Page 4 of Deny Me

“You heard me, Mason,” he says with a smirk as I turn my head slowly to look at him. He doesn’t look fazed in the slightest, and the oddest sensation comes over me. It’s not jealousy, like it is with anyone else that so much as looks at her. It’s… I’m not sure, but I know that it’s fucking weird that I don’t want to bash my brother’s brains out for touching her.

“You need to tell me what the fuck happened, right now,” I demand, stalking to the kitchen and making a strong coffee, because it’s way too early to drink anything stronger.

ChapterFive

GABRIELLE

I slam my locker shut after getting the books I need for my next few lessons, but I already know that I’m not going to take in anything today. My mind is too fucked to worry about fucking numbers and equations and shit.

“Damn, girl, what’s wrong with you?” my best friend, Tasha, says as she looks at me in alarm.

“My fucking brothers,” I say as I drop my head to the locker for a second.

“Uh oh, what have they done now?” she asks as she leans against the locker next to me.

“They just infuriate the shit out of me,” I say angrily, turning and huffing as I hug my books to my chest tightly. “I mean, why can’t they just leave me alone and let me get on with my life?”

“Because they’ve always been overprotective of you, ever since your dad married their mum,” she points out, as if I need reminding how very fucked-up it is that I’ve shagged one of them and kissed the other.

With a huff, I make my way to my first class, Tasha following me because we have the same schedule. “I just… I wish they would give me some space, you know? Room to just fucking breathe.”

She laughs to herself, and I glare at her as we enter the classroom and take our seats. “Please, those guys are never going to stop being the way they are with you. Hell, if they weren’t your brothers, I’d swear you were fucking them both.”

Her joke makes her laugh, and after a momentary pause, I force myself to act normal, which for me is to grimace at the thought, but really, she’s right on the fucking money.

The teacher walks in, saving me from having to speak about this any further, and Tasha’s comment solidifying how truly fucked-up my relationships with my stepbrothers are.

* * *

“Hey, sweetie,” my dad says as I answer his call when I pull onto the driveway, grateful for the distraction from having to walk in there, even if it is only for a few minutes.

“Hey, Dad. How’s the trip?” I ask, wishing that I could be on the trip with them, to be well away from Mason and Jared.

“It’s great, got a little sunburnt, though.”

I roll my eyes, because my dad loves the sun but is crap at using sunscreen, and I’m sure my stepmother was too busy sunning herself to notice him colouring up like a lobster. He’s got fair skin like me, and we always have to be careful.

I’ve always been close to my dad, and I’ve tried to warm up to my stepmother as much as possible, but the truth is, she’s not my mum, and she never will be. She doesn’t have that mothering instinct, no matter how much she might try, and I guess it’s why her relationship with her sons is so tense. You’d be hard pushed not to notice that Mason and Jared don’t think that much of her.

“How are things there?” my dad asks, and I tell him the usual bullshit of how things are fine.

“And the boys are okay?” he enquires.

Boys. Makes them sound like they’re high schoolers rather than being in their early twenties.

“They’re fine, Dad, from what I’ve seen of them anyway.”

“Have they not been looking after you?”

“I don’t need them to look after me,” I defend, and my dad chuckles.

“Okay, okay, I know, but I’ll always want to make sure you’re being looked after,” he says, and a soft smile pulls at my mouth.

“I know, Dad.”

I hear something being announced over a speaker, and then he says, “I’ve got to go, sweetie, but I’ll call in a day or two.”

“Sure. Have fun.”

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