The Stepbrother

It's Impossible

It got a little weird after that. John looked at Morgan, and Morgan looked at John, and Andie was sent off to wash her face and cool off, which she greatly appreciated. She found herself relishing in being gently ordered about. In her mind, it meant that the people around her cared.

However, Andie wasn't so foolish not to see that John had sent her elsewhere so he could hound Morgan on what she meant by the very last thing she had said.

Standing in the bathroom, slowly wiping a cold damp cloth over her tear-stained cheeks while she stared at her haunted reflection in the mirror, Andie regretted having said anything at all. She was in no position to suggest that Eric wasn't taking care of her. He kept food in the fridge, and he cooked more meals for them than she did. He also had their laundry done more often than she did. And if he wanted to, he could ship her off to leave with her aunt. In his father's will it was perfectly within his right to pass her down to the next relative on the list if he felt he was unable to care for her.

Why he hadn't done that already, Andie didn't know.

"Andie?" A knock sounded on the door and Andie recognized the voice as Morgan's.

"Come in," she called, and Morgan joined her in the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

"You OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Andie smiled apologetically. "Sorry about crying like that. I feel ridiculous."

"No, please don't feel ridiculous." Morgan rubbed her friend's back soothingly. "I kind of explained to John that you've just been missing your mom and that his parent-like lecture probably soothed you some."

Andie laughed bitterly. "Yeah, I guess that's what happened... Maybe I should go apologize to him."

"Don't, it's totally unnecessary. He gets it, really. Did you actually know that he and Eric are friends?"

"Yeah, from school, right?"

Morgan nodded. "They still see each other some nights when they go out. I didn't know that."

"I didn't either." Andie shook her head, surprised. "I'm glad they're friends though. Maybe now he won't mind that I've come here instead of going home."

"Did he want you to come home directly after school or something?"

"No, I just don't know what he was expecting after last night..." she mumbled with a shrug. "I guess I could have texted him to let him know where I am, but... he hasn't texted either, so..." Andie shrugged again.

"Well," Morgan sighed. "Don't worry about it for now. Let's go upstairs. John wants me to study and I told him that's why you were here, so we could study together." She rolled her eyes and Andie stifled a laugh at her friend's irritation for her father-like brother. "He said that if he hears us goofing around then we have to come downstairs and study at the table where he can see us."

"So, we'll just goof around quietly," Andie suggested with a wicked grin, and the two exited the bathroom arm in arm and made their way upstairs to Morgan's bedroom where Andie had the intense desire to do as John told them and study.

Morgan was less willing to listen to her brother however, and within fifteen minutes of going upstairs, they were being ordered back down where they would study in front of John.

Andie had been there for a couple of hours when she noticed the sun starting to sink below the horizon. That's when John started dinner in the kitchen and Andie thought that might be her cue to leave.

But just as she was closing her notebook and capping her pen, a knock to the front door brought everyone's attention up and towards the door.

"I'll get it," John announced, wiping his hands on a white dish towel and casually striding towards the door.