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

all that much.
    “And that was the first thing that popped
into your mind?” she demanded. “That’s terrible! Next time you have to lie and
you feel that it needs to be so absurd, tell her that your own mother is sick
and leave my mother out of it…at least then, you wouldn’t actually be too far
from telling her the truth.”
    I opened my mouth to retort, but then was
struck with a sense of anger and hurt. Now, it was I who could not believe what
Valerie was saying.   I felt my eyes
narrow as I glared at her. My breath became slightly heavier, before I answered
in a cold, hurt fashion, reflecting all of the terrible thoughts that were
rumbling around inside of my mind at the moment, “You know what really sucks?
The fact that if I tried to be so concerned for my own mother, she wouldn’t
have believed me. I care about you and I care about your mother. I used to think
that you both cared about me far more than either of my own parents did, but
the more this…whatever this is that keeps going on between us lasts, the more I
am starting to realize that this has nothing to do with you wanting me to come
home, or even…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it, but I was sure that the look
in my eyes gave it away. I peered at her intently, willing her to see me the
way that I saw her, but the look that I received back confirmed that I was not
that person to her and I probably never would be. “But lately, she is the only
one who is there for me. Like her or not, she is the only constant in my life.”
    At this, Valerie stepped back, as though I
had slapped her, and scoffed at me before saying, “You’re the one who left…and
if you remember, you’re the one who called it off the first time, so don’t try
to turn this all around on me and make me out to be this terrible person. I was
right…” She hissed, looking me up and down with a sense of disdain in her eyes.
“You are despicable.”
    With that, she turned around and began to
walk away. But after a moment and a sigh, through which I released all of my
aggravation and anger, I couldn’t bear to let her walk away from me like that
again. “Valerie, wait!” I ran after her. She turned around and stared at me, as
though she was trying to pierce me with laser vision and turn me to dust.
Still, I took solace in the fact that she had stopped.
    I knew then that I had a chance.
    “Wait…” I exclaimed again as I caught up
with her, sighing heavily. “I’m sorry.”
    “For what, exactly? It’s a pretty long
list.” She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at me, as
though to increase her concentration so that I would inevitably fall into a
pile of ash on the ground.
    Since I was still standing there, however,
I figured it hadn’t worked. “For everything. I know why you are upset about
what I said…and I am sorry that I hurt you. I was angry then. I didn’t realize
that I had hurt you…”
    “You didn’t care, either,” Valerie replied
earnestly, now making her eyes wide as she spoke.
    I nodded and after careful contemplation,
I replied, “You’re right. I didn’t care. That’s on me. When our parents
announced they were getting married, almost to the day, I was going to ask you
to go out with me. I knew that it was strange, being that our parents were
dating, but they had dated for years, so I figured that we had a shot of it not
actually being strange. By that point, I figured they were content in their
relationship and would never take the next step into making it official. I had
never thought that their status would change. They were always just…dating. So,
when they said that they were getting married and that we were going to be
living together as brother and sister, I was angry. Everything changed and
then, to make matters worse, even my relationship with my father changed and
that screwed up the whole dynamic.”
    She nodded, showing that she was listening
to me intently.
    “Therefore, I never told you how I felt
and