Almost Stepbrother

Prologue

 Prologue

I shuffled through the stack of brochures and acceptance letters from the colleges I've received since senior year started and situated them from the farthest through the closest. Realizing I've been looking at them since I got home, I shoved them all into three piles, unorganized, and let a long sigh escaped my lips.

"This is impossible," I mumbled and placed my face in my hands, tempted to scream.

"What's impossible hun?" my mom asked, causing me to jump out of my skin.

"Mom!" I looked over my shoulder and saw my mom laughing at her attempt of silently but only to let that little rumble turn into a roar of laughter.

"I'm sorry for scaring you my Kallie girl," she kissed the top of my head before picking one of the colleges and flipping through the pages, "Huh," she scanned through it. I watched her cautiously. Stanford University, one of the far ones,"Stanford pretty far, expensive too," she responded while wiping her brow.

"I'd go full ride if you read a little further," I stood next to her scanning it to show her.

"You're gonna leave me all alone?"

Oh no, here's the guilt trip, "Mom, it's not like I wouldn't come visit. And remember dad and you wanted to visit California. You know, see the Hollywood sign, and other California stuff tourists go and see," I cringed at the fact I brought up my dad especially to try to buy my way out of staying close.

"Hollywood walk of fame, Santa Monica Pier, Golden State Bridge, Full House house, shall I go on Kallie?" she asked.

"No, I think I got it," I said looking down at the stacks again.

"Also your father was the only reason I'd even go to California but after he left, I just don't have the heart to do it anymore."

The subject of my dad is a touchy subject to my mom but in my opinion it's the one I want to talk about considering there was no warning about their separation. I remember coming home and he was gone, he wiped himself out of existence and three months later my mom signed divorice papers and that was the end of my father. He left my freshman year and it was really hard for me to accept that he was gone so I got into things and one thing led to another and now I'm getting accepted into the toughest colleges which I often wonder about.

"Enough about him though huh? While coming home from the hospital Matt called and asked if we were able to do a family dinner, what do you think hun?" She squeezed my shoulders in a loving manner.

After a year of Matt and my mom dating I never once had a family dinner with him and her because I was so busy trying to keep up my grades and as well spend time with my friends and boyfriend. Plus I never saw this to me as a serious relationship, to me it was just her having fun.

"Doesn't that sound a little like he wants to marry you?" I laughed and looked over at her.

Her face changed into a much more serious tone. "Kailen, honey," She sat down.

Uh-oh, she used my name.

"There's been something that I wanted to talk to you about."

"Mom you can't marry the guy," I looked at her lost in what she was thinking.

"I love him, and I think it would be a good transition. No matter how much you try to persuade me that you'll come home for the holidays, it's the months that will become lonely and I don't want to spend the rest of my life regretting that I didn't get remarried."

"Mom, I want you to be happy but you're still not over dad leaving," I wanted her to change her mind, for the both of us.

"Kallie, maybe it's you that doesn't want to let it go. Four years ago I could kill the man because he made me so angry, but now it just hurts that you lost your father figure. Kallie just think about it, could you? I don't want to be alone the rest of my life," she stared at me with the hope she lost after dad left.