STEPBROTHER: Bad Boy Blues (Taboo Romance) by Ora Wilde Page A

huh?”
     
    “Yeah,” I guiltily acknowledged.  “Sorry about that.”
     
    “It’s alright,” Wilfred calmly replied.  “He’s a jerk, though.”
     
    “Yeah, he is,” I agreed.
     
    Darwin and Chelsea didn’t come back to class that day.  I guess they needed some time to help each other cope up with what just happened, to learn from the mistakes that were made, to come out better from the unfortunate circumstances that they were involved in.
     
    It’s what lovers do, after all.
     

F or the longest time, I’ve tried to get some sleep that evening.  Since Saturday, I barely got any shut-eye as I spent my nights wallowing in ignominy, then in despair, then in anger... in that particular order.
     
    Then it happened.  I felt my consciousness drift as slumber claimed me under its warm embrace.  I needed that rest.  I needed the break from everything that has happened the past two weeks.  If luck will be on my side, I would even get to dream.  Nice dreams.  Happy dreams.  The type of dreams that I wouldn’t want to wake up from.  I could be a rock star adored by the masses, or a famous author whose works inspire countless lives, or a self-made artist who gets paid for doing what she enjoys.  I could dream about being somebody... anybody, actually... anybody other than myself.
     
    I’ve been through rough days and I most certainly deserved a beautiful trip to the land of dreaming.
     
    But lo and behold, I was even denied a good night’s sleep when I was yanked from the early minutes of my stupor by the sound of the front door slamming, followed by heavy footsteps going up the stairs.
     
    At first, I thought a burglar has broken into our house.
     
    But those footsteps... they were very familiar...
     
    Darwin has finally come home.
     
    Once I heard his bedroom door shut, I immediately got up from bed.  I was still in a state of daze, but it didn’t matter.  So many questions have been bugging me since the fateful night.  So many thoughts have been festering in my mind, none of which were pleasant.  I needed answers, and I needed them immediately.  It was the only chance I had.  God knows where he’ll be tomorrow or the next day.  But now he’s there, in the room next to mine, and I wouldn’t let that opportunity slip away.
     
    I darted out of my room and went to his.  I didn’t dare to knock, least I wake up our folks.  So I tried to check if his door was locked.  As I turned the knob, and I was surprised to discover that it wasn’t.  I slowly opened the door.
     
    I saw him by his window, looking out, smoking a cigarette.  He didn’t have a shirt on.  He was probably as ready for bed as I was a few minutes ago.  But I wouldn’t let him get off that easily.  I had to talk to him, and I had to talk to him right there and then.
     
    “Darwin?” I called him.
     
    He turned around and looked at me.  His eyes were sad.  He puffed on his cigarette, inhaled the smoke deeply, then blew it through the air making his room even smoggier.
     
    “What?” he asked with an irritated tone that I knew was artificial.
     
    “We need to talk,” I told him firmly.
     
    “About?”
     
    “About things.  About last Saturday.  About how you’ve been acting since then.  About us.”
     
    “About us?” he queried with a mocking laugh.  “What about us?”
     
    I tried to be strong.  I swear I did.  But his words... the way they sneered at me... the way they belittled the feelings we previously confessed to each other... the way he made me feel unwanted and stupid... they were too much to bear.  I felt my eyes swell and my nose clog up.  In a matter of seconds, I was sobbing.   I was crying so hard that the tears kept falling even if I tried my best to push them back.
     
    It was then when Darwin dropped his cloak of rude indifference.  His face was suddenly painted with a look of concern.  He threw his cigarette stick outside the window and he rushed towards me and he