In Love With My Bully Step-brother

Chapter 11 | The Headlines…again?!

Ashleigh’s POV

For the rest of P.E, I stayed hidden as much as possible. Thankfully, that day, the driver was able to pick me up and even he couldn’t keep the shock from his face when he saw me. I said nothing. Although the dye had started to fade away, it was still quite obvious.

“Had a good day ma’am?” The driver asked and I shot him a look through the rear view mirror.

He raised his hands in surrender and said nothing for the rest of the ride.

The first thing I did when I got home was inspect my cosmetics cabinet. I kept it locked only because I was too shy to let Kane see the number of products I used on my skin. I didn’t know I had even worse to fear.

Oddly enough, when I checked, the cabinet was still locked. So, how exactly had he gotten into it?

“That’s easy, I picked the locks.”

Had I been thinking out loud, again?

I shut the cabinet and turned around to face Kane who was standing in the doorway of his bedroom. He even had the guts to show me the clip he’d used which he held up in his right hand.

In my bid to check how Kane had tampered with my cosmetics, I had totally forgotten to lock the doors. Now, we were both face-to-face and I was still very much blue. I could see it on his face that he was enjoying that fact very much.

“Is that mine?” I asked him, my eyes going wide as I recognized the silver hair clips. I had gotten them at a trade fair the year before.

Kane eyed the object as if seeing it for the first time. “Hmm. That’s odd. I found it in the hallway.”

My heart fell with relief at that. I had almost thought he’d snuck into my room when I wasn’t aware. That would even be more alarming. It must have fallen off when my boxes were being moved into the house.

“Why do you keep messing with me?” I asked him, tired of his nonsense games.

“Messing with you? I didn’t beg you to come here and ruin my jacket on the first day of school.” His eyes flashed angrily.

Really? This was about a damn jacket?

“Look, I’m sorry about your jacket okay? I didn’t mean to get noodles on it.” I didn’t think I had taken out the time to actually apologize for that mistake. The same mistake the whole school knew about. I really thought he would get a kick out of that article. For me, that was enough payback. I guess it wasn’t for Kane.

He seemed to falter for a bit, as I’d my apology might have gotten to him, but then it was just for a second and his features hardened again. “Sorry won’t get the stain out.”

“And this will?” I pointed at my face.

“I’ll take my chances,” he scoffed. “See you around blue face.” With that, he squeezed the pin in his palm and shut the door closed.

I couldn’t ask for it back now…and I really loved that pin. How hasn’t I noticed it was missing? Yeah, because I kept leaving my hair in the same kind of bun every day.

Groaning, I took out all my skin care products and trashed them. I couldn’t tell which one he had messed with so, I would just have to replace them all —with money I had very little of. If I kept digging into my savings this way, I would go broke pretty soon. And unfortunately, I couldn’t touch any of the money daddy had left for me until I was twenty one. That was years away. I needed money now.

I had already found a*****e somewhere not too far from the house so, I decided to take a walk down to it.

Inside, I discovered that the products were more expensive here than I got them in Phoenix. I was almost not going to buy any till I remembered I had nothing else to use. I also got a new shower kit. Something bigger that would be able to accommodate all the products. This way, I wouldn’t have to leave anything in the bathroom.

I doubted Kane would pull the same stunt twice but I was not going to take my chances. By the time I paid for everything, my balance was significantly lesser than before.

If I was going to sustain myself in this town, I definitely had to get a job.

By the end of that week, the Oak Tribune published their second release for the week. Once again, I had made headlines and the poster was all over the campus. This time, everywhere I passed, people pointed at me and laughed. I already knew what was going on before I found a copy taped to my locker.

There were pictures of me in blue dye everywhere in the article. All the nicknames I had been given that day were also in print. This was even more humiliating than the last one.

I skipped to the end of the article and saw that it was none other than Samantha who had written it. Seriously, what was her problem?

I realized what they were doing and they might have actually succeeded. I couldn’t keep getting my face in the magazine like this. Not only was it embarrassing but it was beginning to bring some unwanted attention. I really just wanted to be low-key and if Samantha didn’t put an end to this joke, it could cost me that dream dearly.

So, I made up my mind to find her during lunch. It wasn’t that difficult. She and her crew sat in the same place every day. It was almost as if the whole school knew this because no one else ever sat there —even on the days the girls skipped lunch.

“Fine, I’ll join the magazine society. Just, no more of this,” It was the first thing I said as soon as I walked up to the table, dropping the article in front of Samantha.

“So, you’ve finally come to your senses,” one of the other girls spoke.

“I mean, it did take you this long but you’re very welcome to join us,” Samantha said.

“Not like you gave me a choice,” I whispered but not silently enough because the girls heard and burst into laughter.

“We meet after school today,” Samantha said, describing their meeting room which had been specially created for the club.

It was beside the computer lab which I had been to a couple of times for classes. They told me not to be late because I would need some time for orientation before the actual meeting began.

I nodded. I couldn’t wash away the feeling of dread that overcame me. I always hated being part of group activities but if this was the only way I saved my reputation as the girl no one ever noticed, I would gladly take it.