Alex slammed his bedroom door and slumped into his chair. His day had been ruined by yet another argument with his bitch of a step sister, Ashley. His dad and her mother had got together when he and Ashley were teenagers. He blamed that for why they had never got along, never having the chance to actually grow up as a family and instead being forced to put up with the arrogant bitch. She was two years younger than him, her twenty three and he twenty five and yet she had completed college and landed herself a job at a local law firm while Alex had dropped out of his media degree at college and got by doing free lance work online.
He groaned and started up his computer as he tried to ignore the noise of Ashley screaming to her mother about how much of a prick he was. He booted up his emails and messaging programs to see what work he had today. Occasionally he got jobs editing porn videos which made his day much more interesting but unfortunately that was not today. Instead he found a message with a link from his usual source of work and he groaned again. His usual source was a popular creator on a well known video hosting platform who had a huge following and paid well for Alex's editing skills. The only issue was he was an utter prick. Alex clicked the link and downloaded the raw footage he was expected to edit and loaded it into his editing software.
He hit play and was instantly greeted with the usual over the top introduction the guy always used. Alex couldn't help but smirk at that whenever he saw it. If the fans knew what this guy was really like they'd tune out in seconds but it was Alex's job to make sure they didn't see all the boring parts, the low energy boring bits that showed the guy really had no interest in what he was doing and was only in it for the money. Alex rolled his shoulders and began scrubbing through the footage, starting by chopping away any dead audio or boring parts. After almost two and a half hours he had finally done, cutting two hours of footage down to just twenty minutes of vaguely entertaining content. He hit render just as his bedroom door flew open. His step mother never knocked which had lead to a few awkward situations in the past but she never learned.
"You and Ashley need to start getting along" she snapped before Alex even had a chance to turn around. "I've just had two hours of her complaining about you and I'm sick of it. I know she is no angel either but if you're both going to be living at home and not finding your own places like the responsible adults you should be then you're going to have to get along. I have a friend who is a couples therapist and she's agreed to see you both in an hour so get ready and don't even think about arguing about it!"
With that she slammed the door and left Alex stunned and completely speechless. "Couples therapy? Like hell I'd ever want to be in a relationship with her" he thought to himself. He knew it wasn't worth arguing though, there were very few times he had heard Kate, his step mother, use that voice and knew there would be no getting out of this without facing severe consquences. He sighed and checked the progress of the render before heading of for a shower.
Sufficiently clean he went back to his room to email his finished work. He could hear Ashley complaining downstairs and losing an argument with her mother. She may be smart but that was a dumb idea, there was no way she was going to win. Alex got dressed and fired off the email before taking a deep breath and heading downstairs. Ashley scowled at him and stopped outside as Kate gave Alex the address. He followed Ashley outside and without saying a word they climbed into his car and he drove to the address. They arrived outside a very smart but stereotypical home. It had a white picket fence surrounding an immaculately tidy front law with a small stone path leading up to a small porch. They walked in silence and knocked on the door.
"This is stupid" Ashley complained, finally breaking the silence as footsteps approached the door from inside. The door opened before Alex had a chance to respond.
"Ah you must Alex and Ashley, come on inside I'm Sandra" an extremely attractive woman said as she greeted them and ushered them inside. Alex let Ashley go first and took the chance to study Sandra. She was not what he was expecting at all. She had a pair of yoga pants and some kind of sports top that Alex was sure had a specific name but he didn't know it. What he did know that while she was probably around 40 years of age she still had an extremely tight and toned body that her clothes clung to tightly. He quickly looked away and stepped inside after realizing Ashley had already gone in. Sandra guided them to a warm room with two large sofas facing one another. She sat down on one and gestured for Alex and Ashley to take the other which they did, sitting as far apart as possible.
"So Kate says you're having some trouble getting along" Sandra began.
"And? I never asked for a step brother and even if I had wanted one I wouldn't want a loser like him" Ashley snapped.
"Alex, do you have anything to say to that?" Sandra asked kindly, seemingly unphased by Ashley's outburst.
"Ditto really. Just because our parents are married doesn't mean we have to like each other" Alex replied.
"That is true but like it or not, you are family and yes, not all families get along but there is more than just you two involved here. I understand you both live at home?" She asked in the same gentle tone.
"I spend a lot of time at my boyfriends, Alex is the one always at home looking at porn on his computer" Ashley snapped.
"It's for work. I do freelance editing" Alex replied. While that was true not all the porn he watched was for work but that didn't need to be clarified to Sandra.
"And how are things with your boyfriend?" Sandra asked Ashley.
"Great, he's so sweet and kind. We have actually been talking about moving in together if he can find a new job. He was made redundant a couple of months ago and doesn't want to have to rely on me to get by. He has enough to cover his rent for a while but we agreed to wait on looking for a place together until he has work" she smiled, her tone suddenly completely different.
"And what about you Alex? Anyone special in your life?" Sandra asked.
"Only if you can call the whores on his computer special" Ashley interjected with a grin.
"No, no one at the moment" Alex replied, ignoring her comment. It wasn't that he struggled to get women, he just hadn't had much time recently. At six feet two inches tall he had the height and a decent amount of muscle to go with it. He had short brown hair and what more than one woman had described as rugged features. All that added to the fact he'd been blessed with a 9 inch cock made him more than a hit with the ladies when he wanted.
"Maybe if you met someone that could be something you two could bond over. Many siblings confide in one another about their relationships" Sandra suggested.
"Yeah like I'd ever trust him with anything to do with my relationship" Ashley snorted.
"Not like I'd want to hear anything about your relationship" Alex replied. Now that he thought about it he had never heard anything about her boyfriend. He knew they had met when she returned from college and that was it. Ashley never talked about any of her personal life, at least not in front of Alex. When she was at college he had wondered if it was because she was sleeping with half the campus. With her five foot four inch, skinny and toned frame coupled with her tight ass, that he never looked at, and 36DD breasts, he had seen the label of her bra in the wash once, and pristine blonde hair he knew she could have had her pick of any guy on campus. Not that he'd ever tell her that though.
They spent another hour talking about everything from relationships to their childhoods. Every avenue that Sandra tried to go down resulted in a snappy comment from Ashley or a defensive one from Alex. It soon became clear to Sandra that despite her best efforts this was going to take forever unless something drastic happened.
"I think that's enough for today" she finally said. "It's clear there's a lot of resentment between you two. Forgive me if this seems harsh but Ashley it seems to me you feel like Alex is a waste of space who's just skating by through life and Alex you feel like Ashley is arrogant and uptight. Those are rather negative and conflicting view points to have yet you both seem happy with your own situations. You should both try to see each other's point of view and build on that. I'm not saying you have to become best friends overnight but try and see things from each other's perspective and I will see you again next week" she smiled, signalling it was time to leave. Ashley got up like someone had set her on fire and practically ran to the door. They all said their goodbyes and Alex walked back to his car where Ashley was already waiting.
"Well that was a waste of time" she said as they set off back home. Alex had to agree, he didn't see that it had achieved anything. They drove home in silence and went straight to their own rooms, only coming out again when they went down for dinner. Kate tried to make conversation but with Alex's dad being away on a business trip it was a rather icy and quiet dinner. As soon as she as done Ashley left to go back to her room leaving Alex to wash the dishes. She returned a few minutes later, stating she was going to stay at her boyfriends for the night and promptly left. Alex returned to his room and spent the rest of the night playing video games until he collapsed into bed.