My Stepbrother-Too Hot To Handle

DABBY:

I didn’t know if that was the right approach to meet Mum and ask her about it, but I think that was the best way that I could have handled it. What I asked Mrs. Carr about, seemed to have jogged up everything in my memory. I remembered almost everything that happened.

Mum dropped me off one night at a huge building far from where we lived, and she said that she was coming back with food and drugs for us. I had been sick for days, and we had nothing good to eat for almost three days. I knew we had no money at all and had even been chased out of our house for rent, but I still believed her anyway.

Hours passed and she didn’t come back, I began to cry while still sitting at the spot where she told me to sit, and never stand up till she would come back. I think it was at the window of the room for the caregivers there, but they came out to check out what was going on with a wailing child at the back of their window. That was the end of it.

I became one of the children in the orphanage, and Mum didn’t come back as promised. I didn’t talk to anyone whenever they asked who I was, and they made me feel bad by laughing at my hair whenever they found out that I was a girl.

It got worse because a rumor spread amongst the kids that my parents abandoned me after I had grown up, probably because I was a nasty child, or they didn’t want me again. I cried so much whenever they said that, and would sit alone in my room to avoid their jibes.

After days of being alone, crying, and brooding badly by myself while feeling stuffy inside the room, I decided to come outside in the evening to watch other children play in the field.

That was when I saw a young boy who was by himself outside, staring into space for a long time. I had not seen him before since I joined them, and I felt like he wasn’t like the others who laughed at me. I went to meet him.

He was really mean when I tried to talk to him, and we ended up yelling at one another, when I insulted him for being so rude. We had more encounters, and we would pick on one another.

We somehow became closest friends among everyone, and it was the only thing that comforted me when I was at the orphanage. I had gotten cured of my recalcitrant sickness too.

Sometimes, I usually caught someone that looked like Mum always looking at me from corners, but I never saw if I was hallucinating or if it was true. Anytime it happened, I could cry so much saying I saw my Mum, and the kids there would laugh again and mock me.

Dee would be the one to comfort me every time, regardless of his cold nature and personality. Yes, I remembered the name I usually called him. Dee.

I was there for weeks longer than I could remember, and someone came to inform me that some person had come to take Dee home. My heart broke so much in pain, that it was hard to see him leave. He cried uncontrollably too. To me, he was my first love.

I was brokenhearted for days without anyone to share my worries with, and I ended up falling sick so terribly that it was so bad. So bad that I think everyone feared that I might not make it. And that was the last thing that I could remember.

The memories came flooding like a flash of light when I saw the picture, and most of it was clear even if it was not all.

When I confronted Mum about it, there was no way she would be able to convince me that it didn’t happen. And regardless of how long it had been, it still really hurt. I felt abandoned.

Even when she explained why she had to do that, I had no reason not to believe her because I knew that she loved me. Though she always said it whenever we were talking about something funny, her little actions could speak volumes of how much she did.

I had always told myself that she didn’t understand how to be efficient in every way, because she didn’t know how to not because she didn’t want to. It was not easy for her to raise me, and also raise herself since she started as a teen mum, so I just tried to understand every one of her actions. We were both kids when she had me.

She hugged me so tightly to show how sorry she was for doing that, and I probably could feel her genuineness because she still raised me. If she wanted to, she would have left me and be far gone, and I would not even remember her anymore if many years had passed.

However, the sudden question I heard took me by surprise, and it caused Mum and me to separate from one another when we heard that.

It was Damien, and I didn’t even realize that he had entered the house. However, I was still wondering what his question was about, as he and Mum exchanged pleasantries.

“It was a picture that I took with a dear friend. Years back,” I answered him in a saucy tone after raising the picture for him to see, still mulling over why he was asking it, when he should be talking about what happened earlier in the afternoon.

He looked so shocked as he continued to look at the picture so intensely, and Mum told me that she would make something light for midnight snacks. I was not sure I wanted that, but it was probably best that she left both of us alone at that time.

“What’s wrong with you? You look like you have seen a ghost,” I rolled my eyes as I uttered my words, and he just climbed up the stairs instantly without saying anything. It got me pissed.

“That jerk! He is always in and out of the right things to do,” I hissed angrily, and put the picture into the extra pocket in my shorts.

I went to join Mum to do whatever she wanted to, and it was personal time for both of us to reconnect with things we had missed about how my life had been. I told her about the schools that I was applying to, and she said she would do everything in her power to make sure I had the best college life.

We talked about me quitting my job at a cafe and I promised to do that soon, since that was what I said before she agreed to allow me. I also reminded her that I didn’t want her to come to our parent’s teacher’s meeting which was going to be in a few days.Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.

“Why is that? I can be efficient for both of you as a mother,” she tried to smile her way out of it the usual way she would do, if she had her mind made up about something.

“It is not about being efficient, Mum. It is about us. About me and Damien. We do not want it!” I half-yelled when I realized that she wasn’t going to accept that easily.

‘I mean, we just settled one problem minutes ago. She should try to not cause another.’

“What is wrong, baby? Tell me. Is anything wrong between both of you?”

“No. No. Not at all. Damien is popular and intelligent, Mum, and I have only my brains. I rarely mingle, and I am as reserved as a nerd. It would hurt me more, if people knew we were siblings,” I tried to explain in the best way that I could, without going too much into detail about it.

“Who would do that to you? Why would you be hurt? Who would hurt you?!” She demanded to know with intense seriousness on her face, and I just sighed when I realized that she wasn’t getting it.

“Calm down, Mum. This is why I don’t tell you things. I do not have lots of friends, and not many people like me too. They would hate on me more, to know that I live in the same house with a really popular guy. The pressure……..”

“What?” Mum responded incredulously when she heard what I was trying to say, and she seemed to be getting furious already, “I didn’t raise you to not be able to stand up for yo………

“It is not about raising me. You don’t just understand these things. I am not like you, and I can never be. People love you wherever you go, and I am just me. Being the center of attraction has never been mine to start with. I know I should be better and more confident in front of these people. But I am okay. Just don’t come. We are almost done with high school, and I really need my peace till that last moment. Please,” I cut her off in frustration.

“Then you can be a better version of yourself, Dabby. Are you ashamed that your Mum remarried and you are the sister of a very popular guy in your school?!” She demanded angrily this time.

“No, I am not! But I would rather be Damien’s girlfriend than his sister at school!” I said it out loud, before I realized that I could not suck in what I had said already.

“What?! What did you just say now?” Mum questioned the moment she heard what I said, and I immediately went blank of what to say to her. My mother would never let go of what she had bitten, and I really didn’t know how to think of lies.’

‘I mean. Why would I think of being his girlfriend of all other things in the first place?’