My Stepbrother-Too Hot To Handle

DABBY:

Mum and Mr. Anderson left the table shortly after Damien did, while I was left to do the packing plates that were still filled with leftovers of healthy meals to the kitchen.

While I was busy clearing the dishes, I saw Damien angrily storm past through the kitchen’s door with some things in his hand. That was when I knew that he was really mad, and there was no way that he wasn’t planning to drive away in that state.

I ran after him because he really seemed so pissed, and I think I caused a 90% if it. If his father hadn’t talked about me in the conversation, then it would have probably gone better than it did.

Damien please wait,” I called after him because he was walking too fast, and I knew that the moment he entered the car it would be over, “I am sorry for what happened,” I continued, when I realized that he wasn’t going to answer me.

However, he turned to look at me with an appalled look on his face and came out of the car, asking me why I was sorry. He even looked more angry than he was before, and it really put fear in me. I could see nothing but pain in his eyes.

It was like I always got it wrong, and did everything wrong whenever I was around him.

“For everything,” I replied immediately, because I didn’t even have anything in particular to be sorry about. I just wanted him to know that I was sorry, if I was one of the reasons he was really angry.

And then he turned on me to tell how much he hated me, and the same thing he had been telling me all this while; Pack your things, and leave with your mum. Out of his life. Out of Anderson’s home.

I was finally used to those words and immune to them, because no matter what I did, he would always want me to leave.

To me, they didn’t matter anymore because I thought in my heart that I could bear it. Just a few more months, and we were done. Finally independent in my way to becoming a brand new woman. But I was wrong.

The way he suddenly grabbed me by the shoulders really hurt so badly, and my eyes were forced to compulsively meet with his own. He was causing me pain alongside his pain. It made me even sadder than I was.

‘Just how could our lives and parts be so messed up?’

But the one that made it worse of everything he said, was he telling me to stay away from his part and clear off. He said he didn’t want to have to see me ever again, and that meant that I should just become invisible both in school and at home.

Damien had given his stern warning, and I knew that he would hurt me if I didn’t abide by them. Before I was the one doing the hiding, but now I was forced to hide.

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After I entered back into the house, mum came down from the stairs already dressed up in a nice red dress. She looked like she was going somewhere, and I looked behind her to check where exactly her husband was standing. I hoped she had not seen what happened between me and Damien earlier.

“Mum, you going somewhere?” I asked her, after I breathed in and out to be sure I was not going to let out shaky words because of my terrified self.

“Yes, and we are, for you. Go and get dressed quickly. You talked about your broken glasses yesterday, and I figured out we could just go to the doctors today. Take a ride alone, you know. Mother and daughter’s day. Let go of all the suffocating tension that was let out many minutes ago,” she forced a chuckle at her last sentence, after saying so much in reply to my simple question. She probably had never seen Mr. Anderson like that before. I could tell wherever she was a little nervous.

“This was faster than I expected,” I mumbled and turned to leave, glad that I could at least use a break from what happened between me and Damien.

“What do you mean?” Mum asked immediately.

“I meant that, this is the first time I said something needs attention, and we are getting a solution for it early. That is all,” I mouthed, and climbed the stairs hurriedly before she would ask me another question.

“That is not true, Abby. I am trying my best as a mum!” Mum almost screamed her lungs out from my stairs, and I just acted like I did not hear what she said. If I did, we would have to argue about it.

“We have to be back before evening, Mum. I have a job to get back to,” I reminded her as I came back downstairs, wearing a shirt and matching trousers with a pair of sneakers. The look mum had on her face for me was crazy.

“Argh. What about those dresses I bought? You look hot in them. And if you cannot adjust so quickly, then it is better to wear shirts your size,” mum rolled her eyes as I walked downstairs, and I certainly had nothing to say in reply.

Her husband’s son was going to get me killed if I ever crossed his path again, so the last thing I wanted to think about was getting the perfect cloth for a doctor’s consultation. I needed to think of ways to survive.

I got my eyes tested at the hospital, and the ophthalmologist said that I could come for my recommended lens in three working days. Mum insisted that I wasn’t going to get ugly glasses like the formal one, and that was going to be a new change in my life.

Working till night at the cafe was really fun, but I couldn’t even focus because I kept hearing Damien’s words in my head. Mason tried to know what really kept me unstable, but there was no way I was going to start talking about it.

I thought I would see Damien visit the cafe and do his business, but there were no traces of him at all. And I really had to be thankful for that. He didn’t want us to see at all. Anymore.

Damien didn’t come home that night, and I was really terrified in my heart for what would happen between and his father again. The next day, mum and her husband went out together, while I went my own separate way.

I came back quite early and had breakfast by myself, while arranging the pieces of thousands of shredded paper I got from our old home. I was able to do just three lines perfectly already, and it still needed about five more to make a complete paper.

I guess I was just good at academics and games, but not perfectly with words. Or, maybe I was intentionally hesitating because I wasn’t ready to find out what was in the paper yet.

Mum and her new husband didn’t come home till night, after I was done with my job and was home already Damien had not come home still, and it scared me a little bit.

‘What if he had gotten into an accident on the way, because he was too blinded by rage?’ I imagined, and quickly waded off my thoughts. They would have called from the hospital if something really did happen.

The next morning was just normal like someone had not come home the previous night, and I just made toast before leaving for school. Mum reminded me to be careful with the way I walked around because I didn’t have my glasses again, and I had to wait for the next two days to get an even better one.

She said taking the bus was going to be a hassle considering the fact I had been going with Damien before, and told me that I could take her car to school instead. I just snickered at the crazy assumption.

If only she knew.

It got me so nervous that I was going to be driving a car again after months of not trying, and it got me really scared. Maybe that wasn’t it. I was terrified of crossing Damien’s part if he came to school by chance.

I reminded her that my eyes weren’t doing good anyways, and she had to hasten up while I waited for her to take me to school by herself. It was much better and preferable.

Everything at school was normal, and I walked into the building after mum dropped me off miles away according to what I told her. I didn’t want anyone laughing at me if they saw my mum.

As I made my way through the hallway to class, I wasn’t seeing really clearly but was managing to walk. And approaching my opposite direction of walking, were familiar people that I couldn’t see their faces clearly. My mind told me it was Damien and his friends, but my sight was blurry from afar to see clearly.

Before I could turn to hide, a huge shoulder brushed roughly past my arm due to difference in height and I fell so hard immediately to my mortification in the hallway. I knew it was Damien. He came to school, and he was keeping his promise; Stay away from my lane.

“Are you blind?!” Was the next question that I heard.