All characters are at least 18 years old. This is a non-canonical story related to the Family Morsel series.
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Drew
I wandered down the hallway, moving between classes as I thought back to yesterday. Cherry had called me an arrogant dickhead, and she wasn't exactly wrong. I had just never been in close proximity to somebody who was so bothered by it. Probably for the best to cut down on our interactions as much as possible, until we headed off to college. We were off to a poor start, and I was almost certain she was starting to hate me. It bothered me more than I expected. The only people whose opinion of me I cared about were people I cared about; everybody else could fuck off. So... did that now include Cherry? Weird.
And speak of the Devil, I was just passing her in the hallway. She was cornered against the lockers by Lauren, cunt extraordinaire, and her bitch friends. Being bullied again, most likely. None of my business. Didn't wanna butt in, especially if Cherry wanted nothing to do with me. Brie was sure to come along soon and stand up for her, and besides, what was I gonna do to Lauren? It wasn't like I could hit her or anything. Girls knew how to deal with girls best. But for some reason I stopped, lingering nearby to listen in. Very uncharacteristic of me, to say the least.
"So you finally have a mom, shrimp?" Lauren sneered. "Oh, sorry, stepmom. Bet you get the full movie experience and she makes you do all the chores, huh, Cinderella?"
"She's not my stepmom yet. They're not married," Cherry replied angrily. "And she's much nicer than that, she doesn't make me do anything."
"Probably because you're too useless to do anything," Lauren said with a scornful smirk, and her friends laughed as if cued. It was pretty repulsive how coordinated and fake they were.
Cherry grit her teeth. "I can do chores just fine--"
"How? Bet you can't even reach the shelves, midget." Ouch, the timing on that one. The girls exploded into laughter again as Cherry's lip quivered, angrily casting her gaze downward. I think... I think she was about to cry.
"You know that Cinderella eventually marries a prince, right?" I cut in, stunning the girls out of their cackling. "At least have your insults make sense, Jesus."
"Drew," Lauren said in greeting. "We were just encouraging Cherry. Although... now that you mention it, who would marry a washboard like her? Probably some disgusting perv, I imagine. Maybe they should hire her for To Catch a Predator or something."
Lauren hadn't maintained playing innocent for long. Fucking bitch just couldn't help herself. "Or maybe somebody will fall for who she is, ever consider that?" I returned flatly. Cherry looked up at me with wide eyes, and I made the mistake of making eye contact. A strange feeling ran through me, and I swallowed and turned back to Lauren, who scoffed.
"Who? You? The new stepbrother? That would be gross in a totally different way. Though I suppose that
would
be the only way she could make money, huh? Film herself being a deviant whore and upload it to the Internet. But then all your fans would get arrested!"
She burst into laughter again, leaving me fuming. I wasn't properly equipped to argue with her, as frustrating as it was. I moved to extricate Cherry from them, and they suddenly closed ranks around her. "Outta my way," I growled.
"My my, what's the hurry? You gonna go film your degeneracy right now? Wow, Drew, didn't know you--"
I shoved past them and put a hand on Cherry's upper back, guiding her out of their circle. "I'm getting my stepsister to class, you dumb bitch," I snapped. "If her dad catches wind that I'm letting her grades fall, he'll fucking skin me."
I didn't stick around for her response, pushing Cherry along until we were out of earshot. She stepped away from my hand and turned to me, her brow furrowed. "That was... She's gonna start spreading rumors about you now," she said urgently.
"You're welcome," I muttered bitterly, leaving her in the hall as I headed to my last class. On one hand, who gave a shit about some stupid rumors? On the other, I wasn't a fan of the word spreading to my friends that I was banging my stepsister on camera. Would they believe it? Stef wouldn't, but the guys on the team... They'd at least ask questions, which would be tedious. And then Cherry had immediately turned around and said that as if she hadn't wanted me to get her out of there. What was her problem? Like yeah, being bullied sucks, but at least don't be ungrateful when I tried to help. I'd helped, right?
I was still stewing in my thoughts after class, wondering if I'd actually made her situation worse, when one of the guys from the team lightly punched my arm.
"Yo, me and the guys are gonna play some ball," said DeShawn. "You in?"
"Sure, I could play."