Stepbrother Mine : A Forbidden Romance

Two

1 Month Ago



I didn’t like parties. They were too much for me with too many drunk and loud people. I preferred to spend my nights watching a movie or reading the latest trashy romance novel by my favourite author. I’ve been called boring and nerdy all my life because of this. It didn’t affect me anymore, or at least I pretended it didn’t.

So then why was I spending my Friday night at a party hosted by one of the frat houses?

Hot tears tracked down my face.

Oh yeah, him. My boyfriend; the one who I found sucking face and with his hand up some random sorority girl’s top in full view of everyone.

Matt Holland looked like a dream; soft brown hair and a charming smile that could melt anyone’s heart. I had known him since middle school and I had fallen hard from the moment he had turned that smile on me.

I thought I was living the dream when he asked me out in high school. My dream had become a little tarnished after he told me no one could find out we were together. He told me it was for the sake of his future hockey career; that no coach or agent would take him seriously if he had a serious girlfriend. I believed his lies and never questioned him.

It didn’t matter if we couldn’t go on public dates. It didn’t matter if he didn’t want to hold my hand in public. Heck, it didn’t even matter that he never said hi to me or acknowledged my existence when we met in the halls. I was in love and to love someone meant sacrifice. It was for his career and once he was settled in, we could finally date, get married and have cute babies that looked like both of us.

Looking at this night, I was an i***t. I had fallen for his lies and ate them up like I was starving for them.

“Why would you come here dressed like that? I can’t be seen with you while you’re looking like this,” he said.

I wanted the world to swallow me and never spit me back out. My heart was shattering after seeing him make out with someone else yet all he cared about was how I looked. It was always about looks with him. I should have noticed that sooner.

“I’m not looking like this because I want to. I’m looking like this because I had an assignment to finish!” I cried. My voice was shaky and thick with tears.

I had spent days working on the assignment and hadn’t gotten more than a few hours of sleep. I was sleep-deprived, hungry and desperately needed a break. I came straight here after Christine told me I needed to come to the party and see for myself what was going on ASAP. She told me multiple times that Matt was an asshole who didn’t deserve me. I never listened. I should have listened to her.

“That doesn’t give you an excuse to be a slob,” he said as he eyed me. “This is why I don’t want to be seen with you.”

I’ve never felt uglier in my life. I was shattered to my core, absolutely wrenched apart by his words. This was the guy who always made sure to tell me how pretty I looked, how I didn’t need makeup or fancy clothes, because I was enough.

Kill me now. I’d never felt more pain in my life than that moment. You can never quite explain how painful it is when your first love breaks your heart.

“You need to stop being so dramatic,” he was saying.

“You cheated on me!” I shouted.

Even now, he looked around to make sure no one was looking, despite the fact that we were literally in a storage closet. He had pulled me in here to talk, still worried about being seen with me.

“It’s just a party. What do you think people do at parties, Isabella? It’s not that serious.”

“I found you making out with some random girl! You’re supposed to be my boyfriend. That means everyone else is off limits!”

“Fine, just stop shouting.” He approached me and grabbed me around the shoulders gently. His hand came up and wiped my tears. “You can say I strayed a little, I made a mistake. I’m human. But can you really blame me? I mean, look at you. I love you, Bella, but you make it so hard sometimes. I have needs that need to be met. I’m a young red-blooded male in his prime. You can’t expect me to stay home doing nothing.”

I went frigid in his arms. I can’t believe I really expected him to show remorse for his actions. His words were barbed and meant to harm. How did I ever like him? He was charming and nice when he wanted to be but he wasn’t afraid to hit you where it hurt the most to get his way.

I shoved him away from me. “We’re done,” I said. His eyes widened comically. Had he been expecting me to beg and grovel at his feet after he cheated on me?

I opened the closet door with righteous fury.

“Bella, wait!” he said to my back.

I thought he would chase me but he quickly gave up as soon as we were in a crowded place. Something inside me broke at that. Matt didn’t approach me for the rest of the night. He gave longing looks from across a room but he otherwise stayed with a group of friends. He sent me multiple texts begging me to talk to him somewhere private but I didn’t bother replying.

Christine was somewhere most likely making out with her usual hookup. I didn’t want to ruin her night with my sour mood. She was my ride home so I couldn’t just leave this place.

Thankfully, there was free alcohol everywhere. Someone with deep pockets must have sponsored this event because there were more options than the disgusting beer and punch usually served at these things.

I made it a mission to forget Matt and his golden boy looks. He thought I was a boring granny stuck in a nineteen-year-old’s body? I was going to show him.

I took copious amounts of alcohol until I was having some sort of fun. I danced on the tables and sang my heart out. I didn’t care who saw it. No one else seemed to care that I was wearing jeans and a T-shirt instead of heels and a short dress like my boyfriend -ex-boyfriend- wanted. But then the energy drained out of me and I found myself sitting on a lounge chair by the pool trying and failing not to cry. I looked at my reflection in the pool and yep, I looked like a drunk mess.

Someone gave a loud laugh. My red eyes flicked to them. Oh. Weston Montgomery stood there in all his glory. He was the star player and captain of the hockey team. He'd led our school to multiple national championships from the moment he was added to the roster. I knew so much about him because Matt wouldn’t stop talking about him.

Weston Montgomery was rich and talented and everyone worshipped the ground he walked on. He laughed freely, letting loose those dimples that sent panties melting across campus.

I hated him. Matt used to say one of the reasons his friends and teammates couldn’t know about me was because Weston would be against it. He was judge and jury where his team was concerned. He would never allow someone like me to be seen with someone like Matt. Matt always said Weston made it difficult for his fellow teammates who dated ‘beneath them’.

Anger stewed in my veins. I wasn’t thinking clearly, so at that moment, Weston was the enemy. If it wasn’t for him, Matt and I wouldn’t have been forced to hide our relationship. If it wasn’t for him, neither Matt nor I would even be at this stupid party.

I hated him and the way he smiled so easily while my life was collapsing around me. I knew his type; rich and privileged beyond imagining. I bet he’d never heard the word no in his life.

“Everything alright, princess? I can feel you drilling a hole into me.”

I looked behind and around me until I had no choice but to realize that yes, Weston Montgomery was, in fact, talking to me. My eyes widened.

I quickly looked away, hoping he would leave me alone. I saw him saunter towards me from the corner of my eye.

“Nah, you can’t do that. You can’t look at me like you want to choke the life out of me and then pretend nothing happened. That’s not how it works, princess.”

I sprung up and with my fists clenched, faced him. “I’m not your princess,” I bit out.

He smirked. The dimples came out. Some people in this world were just born lucky. “What should I call you then? Honey bun? Baby cakes? Sugar?” He leaned closer until he was eye level with me. Dear god, he was tall. His eyes took me in with an intensity that made me want to fidget. Why was he so close?

“Hmm. How about Freckles?” His eyes moved over my face as if tracking each individual freckle that covered my skin. I usually wore makeup to hide them, especially after people made fun of me because of it.

My heart stuttered in my chest. Calm down, Isabella. It’s just another jock who's playing with you. They were all the same in the end. He was Matt's idol for a reason.

“I have a name, asshole.”

“Oof,” he said with a hand to his chest. “Are you an old hookup of mine? Look, I’m sorry but this happens sometimes. You see, I’m really bad with faces.”

Man, what a d**k. He really was like every other jock who treated girls like disposable trash.

“I am not one of your hookups. I would never sleep with you. You’re nothing but an arrogant, conceited piece of trash. This has been the worst night of my life and it’s all because of you and your pretentious group of assholes!”

Snickers could be heard around us. I looked around. People were watching the two of us. Weston’s buddies behind him hooted.

“What’d you do this time, Monty?” one of them called out. “Maybe I should give you some pointers on how to keep a girl happy.”

The group around us guffawed. Weston looked around the growing scene before pinning me with an unreadable look.

“Ha ha. Very funny,” he said with a roll of his eyes.

“Who’s the broad? You pick her off the streets or something?” There was more laughing. I wanted to sink into the ground and disappear.

My face heated with shame. “Listen here you… you jerk. Being the obscenely rich, captain of the asshole squad doesn’t give you the right to treat me this way. You and your friends are so unflinchingly out of touch that it is laughable. My boyfriend -I mean ex-boyfriend- wouldn’t even be seen with me because of you. It’s all your fault!”

Weston smirked. “I’m sorry, Freckles, but if your boyfriend didn’t want to be seen with you, then it had little to do with me.”

Everyone laughed.

“Who would even date her?” a snide voice said. It was the girl Matt had been making out with. And behind her, holding her waist, was Matt. He wasn’t laughing with everyone else but he wasn’t doing anything either. He didn’t try to defend me. My heart broke a second time.

I was thoroughly embarrassed. And so, so angry.

Weston turned away from me, ready to go back to his band of assholes and put me out of his mind. I don’t know what was running through my mind. I had no immediate plans. I just wanted to stop him, maybe confront him about the way he and his friends were treating me.

Maybe I was just tired of being something to be laughed at. So, of course, I went ahead and did something that ensured I would always be something people laughed at.

“I’m not done with you,” I said, my words a bit slurred.

I placed a hand on his shoulder and turned him back to me, ready to give him a piece of my mind. I gave him a piece of my insides instead.

My stomach lurched and I had no time for recourse as the contents of my stomach were heaved all over the darling of Eden University.

I, along with everyone present, stared in horror at the sight of gross vomit dripping off the hockey captain. The party had gone painfully quiet.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t-”

I stepped closer to him, trying to think of a way to remedy this. Unfortunately, there was no remedying to be done because I tripped on a puddle of my own vomit and felt the world shift around me. I felt myself fall and fall and fall until… my body seized as it was enveloped by a shock of cold water.

I had tripped into the pool and, as luck would have it, had pulled Weston Montgomery with me; in all my haste to correct my wrongs, I hadn’t let go of him and he had suffered for it. With those events, my new name as Projectile Vomit Betty, was born.