All characters are at least 18 years old. This is a non-canonical story related to the Family Morsel series.
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Drew
I wandered down the hallway, moving between classes as I thought back to yesterday. Cherry had called me an arrogant dickhead, and she wasn't exactly wrong. I had just never been in close proximity to somebody who was so bothered by it. Probably for the best to cut down on our interactions as much as possible, until we headed off to college. We were off to a poor start, and I was almost certain she was starting to hate me. It bothered me more than I expected. The only people whose opinion of me I cared about were people I cared about; everybody else could fuck off. So... did that now include Cherry? Weird.
And speak of the Devil, I was just passing her in the hallway. She was cornered against the lockers by Lauren, cunt extraordinaire, and her bitch friends. Being bullied again, most likely. None of my business. Didn't wanna butt in, especially if Cherry wanted nothing to do with me. Brie was sure to come along soon and stand up for her, and besides, what was I gonna do to Lauren? It wasn't like I could hit her or anything. Girls knew how to deal with girls best. But for some reason I stopped, lingering nearby to listen in. Very uncharacteristic of me, to say the least.
"So you finally have a mom, shrimp?" Lauren sneered. "Oh, sorry, stepmom. Bet you get the full movie experience and she makes you do all the chores, huh, Cinderella?"
"She's not my stepmom yet. They're not married," Cherry replied angrily. "And she's much nicer than that, she doesn't make me do anything."
"Probably because you're too useless to do anything," Lauren said with a scornful smirk, and her friends laughed as if cued. It was pretty repulsive how coordinated and fake they were.
Cherry grit her teeth. "I can do chores just fine--"
"How? Bet you can't even reach the shelves, midget." Ouch, the timing on that one. The girls exploded into laughter again as Cherry's lip quivered, angrily casting her gaze downward. I think... I think she was about to cry.
"You know that Cinderella eventually marries a prince, right?" I cut in, stunning the girls out of their cackling. "At least have your insults make sense, Jesus."
"Drew," Lauren said in greeting. "We were just encouraging Cherry. Although... now that you mention it, who would marry a washboard like her? Probably some disgusting perv, I imagine. Maybe they should hire her for To Catch a Predator or something."
Lauren hadn't maintained playing innocent for long. Fucking bitch just couldn't help herself. "Or maybe somebody will fall for who she is, ever consider that?" I returned flatly. Cherry looked up at me with wide eyes, and I made the mistake of making eye contact. A strange feeling ran through me, and I swallowed and turned back to Lauren, who scoffed.
"Who? You? The new stepbrother? That would be gross in a totally different way. Though I suppose that
would
be the only way she could make money, huh? Film herself being a deviant whore and upload it to the Internet. But then all your fans would get arrested!"
She burst into laughter again, leaving me fuming. I wasn't properly equipped to argue with her, as frustrating as it was. I moved to extricate Cherry from them, and they suddenly closed ranks around her. "Outta my way," I growled.
"My my, what's the hurry? You gonna go film your degeneracy right now? Wow, Drew, didn't know you--"
I shoved past them and put a hand on Cherry's upper back, guiding her out of their circle. "I'm getting my stepsister to class, you dumb bitch," I snapped. "If her dad catches wind that I'm letting her grades fall, he'll fucking skin me."
I didn't stick around for her response, pushing Cherry along until we were out of earshot. She stepped away from my hand and turned to me, her brow furrowed. "That was... She's gonna start spreading rumors about you now," she said urgently.
"You're welcome," I muttered bitterly, leaving her in the hall as I headed to my last class. On one hand, who gave a shit about some stupid rumors? On the other, I wasn't a fan of the word spreading to my friends that I was banging my stepsister on camera. Would they believe it? Stef wouldn't, but the guys on the team... They'd at least ask questions, which would be tedious. And then Cherry had immediately turned around and said that as if she hadn't wanted me to get her out of there. What was her problem? Like yeah, being bullied sucks, but at least don't be ungrateful when I tried to help. I'd helped, right?
I was still stewing in my thoughts after class, wondering if I'd actually made her situation worse, when one of the guys from the team lightly punched my arm.
"Yo, me and the guys are gonna play some ball," said DeShawn. "You in?"
"Sure, I could play."
It was a nice day, so we headed for the outdoor courts. The others were already there, and I left my schoolbag in a pile by the bleachers with the others before joining them. It had been a hot minute since we'd had a pick-up game, and thankfully my shoes and jeans offered enough maneuverability. A few spectators were gathering, including Stef and Brie. Stef always razzed me for playing basketball, but he was actually really supportive. I usually played small forward, so I was pretty good in pick-ups.
"Drew, the fuck you doin'? Pay attention and D him up!" DeShawn barked. Oh shit, I was playing like ass. In front of Brie, too. So strange, why was I distracted?
Cherry, dipshit.
God damn it, why was this getting so complicated?
We live together now, it is what it is, just leave it alone.
I focused on the game, and things were going pretty well until I glanced over at the twins and saw that Cherry had joined them. And she was watching me.
I slammed into somebody and was knocked off my feet. As I sat up, Marcus climbed to his feet and dusted himself off. "Dude, the fuck. You good, bruh?" he said, scowling.
"Yeah, my bad. I'm good." I got up as well, rubbing my scraped palms on my pants as my eyes found Cherry again. From this distance, I couldn't tell what her expression was exactly.
"You lucky the season's over," DeShawn commented. "C'mon, focus up and hustle."
Cherry was watching. I tried to put it out of my mind, and before I knew it, I was dunking on these fools. I was in the fucking zone, slipping past Marcus, making great passes, catching rebounds, nothing but net. I sank yet another two-pointer, earning praise from my teammates, and I checked back on my friends. They were clapping, including Cherry, who I could now tell had a small smile. I grinned and tipped my head up at her, and she faltered and... and squirmed a bit. Huh.
The heck was going on between us?
--
I closed a video discussing how everything was evolving into crabs, sighing and pinching the bridge of my nose. Sat in bed, watching stuff on my phone, debating whether it was time to sleep. It was late in my senior year, so we didn't even have any homework anymore. We were just running out the clock until graduation, really. I didn't even play video games as much anymore ever since Stef started dating his sister, which left me just watching stupid shit online most nights. Guess I could fap, I thought. Crank one out before bed and all that.