you to say.”

  “It’s a lot of work,” he said. “People scrutinize everything you do. They want to do what you’re doing. Wear what you’re wearing. It’s almost like you have a brand or an image to uphold. It’s not fun. It’s work, Romilly.”

  “Yeah, but you never have to worry about finding a date for prom or what you’re doing on the weekends.” I sucked in a deep breath as my hands gripped the steering wheel. We were two blocks from home. “You never have to worry about being invisible to the rest of the world. Being picked last in gym. Having people bump into you in the halls or say mean things about you.”

  “People treat you the way you allow them to treat you. Stop letting people treat you like you don’t matter, Romilly.”

  We pulled into our driveway, and I slammed the car into park before turning to face him. “You’ve always treated me like that.”

  Except that one time, in first grade, but that was a lifetime ago.

  “Don’t let me and I won’t,” he said.

  I stared into his blue eyes, the same ones that had just burned holes into Chauncey Chambers all because he hurt me. “We better head inside.”

  We tiptoed through he back door and down the hall, careful as to not wake our parents, and stopped at our respective doors which were across from one another’s rooms.

  “Thanks for helping me tonight,” he said, his gaze not allowing me to leave his presence.

  “Thanks for looking out for me tonight,” I whispered. “I’ve always wondered what it’d be like to have a big brother.”

  “Is that how you think of me?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. Do you think of me as a sister?”

  He looked down at the ground. “I should probably go to bed. It’s late.”

  He disappeared into his room and shut the door, and I did the same.

  ***

  I lay in my bed, unable to sleep. I kept replaying the night’s events in my head over and over again. I smiled at the fact that Dominic defended me and that I was the first person he called when he was in trouble.

  The creaking of my door drew my attention that way, and my eyes adjusted in the dark on a tall figure with wavy blond hair who lurked in the doorway.

  “Dominic?”

  He shut the door and walked over to my bed. He crawled into bed next to me and cupped his big hand against the side of my face. Through the glimmer of the full moon that trickled in the window behind him, his blue eyes sparkled.


  “What are you doing?” I whispered.

  “I couldn’t sleep.” Even in the pale moonlight I could see the cuts and scrapes that decorated his gorgeous, angled face. He’d done it all for me, and I could only imagine the number he’d done on Chauncey.

  “Why not?”

  He sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t think of you as a sister, Romilly.”

  My breath suspended in my chest.

  “I don’t think I ever could.” He leaned in and placed his warm lips upon mine. “I never have.”

  My mind whirred and buzzed with a thousand different thoughts and questions. Nothing made sense. Nothing was adding up. This entire past week seemed surreal, and with Dominic lying in my bed kissing me, I had to have been dreaming.

  “Say something, Romilly.”

  I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Say anything.”

  “Why do you ignore me at school?”

  He rolled over, raking his fingers through his lion’s mane in frustration. “It’s hard to explain.”

  “I think it’s quite simple,” I whispered. “You like me, but you don’t want to be associated with me at school because I don’t run with your kind.”

  He didn’t argue with me.

  “I think you need to get out,” I said, inching away from him. “Now.”

  “Romilly …”

  “I’m taking your advice,” I said. “I’m not allowing you to treat me like that ever again.”

  He climbed off my bed and left my room, just as I’d ordered.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  I strutted down the hallway Monday morning with a new lease on life. With Dominic’s words echoing through my head, they were quickly becoming my new mantra. I refused to allow anyone to treat me like dirt ever again.

  “Get out of my way,” I said to the jocks who took up the entire hallway.

  “What are you staring at?” I scoffed at the Mean Girls who gathered by the east lockers.

  I’d gone shopping that weekend, by myself, and scheduled myself an appointment at a salon. My mousy hair had been transformed into a gorgeous head of sandy blonde highlights that bounce as I walked, and I smacked my crimson lips as I chewed my mint gum. My skinny jeans hugged my lithe legs and a brand new leather Coach bag hung over my shoulder.