Page 65 of Aftertaste

A. A. Davies

Faking It

Thalia

I wasn’t a stranger to acting like someone that I wasn’t. In public I made sure I was seen as the life of the party, the girl who didn’t have a single care in this world.

But it was a façade.

One I’d perfected since before I could remember.

From the moment I stepped out of the front door to my house, I fit my mask in place, pushed my shoulders back, and pretended the horrors that lived inside the brick building weren’t there.

And for hours during the day while I was at school, I’d forget about all it—as much as I could anyway. But it was the seconds as I pulled into my driveway that were always the worst. I could feel the prickly feeling traveling over my skin, as if I was being watched. The turning of my stomach warned me not to go inside, and my sweaty palms tried to stop me from opening my car door.

I didn’t have a choice though. It was the only place I had—the only family I knew.

Today wasn’t any different. His sparkling black car sat at an angle in the driveway, the first signal that he was home. I knew I only had seconds until the front door would open and his face would appear. The threat loomed clear as day, yet I couldn’t bring myself to get out of my car today. Something told me to stay put, to be out of the house for as long as I could until the inevitable would happen.

My hands started to shake, my breaths coming faster the longer I stared at the white door and gold handle, waiting for it to turn. I wished someone else was home, but in the back of my mind, I knew it wouldn’t have made an inch of difference.

Not to him.

Not to my brother.

Not to Dale.

My mom was too busy making sure she was superior to her friends, searching for the most expensive, random item on the internet. And Dad…he was a workaholic, trying to keep my mom in her favorite designer clothes and shoes, while also living his double life with his girlfriend fifteen years younger than him.

It was their fault that they didn’t pay attention. They hadn’t from the moment my dad’s first son moved into the house six years ago. Before then I’d been part of the family, the apple of my parents’ eye.

Dale had turned up on our doorstep with my father and I’d gone and hid in my bedroom, acting like I wasn’t listening to my mom screaming at my dad. But I had been. I’d heard every word of what they’d said, and so had Dale. He’d been sixteen at the time, a teenager with mood swings to match, but he’d paid attention to me when my mom slipped into a depression. A depression resolved by spending money.

It hadn’t taken long for my mom to get drunk one night and tell me all about how my dad had beenfucking everything in sight. Her words, not mine. They’d meant to have been high school sweethearts, so for me to suddenly have an older brother didn’t make sense, not to my twelve-year-old brain.

It was that moment that changed all of our lives. Dale had gotten into trouble, so his mom had shipped him to here. My mom focused on herself and barely spoke to my dad, and after a year of trying, my dad gave up, deciding that starting a new life was easier. At least then he could have the best of both worlds, right?

And me…

At first it had been okay. It was nice to suddenly no longer be an only child. The first year had been fine. Me and Dale got to know each other. He spent most of his time at home when he wasn’t at school, so naturally we got close.

But it was as I got older—developed more—that his interest turned. It started innocently, a hug here and there. Those turned into longer ones, then by the time I was fourteen, he’d lie in bed next to me, his front to my back.

I shivered as I remembered feeling his erection against my ass for the first time.

Fuck. I couldn’t go there.

I shook my head, trying to dispel the thoughts, but it wasn’t any use. I knew as soon as I crossed that threshold, he’d want something from me. I’d kept him at bay for nearly a week now, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to forever.

The door handle turned, and my breath caught in the back of my throat. Any second now his face would appear, and I’d have no choice but to go inside. To satehisneeds yet again. That was the only silver lining to my entire world inside that house. It was all about him. All about making him happy. It was a relief he hadn’t wanted more than that, not yet anyway. But as his face appeared, his dark eyes connecting with mine right away, I knew it would be coming.

Maybe that was why I dreaded coming home more and more, because I knew what my future held. A future I had no way of stopping.

Dale leaned against the door frame; his brow raised. He hadn’t changed much since he was sixteen. He’d gotten taller and a little wider, but his face was still the same—dark and foreboding.

He crooked his finger, and my body moved on automatic, knowing if I didn’t do as he said, it could be so much worse for me. The last time I’d tried to stop it, he’d shoved his cock so far down my throat he’d split the edges of my lips. They’d taken way too long to heal, and every time I made a single movement with my mouth, they split apart again, a wound that seemed to never heal.

Just like me.

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