TEASE ( A Stepbrother Romance ) By Caitlin Daire

6

Chapter Six

Cade

Groaning under the heavy weights attached to each end of the bar I'd just picked up, I lifted it over my head, held it for ten seconds and then lowered it back down to the rack. Wiping sweat from my brow, I sat up on the bench, knowing I'd finally done enough bench press reps.

I'd done forty-five minutes of weight training now, and it was time for some HIIT-high intensity interval training. It involved doing multiple intervals of short, ultra-intense exercises, and it helped build and maintain cardiovascular fitness as well as burning off extra energy. It was important for me to utilize different workout methods to keep my body in tip-top shape, because football players didn't only need size and strength. We also needed speed, agility, and endurance, and doing a variety of workouts helped build all those things up. It also kept it from being boring; there was nothing worse than doing the exact same routine every single time.

As I did some explosive squat jumps, I thought about my earlier encounter with Charlotte in the hall. I'd been asked to show her where her new room was, and I'd tried to be nice to her, but as usual, she'd been so hostile that I couldn't help but bite back at her with a hostile comment of my own. Honestly, I had no idea what her problem with me was.

Sure, I'd teased her in elementary school, and maybe that made me a dick, but I'd been a fucking kid with a crush, that was all. I'd never done anything serious. I remembered chasing her around the playground a bit, and I also remembered doing dumb crap like leaving toy spiders on her desk or on her chair. Just stuff to get her attention. I'd also made up a rhyming nickname-Charlotte the Harlot. Yeah, that was an asshole move, but I'd been nine, and I hadn't even understood what the word 'harlot' really meant, and when I'd found out, I'd stopped calling her that.

I knew teasing a girl was a shitty way of letting her know I liked her, but fuck, I'd literally been a child. I didn't know jack-shit about getting girls to like me back then, and I'd honestly thought that if I got her attention by playing stupid tricks on her, she'd suddenly return my feelings.

But Charlotte acted like I'd done something far worse. I had no idea what I'd allegedly done aside from the silly harmless kiddy pranks; in fact, I distinctly remembered sticking up for her a lot whenever other kids tried to do anything. One time this bitch who was jealous of Charlotte's good grades played a really mean fucking prank on her. She left some sort of red sauce or syrup on her chair, and then one of my friends screamed out something about Charlotte getting her period when she sat in it. I wasn't proud of this next part, because violence wasn't exactly the best response, but I beat up that particular friend of mine during lunch that day for saying that shit, and whenever anyone else tried to mock Charlotte over it, I told them to get fucked as well.

It hadn't worked very well, despite my popularity and influence. Kids could be cruel, especially the young girls who acted like period stuff was shameful-as if it wasn't going to happen to them one day-and Charlotte pretty much became a loner after that. Her friends seemed to have abandoned her, and I didn't see her around much for the rest of the semester. I'd gone to the library to try and find her a few times, to see if she wanted to talk or hang out, but I'd never been able to find her.

A few months after that, Mom left, and Dad moved us all the way to Colorado, where he'd grown up. I had no idea what Charlotte's life had been like after that, but considering the way she'd yelled at me the other week in the hotel room, I guess it wasn't exactly great. That was shitty, and I felt bad for her.

But to actually blame me for all of it? That was bullshit.

She'd literally told me that I 'made her life hell', but was leaving the occasional prank mouse on her desk in the fourth grade really the equivalent of ruining her life? Hell, like I said earlier, I'd even tried to stand up for her multiple times. It wasn't my fault that other girl played that nasty prank on her in the seventh grade and spread ostracizing rumors, and I'd even done my part in trying to stop those bullshit rumors from going any further. So for her to act like I'd wrecked her whole life and treat me like shit was a bit of a slap in the face, and to tell the truth, I was surprised to see her act like that.