FOUR PEOPLE LEFT ALIVE, Carli had posted on the public Facebook page for the game.
Wow, four people. That means I’m one of them! I glanced down at the lifeline on my wrist, and tugged my sleeve over it to hide it. If I was going to die, I didn’t want it to be while I was held hostage in the Mu Beta’s living room.
There was a knock on their front door. Finally! I thought, exasperated and irritated, as the blond hunk in front of me got up to investigate. The men behind me had returned to their rooms, so I was all alone in their room.
Within seconds, I heard my blond captor talking in a hushed tone with whoever was at the door. He was so engaged with his conversation, that he hadn’t noticed the creaking of the opening window in the living room. I glanced behind me to meet Derek’s eyes. It felt incredibly silly, the fact that he knew that I was held captive here no matter how unseriously yet he had to find a roundabout way to fetch me. Regardless, I leapt out of my seat and rush for the window towards my stepbrother.
Without hesitation, he looped his arms around me and carried my body out of the window. Once we noticed that his friend was safely walking away from the Mu Beta Alpha house, we interlocked fingers and made a run for it.
We finally slowed down once we reached the lake. My heart immediately leapt at the sight of it, memories of what had happened the other night flooding me. Shyly, I glanced over at Derek to see if he was thinking the same thing, but I could tell from the look on his face.
His fingers slipped out of mine, and suddenly I felt strange and empty at the same time. Strange because it hadn’t occurred to me that we’d been holding hands the entire time; it had felt so natural that it just melded in with everything else that was going on. Empty because now that I’d lost what I didn’t know I had, I desperately wanted it back.
I picked up my pace to match his, pretending to ‘accidentally’ brush my fingers against his as my arms swung to see if he’d noticed. He didn’t.
Derek’s eyes were totally focused on the trail around the lake, like he was on a mission.
Daring to break the silence, I asked, “Uh, Derek, what had happened back there? And where are we going?”
He shook his head, as if snapping back into it. Smiling warmly at me, he said, “It’s a surprise. Sorry, I just don’t know if it’s…” My stepbrother crouched down beside a bush, moving some leaves out of the way. “Here,” he finished, pulling a wicker basket from the confinements of Mother Nature.
Curiously, I watched as he set the basket down on the ground near the lake. He took the lid off, and immediately started unloading a blanket, bottle of wine, and some Tupperware with snacks and treats inside.
“What’s all this?” I asked, not able to stop my grinning. It was incredibly adorable that Derek, of all people, had gone through this much trouble. For me!
It’s for me, right? It better be for me, otherwise I’d seriously have to kick his ass for getting my hopes up.
Sheepishly, he answered, “I felt bad for how we left things off on Friday, so I thought we could hang out.”
“Hang out?” With an incredibly romantic picnic by the lake? Also, yes! It’s for me!
“You want to hang out… don’t you?” He murmured, taking a step towards me as he brushed his knuckles gently on my cheek.
“I’d love to ‘hang out’,” I giggled, nuzzling my cheek on his hand without realizing it. After the way things ended last time, I had just been dying to pick up where we left off and get more of Derek. To get all of Derek.
Suddenly feeling awkward, I pulled away and helped spread the blanket on the grass. “Wine?”
Nodding, he reached into the basket to grab glasses that weren’t there. “Fuck. Damn it. I knew I was forgetting something!”
I followed his gaze to where he thought the wine glasses would be. Tenderly putting my hand on his, I said, “It’s okay. We can chug from the bottle.”
Derek laughed, a rich, hearty laugh from deep within his throat. It sent butterflies racing through my belly straight to my heart to know I was the one who made this gorgeous man laugh like that.
“You don’t mess around, do you?” he asked, his eyes still shining bright.
Batting my lashes at him dramatically, I responded, “Well, sir, desperate times..!”
His grin disappeared into a look of pure hunger, Derek’s lip twitching approvingly. “Sir?”
“Oh!” Blushing, I added, “I was just acting.”
“I know,” he responded huskily, “do it again.”
“Um, I don’t know what to say… sir?”
His mouth widened in an award-winning smile. “You’re so fucking cute, you know that?”
With a pounding heart, I gave him a small smile. “No?” How do you even respond to that?
“Come here,” he growled, as he looped an arm around my waist. With his other hand on my hip, he pulled me on top of him effortlessly. Instinctively, I brought my mouth down to meet his lips.
Hungrily, his mouth devoured mine. He worked his tongue and teeth, licking and gently tugging on my lips. Involuntarily, my body arched towards his, pressing my breasts into his hard chest as my arms wrapped themselves around his broad shoulders.
Groaning into my mouth, Derek’s hands stroked tingling circles into my back. His fingers traced zig-zags under my sweatshirt, all the way up to my bra strap. Just before I thought he was finally going to unclasp my bra, he pulled away, his voice thick with want. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me.” Raking a hand through his thick, dark hair, he looked at me earnestly.
“This is what I want,” I assured him, bringing his hands back to my body. “Believe me. This is what I’ve been waiting for.”
“I just don’t want to drag you into something you can’t get yourself out of…” he started, his pained voice trailing off.
“What do you mean?” Frowning, I slid off of his lap and sat beside him, getting started on opening the wine.
“Karla,” my stepbrother sighed sadly. “What do you think your mom or my dad would do if they found out? What would my fraternity do, your sorority?”
“We can keep it our secret,” I breathed, hopefully. Where’s he going with this? “You can’t possibly be asking that we stop already? Unless you’d given this zero thought, how could you possibly do that to me?”
My body fought back tears as I spoke, and I distracted myself by taking a healthy drink of the dry red wine.
Derek took my hand in both of his, his deep blue eyes full of concern. “Trust me, the last thing I could ever want is to hurt you or be away from you. I just want you to really think about this. There’s a good chance it won’t work out, and if it doesn’t… After we’ve… It’ll make it that much harder.”
With my eyes fixed on a daisy, I plucked each of its petals off as my stepbrother struggled with his words. Understanding, yet not wanting to understand. He loves me, he loves me not, a small voice counted with each pluck of the petal; that small voice the only thing calming me down.
“So, what do you want to do?” I finally asked, narrowing my eyes at my stepbrother.
It was so much easier being mad at him than torn by him. The part of me that had to grow up with him was convinced that he just changed his mind. That he thought it’d be fun to see if he could screw around with his stepsister, since he can have just about anyone else in the world. I’m the last one for him to cross off his bucket list. Congratulations, I wanted to shout at him. You’ve broken me, too, just like all of the other girls you’ve dated.
But he never even dated me. We were never together, he just used me and cast me aside. Just like that.
Blinking rapidly, I hadn’t even noticed that I’d started crying silently. Derek was talking to me, answering my question, but I wasn’t processing anything he was saying. I shook his hands off me and stood up, not wanting to spend another second with him. Not wanting to spend another second here. Within one quick week, I’d gone from thinking I’d finally found a place I belonged to absolutely hating
it here.
“Karla!” I could hear him call after me as I blindly stumbled back towards the sorority house.
I could hear girls giggling not too far from me, and I recognized one of the voices as Darcy’s.
“Are you sure he’s here?” A girly voice asked, I recognized it as one of our sisters.
Darcy replied, “Yeah, Max said he’d be hanging out by the lake for some reason. You don’t think I’m dressed too slutty for a casual stroll down the lake, do you?”
Both girls burst out laughing as they continued their trek to find my stepbrother. Find them, I thought bitterly. Sluts seem to be more his type anyway.
6
I swished my coffee around in my mug. My homework was spread all around the table I was seated at, a table large enough to fit six people. I was beyond caring, if someone wanted to sit next to me badly enough, they could ask. Nicely.
My eyes intermittently scanned the crowd of the small campus coffee shop, hopeful that I’d see a specific familiar face, but disappointed each time.
Checking my phone for notifications, it was no surprise that no one had messaged me. All of my friends were my sisters, and none of my sisters were talking to me. They had, of course, all taken Darcy’s side I assumed. Mostly because I hadn’t bothered pettily spouting rumors and hadn’t cared enough to clear the ones she had spread. I should’ve known better than thinking a sorority would be good for me.
My phone vibrated, and I snatched it back up off the table. Disappointment filled me when I read that it was just a mass message: Only three people left in the Spring 2015 game of Killer! Trust no one.
Who the fuck cares? I thought, rolling my eyes. I realized I hadn’t even bothered to check to see who my target was, and I was one of the finalists. Funny how that worked out. My fingers worked to go back several weeks in my inbox until I found that first email from Carli, and it read: Your target is DARCY SNAKE.
Typical, I thought bitterly.
Fuck it all, I’d finally had enough. Snatching my phone back up, I quickly dialed my mom. She picked up after three rings.
“Hel-lo?” she answered, her voice choking.
“Mom? Is everything okay?”
“Oh, honey,” she let out a silent sob.
Concern filled me. “I’m coming home,” I said firmly, determined as I gathered my papers and shoved them in my backpack, not caring if they all became crumpled in there.
“No!” My mom practically yelled it, and it made me stop half-paper-shove. “I mean… There’s just- It’s just-”
“Mom, just tell me what’s going on. Please!”
“We were waiting for the right time to tell you. It’s no surprise that Roderick and I fight all the time. (Roderick’s my stepdad.) We decided about a year ago that we weren’t right for each other but wanted to make sure that you were sent off to college before we did… We didn’t want anything interfering with your education--or Derek’s.”
“Wait. You guys broke up?” I almost spilled my mug of cold coffee.
“I’m staying with your Grandma Gemma right now, until we get all of the paperwork sorted.”
But Grandma Gemma’s all the way in Maine… I decided to not scold her for abandoning me in Arizona while she was on the other side of the country. Instead I softly asked, “Can I do anything to help?”
Apparently I couldn’t. We said our goodbyes and hung up with the promise that I’d fly over to Maine for the summer break at the very least.
Stunned, I slung my backpack over my shoulder and kept my head down as I left the coffee shop. I didn’t know who witnessed my phone call, and I didn’t want to know.
A strong arm gripped my bicep, and I almost elbowed the intruder in response after what happened in class on Tuesday. My lips parted when my eyes locked with the sapphire-eyed intruder’s: Derek’s.
“We need to talk,” he said, dragging me along with him.
“About what?” I asked, not caring who was around us or was listening.
“Not here.” My stepbrother’s voice was hushed as he led me to the alley behind the coffee shop.
“What did yo-”
“Shh,” he said, putting a finger to my lips as he glanced around. My tongue instinctively flickered out, tasting his index finger. Derek’s eyes shot back down to me, his eyebrow hiked in tentative amusement.
Our bodies were so close that I could feel his thickening shaft through his pants, and it was shooting fiery electricity through my veins. I fought the impulse to start grinding against him.
Within seconds, I heard it: the clack, clack, clack. Glancing up, I saw Darcy’s blonde head peer into the alleyway, her eyes locking onto mine before she rushed towards us.
“I knew it!” she shrieked, struggling with her phone pointing at us with one hand and a Sharpie in the other.
There are three people left, my mind worked. If I have Darcy, and she’s coming towards us with a Sharpie, then that means… She must’ve killed Derek’s last target, meaning she now has Derek.
Without thinking, I lunged towards her, swatting at the permanent marker out of her hand.
“You’re disgusting,” she spat at me. “I can’t believe I ever called you my sister.”
I rushed for the pen and Darcy followed suit, but I grabbed fistful of her long blonde hair and yanked her away from the pen before she could get to it.
“I can’t believe I ever called you human,” I responded with an icy coolness I didn’t know I had in me, but I knew my face showed her what I truly felt about her: disgust. Now that her face had twisted into an ugly grimace, it surprised me that I never realized how fake she was before this whole ordeal.
“Bitch!” she cried out, her hand going up to touch her head where I’d just pulled her hair.
I took her moment of confusion to charge her, pen outstretched, and I drew a huge X across her right cheek.
Startled, she held her cheek in her hand as if I’d slapped her.
“Now you look as ugly as you are,” I said. “By the way, you were my target and you’re dead.”
Without glancing back at her, I left the alley with Derek at my side.
“Your boyfriend’s my target,” she wailed.
But I already knew that.
7
We ended up at a study room in the library. Derek didn’t know about our parents, I knew he didn’t from the way he was acting, and I wanted to keep it that way until I knew how he truly felt. Was he playing with me or was there really more to it?
He booked the most secluded study room in the entire library, one that was separated by a storage room and a janitorial room, unlike all the other rooms that were mostly cramped together.
Once inside, Derek took a seat and I made sure to choose one across from him, not daring sit next to him because of the effect he has on me. I knew I couldn’t trust myself that close to him.
“I hate how things ended the other day,” he started.
“You mean with you telling me it wasn’t going to work out?” I couldn’t help it. I’d meant to bite my tongue, but the emotions were still so raw I just needed to lash out at him.
“That’s not what it was about. You didn’t even let me finish before you stormed off.” Exasperated, Derek raked his fingers through his dark hair. “Look, I’ve never had this problem before.”
“So I’m a problem now?”
“No. Can you stop twisting everything I say for two seconds? What I’m trying to tell you is that… Fuck, Karla, I’ve never had feelings for anyone like this before, okay? Normally girls I hook up with are just that: a hook-up. But you’re so much more than that, so I wanted to make sure I did everything right. I didn’t expect it to backfire so hard.”
My heart was pounding even as I stayed silent, though I was sure he could hear it. When he didn’t continue, I prodded hopefully, “So you’re saying you have feelings for me?”
“Yes, genius.”
Butterflies ran amuck in my belly. ‘Genius’ was our inside joke with each other since we
were teens--we’d say it when the other person clearly was not being a genius. I couldn’t help but grin, the sullen mood draining out of me.
“What does this mean? To you, I mean.”
I dared steal a glance at my stepbrother--my ex-stepbrother, I mean. He was intensely staring at his clenched fists before he raised his eyes to me. I knew whatever he had to say was tearing him up inside, and my heart dropped at the sight of it. He’s going to say it won’t work out, I could feel it in my bones.
But once again, Derek surprised me. “I’m dropping out of the brotherhood.”
My mouth dropped open, he loved his fraternity.
“It’s the only way,” he explained, but I had the feeling he was trying to explain it to himself. “While it’s not against the rules, I know what kind of strain it’d have on the frat if they found out one of their brothers was dating his stepsister.”
“They don’t have to find out,” I rushed, wanting to ease his pain. “I’m thinking of dropping the sorority and, hell, even out of university. No one would know who I am.”
Derek just shook his head sadly. “It wouldn’t matter. Your sisters still know who you are, and word would spread fast.”
My phone began vibrating again on the table. It was Amanda, president of the Tabbies.
“You should go,” Derek urged me.
“No, it doesn’t matter.” I’m so done with the Tabbies.
My ex-stepbrother looked at me like he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “It does matter. Don’t drop out, okay? I’ll figure out a way around this, I just wanted you to know that I’m trying my best to make this work. That I do care, in spite of what you think. Remember that.”
He looked so distraught, leaning into the table like he was going to tear it apart at any second. I wish he’d tear me apart. Whatever that meant. I meant it sexually, I decided. I knew that I wanted Derek’s incredibly sculpted body from years of wrestling.
I nodded at him, gathering my things. If I was being honest with myself, I knew that I needed time for myself, too, before we jumped into this life-changing decision.
Stepbrother Frat Page 3
