Stepbrother With Benefits 16 (Third Season) (4 page)

"Sounds good," she says with a smile.  "Call me when you're done with classes for the day, alright?"

After breakfast, my mom leaves.  I'm kind of in a hurry, so I don't get to spend as much time with her as I want.  I can come home on the weekends, though, right?  That's how I try to rationalize it, but it's still kind of lonely once she's gone.  I don't have Ethan, I don't have my mom, and, yes, there's people here that I know, but it's just not the same.

Also, remember when I said the first day shouldn't be too bad?  Um... yes... about that...

Everything is crazy.  I don't know how this happened.  I guess I picked all of the crazy classes or something, but they start right into it, never giving us a break.  There's lecture after lecture, notes after notes, and a few even have homework assignments due for tomorrow.  Um... wow...

I keep thinking about Ethan, but every time I think about him, it's mostly to think that I can't talk to him.  I don't have time to text him, because I have to listen and take notes.  What was I thinking about before when I thought I could secretly text him during class?  I don't even know how that'd be possible now.  I glance to the side sometimes and see a few other girls toying with their phones where the professor can't see, but I'm not sure they're very good role models for this kind of thing.

This is what I get for having a good girl reputation, I guess.  Am I supposed to be a role model?  I don't know if I'd go that far, but I don't feel like I can slack off much, either.

The notes are finished, though.  Lectures are done.  I can relax... for a second.  I still have homework due tomorrow.  Should I do it now, or can I talk to Ethan for a little?  He doesn't have classes today, so he's mostly free, but he told me he had to show up for some football thing.

I don't really know what this means.  "It's just a football thing, Princess," he told me.

Is that like practice?  A few hours?  Or just showing up and registering?  I don't know how that works.  Do you have to register for football?  Getting football gear?  Um...

I grab a somewhat late lunch from the cafeteria and bring it back to my room.  I can multi-task!  If anything, I'm definitely good at multi-tasking.  If I eat while I read some of the assignments, I'll be ahead of the game for homework, which should give me some time to talk to Ethan, and...

When I get back to my room, I check my phone for any missed messages.  I don't have any missed calls, but I have two text messages.  The first is from Ethan.

What's up, Princess?  Doing the football thing, but I promised Caleb I'd hang out with him or something maybe.  I'll text you when I'm done.  Talk to you soon.  Miss you, babygirl.  I love you.

Alright, so that means I have time.  If I can eat and study and do my homework before Ethan texts me, then I have the rest of the afternoon to...

To what?  I haven't really planned this far.  We can't just stay on the phone the entire afternoon, can we?  I guess we can, but that seems weird.  What would we do?  Talk, I guess, but what else?  We could watch a show on Netflix together, sort of.  If he streams it at the same time as I do, both of us watching it on our laptops, it's sort of like watching it together.

No, not really.  It's not even close.  The thing is, watching Netflix with Ethan isn't about watching the show, it's more about cuddling.  And kissing.  Sometimes touching.  And becoming warm.

Oh, Ethan, I'm getting hot... I'm going to take my pants off.

Oh yeah, Princess?

I hope you see where this is going.  Is that where the phrase "Netflix and chill" came from?  I know "chill" can mean hang out, but if you're hot, and you want to cool down by taking your pants off, that's kind of like "chilling down" and, really, "Netflix and cool down" doesn't roll off the tongue as well.

I guess it doesn't matter, because the end results are the same.  Watch Netflix, which is nice, and then get naked and have sex.  Basically it's perfect, but there's no cuddling or pants coming off, or sex of any kind if we're talking on the phone and watching Netflix.

This is an incredibly disappointing revelation for me and I don't like it at all.

Oh, right, I had another text message.  I check that and...

Ugh.  What the heck!  Really?

It's Jake.

I have a deal for you, Ashley.  I can make this all go away if you just come and talk to me.  We can be adults about this, right?  Meet me at the coffee shop across the street later this afternoon.  I'll come by when classes are done.  Let's make a deal.

First off, I need to get this out of the way and say I don't like it.  I don't like Jake texting me, but I also don't like this "let's make a deal" game of his.  He thinks we should be adults about this?  Um, yes, I sort of agree!  Adults don't make malicious websites about other people and post private, intimate pictures of someone all over the internet.  That's pretty immature, Jake!

Second, I don't want to meet him at the coffee shop.  I like that coffee shop a lot.  I go there sometimes just to study and have coffee and these cute little Russian tea cakes they have, which are basically chewy dough balls covered in sugar.  Sugar is good for studying, I swear.  Sugar and caffeine keeps you awake, so I'm going to say yes, it's perfect for studying.

If I see Jake at the coffee shop, I feel like it'll be ruined and I'll never want to go again, though.  Maybe he'll say something horrible to me, because he has a tendency to do that.  It's a public place, though, so maybe it'll be fine?  He can't exactly do anything too horrible there, right?

I don't know.  I do want this to all be over with.  I want to get back to my life.  I want to be happy, and I want to be with Ethan.  I can't be with Ethan right now, so I at least deserve to be happy, right?

It's not like I'm unhappy.  I think I'm more frustrated than anything.  I've gotten used to cuddling and kissing on a daily basis, and guess how much cuddling and kissing I've been involved in today?  Basically none!

I'm not counting the hug I gave my mom before she left.  I'm sorry, Mom, but that doesn't count.  Ethan's cuddling is entirely different.

I close out my text messages and turn off my phone.  I'm just going to eat my lunch and study.  It's pad Thai, though I question the authenticity.  It's still good, but I think an actual Thai restaurant would do it better than the cafeteria.  They just like to do a cultural thing where they have different ethnic offerings every meal alongside the standard cafeteria fare.

I'm going to eat lunch.  And I'm going to study.  And also wait for Ethan's text.  That's all I'm going to do, I swear.  I'm not even going to begin to think about accepting Jake's dumb text message offer of a ceasefire, because he's stupid and a jerk.

Jake is the epitome of a douche-weasel and an ass-mosquito, whatever those two things are.  They aren't good things, let me assure you!

I really don't like him.

––––––––

Y
eah, so, my day has pretty much sucked so far.  I woke up in bed alone.  How fucking weird is that?  I mean, yeah, I used to wake up in bed alone.  For most of my life, waking up in bed alone has been my standard daily routine.  It's just that I got used to sleeping with Ashley during the summer, and I've only just realized that waking up in bed without her kind of fucking sucks.

I got up, though.  I went to get breakfast.  Breakfast is nice.  They had pancakes, so I got those.  Reminds me of Ashley, you know?  Except these pancakes are not very good.  Don't get me wrong, they're not the worst.  I've had some horrible pancakes.  I wouldn't give these to Ashley, though.  I'd make her some real fucking nice, fluffy as fuck, whatever the fuck flavor pancakes she wanted.

Half the fun of making Ashley pancakes is watching her eat them.  I swear she has an orgasm or something.  The look on her face is amazing, and every bite is like another climax.  Fuck, man... I just want to watch her eat pancakes, but I'm stuck in the college cafeteria with some boring pancakes on my tray.

Caleb comes and hangs out with me, which is cool, I guess.  And Scarlet.  There's some other people here.  What the fuck do I care?  The person that I want to be here isn't here, so whatever.

When Scarlet goes to bring her empty tray to the trash, Caleb stares at me.

"Ethan," he says, whispering.  "Are we still on for later?  What we talked about?"

"What we talked about?" I ask him, playing dumb.

I know what he's asking, but I want to see him ask it in front of Scarlet.  I just kind of want to make him squirm.  I don't know why.  Caleb's a nice guy.  I shouldn't be such an asshole to him.

I'm a bad boy, though, remember?  That's kind of my thing.  I'm an asshole.

Maybe not.  If Ashley were here I wouldn't be an asshole.  That doesn't mean I wouldn't tease the fuck out of Caleb or anything, but I guess in my head there's a difference between friendly screwing around with someone and being an asshole.

"Are you serious?" Caleb asks.  "Ethan, you—"

Scarlet is getting close.  Do I continue to be an asshole or do I let him off the hook?  Really, he should just ask her to fuck.  I don't necessarily suggest this in most cases, but I'm pretty sure if Caleb just waited for Scarlet to sit down and then asked her to have sex with him, it'd go well.  Maybe not the best, but she'd laugh.  She wouldn't hate him.

They're both way too fucking weird.  I don't understand it.

"Yeah," I tell him.  "I've got to register for classes and then go meet the new freshman football players for sign ups and initiation stuff, but after that I should be free.  My room, alright?"

"Sure!" Caleb says, sounding way too happy about this.  It's kind of cool, though.  I like his excitement.

Scarlet sits back down and stares at me.  "What's up?" she asks.

"Why are you even here?" I ask her.

"Breakfast?" she says.  "It's the most important meal of the day, Mr. Moneybags."

"Do you have to fucking call me that?"

"Are you forgetting the time you called me Scarlet the harlot?" she asks me.

Oh, yeah.  Uh... fuck.  I did do that, didn't I?

"Look, I didn't mean anything by it.  They rhyme, though.  The word 'harlot' is classy as fuck, too."

"A harlot is a whore, Ethan.  You were calling me a whore, asshole."

"Yeah, but I did it privately.  And it was only after we almost got arrested for doing some stupid as fuck breaking and entering shit at wherever that place was."

Caleb stares at us like we're both crazy.  Look, kid, I admit that letting Scarlet convince me to break into some place wasn't the most sane thing to do, but she's the real crazy one here.

"It wasn't just
some
place," she says, defiant.  "It was a small private art gallery and they were charging something like three-hundred dollars a ticket.  I called and asked if I could just look quick, since there was a painting I really wanted to see in person, but the manager was a douche and told me to pay."

"I could have just fucking bought you a ticket," I tell her.  "I feel like that would have been easier than breaking in and almost getting arrested, don't you think?"

"It's true," Caleb says, chiming in.

"Fuck off, Caleb," Scarlet and I say at the same time.

Yeah, sorry, Caleb.  You're not winning this one.

"That would have ruined the experience," Scarlet adds, turning back to me.  "Money can't buy everything, Ethan.  Sometimes you need to experience art in groundbreaking new ways."

"Yeah," I say, sarcastic.  "Groundbreaking, breaking and entering, same fucking thing.  Who's keeping track?"

She gives me a dirty look and sticks her tongue out at me.  Hey, hold the fuck on here.  Only Ashley's allowed to stick out her tongue at me.  Fuck you, Scarlet.

She gets up before I can keep arguing with her, too.  What a bitch.

"See you guys later," she says.  "I've got class today.  Have fun or whatever."

Caleb watches her leave.  I'm pretty sure he's staring at her ass.  I watch him staring at her ass, because I'm trying to figure this out.  I really don't get it.  I guess Scarlet has a nice enough ass.  It's not really the spankable sort, but she's small and, uh... lithe or whatever the fuck you want to call it?  Like a fucking ballerina or something.  You could pick her up and grab her ass in one hand, her hip in the other, while slamming her down on your cock hard, just fucking her in the air like that.

Not me, alright?  I'm just running hypothetical situations in my head.  This is some next level science shit or something.  Caleb should pay me for this.  I'm helping him figure it out.  He's not exactly the biggest guy ever, but I saw him working hard at the campground this summer.  His muscles weren't made in a gym, they were created by pure outdoorsmanship.

I can give credit where credit is due.  If Caleb was on the football team with me, I'd let him guard me from the front line while I stepped back to make a game winning pass.

"Hey," I say to him.  "You ever think about joining the football team?"

"What?" he asks me, distracting himself away from staring at Scarlet's butt.  "Uh... actually, I played some in high school.  Mostly just Junior Varsity.  The head coach played favorites a lot so I never got to play in any Varsity games, even as a senior, but it was fun."

"No fucking way, really?"  This is new.  Caleb is getting cooler by the minute.  "What was your win-loss record like?  For JV, I mean.  Who the fuck cares about Varsity.  Your coach sounds like a dick."

"Uh... pretty good, but they never really kept track, you know?  It wasn't official."

"Just fucking spit it out, Caleb.  Tell me."

"Ten wins, one loss?" he says, like he's asking me if this is acceptable.  Don't fucking ask me, just own it, dude.

Also, fuck, that's a good record.

"Holy shit," I tell him.  "That's really great.  Why have you never told me this before?"

"It was just high school," he says, shrugging.  "I didn't really play senior year, either.  Seniors can't play on JV.  There's rules and stuff."

"What position?" I ask.

This is twenty questions right here.  I'm going to find out all the awesome as fuck stuff about Caleb that I never knew before.