ked her door.

Sally did not speak. She did not have to. Of course, she was going to take him home because he was her stepbrother. This was, however, not her original plan because she did not want to have to talk to anyone on her ride home. It was her most peaceful time. Yet her stepbrother wanted to join her and possibly ruin her mood even more.

They both settled in the car as Sally started the car and pulled it out of the parking lot. This was going to be one long and awkward drive because Sally was not planning on saying a damn word. She drove along the long parking lot and started to turn towards the main exit when a car stopped in front of her making her slam on her brakes. Marco cursed as they both looked to see the same bunch of girls exit the car and stand there.

“Really, bitches? You want to ruin my day?” Sally asked reaching under her seat and pulling out a wheel spanner.

Marco stopped her and yanked the spanner out of her hands. “Let me deal with this,” he said, visibly angry at them.

He stepped outside, the spanner held in a way that the girls would not see easily. From the way he was speaking, it was clear that he was angry. Sally was in the car and could not hear what he was saying, but she could see their faces change from hate to more hatred. She watched Marco count to three with his fingers before the spanner materialized. Before any girl could say a word, the windscreen was already shattered. He moved to the driver’s window and aimed his spanner as the girls screamed.

Marco only needed to hit it once, and the window shattered like it had been made with the thinnest sheet of glass. He then menacingly moved towards the women, his eyes gleaming with anger. The screaming stopped as the women stepped back from his approaching frame. He said something to them and then walked back to the car and got in.

There was a brief silence as Sally thought about what had happened. She then started laughing she laughed so hard that tears started rolling down her cheeks.

“What the hell did you tell them?” Sally asked.

Marco bent down and pushed the spanner below his seat and took a deep breath. They watched as the woman got into the car and drove to the side so Sally could pass.

“I did not do a lot of talking. I just told them that if they ever bothered you again, I would do the same to their faces,” Marco said.

“You said that?” Sally asked. She was shocked. She could never believe that Marco had actually stood up for her if she had not seen it with her own two eyes.

“Yes, I know that they have been on your case for a long time. I have heard about it and honestly, people are tired of it. They are outdated, and should go home and not stand in the way of someone's success,” Marco said with a sigh.

There was a long silence in the car as Sally drove towards their home. Never before had she thought that the man would stand up for her? Hell, he had heard all that and decided to act? But why?” she wondered as a tear spilled down her cheek. She was starting to get emotional.

“That was very nice of you,” Sally said as the pulled into the parking lot.

Marco simply grunted and stepped out of the vehicle. He had other things to handle and being emotional with her was not one of them. His car had broken down and he needed to have it fixed.

He knew that there were repercussions that would follow with what he had done. He had let anger control him. But then again, he had stopped a bunch of stupid women from ruining the life of his sister. Sister, that word lingered in his mind as he walked to the house. He wondered whether he would ever see Sally as his sister.

The truth was there was nothing wrong with Sally. She was a cool girl even to hang out with. They did not hang out that much, however. The problem was that he thought she was the hottest chic he had ever seen and this canceled out the fact that their parents were married. They did not live most of their lives at home, but they were still married.

He had decided to stay away from Sally for a very long time. Ever since he watched her mesmerize the crowd in the pitch one day and wondered what it would feel to have her, he decided to keep away. The good thing about it was that their friendship had not grown to a point of Sally noticing. Or maybe she did notice but did not give a hoot. Marco did not want to think about that. He wanted to handle his car first.

He would then have to call his father and tell him what he had done. These were the repercussions Marco was talking about. His father would get angry, rant and rave before calming down. That period was the most dreaded because as much as Marc was a star player, his slate was never clean. There were just too many things he did that made him fall slightly off the mark that would allow him to be the perfect son. He also knew that he needed to talk to a few of his friends so they could tell what really happened. This would make sure that the administration was not so hard on him. After all, he was trying to stop them.

Sally, on the other hand, walked into the house and made her way straight to her room. She still could not believe that her stepbrother had actually stepped up for her. From what he had done, she was sure that she was going to be given a wide berth. No one was going to bother her. She would study and practice without the fear of being hated on. She hated the thought that she was being bullied because she believed that no one could bully her.

Sitting on her bed, Sally went through the day once more. She had probably done so about a thousand times from the moment he got into her car back in school. He had not talked about what would happen next and she did not want to think about what would happen. She knew, however, that things would get hot, both at home and in school. She wondered whether Marco was well prepared for whatever would come. This she decided that she could talk to him later when they were having dinner.

Their parents were not around. Most of their dinners were spent eating alone or together. Even when they ate together, they did not say much. Sally did not know why. She had a feeling that the man was avoiding her or outing some distance between them. She could not possibly think of why he would do that. Seated there on the bed, something told Sally that she should go ask him why he was always avoiding her yet ready to stand up for her. She wanted to know why he was acting like that.

Without doing anything else, Sally got to her feet and walked to her stepbrother’s room. For some reason, the man had picked one at the very end of the hallway, away from her. This was not what she had seen in her friends’ houses. But she was not ready to start asking questions. Marco seemed to want his privacy a lot. Sally had only gotten into his room one time since Marco moved in with his mother. Even then, she had not stayed for more than five minutes. She walked to the door and suddenly realized how nervous she was.

This made her laugh because she did not expect to be nervous in her house. She was in her stepbrother’s room for crying out loud. It was not as if she had a crush on him. She was about to knock the door when a voice from behind her asked what she wanted.

It was Marco and he had caught her so off guard that for a few seconds she could not think of what to say. Marco smiled at her and reached past her to open the door to his room.

“You still haven’t told me what you want,” he said, allowing her to get into his room.

Sally walked as if she was in a trance and stopped right in the middle of the room. She looked around the room and noticed how neat the guy was. This she knew because she had heard her stepmother comment about it. Sally was the untidy one.

“I wanted to thank you for standing up for me earlier,” Sally finally said.

Marco nodded and raised an eyebrow, “Okay, you are welcome,” he said.