BENEATH THE DAWSON’S SHEETS- Affairs With My Stepbrother

CLEO DAWSON I’ve always been attracted to men way older than me. For me, it had never been anything new. In kindergarten, I preferred to hang out with the kids older than me. In elementary school, I had crushes on the older brothers of my classmates and needless to say, in middle high school, I only crushed on the seniors. And when I finally joined high school, I began to crush on my teachers. It was a never ending saga and I thought just maybe, I’d finally get over it. but the second I met my father’s best friend for the first time, I knew I was never going to be getting over it. at least, not anytime soon. Johnny O’Neil. He was probably decades older than me but that never changed anything. With dark hair, extremely muscular body and a tattoo behind his ear that he managed to hide with his glasses and hair, he looked so fine. He was so many things. Handsome, smart, dangerous, sexy and well, my father’s best friend. No matter how hard I tried, I’d never been able to forget the first time I met him. he had travelled from an entirely different city to come visit my dad simply because he and my mum were having their weekly fights. Back then, I had no interest in the fact that his friend from another city was flying in to talk to him but the second I laid my eyes on him, all of that perspective changed. I fell for him. at that instant. It was wrong and I knew it. I was still in high school and he was a professor in a college for heaven’s sake. He was also my father’s best friend and definitely, the last thing he wanted was a scandal between his daughter and his best friend when he was in the middle of a divorce with his wife. Luckily for me, Johnny was only visiting for a while so I concluded I’ll be able to pull myself back to my senses by the time he finally left but I was wrong. His time was finally up and he left but despite being several miles away from me, he refused to leave my heart. To make it worse, my parents’ fights became more frequent and every single time things escalated, Johnny was in town to check on his best friend. I was supposed to be glad my dad had someone by his side but knowing what the mere presence of that someone did to me and my heart, I wasn’t really glad. Years went by and Johnny refused to get out of my head and heart. I eventually got used to it though. He was just my father’s best friend who I had a crush on despite him living in a different city. I was probably going to get over it sometime in the future. But apparently, life had different plans for me. My definition of sometime in the future definitely wasn’t going to be anytime soon as my parent’s relationship finally hit rock bottom, leading to a very messy divorce. As a result, me and my father had to move the second I graduated high school and got into college. and of all the places on the globe for us to move to, it just had to be the city Johnny lived in while I attended the college he lectured at. Just perfect. “Cleo? Cleo!” I was abruptly pulled out of my thoughts as I turned to meet my closest friend since I got into college standing by my side, arms folded. She had a scowl on her face and I could tell it had been a while since she had been uselessly trying to get my attention. “Hi, Sophia,” I flashed her a smile, hoping it would wash away her anger towards me. “I didn’t see you there.” “Of course, you didn’t,” she shook her head. “You were lost in thought. Like you always are whenever we have Johnny’s class.” Though we had only hung out for a couple of weeks, she now knew me well enough to notice the nerves that crept towards me whenever I was about to do nothing but stare at Johnny’s face for at least an hour. “I’m not nervous,” I uselessly lied. “You’re over thinking things.” “We both know I’m not,” she replied me and I sighed. “Seriously, does he give your dad weekly reports about you or something? Why do you always seem so nervous at just the mention of his name.” My dad’s overprotective nature was no news to even her. It was the reason he refused to allow me live in the college dorms for my first year so it only made sense for her to think I was nervous around him simply because he monitored me on my dad’s behalf. But unknown to her, she was clueless. Utterly clueless. “It’s nothing like that,” I flung my arms around her, leading the way to our class. “His course is just hard. Don’t you think? That’s the reason it always seems like I’m nervous. I’m just scared of the course.” “Scared of a course? You are a nerd, Cleo.” “Alright enough talking,” I tightened my grip around her shoulders as i quickened my steps. “We’re going to be late for class if we keep on talking like this.” Luckily for us and me especially, we got to the class before Johnny arrived. Few minutes later though, he finally showed up, had his eyes roam the class and the second he saw me already seated, nodded and began to lecture. Dressed in a simple white shirt that looked anything but simple on him, he had matching black trousers on. As he moved around the class, speaking in a language that suddenly seemed unfamiliar, I watched him slightly roll the sleeves of his shirt up, showing a trace of another tattoo around his arm. I bit my lip as I continued to gawk at him. There was a silver bracelet wrapped around his wrist that glistened and though I stared at it for a while, I quickly shifted my gaze to his face as he adjusted his glasses sitting prettily on the bridge of his nose. God, he was a distraction. How was I going to survive the next four years of college with seeing his face everyday? “Cleo? Cleo Dawson?” “Christ, Cleo!” I was pulled out of another daydream by a nudge coming from Sofia. Immediately, i adjusted my sitting position and turned to face her, a questioning look on my face. “Not me, silly,” she whispered, stylishly pointing at Johnny. “I wasn’t the one calling you. It was Johnny.” “What?” Color immediately crept towards my cheeks as I turned to meet Johnny alongside half of the class’ eyes on me. “God, please, no.” "Cleo," he called out to me again the second I met his eyes. "Were you even listening to me since?" "I-“ "It's alright," he broke into a smile as he shook his head. To him, I was nothing but his best friend's little daughter hence he offered me more warm smiles than the rest of the class. Warm smiles that made me extremely fuzzy inside. "Wait behind after class though. I have something to talk to you about." For the rest of the class, it was far from being a big deal for the lecturer to ask you to wait behind. It would have been the same with me too if it was another lecturer. Not Johnny. Not Johnny O'Neill “Oh, sure.” “You’re about to get scolded by your second father,” Sophia teased. “Next time, pay attention in class.” I barely paid attention to both her words and anything actually throughout the class until it was over. Then, I watched all of the students alongside Sophia rush out, leaving me alone with just Johnny in. “Cleo,” he called out to me the minute we were alone. “You seemed distant earlier? Is anything going on?” “No,” I grabbed my backpack then took slow timid steps towards him. “I am fine. Sorry, I just got a little distracted.” “Alright then,” he nodded. “Well, you must have been wondering why I asked to see you. This is your last class for the day, right?” I swallowed. Was he now stalking me to even my schedules? “Yes, it is.” “Great,” he grabbed his bag then shifted his glasses from the bridge of his nose to sit on his head. “Actually, your dad called me.” “My dad?” “Yes,” he nodded then smiled. “Don’t be too surprised at what I’m about to say, okay?” As long it was about my dad, i doubted anything could surprise my but still i nodded and said, “I’ll try.” “So,” his smile grew wider. “You might call me bad influence but I have been trying to talk to your dad to get him to go on a blind date. I mean, it has been almost a year since the divorce and it’s high time he moved on, right?” Was he seriously asking me for my opinion about my dad moving on? Genuinely, I never wanted him to stay with my mum. They only made each other miserable and I was glad they finally got a divorce. But about him jumping into another relationship when it had not even been that long, I wasn’t so sure. “Yeah?” “So he finally gave in and went on one of the blind dates,” he seemed to excited than he was supposed to. “And I guess things went well between them.” I wasn’t so sure how that made me feel. “Oh?” “And as result, they are planning a dinner,” he finally got to the point. “Just for us to get to know each other. Beatrice is my friend and you’re Frank’s daughter so just a little dinner for you to all meet each other. I almost forgot, her son too.” “She has a son?” “Yeah,” he nodded. “She’s a single mother.” “Oh.” So many things were happening at once and I didn’t know how to take it all. My father was about to get into a new relationship after barely surviving one sane and I was supposed to be present at the dinner while I got to know more about her and her son? And to make it worse, Johnny might just also be at the table? “Cleo, I know what you must be thinking,” Johnny spoke up again, noticing I’d completely gone silent. “Your dad would have told you everything. Actually he wanted it to be a surprise but I figured it’ll be better to at least give you a heads up. It’d be weird if you’re too frozen to talk like this in front of Beatrice and her son.” Well, it definitely was surprising. And funny enough, i couldn’t tell which part was more surprising. “Oh.” “So, he asked me to drive you home today,” Johnny continued, relentless as ever. “The dinner would be holding at your place so yeah. Since I’ll be headed there too and since he’ll be busy with getting things ready, he asked me to drive you home.” I almost choked on my saliva. I dreaded every moment alone with Johnny because of my father and now that same father was making me spend time with Johnny, alone. Now in the classroom and in only a few hours, in his car. “Cleo? Hey?” “What?” I looked up at him, realizing he had been staring at me with worry filled eyes. My silence was being unusual and suspicious. “Oh, yes. The dinner. It’s a great idea.” “It is?” “Yes,” she nodded, trying to calm herself down. “And we going home together to meet my new step mother and step brother, right? Yes.” “Cleo-“ “I just remembered I have to study with Sophia right now though,” i said without even thinking about the possibility of Sophia being available. “So I can’t go home right now.” “Well, neither can I,” he chuckled. “I still have a class to take later.” “Oh?” “Mhm mhm,” he nodded with a smile. “Go ahead and study with Sophia. I’ll give you a call when I’m done so we can leave together.” He flashed me another smile then with a fatherly pat on my shoulder, turned to walk out of the classroom leaving me alone in it. There was really no way out of everything that was about to happen. From me going home alone in Johnny’s car to meeting my father’s girlfriend and her son? I had always been one to trust my instincts and right at that moment, I didn’t have a good feeling about everything that was about to happen.