Page 19 of My Favorite Girl

Returning to my own room, I take a shower and get dressed into jeans and a hoodie, dreading this upcoming party. I wait for Ally and Killian by the front door, shuffling the neon deck of cards Ally bought me for my birthday, trying to calm myself. I carry the deck around with me everywhere. It feels like holdingonto a piece of Ally, even when others are around. Whenever I’m stressed or frustrated after having an argument with my father, I shuffle the cards, thinking about Ally, and it calms me. It’s my most cherished possession.

Tonight, the cards do nothing to help soothe me. This party feels like the beginning of the end between me and Ally. She’ll find a guy she’s interested in. The only reason she hasn’t already found someone is because of that all-girls school she attends, and how she doesn’t socialize outside of school. There’ll be no more secret sleepovers where she sneaks into my bed. She won’t let me hold her when we’re in private.

A door upstairs opens, I hear footsteps, then Ally appears, descending the stairs. Blood rushes to my cock at the sight of her. My muscles clench and I realize I’m grinding my molars. She’s wearing a strapless white beach dress that hugs her tits in the most incredible way. The bottom is flowy and skims the floor, with a slit all the way to the top of her thigh.

“What the fuck are you wearing?” I glare at her. “Go back upstairs and get changed.”

She looks down at herself and shrugs. “What’s wrong with this? Killian said beach party. I’ve been wearing this dress all summer and you’ve never had an issue with it.”

“Every guy at the party will be hitting on you and trying to get into your pants, then later jerking off to the thought of you.”

Her lips twitch like she’s pleased by my response. I’ve never used such vulgar language around her, and I don’t think she’s opposed to it. “And that’s a problem, why?”

“Ally…”

Killian calls out to us from upstairs, asking if we’re ready to leave.

Before he joins us, Ally steps up to me, gazing into my eyes in a playfully innocent way that makes me forget my own name. The tiniest smile dances on her lips as she whispers, “I knowyou’re only trying to be a protective older brother, but I can handle myself. And besides, I wore this dress because I thoughtyoumight like it.” She walks by me, opening the front door and peeking back at me. “I only ever wear things I think you’ll like.”

Fuck.

My dick throbs, hearing her speak in such subtle ways that say so much. I hate that she’s my stepsister. So then why am I turned on by Ally referring to me as her big brother? We’ve been trying to ignore how we’re now family. It’s so unexpected that this innocent girl would be the one to mention our new sibling dynamic and make it sexual. Deep down, she really can’t be that innocent if this is her way of flirting with me. Having this new piece of knowledge about Ally makes me even more feral for her.

I follow Ally out to the front porch, the two of us alone for a moment, but not for long when I hear Killian’s footsteps down the staircase.

Taking my chance, I step up behind Ally, my hand on her stomach, and press her against my hard cock. A little gasp escapes her as I whisper in her ear. “I love your tits in that dress. You don’t leave my side tonight. Understand?”

She nods, and we instantly step away from each other before Killian sees us.

Chapter 9

Ally

The same evening, Saturday, August 20

Queen of Hearts

For a moment there, back on the porch of our beach house, Dan made me feel like his girlfriend when he pressed me against his dick and told me to stay by his side at the party. I loved the way he looked at me in my dress, like I was his, and how he wanted me to feel the effect I have on his body. I agreed to his words because being with Dan was the only place I wanted to be.

Now that we’re at the party, staying by Dan’s side is turning out to be my idea of hell.

It’s an emphasis on what I already knew but had been ignoring—that he acts differently around me. Everyone is throwing alcohol his way, questioning why he’s not drinking tonight or being the life of the party. Guys have started talking about “pussy” with Dan, being crude, and only shutting up when noticing me standing quietly beside him.

So many girls have run up and hugged Dan, blatantly flirting and sending him fuck-me eyes. He politely shuts them down, butif I weren’t here, I know he’d be into them. He’d take one of them to a bedroom upstairs where they’d have sex, and I’d have no right to be jealous because I’ve told him there’s nous.

The worst part about being here with Dan is when he introduces me to the girls, trying to involve me in conversation. The girls barely acknowledge me before they’re flirting with Dan again. It reminds me of the girls at school and how they don’t talk to me. How I have no friends.

Dan probably doesn’t want to be talking to me either right now. His social life is separated into two fragments—me and everyone else—and is intersecting right now, messing everything up for him. I’m interfering with his chances to party with his friends and hook up with girls.

To make matters worse, the music is too loud. I can feel its heavy bass pulsing through my entire body, and it makes me nauseous. There were too many people crowding the inside of the house, but even out here by the pool is no better. There are people all around us, drunk and bumping into me. Guys are shouting, being boisterous with their friends, cannonballing into the pool and splashing me.

A group of girls are talking to Dan by the pool’s edge, all wearing bikinis that barely cover their ass and breasts. I’m standing beside him not knowing what to say, looking like a loser. When I find a break in conversation, I take a chance, complimenting one of the girls on her hair, but another guy jumps into the pool and my voice isn’t heard.

The conversation continues and I feel like an idiot, growing bright red with embarrassment. I realize my teeth are grinding together and that I’m clutching my elbows. Every muscle in my body is tense and my breathing is growing more shallow by the second.

This is how it always starts.

My heart pumps faster, knowing what’s about to happen, and that I stupidly left my medication at the beach house. My God, I can’t have a panic attack at this party and not in front of Dan. He’s never witnessed one of my episodes before, and the thought of him seeing me like this is mortifying. It’s worse than him seeing how awkward I am around all these new people.

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