My Step-Brothers

Chapter 40: Claire and Her Brother

E V A N N A

I woke up at 6, feeling refreshed and happy. This rarely happened, but for some reason, I felt okay. Well, I thought I did. As soon as I got off my bed, my right leg gave out and I fell onto the floor.

I stared at my right leg and saw a huge, nasty bruise forming. It was from when Jayden had kicked me yesterday. My right leg felt like it was on fire. It hurt that badly. Wincing, I got up and limped to my closet. I grabbed clothes and went to the bathroom.

I turned on the shower and went in after stripping. The water was hot and it felt nice to be in the hot water in cold weather. I hopped out of the shower after 10 minutes, wrapping towel around my hair and body. I put on my clothes and blow dried my hair.

I went out of the bathroom and made my bed. I grabbed my backpack and phone, and walked out of my room. As I was about to go down the stairs, I felt a push. I slipped on the first step and my ankle twisted at the third step. Luckily, I held onto the railing, so I just merely slipped. My head shot up and saw Jayden, glaring at me with resentment.

"Watch where you're going, bitch," he growled, going down past me.

I continued making my way down. Ethan gave me an awkward smile while placing a bowl of cereal. "You should, um, eat."

Ethan, Andrew, and Alex became nicer. It was really weird though. Most of the time, I would flinch or get scared whenever they talked to me. I didn't know what they expected. They've been abusing me for a while now, and all of the sudden they changed.

I didn't believe them at first. But, after I saw Alex punching Brandon, I started to believe that they would change. I still blamed myself for splitting the house apart, because technically, it was my fault...

I stared at the bowl in front of me. This was the first time he has done something like this. Was this a prank? A joke? Did he put something in it to humiliate me?

"It's not poisoned or anything," Ethan said, a tint of annoyance hinting at his voice. "Just eat it."

I didn't want to eat, to be honest. I wasn't hungry. I never ate breakfast. It was normal for me to skip it, and eat only lunch. It became part of my daily routine—eating either one, or no meal a day.

"Eat, or I'll force you," Ethan mumbled, sitting across from me. "I have to go to school soon. Hurry up."

"Sorry," I muttered, taking a spoonful of cereal.

It tasted like normal cereal. It was decent. As I went to take another spoonful, someone knocked the bowl sideways. Brandon watched in amusement as he smiled at me. "My bad."

The milk spilled all over my shirt and leggings, and Ethan stood up. "Dude."

"What? Oh, protecting her, I see? Why are you even doing that? She's not even our family. She's just a piece of shit that can-"

"Can you shut up?" Ethan asked.

"Nope," Brandon answered, plopping the p.

"It's fine, Ethan," I told him.

Obviously, it wasn't. If it was, would my heart feel like shattering into millions of pieces? If everything was fine, would I constantly feel like crying?