Teen Drama: A Forbidden Romance with My Stepbrother

8

“Quiet now, please.” Our class professor raises his hands to bring quiet back to the chatter of our English lesson. “We have one week before break, and I know it’s agonizingly close… but you still have to work.” He turns and taps the board, highlighting random topics with his torch pen that are laid out in a numbered list. “One assignment before then… due on the last day. I want you paired off in groups of four, and we will make this a team deal where I assign you guys one topic each. A full week on nothing but this, so a little seating reshuffle before we end for the weekend. Let’s make this fun and relaxed, guys.”

There’s a chorus of groans from everyone in the room, including Elisa next to me, as no one ever likes to group in for projects. Especially not pre-holiday ‘fun’ ones where the assignments are always lame. It’s always unequal pairings where certain people get stuck with the majority of work. I personally do not care, as my control freak self likes the be the one researching and writing to ensure my grade is the best I can get.

“You have ten minutes to get it together while I go collect something from my office. Keep the noise down and get into your groups.” The professor lays down his pointer and takes off toward the door before chatter starts again, and people start moving chairs to create their groups.

“So, who do we hook up with?” Elisa leans in, whispering at me, and I catch her eye, straying over me to the row on my left, where Tyler sits almost level with me. He’s leaning back over the vacant desk behind him and mouthing to Dane up back.

“Nope.. not a chance. You know for a fact that with him comes my i***t house invader. They always pair up.” I push her face away and lean down to find my bag under my desk, needing my notebook.

“Hey, Kayla… do you and Elisa want to pair with Sam and me?” In the row behind us, Jordan leans forward, taps me on the shoulder, and Elisa starts eye-gesturing at me in a panic to refuse. She is so desperate for any kind of Tyler attention since he insulted her at my house that it’s a little pathetic. She puts on the little pouty face and sad eyes even under that veil of red hair, knowing I can never deny it.

“Move, four eyes…… this spot is taken.” A scrape of a chair leg on the wooden floor, and Jordan sits back as my attention is drawn back to the front of my desk. Dane has hauled a chair backward to straddle it the wrong way around and gets right in my face. Perching it up tight against the wooden surface. Only a desk between us which he is leaning forward on.

Jordan mumbles something incoherent under his breath and moves right back, knowing never to rile Dane. Seeing as he once gave him a black eye when we were juniors, but Dane earns himself a narrowed glare from me.

“Don’t call him that.” I push his hands off my notebook he attempts to pick up, and Elisa recoils into a little ball of fear as Tyler wanders over and sits on the corner of my desk. He, too, seems to be in the know that we four are getting grouped.

“You are our class president and top student…. if anyone can keep my ass out of London, baby… it’s you. You breathe out A’s without effort.” Dane leans forward, pinches my cheek with his finger and thumb while trying to give me his cute boy pearly white smile, and earns a hand slap.

“Or… how about you pair up with anyone else and actually do some work yourself.” I get annoyed with how Elisa is dissolving into her lap under Tyler's proximity, and I force a finger under her chin to pull her face and make her sit up. “Right, Lees? Tell them we don’t wanna.” I give her a visual warning that she better back me up, and she hesitates. A war crossing over her scared kitten expression, torn about giving up a chance to work with Tyler for five days.

“Ummm.” She turns pink and pulls her bangs across her eyes to avoid mine.

“Don’t bully her into this.” Dane pulls my arm away by the wrist and drops it on my desk. “Come on, Kales…. You do this s**t with your eyes closed, and Tyler here is smart and academic, so it’s not like you will be carrying the workload.” Dane thinks that’s a sales point, but Tyler rolls his eyes at his best friend.

We both know Dane was the top-grade earner in our class once upon a time, but he chose a life of rebellion instead. Now it seems Tyler does most of the work, and Dane gets a free ride. No wonder he sits apart in classes like this.

“Do you ever do anything on your own? Or do you piggyback him as much as you do me?” I chin gesture at his silent bestie, who nods back at me that I’m close to accuracy, and it gets my back up.

“If the step beast from hell weren’t harassing my dad about my grades, I wouldn’t care. This is on your mom, not me.”

“Hey… don’t you dare.” I shove his foot under the table with mine. Triggered by him calling my mom names and then pushing his hand back a second time as he tries to pick up my pencil case. He always has to touch everything that is mine when he invades my space.

“Elisa, you wanna work with Tyler, right?” Dane turns his attention to my best friend, all smiles, dimples, and charm oozing out as he tries to get her on his side. I grit my teeth and throw daggers his way, knowing fine well that’s a low-blow tactic. It’s not hard to tell Elisa has had a crush on Tyler since forever. I think the only person in our class who doesn’t know is Tyler… because she seems invisible to him.

“Ummm.” Elisa is dissolving like sand into her seat and progressively getting lower. Her love for me and her love for Tyler are pulling her two ways. She hates conflict and being stuck between a rock and a hard place at the best of times, so this is hell for her.

“Leave her alone.” I push Dane’s wrist back as he reaches to flick her hair out of her face so that he can see her reaction. “I told you, No…. Go away. I want an intelligent and hard-working group buddy. That’s not you.”

“Kales…… you suck.” Dane tuts and prods me in the face with a pointed finger to the cheek before he gets up, annoyed by my refusal. He knows my stubbornness, and my tone tells him he won’t defeat me today.

It looks like he’s finally taking the hint that I will not agree when Charmaine, one of our popular blondes with big boobs, decides to meander to join the desk party. I have loathed this girl since I was eight, and everyone knows it. She has lived on our street since then and followed Dane on and off for years. Her tight shirt is almost popping over her breast implants, straining at the buttons, and her school skirt is about four inches shorter than it should be as she props herself up beside him.

“I want to work with you, Dane. Alice and Tyler make a good match, too. We could all get cozy and meet up after school. Have some fun.” She purrs, smiling creepily as she sits on Elisa’s desk, her ass almost in my friend's face as though she isn’t even there, and angers me on a whole other level. Seeing Elisa’s crestfallen expression and how she reverts into her little ball of hair hits me with guilt. She doesn’t ask me for much in this friendship, and her crush on Tyler has never wavered.

“FINE!” I slap my notebook on the table, startling Charmaine and Elisa simultaneously. Pushing up out of my seat and shoving that voluptuous backside off of my friend's table. Charmaine squeals and almost takes a tumble before spinning on me to deliver a scowling sneer. She knows better than to start a catfight, though, as Dane would shut her down in a second. No one picks on me because he would annihilate them. It’s one of the only perks of being related to him.

“Dane…. We will work with you, but we are not coming to sit back there. This is where we stay. And you better contribute, or I’ll take your name off the paper. I’m not playing in this…. You work with me. You contribute.” I’m in no mood for his BS today.

I want to stay up front and center where I sit in every class, so I get fewer distractions from the idiots who don’t like to learn. This is where we stay; if he wants my help, he has to come here, even if it means sitting in the vacant seats right before the professor.

Charmaine pffts at me and thrusts her cleavage further out, trailing a manicured pointer nail over Dane’s shoulder in a cringy suggestive manner. Her perfume is wafting over me in a sickly smog.

“Dane, are we still on for this weekend?” She purrs, and I physically recoil inwardly. Disgusted by this blatant ewwwww and so mad at him that his flirt fest is happening over my desk. She has no shame, and he’s just as bad for already having a new woman on the hook when Renee was literally a few days ago. It brings up that inner loathing I sometimes feel for him. I hate that this is how he is, and Tyler is barely any better.

“Laters… I’m busy. I’ll call you if I need a date.” Dane dismisses her without a second glance, and her immediate rigid posture and cold icy stare tell me she isn’t happy with the rebuff. He flicks her hand off him, and I find myself shaking my head and repeating his words of wisdom.

“Don't let a guy disrespect you…. Know your worth.” I mumble his way in a tone steeped in disdain for his ears, and he raises a brow and smirks at me.

“That’s right. Hence picking me.” He gets up and pats me on the head before pushing me back into my seat with a slight shove and strolls off to get his bag and jacket. Tyler sighs heavily and stares down at me for a second before his eyes trail to Elisa and back again.

“This is going to be an interesting week. Dane needs to get your mom off his back because I am already starting to rethink our friendship.” He smirks too, and then moves to collect his belongings as students all around us start shifting into groups for the assignment, and Elisa becomes still and silent. Jordan eyes me up with a gloomy sadness before getting out of his seat and walking up back too.

“You got what you wanted? A whole week of sitting with those losers while we do all the work. Will you at least lift your head up and make eye contact?” I nudge her on the shoulder with mine and give her a warm smile. Hoping to encourage her out of her shell. I know Elisa can be a dazzling and bright star when we are alone. I just wish she would show other people how she shines. I have tried to build her confidence for years, but nothing has helped.

“I’m nervous. He’s never sat near us before.” She whispers as though this is some mortal sin and then sinks back within herself when he steps back to us and nods directly behind me.

“We will sit there. Jordan and Sam have gone to the back.” He gestures to the two vacancies, and I turn enough to see my admirer gazing at me longingly from the back row, where he is huddling up with two of the shy girls in our class. Both are pretty smart and in the chess club, so I am glad they picked a decent group.

I feel bad for Jordan that Dane always seems to pick on him in subtle ways and intimidate him constantly. I have never understood why he dislikes him so much, as Jordan is such a sweet person. It seems like since we were about eight years old, Dane just decided Jordan was someone he would always pick on.

“Sit behind me … because otherwise, Dane will spend the next week prodding me, hanging over my shoulder, or pulling my hair. I know what he’s like.” Turning in my seat, I tap the desk directly at the back of my chair for Tyler to take. I get a grin from him as he throws his bag to the one behind Elisa. Mr. All-American hotty style.

“We both know the second I sit, he’ll move me…. Give in to it, Kayla. Dane lives to torture you. It’s the only joy he gets from being related to you.” Tyler winks at me. The same cheeky arrogance as his best friend, and it’s not hard to see why they are always glued together. Like their entire friendship group of ‘bros,’ they hang out with. They are a bunch of f**k boys with fast smiles, quick comebacks, and brains dialed into nothing but beer and girls.

“Asshole.” I prod at him with my pen, but he chuckles and slides into the seat behind Elisa before seemingly noticing her.

“Hey, redhead? Are you going to turn around and say hello to your study partner? I don’t think we have ever actually met.” He taps her on the back of her head with his middle finger and earns the fiercest scowl from me.

“Don’t do that to her, and her name is Elisa. I already told you that at my house. What is wrong with you?” I shove his arm back and rub her on the shoulder, knowing this direct interaction probably has her hyperventilating into her lap. She is stiff as a board and seemingly no longer breathing.

“He…. hell… Hiya …” A tiny timid voice emerges from her hunched-down posture and silky hair, and Tyler leans up, stretching out to stare down over her.

“Hi, Elisa…..wait… wasn’t there an Elisa in our kindergarten class too? I remember that name on the peg near mine in the coat hall.” He seems impressed with putting the dots together on a familiar name, even if it makes my mouth drop open, and I give him the ‘are you kidding me’ stare.

“It’s only taken you how many years to realize she has been in the same classes as you, me, and Dane since Kindergarten?” I snort at him, not holding back the utter disdain for how unobservant this moron is. How can a guy be around the same human for most of his life and still not know who she is?

“Sorry…. I mean, it’s not like I am unaware of this little …umm… I see her with you all the time. I just… I’m bad with names.” He shrugs as if this is the only explanation needed, and I continue to gawp at him.

“Unless it’s someone you are hooking up with….” Dane cuts in and slides down behind me, tossing his bag under his feet, and leans back, stretching out so his boots come under my chair and knock the back of my heels.

“Hey.” I turn to him. “You’re kicking me!” I point out and get an infuriating wink and shrug as a reply.

“Not true… I forget those just as fast.” Tyler chuckles, and they fist bump with matching grins as though this is somehow an admirable admission and something to be praised.

“Ugh, you two are gross. I’m ashamed to admit to knowing either one of you.” I roll my eyes and turn my attention back to Elisa, who has started scribbling notes on her desk with her face like an inch from the paper to hide her red flame of shame. She’s using her hair again as a shield, and I brush it back behind her ear so I can at least see her.

I don’t get this girl. She so badly wanted Tyler to work with us, and now I know she will spend five days avoiding him and hiding under her desk this way until school break.

“Right guys….. all sorted?” Our professor strolls in, carrying a bunch of metallic envelopes in his hand, and waves them in the air. “I have numbered cards correlating to topics on the whiteboard, so one person from each group raise a hand, and I will pass them out at random.”

Without prompting, I raise mine and seeing we are at the front, I get handed a gold one right away before he walks past us and continues dishing out glittered notelets. Our teacher has always been weird and lame in this way. Adding sparkle to mundane projects. I flip it over, open it and slide out a piece of white paper with the number 6.

“What did we get?” Elisa forgets her shyness for a second and leans over to peer at it before looking up at the board to find our topic subject. For once, sitting up straight so I can actually see her face. Academics always make her forget her surroundings. My brainy bot bestie.

“Gimme.” Dane leans up and over and swipes it from behind out of my hand before flashing it at Tyler, and all of us turn our attention to the board.

A neatly listed bunch of random topics in blue marker cover the whole thing. My eyes settle on number six with confusion, disappointment, and a heavy feeling that this will not be easy. We probably got the most ironic and pointless topic among them all, and I sink down and sigh, picking at my pencil with deflation. Now I regret agreeing to partner up with the two frat boys behind us.

Number six - What makes a successful dating relationship?

“You’re kidding, right?” Tyler snorts at it and then shoulder-shoves Dane behind me and laughs. Both chuckle and pass hush-mumbling comments that I can’t make out, and I know it’s either crude or downright mind-numbing.

“This has to be the worst topic for us….Right, Kales? It’s not like either of us has any idea what that is. No great role models, and I don’t think either of us has dated anyone long enough to form a successful relationship.” Dane’s words are steeped in sarcasm. Only I don’t disagree with him.

I’m staring at the board with a million thoughts in my head, ignoring them with their stupid remarks, and I catch Elisa glancing at me with hesitation. The face of prey caught in a trap, and I know she is thinking the same thing as me. It’s not like either of us has ever had any romantic encounters, and the two behind us have to be the most toxic dating boys in our entire school. They date, sure. Lots of short-term and shallow dates. Their primary goal is s*x and nothing else, so what can they contribute?

“This sucks.” Sighing and slumping as I stare at the words over and over. I verbalize louder than I meant to.

“A difficult topic you can’t relate to often has the best outcome when you get to it. I have faith in you girls.” Our teacher swoops by, tapping my desk as he passes with a wink, startling me to a jump, and my stomach drops. Even my own teacher seems to know I have never dated anyone in my entire school life, and Dane snort laughs behind me before patting me on the head.

“Don’t worry… we can date for a few days to give you a great list of what not to do… that’s a start. In that, you will finally have dated someone.” He laughs louder, barely concealing how entertaining this is, and it grates on my nerves.

“Shut up, Jerk.” I flick his hand away and cross my arms. Sulking and not in the mood for his lame jokes.

We don’t get to discuss it further as the home bell rings, signaling the end of the day, and students jump to alert to start packing up. No one likes to loiter when the day is over, especially on a Friday afternoon, and I slowly begin to pick up my things.

We are surrounded by the humdrum of chatty students and scraping chairs.

“Are we going to meet up and talk about what to do and how to research this?” Elisa looks at me as she leans sideways to fish her bag out. She is already planning and problem-solving, which is so like her. She thinks there is always an answer to be found in books and the internet and probably already has a mental tick list of what we should do. This is why I love my shy little genius.

“Count us out.. we two have something on tonight. Don’t wait up, honey. If you're a good girl, I’ll take you for something romantic tomorrow.” Dane leans forward, still amusing himself with his ongoing joke, standing behind me as he slings his bag on his shoulder and ruffles my hair.

“f**k off.” I yank my head sideways to get him off me, and he smirks and leans right down over my chair, so his mouth comes level with my ear. My body hits rigidness in impulse, and I hold my breath as his voice drills into my brain with husky lowness.

“If your mom asks where I am, tell her I’m studying at Tyler’s and will be back late. Cover for me, and I promise we will start on this tomorrow.” He lingers close enough that his breath fans my cheek, and I bristle all over with goosebumps before lifting my hand and shoving his face away. I hate how he makes me feel weird, tingly, and breathless when he dips on me that way. He does it so often, and I hate it.

“Tell her yourself. You know you have a curfew.” I snap.

“And face the Spanish inquisition. She asks too many questions….nags too much….kinda reminds me of you.” He prods me in the ribs as I stand to shove things into my bag, and I try my hardest not to react. Pupils are pushing by and leaving, and yet he’s hanging over me, lingering. Elisa gets up and moves to the door away from Tyler, but the i***t follows her thoughtlessly, and I see her make a dash to exit and leave me here. I shake my head at how skittish she can be.

“Just text her… come home on time…. don't cause problems. For once, Dane, can you make one day drama free.” I turn and lock my eyes on his to drive the point home. Trying to appeal to his softer side with a sincere tone and blank expression. Pulling my bag onto my shoulders without breaking our intense gaze.

Lately, our parents have been fighting a lot when he’s not around, and it’s because of this whole situation. I hate hearing it and that he is oblivious to how he’s pulling our parents apart. I lived through one broken home and don’t want another one to go the same way.

“You’re starting to sound like a bossy sister….I don’t like it.” He taps me on the end of my nose, so I squint away. Moves out of the desk area and slides past me with a hand in the air as if to wave. Dismissing me with that nonchalant self-centered asshole swagger.

“I’ll be home when I’m home. Lie for me if you wanna avoid drama…. Or don’t. I don’t care either way.”