Stepbrother

Chapter 11

I wake up the next morning, feeling just as bad. I hear Charlie cry downstairs so I groan and get out of bed. I walk down the stairs to Charlie's room.
"What's wrong Char?" I ask and sit down by her bed. I put my hand over her forehead, she's still having a fever.
"Let me take your temperature." I say and walk to the bathroom and get the temperature meter and go back to Charlie.
"Oh, you're having 39.3 degrees Celsius. At least you're under 40 degrees." I say and walk out to get her some painkillers to help her get the temperature down.
I hold out the painkillers to her, broken into tiny pieces so she can swallow them.
"Bottom's up." I say and hand her a full glass of water. She drinks it and hands me the glass.
"Mandy?" She asks and I turn around.
"Are you staying home today?" She asks, looking at me with her big round brown puppy eyes. My face breaks into a smile.
"Yes, Mandy's tummy hurts." I say and pout my bottom lip. She chuckles and pulls up the covers up to her nose.
"Go to sleep sweetpie." I say and close the door.

I walk out to the kitchen, putting the glass into the dishwasher. I turn around to be absolutely terrified by Aiden who's leaning over the kitchen island with a coffee cup.
"Shit!" I mumble and he just chuckles.
"Why are you so easy to scare?" He laughs and leans back, taking a sip from his mug.
"Oh shut up." I say, making sure he notices that I'm pissed.
"Aww you're angry?" He says, his face breaks into a smile.
"Shut up!" I yell and runs towards him and attack him. He easily catches my fist and hauls me up over his shoulder.
"You, need to become a little more nicer." He says.
"Oh stop, you're not my dad." I say and cross my arms over my chest while I'm hanging upside down.
"Maybe not." He laughs.
I realize I'm in an amazing level to his butt. I gather power in my arm and hit him hard on his butt. He just chuckles and hits me back playfully.
"STOPPIT! It's only okay for me to do it!" I yell out and reach for my bum to protect it with my hands.
"If you say so princess." He chuckles.
"I'm no ones princess." I say.
Then I hear him mumble "Well you're mine." Really quiet.
"PUT ME DOWN!" I yell and he puts me down.
Aiden looks at me and starts to laugh.
"What?"
"You're face is red!" He chuckles and I cover my face quickly.
"Naww, stop you look amazing as a tomato." He says and pulls down my hands from my face. That was a weird but half cute comment.

I sit down in the couch, eating some Ben&Jerry's. Charlie is still sleeping so I take the opportunity to relax. I watch some Spongebob. I've been watching it really much recently. But I enjoy watching it so I actually don't give a crap about what's immature and mature to watch.
My phone lightens up and I lean over to the coffee table to see what's wrong. It's a text from Aiden:
Hey stepsis, how ya feeling?
I smile at it since he never cares about anything about me. He's only spending time playing video games, going to the gym or hanging out with the guys in his football team (or being with girls).
Me:
I'm okay I guess. Thx for asking.
Aiden:
Np :)
That made me feel a little happier at least.
I hear the door to Charlie's room open and see her walking out to me, still rolled into her sheets.
"I can't sleep anymore. Can I see a movie?" She asks sleepily.
"Yes, come here." I say and pat on the couch. She walks over and lays down and I fix with some pillows so she's laying comfortably.
"What do you wanna watch?" I ask and smile at her.
"I wanna watch Fairly Odd Parent!" She says and gives me a half weak smile.
"Fairly Odd Parents it is." I say and start our Apple TV.
"Thanks Mandy." She says when I press play and get up from the couch, walking into the kitchen to sneakily eating some chocolate. Thankfully she doesn't notice me and I end up eating a milk chocolate and cookies and cream Hershey's bar. I gulp it down with some water and then go over to a glass of milk.

The rest of the day goes by slowly. Chocolate, blankets, cartoons and painkillers are my saviors.

"C'mon it can't be that bad." Says my friend Erika.
"Oh yeah it is." I say while eating a popsicle.
"Do you even get cramps?" I ask her, putting on speaker because I got too tired to hold my phone against my ear.
"Not every time." She says.
"Mhm exactly." I say and I can hear how she chuckles.
"Anyways I gotta go, homework is calling." I hear her sigh.
"Okay, by the way, did we have any homework from French?" I ask her.
"Nein." She says and I chuckle.
"That's not French, isn't that german?" I ask.
"Meh, whatever." She says.
"Okay." I laugh.
"Bye, you better come to school tomorrow." She says.
"Yeah I'll see." I say.
"If you don't, I'll come to your house and FORCE you to school." She says.
"Sure." I laugh.
"Bye." She says and I hang up the phone. That's why I love my friends, they're so goofy.

I go up to my room as my father and stepmother got home. They haven't been home in a while, or at least when I was awake. But for some reason, I've not missed them.
I pull out my computer and turn on John Tucker Must Die on Netflix. I watch the movie, it's one of my favorites to be honest. Though I don't like the player John but it's fun how they try to destroy his reputation and becoming "undatable".

The next morning
My phone wakes me up as usual. I groan and roll around in my bed, waiting for the pain in my stomach to appear but it doesn't. I feel both relieved but angry because I'm too tired to go to school
I hear a knock on the door. I sigh a "come in" and my father opens the door.
"Hello darling, I've decided to start job later to see how you feel. Because Charlie is still really sick, but if you're feeling okay I'll let your stepmother stay home and look after her." He says and gives me a little smile.
"It's okay, I'm feeling fine today." I say and yawn.
"Okay, I'll tell Kat that she can stay home with Charlie." He says and closes my door. I hear how is footsteps makes it down the stairs and how they talk to eachother.
I just feel like it's missing something. Aiden hasn't woken me up, or attacked me yet. I don't know why I want him to do it, but I just feel like I'm missing it. Like I'm used to it to be that way.
I walk down the stairs to the kitchen as usual. I reach for a mug in the cabinet and turn on the coffee machine but with hot cocoa. I hear footsteps in the stairs but I don't care about them.
"Morning sunshine." I hear a groggy but yet attractive voice that can only come from one person I know.
I raise my head and see Aiden in a grey hoodie with matching sweatpants. He's got a real cute bed head and blinks a few times before I walks over to the kitchen and makes himself a sandwich.
"Morning." I say.
"I came to a conclusion last night." Aiden says and I look up, furrowing my eyebrows.
"Congrats." I say, I hear Aiden chuckle.
"That I'm a really fucked up person." He says, pretty seriously.
"Yeah, I think I've come to that conclusion too." I say and chuckle.
"I'm honest. I have to change it." He says.
"Then do it, it's not that hard." I answer him.
"Easy for you to say." He says.

School goes by. After third period I exchange looks with Ian in the school corridors. It feels awkward. It feels like I've been betraying him, just playing around with his feelings, even though I really didn't do anything. I wasn't like hooking up with Aiden.
Well, I have. I realize. But it was just a kiss, nothing really more to say. Well, what I did was still wrong, but it felt so right in that moment.

Back home, I get up to my room. I turn on my phone and go into Snapchat. Someone has added me. It's not often anyone really adds me. I have my friends on Snapchat, not like strangers or random people at school.
I press to see who's added me. It says:
AidenSullivan has added you by username!
I get confused, because I've not really put out my username on like Instagram or so on. So I wonder how he got it. But he has contacts, it's probably not that hard for him to get it when I think through it.
   He sent me a snap but I decide to just turn off my phone and let it be. I don't wanna open it to be 100% honest. Like, I don't wanna know if you know... He sent one of those disgusting and disrespectful pictures, well I don't wanna go into details because I'm very uncomfortable just by thinking of it.

I watch Pitch Perfect 2 in my bed as my door opens. Aiden stands in the door opening, smiling awkwardly at me. I arch up my brow, looking at him with my "questioning look". He walks in.
   "Wanna go eat some pizza? I'm hungry and we don't have anything in the fridge." He says. He seems very nervous and uncomfortable, as if he's asking me out on a date.
"Sure." I say, because- who turns down pizza.
   He smiles at me.
"Be ready in 5." He says and walks out.
   I get dressed in a pair of jeans and a basic white t- shirt.

The car ride there isn't like the usual car rides. There's something in the air between us. I don't know what, it's tense. Aiden's been acting weird lately. I don't know, wait- can he be catching feelings for me?! HELL NO, I quickly shake the thought away.
   When we arrive there we go order, Aiden quickly pulls out his credit card before I can pull out my wallet. This feels like a date. No, we're just getting food right?
-
-
Well, you have to find out what happens in the next chapter ;)
SO SORRY for being so late on posting, it's just been CRAZY lately.
BUT, I got summer break yesterday so prepare to get spoiled! Now I got hella time.
But, well I just said goodbye to all my classmates, bc in Sweden we go in school til year 9 and year 10-12 is a different school "type". Hard to explain sorreh, just google it if you're interested😂
Xxx Hanna