Stepbrother Bestie (A Stepbrother Romance Novel) by Alycia Taylor Page A

from her eye and my heart melted.
“What’s wrong?”
    “I’m sorry…” she said, roughly swiping the
tear away. “I just went through the same thing with my mother and sister…I just
don’t want to have to watch you do the same thing. I dealt with their abuse for
years, until I realized I had enough and moved in with my dad.”
    Now, I couldn’t help but feel bad for her,
So, instead of being angry, I placed my arms around her and brought her closer
to me. “I’m sorry…” I answered, now feeling terrible.
    “It wasn’t until I started living with my
father that I truly understood the extent of what they were doing. I saw the
same thing happen to you with your family and so…that’s why I pressed you to
move out. I thought it would be good to get away from everyone and hopefully,
see what I see…” She sniffled, now actively crying. “I’m just trying to help
you.”
    “I’m sorry…” I said again and kissed her
lips gingerly. “I know you are only trying to help.” She nodded as I added, “I
shouldn’t have said anything…Can we just forget about it.”
    “Okay,” she said carefully, before she
eased her head onto my shoulder and began to settle down.
    As we went back to watching television
though, I couldn’t help but think about what she had said and wonder about it
in relation to my own life.
    Was
that all true? I thought, knowing next to nothing about
her family.   Is that what is happening with me?
    I had thought that trying to talk this out
with Dalilah would make me feel better, or perhaps give me some clarity; but in
reality, it just made everything far more confusing.
    I had no idea where to go from here and I
found myself wishing, of all people, that I could talk to Valerie. However, I
quickly put the thought out of my head and went on to think about other
things.  

 
    Chapter
11
    Valerie

 
    The rest of the week went by fairly fast.
Everything seemed to be going well. Even though the week had started out rough,
thanks to Zachary and his thoughtful flowers, I was feeling much better.
    Even though I did have to see Shawn at
school, I was happy to ignore him, as he seemed just as happy to do the same. At
lunch, I just sat outside, away from everyone, so that neither of us ended up
feeling uncomfortable.
    It was true, I didn’t want to deal with
Shawn after our terrible ordeal the other day any more than he made it
abundantly clear that he didn’t want to deal with me.
    Seeing Shawn, passing by in the hallway or
out of the corner of my eye at lunch, did still hurt. After what had happened
between us and all of the history that he was no longer interested in
prolonging, the thought of him made me incredibly sad.
    Part of me wanted to figure out a way to
make it all right, but part of me just wanted to put our relationship behind me
and move forward. It wasn’t like I didn’t have my own friends and my own life.
I certainly didn’t need Shawn, but that didn’t stop me from missing him.
    The weekend that we had just spent
together had put a lot in perspective and it had made me realize just how much
I missed sharing such an open and honest relationship with him. Therefore, his
flat out rejection, after I truly felt that he might have come to the same
conclusion, was disheartening.
    However, even though ignoring him did not
ease the longing that I felt for things to go back the way they used to be for
us, it did discourage any further hurt.
    I almost couldn’t believe how much his
words had wounded me. In truth, I had expected a completely different outcome
from what I received and so, I was disappointed, in addition to having to deal
with Shawn’s blatant disregard for my feelings.
    Yet, by ignoring the situation it helped
me to try and move past it, at least as much as I possibly could.
    I spent even more time than normal with
Zachary for the next week, which he was happy about. Of course, I enjoyed
spending time with him, but my ulterior motive was something a little