Page 2 of Burn With Me

When he visits me, I can imagine I’m somewhere far away. In another part of the world where what’s happening to me can’t happen there.

Sometimes, we’ll play on a playground or run through the sand on a beach. Once, we went on an Arctic expedition andplayed with some penguins. But for all the months I’ve been imagining him, I’ve never given him a name. And he’s never offered me one.

He’s just…my stranger.

Age 14

“God, your sister is fucking hot, dude,” Richard Barnes says as he openly stares at me from where he and Chris are throwing a football back and forth in the pool.

It’s the end of summer, and the sun is scorching. Mr. and Mrs. Calloway are hosting a pool party barbeque, so I’m in a bathing suit, reading a book in a chair as I dry off from a swim.

“She’s not my fucking sister. Don’t call her that,” Chris snaps back at him before turning his dark eyes to my figure.

I’m wearing sunglasses, so they can’t tell that I’m watching them. But somehow, I think Chris knows anyway.

“If you don’t think of her as a sister, then why’d you tell the whole football team that if anyone goes near her next year, you’ll kill them? Screams big bro energy to me, dude.”

Hearing what Richard says doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. It isn’t because he thinks of me as a little sister. It’s because he thinks of me ashis.

Every night, his shadow shows up at my door, and I curl in on myself, wondering if it will be the night he finally takes what he thinks belongs to him. He’s about to head off to New York for his first year of college in a few days, and he’s warned off every boy in school from ever pursuing me romantically.

Everyone thinks he’s just being a protective big brother.

But big brothers aren’t supposed to put their hands on you.

They aren’t supposed to sneak into your room and peel off your blanket. Touch you over your clothes while they touch themselves. I stopped pretending to be asleep a long time ago once he told me he knew I was awake.

All I do is stare at a spot on the ceiling and imagine that it’s my stranger touching me instead. Because no matter how unwelcome Chris’ touch is, my body reacts to it, so he thinks I like it. It’s confusing for us both, I guess. He’s started to say dirty things while he touches me. Things that make my body feel tingly all over. I don’t like it. But it makes my body feel good.

I’m ashamed of it.

It’s disgusting, and wrong, and Ihatehim for it.

But his parents treat me like I’m their own even though they won’t adopt me because Chris asked them not to.

Because in his fucked up brain, he thinks if they do, it will solidify that what he’s doing is wrong. That as long as we don’t share a last name, it validates his actions.

Chris sends me a look that tells me to expect his presence tonight. “None of those fuckwads even know what to do with their dicks. The last thing my parents need is a teenage pregnancy scandal. They don’t need to take care of another stray.”

His words send ire through my veins. I clench my teeth and flip a page to make it look like I’m not paying attention.

Tonight, thisstrayis going to bite back.

I’m sitting on my bed when Chris walks in around midnight. My bedside lamp is on, casting a glow over the room as I read, and I look up to see him freeze for a moment before silently shutting the door behind him.

“What are you doing?” he asks.

“What areyoudoing?” I challenge, turning my attention back to my book.

Powerfulwould be the way to describe how I feel right now, but when I glance at him, that feeling turns to lead in my stomach. His lips turn up in a grin as he runs a hand through his dark hair and continues to walk closer to my bed.

Swallowing, I place my bookmark in the book and set it on my nightstand before swinging my legs over the side of the bed and fixing him with a mean glare. “Go away, Chris.”

Faster than I can blink, he knocks me back, covering my mouth with one hand while the other holds my wrists. He’s straddling my waist, and as I start to struggle, I can feel that it’s making him hard.

“Do you think just because I’m leaving for school, that means you’re going to be rid of me, Ginny?” He leans down so that his lips rest against my ear. “Maybe I should give you something to think about until I come back at winter break.”

His hips press into mine, and tears prick my eyes as he starts to rub against me. Shouting against his hand, I begin to thrash my body against his, trying to throw him off me, but he’s much stronger than I am. Chris laughs as his hips keep rolling against me, his penis rubbing between my legs and causing a sensation that I fight against with every fiber of my being.

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