The stepsister

7> Her room

It was already dawn and I had been up for a long time. I was supposed to get ready and go down to breakfast but I still hadn't worked up enough courage. All I did was look out the window trying to forget everything. Obviously in vain.

I left my room and went into the bathroom. I looked at myself in the mirror and the tears came out again. My neck was red, but just then Melanie walked in and closed the door. Good thing she wasn't my mother.

"What have I done to you to make you treat me like this?"

"You haven't done anything" Her voice sounded broken as if she had been crying "Last night it wasn't me"

"Yes you were! It was you! You tried to kill me..."

"No! I was just... out of control. I know I behaved like a monster but..."

"Go!" I interrupted her.

"Wait" She approached me and raised my head with her hand to look at my neck "I came because I wanted to know..."

"If you had broken my neck?" I jerked her hand away from her roughly.

"No, Jodie..."

"I'm fine. Now go away"

To my surprise Melanie obeyed. I looked at myself again and with a lot of makeup I managed to hide the marks. I went down to breakfast like any normal day but I couldn't hide the discomfort I felt inside.
The four of us were there. I barely looked at her, she instead, and unlike usual, she didn't stop doing it. Surely, it would show a lot how bad I felt because she wasn't the only one who did it. Actually, they were all doing it.

"What's the matter, darling?"

"It's just..." Melanie didn't take her eyes off me. She seemed very attentive to what I was going to say "it's the exam"

"What's the matter with it?" Paul asked.

"I'm especially nervous about this one. I do not know why..."

"You worry too much. You'll see how it works out for you" he smiled happily.

"Of course! I'm sure you've been studying all night" added my mother laughing "that's why you have that tired face"

"Yes..." I got up from the chair.

"Where are you going, darling? You have not eaten anything"

"I have a closed stomach"

I left there, entered the uni and sat exhausted. I had hardly slept. Kat came in next and sat down across from me.

"Jodie?"

"Hey? Hello"

"Are you on Earth?"

"Yes, I'm sorry, it's..."

"What's wrong?"

"The exam"

"Are you sure?" <Fuck, what a lynx!>

"Well, it's just that... my father puts a lot of pressure on me <Number 1 in excuses>.

"Oh, I understand. So that was it..."

"Yes"

Kat turned forward because the professor had already entered. I just wished she had believed me since she was too perceptive sometimes.
I took the test and nothing went wrong. I reluctantly attended the other classes and the day ended. In part I was happy because there were no exams until the following week and the classes that were left to teach were not very important. So I thought I'd stay home for the rest of the week to calm down a bit. I know my mother would be fine with it. What's more, if it were up to her, I would never go.

I arrived at my sweet home and fell on my bed. The door to my room was ajar so I could hear perfectly how someone closed the door to Melanie's room and walked down the hall.

I know that after what has happened it is absurd to risk it like that, but sometimes curiosity gets the best of me. I went out into the hallway looking around to make sure no one was there and went to her door. I thought she would have just gotten out so it was the perfect time to go into her room and see if I can find out anything else about her.

I opened the door a little but someone pushed me against the wall and closed the door immediately.
Yes, it was her. She had caught me. Just what I needed, for her to be angry with me again. This time she wasn't angry or furious. She just looked at me seriously.
She slowly approached me. She did it so much that I could feel her body very close to mine. My breathing was very fast and I was very nervous. Not only because of fear but because of having her so close to me. My chest burned and a very intense heat took over a much lower part of my body.
I don't know what all those feelings came from. The point is that Melanie had caught me trying to open her room and I, meanwhile, thinking about kissing her.