My Future Stepbrother

Chapter 92

To say Kallie was shocked to find out about me and Jayce would be an understatement but just as I expected, she treated me with nothing but kindness.

“What a bitch! You’re twice the woman she is but she wants to call you pathetic?” Kallie’s voice laced with venom as she spoke about my conversation with Brittany.

“It’s not entirely untrue. If I was watching someone like me be with someone like him, I’d think something was wrong too.” I respond, pulling blades of grass from the ground and tossing them back.

“Bitch please! You’re beautiful, intelligent, funny. Everything she isn’t and everything Jayce wants. Why do you do this to yourself?” Brie pulls me on to her so my head rests comfortably on her shelf of a chest.

“Yeah! And he clearly adores you, that boat date sounds like the cutest thing ever!” Kallie adds.

I smile. “Yeah, it was.”

We sit in the corner of the field surrounded by the large oak trees, blocking everyone else’s view of us. We just wanted to be alone.

“Oh shit.” I look to Kallie who is staring through the trees worriedly behind me. Me and Brie turn to see what’s wrong where we see Jayce and Chad walking past, with Brittany attempting to wrap herself around Jayce’s arm.

“OH HELL NO!” My body almost hits the ground as Brie springs to her feet from under me so quickly.

“Brie... wait...” But it’s too late.

Me and Kallie watch as Brie prowls across the field like a lioness about to devour a helpless gazelle.

Chad sees her coming and steps back but Jayce is in his own little world.

She grabs the back of Brittany’s cheerleader jacket and yanks her back so her ass hits the ground with such impact I swear I feel the after shock from here.

“BITCH! KEEP YOUR FILTHY LITTLE HANDS OFF HIM OR NEXT TIME I WILL STRANGLE YOU WITH YOUR OWN CHEAP HAIR EXTENSIONS!”

Brie isn’t playing, one time I saw her pull her shoes from her feet and attempt to stab her stiletto through a guys hand after he grabbed her arse at a party.

She turns to Jayce. “Dickhead, you’re with me.” She walks back this way and Jayce follows her obediently, probably terrified that any kind of resistance will result in her unlocking her jaw and swallowing him whole.

Chad is still standing there not knowing whether it’s safe to laugh yet and completely ignoring Brittany’s cries for his help.

As Brie sits back down next to me Jayce steps through the trees, his eyes coming to me and scanning my red, recently cried out, face.

“Shit Lee, what happened?”

He steps towards me when his eyes flash to Kallie and he stops. Brie spots his hesitation.

“Romeo, that ship has sailed, go hug your girlfriend.”

Jayce stops all hesitation and drops to the floor, pulling me into his lap. “What happened?” His hand holding my face to his chest as his chin rested on the back of my head.

Brie recants the whole story, with Kallie making a point of telling him how beautiful and amazing she thinks I am,  and how lucky he is to have me. She’s such a sweet soul trying to make me feel better.

“That fucking girl! You know nothing happened with us in the pool house right? I would never do that, especially with her.” I nod and he holds me so my head is buried into his neck. “You shouldn’t let her get to you princess, she doesn’t know what the fuck she’s talking about.”

“Damn right, that bitch don’t know shit.” Brie adds. “She’s just jealous she’d need twenty grand’s worth of implants to even get close to having an arse like yours. Maybe more now I just flattened it again.”

I laugh. Jayce places his hand under my chin and pulls gently for me to face him. His lips press into mine. “I love you. I’ve never loved anyone before I don’t plan to love anyone else again. It’s just you, it’s always been you.”

I kiss him again and we hear the bell go from the main building for the next class. Brie grabs hold of my hands, pulling me to my feet.

Jayce leans in and kisses the side of my neck quickly. “I’ll see you in Bio.”

He steps to go past Brie when he stops and looks at her slightly terrified. “Remind me to never get on the wrong side of you.”

She chuckles and cups his face. “Keep her safe and you never will.” As she plants a kiss on his cheek.

*********************

I really hate today. I’m trying not to let what I heard earlier get to me but it’s hard. Imagine all the worst things you think about yourself, then imagine the person you are most envious of in the world not only thinking them too but actually justifying why they’re better than you by using them.

The truth is, no matter how much I try, I’m never going to feel good enough to be with someone like him. He’s Jayce Thompson, I’m just Aleah.

I’ve zoned out for most of the day, I couldn’t even eat my lunch. Me. I couldn’t eat my food. The world is definitely doomed.

Kallie walks into Bio with me arm in arm, she doesn’t even let go until I’m planted into my seat.

“You need an escort now Ally?” Chad mocks before Kallie slaps the back of his head whilst walking back to her seat.

“Leave her alone, she’s had a rough day.” I smile at her and see Jayce finally walk in to join us.

“Sorry bellissima, I didn’t know, are you okay?” I nod and focus my eyes forward. Honestly, I just want to go home.

“Okay class, just a reminder that your projects are due a week today, there will be no do-over and no extensions. I don’t care how many of your grandmother’s die this week. Grab the team in front or behind you and compare notes. Make sure you haven’t forgotten anything,  then get on with it. Seven days and counting people.”

Like I needed reminding. Kallie and Jayce had finished ages ago, they’d got started straight away and apparently those few days where I avoided him like the plague before the house party were all they needed to finish the thing. Of course they were both just trying to get the work done. Neither of them were stuck dealing with Chad.

I looked through their completed project and the reality of how much we still had left hit me.

Kallie passed our half empty folder to Jayce to look at. “Oh this isn’t that bad, you probably don’t even need to meet up again, just one of you iron out the kinks.”

Kallie looked at him like he was from another planet, I realised when I told her about Jayce I didn’t tell her about Chad so she had no idea why he was acting like this. “Are you mad? They’ve got loads left to do! Even if they spent every spare second they have left over the next week they might still not finish!”

I slammed my head down onto the desk in front of me and left it there. I felt Kallie’s hand stroke the back of my hair but nothing was going to bring me comfort on such a crap day, although I appreciated the gesture.

I could feel Chad about to say something about how he’d like to spend our time together that would definitely piss off Jayce, so I swung my hand out to cover his mouth before he got the chance, all without even moving my head from the desk.

“Don’t say it Chad, I don’t know what it was going to be but I know I won’t like it so just shut it.” I could feel him smirk under my hand and I knew I was right to stop him.

Kallie started flicking through the pages of our project and got Jayce to take notes for a plan. As I rose my head from the table I felt Chad poke his tongue out of his mouth and draw a circle with the tip on my palm.

I was going to recoil in horror but I realised that Jayce would only lose his shit and it wasn’t worth it. I just lowered my hand slowly and glared at him instead.

Kallie helped me come up with a good plan of attack and I gave Chad a few things to do on his own, just the easy stuff he couldn’t fuck up too badly.

Jayce had to run to practice as soon as the bell rang but he shot me a wink before leaving that made my panties want to crawl right off my body.

“I’ve got practice tonight and Wednesday but I can do the rest of the week and Saturday before the party if we need it?” Chad professed shoving everything back into his bag.

“I’ll take whatever I can get. I’m practising with Brie all week, do you know where the dance studio is? It’s opposite that bar where they have the rodeo bull?” He smirked and nodded. “Well can you meet me there after? She’s only got the studio until 5 those days anyway. Or Brie can drop me to Kelly’s and you can meet me there?”

“I’ll pick you up at the studio, no worries.”

“Oh shit, not Friday, the competitions Friday, we can go straight from here.”

He nods.

“Oh and Saturday I’ll be at home, but Tara wants us out of the house before 11 so the cleaning people can come in, can you get me by then? Or I can go to Bries and you can get me from-”

His hands cup the sides of my face and my rambling ceased. “Ally, breathe. It’s fine, I’ll get you wherever whenever, we’ll get it done. Stop panicking.”

I take a deep breath. I was good at school usually, these last few weeks had just got me so unfocused. I hated the geek in me just couldn’t bare the idea of failing a class.

“Sorry, look just text me in the mornings okay? We’ll sort it out one day at a time.” I looked around to see the classroom empty already.

Chad lent down and kissed the top of my head. The movement immediately calming my nerves. I had a very sudden urge to wrap myself up in his sweet smelling cologne but I resisted.

“Talk to you in the morning.”

****************

Rehearsal was brutal. Cindy turned up and Brie had to tell her she wasn’t going to dance with them in the competition, she was pissed. I managed to defuse the situation somewhat but it was still draining.

I got most of my part of the individual bio project stuff done after and ate food quick. Dad had taken Jayce straight after food back to the old house to get some more work done. Granny and Brie were moving in Sunday and apparently Jayce had become quite the tools man.

I tried not to think about him, shirtless- jeans hanging low... wearing a tool belt... tiny beads of sweat running down his perfect abs as he hammers away at me.. I mean the wall. I mean hammers the wall.

You need Jesus Aleah.

I was passed out by the time he came home, stirred gently as I felt the bed next to me dip and lips meet the exposed skin of my shoulder.

He lowered the strap of my pyjama top and started to trail the kisses up my neck. I knew where this was going.

As much as I’d love to feel his hands on me, I’m practically unconscious right now and I definitely can’t give him my all. I just want to feel him close as I sleep.

“Jayce.... stop.... so tired...” I manage to yawn out. I can hear him chuckle behind me and turn to snuggle into him.

He bushes my hair from my face with his fingers. “Goodnight sleeping beauty.” and with that I fall blissfully asleep.

***************

I rise from my bed to see Jayce sitting at the edge. I look at his toned muscular back and smile. “Why are you all the way down there?” I ask trying to nudge him with my feet to turn around but he doesn’t.

I sit up. “Jayce?”

He finally stood and turned to me, his face contorted like he was trying to hold back a burning rage.

He threw my phone at me, last night it had been on charge on my bedside table, and it landed in my lap.

“You’ve got a text.”

He charged out of the room, slamming the bathroom door behind him.

I looked down at my screen to an unopened message from Chad.

‘Good morning my beautiful girl, where do you want me today? 😉’

Fuck.