Stepbrother (Sequel to Stockholm Syndrome)

48

"How was the grocery store?" Luke's deep voice rang out from the upper level of the house as I walked in the front door, plastic bags in hand.

"Oh, it was fine," I replied, my voice shaking a little.

I had lied to Luke and told him I was just going grocery shopping. Instead, I had gone to three different locations, two for job interviews, and another to put in a resume. Then I had hit the grocery store on the way back as a cover.

"Seems like you would've come home with a lot more than that for how long you were out." He said, cocking his eyebrows at the three half-filled bags wrapped around my hand.

"Really?" I tried to play dumb. "How long was gone?" I asked.

"Two hours and forty-seven minutes." He replied. Both of us were quiet for a moment, reviewing how specific he was; that meant he was concerned about me being out alone.

"I also went to the library." I tried.

"Madeline, your voice is shaking. Since when do you lie about where you've gone?" He murmured. I looked away. He'd been talking to me from the top of the stairs, and as he continued, he swiftly made his way down the steps and closer to me. "What, did you go out with Travis or something? You don't have to keep that from me," He started. "I don't –"

"I went to a couple of job interviews." I cut him off. If I'd let him continue, he would have run through hundreds of possibilities of why I wasn't telling him the truth. He immediately stopped talking and bit his lip, hard.

"Madeline, why?"

"I want to be able to support myself," I spoke quietly, wary of angering him further than I knew I already had.

Not one to overshow emotion, the white around Luke's fingers as he gripped the edge of the counter tighter was enough to warn me that the news had upset him. I took a couple of steps closer to the fridge – away from him – and stared up at him, waiting to see what he was going to say.

"I told you there weren't any issues with my paying for you." He said quietly.

"No issues for you, maybe," I responded. "Luke, I couldn't be more grateful for the way you've supported me, but I have to know that I can support myself."

"Why?"

"I'm tired of being dependent on someone else!" I replied. "I was forced to depend on my dad even though he beat me. Then I was dependent solely on my grandmother allowing me to stay with her when I ran away. And now it's you. I'm nineteen now. It's time I earn my keep." I rambled, exasperated. Luke let out a long breath he seemed to have been holding in.

"I have to take care of you, Madeline. Please, you have to let me."

"No." I took no pleasure in refusing Luke, because the look in his eye after I rejected him, was enough to send tears into my own.

"We'll have to continue this conversation later," Luke responded. Then he added on quietly, under his breath, "I need a smoke."