Bullied By My Alpha Stepbrother

Amelia Forbes

From everything Nana had told me, I gathered that I had caught a really bad cold walking under the rain and I’d been unconscious for days.

Realizing what that meant, I panicked. That means I’ve missed school, homework, maybe even tests.

Nana noticed this and communicated to me that the school was aware, so any tests or homework would still be made available to me when I was feeling strong enough.

Relieved, I settled down and resumed my conversation with Nana.

I also found out that a guy had come to see me. And from Nana’s description, it was no other than Adrian Goldfield.

I had mixed feelings about the whole thing.

Jason had already warned me about associating with his best friend. And he wouldn’t take it lightly if he found out Adrian had been to my house. But on the other hand, Adrian was the only one who cared to check up on me when I missed school.

I couldn’t just ignore that.

He’d gotten the drugs prescribed for me, and he got fruits for me as well.

I had to thank him, at least.

Okay, I decided. I’d thank him and that’d be it. Yes, he was nice to me. But associating with him would only make the bullying worse. And that’s the last thing I needed right now.

Jason Davenport

I lay on my bed still seething. What I needed right now was alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol.

I was fed up with dad. This was the height of it all. Well, fuck dad and fuck Ashley. Fuck this shithole and all these fucking servants.

I checked the time. It was 8pm. I needed to get out of here. I couldn’t stand being in the same house with those two.

Frankly speaking, I hated being around here ever since mom died. Everything in this house was irritating to me. Dad had only made it worse when he started to bring in all these women.

I thought of where to go. There was a a party at Greg’s tonight. I could go for that. There’d be pot, alcohol and lots of girls. Just what I needed.

Making up my mind, I flung out a t-shirt, a leather jacket and a pair of jeans to wear out of my closet. Grabbing a pair of combat boots out off my shoe rack, I placed them on the floor, close to my bed.

My mind wandered as finally landed on Amelia Forbes. It’d been almost a week since I’d seen her in school.

Maybe she had finally taken my advice and decided to jump off a cliff. I smiled at that thought.

The only annoying thing about it was that it put the project on hold. And I couldn’t afford to fail that. It carried a lot of marks.

I frowned. She better reappear from wherever she ran off to. My grades were at stake here. The bitch just had to add to all the problems I already had.

Hissing, I got up to jump into the shower when my bedroom door opened.

Dad walked in, stopping at the door and observing me.

I felt my blood begin to boil, and I decided that the best thing to do was ignore him. I slipped my phone out of my pocket, and began to scroll through Instagram.

Dad approached me, taking a seat on the free side of my bed.

“Jason,” He called out gently.

I stuck to what I had resolved to do. Ignore him.

“Look, I know you’re mad at me. And you have every right to be. I’m sorry for hitting you. I should never have done that. It was very low of me. I’m sorry.”

I pretended not to hear him, still scrolling through my phone.

“I’m sorry,” He repeated. “I know you miss your mom. I do-”

“Don’t!” I yelled. “Don’t you dare talk about mom. You have no right to do that.”

“Jason-”

“No! You’ve already desecrated her memory in this house by bringing all these women in here. So don’t act like you give a shit about mom or me!”

His eyes widened in surprise. “Jason, why would you say that.”

There was so much hurt in his voice. But I didn’t care. He deserved it. Besides, everything I said was true. He had his new woman now. So fuck me. Right?

Getting up forcefully I said, “You know what, dad? I gotta go. And you have work tomorrow. You should go to bed.”

I started to walk away when he grabbed my arm.

“Jason. I know everything is confusing right now. I understand that. Just. . . please give me a chance to explain. A chance to prove you wrong. I do care about you, Jason.”

He squeezed my arm. “I know you miss your mother. But please-”

I snatched my arm away. “You know nothing about me! Nothing. Now please leave.”

I was breathing hard, staring daggers at him.

Dad sighed, watching me. Then slowly, he spun round and walked out of my room, shutting the door with a click.

Amelia Forbes

I was feeling better today. My chest still felt heavy, but the headache was gone and my eyes didn’t hurt anymore.

Nana sat on a reclining sofa close to my bed, signing to me and relating to me how the week had been going.

I laughed at intervals, simultaneously eating the chicken soup she had prepared for me.

She had emailed the school, so my homework was brought over to the house by one of the teachers.

A pile of my homework, all solved, was arranged atop my study table. Suddenly I thought of Jason. We had a lot of homework. I’m pretty sure he’d be mad when he realized I hadn’t been in school.

Not like he cared about that. Even if I was dying, he wouldn’t care. The only important thing were his grades.

Come to think of it, it was kind of impressive how much he cared about his grades. But sometimes I wondered if he really cared about his grades, or if he just enjoyed putting me through the torture.

Unlike me, his life didn’t depend on his good grades, or a scholarship. His father could pay or buy his way into school. So, it was obviously the second reason. He probably just enjoyed torturing me.

Now, that I’d gotten it straight that I could have my assignments delivered to me, and also take my own tests as long as a teacher was present here, I was really glad that I wasn’t going to school.

Yes it was weird missing school. But it was nice too. I didn’t have to deal with Jason and Kimberly, and pretty much the entire population of Wayne County High.

It felt nice. No shoving, no hitting, no bullying, no insults. I felt like I could finally breathe.

Secretly, I wished it could be like this till my final exams.

But every good thing had to come to end sometime right?

Even though I was miles ahead in the curriculum, I still had to attend classes. That thought was depressing so I tried not to think about it.

The sound of the doorbell jolted me from my thoughts.

Still surprised, I quickly recovered and signed to Nana, telling her that someone was at the door.

She quickly stood up to go answer.

A few moments later, she walked in. Adrian stood behind her, all smiles, a bouquet of flowers in one hand, and a box of chocolates in the other.

Amelia Forbes

My jaw fell open as I sighted Adrian. The smile on his face was the most heartwarming thing I’d seen in a while.

How could someone like Adrian be so happy to see. . . me.

Amelia Forbes.

Who was bullied daily by his best friend. Me. A nobody.

“Hey. You feeling better?” He asked cheerily, still smiling.

“Well, I, um. . .” I blurted out like an idiot.

Nana wiggled her eyebrows at me, smiling mischievously. I gasped when she signed, So this is the boy you’ve been crushing on.

Adrian looked at me confused. “Are you okay?”

“Um, yes,” I said, still flustered. To make the lie believable, I tried to disguise the gasp as a cough.

Nana hid a smile behind her hand. I narrowed my eyes at her. She was clearly enjoying this.

She winked at me and then signed so that Adrian would see, I’ll go get you both something to drink.

Adrian rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m really sorry, I don’t have any experience with sign language so. . .” He trailed off.

“Oh that’s fine, really.” I assured him.

I translated to Nana what he had said. She smiled at him and shook her head, showing that it was fine.

He smiled back at her, his eyes tinkling.

Damn he was fine.

My eyes widened as I realized what I’d just been thinking.

Seriously Mel? That’s what you’re thinking about right now?

I resisted the urge to slap my forehead, lest Nana and Adrian think I’d finally lost my mind.

I looked up just as Adrian handed Nana the bouquet, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand.

He opened his mouth to address Nana, then as if he suddenly remembered, he clapped a hand over his mouth and turned to me.

“I, um, these are for your grandma,” He said, looking embarrassed.

Oh boy. This was going to be awkward if Adrian kept feeling like he was offending Nana by not knowing sign language.

“Hey,” I said to him. “It’s completely fine. You don’t have to feel bad or weird. You’re not used to being around someone who’s hearing-impaired. It’ll take some getting used to.”

I smiled at Nana who understood all I was saying, as I was signing and talking simultaneously.

“You know, in the first few months of living with my Nana, I’d always forget that she couldn’t hear me,” I laughed a little.

“And I’d come home bawling ‘Nana I’m home!'” I laughed again at the memory, Adrian joining in this time. “So. It’s fine. You get used to it. Anything you need to say to Nana, say it. I’ll just interpret.”

I finished with a smile. My chest felt kinda strained from talking for too long. But apart from that I was fine.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

Adrian gave me a grateful look. “Thanks, Mel. I feel so much better now. And I guess you’re right too.”

Did I mention I liked the way he said my name?

Fine. I’ll stop now.

I tried to concentrate on the words he was saying instead of the way they sounded.

Adrian turned to Nana. “Would you like me to put these in water?” He asked, gesturing to the flowers.

I translated to Nana as he spoke. Nana smiled back at him signing, Don’t worry, kiddo. I got this.

Adrian laughed out loud as I translated to him. “Yes ma’am.” He said raising both hands up as an act of surrender.

Nana smiled widely. She could lip read a little, so she understood him without me having to translate.

I smiled at them getting along, and from what I could tell, Nana liked him.

I mean who wouldn’t. . .

Oh my goodness.

What the hell was wrong with me today.

Adrian saved me from berating myself by handing me the box of chocolates he’d been holding on to.

“Um, I wasn’t sure what you’d like so I got you chocolates,” He grinned, holding them out to me.

“I love chocolate,” I responded. “Thanks.”

He nodded, taking a seat next to my bed. “So. . . are you gonna tell me what happened?” He gestured at me on the sick bed.

Oh. He wanted to know how I fell sick.

I swallowed. “Well, I was feeling adventurous. So I thought it’d be a good idea to walk in the rain.” I tried to make it believable by laughing.

“Ohh,” Adrian stated in an exaggerated manner which made me laugh because I’ve never seen him act so goofy. “So miss, do you get these bouts of adventurous moments often?”

“Why, yes,” I laughed, playing along.

He nodded, pretending to write down something on an invisible piece of paper.

I laughed so much my chest started to hurt.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” He asked softly, suddenly back to his usual self.

I considered it for a moment. But I decided I didn’t want to. Maybe someday. But not. . . right now.

So I shook my head in reply.

He gave me a small nod to show that he understood.

And we carried on the conversation. Knowing that we had an understanding.

And it was nice.