BENEATH THE DAWSON’S SHEETS- Affairs With My Stepbrother

Chapter 4

CLEO DAWSON

“So, what did Johnny call you to talk about yesterday?”

I immediately choked on my drink, extremely displeased at the fact that Sophia had managed to bring a topic I so desperately wanted to shove out of my mind up again.

Scrunching my nose, I looked away and pretended to have not heard her question. It was the best I could do for a while. At least, that way I could pretend my reality wasn’t really in existence.

“Cleo?” Sophia on the other hand had no intention on letting me be. “Did you hear me? Why did Johnny ask you to wait after class yesterday? Did he scold you for something? Or was it nothing serious? A mixture of both?”

“Eh?” I tried to look away again but it was useless as her entire attention was now fixed on me. Giving up, I groaned and turned to face both her and my reality. “Well, my dad has a girlfriend.”

Though we had only been friends for a couple of weeks, Sophia already knew a great deal of things about me- including the state of my parents’ relationship thus why we had to move to an entirely different city.

“Oh,” she seemed to be at a sudden loss for words. “That’s…great?”

“It should be,” i groaned again, pushing my drink away from me to rest my head on the table. “It really is supposed to be great.”

If I didn’t have a step brother to be I felt weird emotions towards.

Not for long anyways, I quickly reassured myself. I was going to get things right later today. It was absolutely nothing like I was thinking.

“So, have you met her?” Sophia continued with her interrogations. “Is she nice? Do you like her? Does your dad seem serious with her?”

Before I could do her the favor of getting the opportunity to ask me many more questions, she was abruptly interrupted by the sound of my phone ringing. Flashing her an apologetic smile, I whipped it from my side, my eyes immediately widening as I stared at the incoming caller ID.

“Who’s it?” Sophia immediately asked, noticing my reaction. “Don’t tell me it’s your dad’s girlfriend?!”

It probably would have been better if that was the case. But instead it was Johnny.

“No, it’s not,” I immediately moved my phone to hide the caller. “It’s not her.”

“Who then? You-“

Unable to allow a call from Johnny ring for so long without me picking it up, I cut her off and pressed the phone against my ear, swallowing as I heard his familiar voice.

“Hi, Cleo,” his voice sounded so clear like he was next to me. “Um, are you done for the day?”

I spared Sophia then my unattended books a glance before replying him. “Yes?”

“Well your dad called,” he continued. “He said you have something to give to Beatrice, is that right?”

“Oh, yes,” I immediately reached for my bag. “That is true.”

“Right,” he laughed lightly. “Apparently you both concluded you’ll take it over to her place but you know your dad. He was suddenly reminded of how protective he is of you so he called me and asked me to drive you to Beatrice’s place myself.”

“What?” I would have choked on my saliva if my throat wasn’t already dry from nervousness. “Drive me? You don’t have to. I’m fine.”

“Tell that to your dad,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s what he want and I agreed to it already. So if you’re done now, shall we go? Let me guess, you’re at that garden close to the library, aren’t you?”

He knew me so well. And yet he couldn’t see how I felt towards him for the past years.

It was all for the better anyways. Nothing could come out of him finding out his best friend’s daughter had a crush on him.

Quickly changing my pattern of thoughts, I sat up and looked around me. Biting my tongue, I nodded slowly then replied him. “Yes, I’m there.”

He disconnected the call and I immediately let out a groan. Being in Johnny’s car alone with him for two days in a row couldn’t be a good thing. Especially now that my heart suddenly seemed to be wavering.

“What was that about?”

“Johnny,” I replied without thinking, grabbing my bag and rising to my feet. “I have to go now. I have something to drop at my dad’s girlfriend’s place and well, Johnny offered to drive me there. Yay.”

“Aw, baby. Must suck to be you.”

It really did. It really sucked to be me.

Despite my extremely slow steps, I got to the driveway quicker than I’d wanted to and proceeded to wait for Johnny. Not for long though as he showed up in front of me only a moments later, gesturing for me to get into his car.

I did that without hesitation and immediately the drive began, had us fall into another awkward yet familiar silence.

One that lasted all the way until we got to Beatrice’s place.

“Here we are,” he announced the second he pulled over. “Do you want me to come with you or-“

“I’m fine,” I quickly said, grabbing my backpack. “I can handle this myself. It’s nothing much. No big deal.”

He looked unconvinced for a while but quickly shrugged it off, flashing me a smile. “Alright then. I’ll be waiting here for you.”

I nodded slowly and stepped out of the car, immediately taking in a deep breath. I stared at the house in front of me, checking it out to realize how huge it was. A bit too huge to house just Beatrice and her son.

My steps were slow as I walked towards the front door. I was suddenly unsure of what to expect or what I was even thinking when I offered to go to her place.

What if Ash wasn’t home? What if all I got to see was Beatrice? What if my plan to pull myself back to my senses failed? What if I indeed was beginning to-

My thoughts came to an abrupt halt as I got to the front door, immediately pressing the doorbell. It rang and on getting no response after a while, I proceeded to press it again.

Only to still not get any response.

“Hello?” I decided to go old school as I placed a knock on the door. “Beatrice? It’s me, Cleo.”

Still getting no response, I decided to push my luck by trying to open the door. Surprisingly, all it took was a little push for the door to immediately get opened, revealing an extremely beautiful interior part of the house.

In awe, I walked in, gawking at my surroundings as I did. With every step, the house only seemed to become more beautiful, larger and emptier.

“Is anybody home? Beatrice?”

For the first time since I’d been speaking, I finally got a response. Not a voice though but the sound of something crashing to the ground.

Immediately, I quickened my steps and rushed in the direction of the sound. It seemed fainter with every step and I could finally tell it was coming from the upper floor.

Without hesitation, I walk towards the stairs and began climbing it up. The sound was now completely gone but that didn’t stop my curiosity from burning at just the thought of whatever could have birthed it.

“Beatrice?”

I got another sound in response. But this time it sounded clearer like it was coming from the room right in front of me.

With slower steps, I walked towards the room and froze for a second as I stood in front of the door. I could suddenly hear all sort of sounds. From the sounds of objects hitting the floor to the sound of something hitting the bed and low whispers and whimpers.

What in the world was going on?

I should have taken my sudden quickened heartbeat as a sign but instead, I summoned a courage I didn’t even know was in me and took another step towards the door, immediately grabbing the knob to pull it open.

“What the f**k?!”

It took a while before I could process what was happening. Several seconds passed and all I could hear for a while was the sound of my heart falling to the ground to shatter into a million pieces.

Followed by the sound of soft moans coming from Ash and an unfamiliar lady as they made out, both half naked.

Their clothes were all over the room, their hands all over their bodies, tongues down in each other’s throat. I stared at them in horror, my heart breaking as all the answers to my questions came flashing to my face.

I wasn’t supposed to be surprised anyways. I had a reputation of falling for the wrong people and had simply lived up to that reputation by falling for my step brother to be this time.