by Jamie Knight
“Did you see the email; did you read what it said?” she demanded.
“I just got it,” I responded. “Did you read the whole thing?”
“They’re closing down. No more classes as of today,” she said in amazement. “I told you, the virus is serious!”
“Yep. It sure is.”
“This is messed up!” Diamond declared. “I had a date on Friday!”
“You told me you were thinking of canceling that,” I pointed out.
“Yes, but I hadn’t landed totally on no, yet,” she replied. “I mean, if he offered to take me to a nice restaurant, I would’ve been like, okay.”
“Seems like a weird way to pick a date,” I said. “I mean, was he cute?”
“They’re all cute on this campus,” Diamond sighed. “But sadly, there is not enough time for me to date them all.”
“But you would if you could?”
“Hell, yeah? Why not?”
“Would you have sex with all of them?”
“No!” she exclaimed. “Of course not. Sixty, seventy-five percent. Tops.”
I shook my head. I didn’t know how Diamond was going to keep her scholarship. She barely went to class and spent almost every conversation talking about the clothes she bought when she went shopping downtown, the dates she was going on, or the parties she was throwing and attending.
Still, she was the first friend I had made here, and, as an overwhelmed freshman, I appreciated her company.
“Did I show you that new sweater?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said, stopping the conversation before it started. “Your parents gave you that money for books, Di.”
“I don’t need books when I can pirate them online, but now I’m going to have to take classes online. Traci! I can’t date from my parents’ house. It’ll be like high school!”
Diamond flopped down on my bed and buried her face in my pillow.
“You could always date some guys from high school,” I suggested.
“Eh,” she shrugged. “I guess you’re right and they’ll be home, too. So weird.”
“Yeah, well, I have it worse. My dad moved in with his new wife,” I told her.
“He did? When?”
“A few weeks ago. I still can’t believe they’re married. I’m so mad at him.”
“He’s such a homewrecker,” Diamond said.
“Yeah, that’s for sure,” I said, unable to defend him from that charge.
I didn’t know what had gotten into him.
Some kind of midlife crisis, I supposed.
I couldn’t believe I had to start college after such a drastic change in my life, but I was glad to have somewhere else to go. I had told Diamond all about it during freshman orientation week and she had been very sympathetic.
Now she had to listen to me rehash it every time it was on my mind. I tried to push it out of the way and not think about it too much, but now it was impossible, since I had to head home and be back with them.
“It’s all weird,” I declared. “But yeah, I mean, she participated, but it’s mostly his fault. Like, who dates a married woman? Who does that, right?”
“Your dad.”
I frowned.
“Just sayin’,” Diamond shot back.
She was right. My mom had passed away from cancer when I was young, and I knew my dad was lonely. I had wanted to be happy that he had found someone. But not her! Not a married woman. With all the fish in the sea, she was the one he had finally chosen, after years of being alone?
He had told me he hadn’t wanted to date until I was old enough to be independent. That it wasn’t fair to bring a revolving door of women into and out of my life before I was able to understand. But that didn’t mean he had to dive right in to the first opportunity that presented itself when I was a senior in high school, and then hurry up and marry her right away!
Just then, Gillian walked into the room. Diamond and I had met her one day at lunch when she had plopped down next to us in the campus cafeteria and said, “Okay, I need friends and you two look like perfect candidates.”
The three of us had been inseparable since.
“Did you guys hear?” she asked.
“Yes,” we both replied.
“Oh, okay, I guess it’s old news already,” she said dejectedly, as if she had wanted to be the one to tell us.
“I mean, I’d been expecting some kind of drastic action to be taken, but I didn’t know it would involve having to go back home!” I told her.
“So, is that what you guys talking about?” asked Gillian, sitting down on the floor. “Or what?”
“Yeah, basically. Traci’s dad moved in with his new wife,” Diamond explained. “And she left her husband for him. Now Traci has to go live with them.”
“Yep. In their new love shack,” I said, rolling my eyes.
After Mom had passed, Dad downsized into a small apartment that was perfect for the two of us. It had two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and a community garden where we enjoyed planting cucumbers and tomatoes. I really missed that place, as cheesy as it sounded.
But after he married Daphne, she used the proceeds from her divorce to go in with him on a new house. He had saved up a lot of money over the years and hadn’t had to pay for as much as my college as he’d thought, thanks to an academic scholarship I’d received, so they were able to afford a pretty nice place together. Which was fine, as long as I didn’t have to live there, although unfortunately, now I would have to, at least temporarily.
“Oh, that’s so sad,” Gillian said. “I feel bad for the other guy. Kinda. Unless he was a wife beater. Was he?”
“No. Or, at least, I haven’t heard any reports of that being true and you’d think if it was, that would be the perfect excuse to make my dad’s new wife sound like not so much of a hussy and my dad not so much of a homewrecker. Instead, as far I know, Daphne was just, I don’t know, ready and willing, despite being married, I guess,” I sneered.
“Is she one of those older ladies who’s always throwing it all out there?” asked Diamond. “Does she walk around with outfits that are too sexy for the occasion?”
“Mmm, her wedding dress at the ceremony was kind of scandalous,” I remembered. “It had a big slit down the front, so it really showed off her cleavage. And it was the Mermaid kind that wrapped itself tightly around her waist and ass. In my opinion, it wasn’t very age-appropriate, plus, this was a second wedding, but she acted like she was a blushing teenage bride or something. It was all very weird and I tried not to pay too much attention and just drank enough of their open bar cocktails to be able to get through the event.”
“Did she wear white? She shouldn’t wear white,” Gillian pointed out. “Unless her first marriage wasn’t consummated somehow, then maybe that’s allowed.”
“She has a son from her first marriage,” I reported, “so I would say it was definitely consummated.”
I was hoping to change the subject. I wasn’t exaggerating about having had an awful time at the wedding and didn’t feel like talking about it now. I just wanted to let bygones be bygones.
But now I was reflecting on the fact that I had wanted it to be over quickly so that I wouldn’t have to endure one more minute of it. I tried to be happy for my dad and I’d agreed to be in the wedding to support him, but I’d had to grin and bear it the whole time.
“Oh,” said Gillian. “So, you have a stepbrother. You didn’t mention him before.”
“I didn’t?” I asked, feeling myself blush. “I thought I did. You just must not have been listening.”
“I don’t think so,” Diamond said. “Not to me, anyway. I know I go on about myself a lot, and maybe I was drunk or hungover at the time. But I’m pretty sure I’d remember that interesting detail.”
“Yeah, you probably left it out because you didn’t want us to tease you,” Gillian said.
“True,” I said, but that wasn’t it.
Re
ally, thinking about Phil was even more unpleasant than thinking about my dad’s wedding to Daphne. I hated that he was such a jerk. And I hated that I was fucking attracted to him.
I did not just think that.
“How old is he?” Diamond asked, and even though I didn’t want to talk about him, I welcome the chance to not have to think about the regrettable fact that he was super hot.
I had spent the wedding ignoring him because I could not let it be known that I thought my new stepbrother was a hunk.
“A couple years old than me,” I told her. “He’s a junior at Marley State.”
“Wow. An older stepbrother. Even better. Is he cute?” asked Diamond.
“Eww!” I said, sounding as grossed out as I felt about the fact that I had already answered that question to myself in the affirmative, one too many times. “He’s my brother now!”
“Stepbrother,” Diamond corrected me. “That doesn’t mean anything. You aren’t blood relations.”
“Yeah, you can legally have sex with him,” Gillian said.
“Oh, my God! Ew!” I exclaimed.
“Why ‘ew’? Is he ugly?” asked Diamond.
“What celebrity does he look like?” Gillian immediately asked.
“You always do this,” Diamond pointed out.
“It’s the quickest way to get a picture in my head,” Gillian said, defending the tactic.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “Maybe Aaron Paul, except a little huskier and taller than he is.”
And way more handsome.
“Oooh, nice. I could get into some of that!” laughed Diamond. “When can we meet him?”
“You’re never going to meet him!” I objected. “He’s an ass. He looks down on me and my dad.”
He had spent the wedding being a jerk to me, asking me if I couldn’t possibly smile and try to show some joy on behalf of our parents’ big day, or why I wasn’t helping out more. I knew he wasn’t any happier about the fact that they had gotten together than I was, but he just liked getting under my skin because I wasn’t talking to him and he was such a cocky asshole that he couldn’t leave well enough alone.
“Well, your dad did wreck his mother’s marriage,” Gillian pointed out. “I mean, you can understand that.”
“It’s not my fault and plus, my dad’s a widower. It’s not like he was the one cheating on anyone. And maybe he didn’t even know she was married until later,” I suggested.
“Is that true?” Diamond asked, looking hopeful.
“Probably not,” I admitted. “I think they would have told me, since it would have made it sound better. Instead, they only said that they met at a trade show and it just blossomed from there. And of course she had to have an asshole son who is part of the already obnoxious package.”
“Wait,” said Diamond, slyly. “Are you into this Aaron Paul look-alike?”
“What? No!” I insisted. “Ew! Like I said, he’s my brother!”
“Stepbrother,” Diamond corrected, laughing. “That’s kind of hot, if you think about it. Like forbidden fruit!”
“It’s gross to even suggest it,” I snapped. “There is no way I would date Phil.”
“You are so into him,” countered Gillian. “My God. I can see it from here.”
“Yep, it’s true,” agreed Diamond. “I’ll bet your panties get wet just thinking about Aaron Paul!”
“You guys are gross.”
“There’s nothing gross about it. You’re not blood-related so you could do whatever you wanted with him. Who cares? It’s completely legal.”
“Eww! Stop. Please.”
“He must be either really ugly or really cute,” said Gillian. “Got a picture?”
“I do,” I said, getting my phone out.
“Uh, oh, she took his picture,” Gillian said.
“Mmmhmm,” Diamond nodded. “Remember when she was crushing on Brad? She didn’t have a picture of Brad.”
“Well, that’s because I don’t take pictures of guys I crush on,” I informed them. “Because I’m usually too nervous to do it and I forget. So there. Now, here’s a picture from the wedding. That’s Phil.”
He was wearing a tux and it was so hot that my panties got damp just from looking at it again.
Fuck.
I hated that he had this effect on me.
“He doesn’t look like Aaron Paul!” Diamond insisted. “He looks more like, I don’t know. Who was Thanos?”
“Josh Brolin?” asked Gillian.
“Yeah, like a young Josh Brolin,” concluded Diamond. “He’s cute, for sure. He’d be a first date fuck.”
Gillian laughed and started blushing.
I got annoyed.
“Seriously?” I asked. “You should stop, Di. That kind of attitude is not healthy.”
“What? It’s not like I’m gonna do it. Unless you bring him around, in which case, you’d probably be the one doing him, and then I definitely couldn’t.”
“No. No!” I laughed despite my best intentions not to. “I am not dating my stepbrother. Ew! Stop saying that. For the millionth time already.”
“Gillian, would you date her stepbrother?” asked Diamond.
“Yeah, I’d go out with him,” she admitted, after looking at the picture again.
I stared at her incredulously, mad at her for participating in this lunacy.
She was normally the sane one, compared to Diamond.
“When would you have sex with him?” she asked.
“Oh, wow, that’s a complicated question for me,” she said, thinking about it. “I mean, first, I have to really like him. Then I have to evaluate if he’s good for me, if we make a good couple and there has to be chemistry, you know?”
“Chemistry!” dismissed Diamond. “Listen to you. The only chemistry I want is the chemistry in those pants.”
“Jeez, Di!” I exclaimed blushing. “Dial it back, will ya?”
“You’ll miss me when I’m gone,” she vowed. “Since we’re all going home now. I don’t even know how I’m going to get all my stuff out of here. I had to rent a U-Haul to get it up here.”
“Wouldn’t you have to do that anyway?” asked Gillian.
“Yes, and I reserved my truck for the end of the semester. Now? You can’t get one. They’re all sold out!”
“Why did you bring your own furniture?” I asked, incredulous. “The rooms had furniture.”
“I’m not sitting on that ugly-ass couch!” she insisted. “My room’s the bomb with all the stuff I brought. You know it!”
“It is nice,” admitted Gillian.
“Of course it is. How can I study to be an Interior Decorator while living in a drab dorm room like all of you?” Diamond asked.
“I have an idea,” I offered. “Why don’t you move the stuff to a storage place near here? That way, when you come back, you won’t have to move it that far.”
“That’s a good idea, Trace,” agreed Diamond. “But then I’ll need some furniture for home. There’s nothing in my room at home, now.”
“Plus, we don’t know when this lockdown’s gonna end,” added Gillian. “What if it extends into next fall? Fall’s the worst time to get sick.”
“That’s true,” I agreed. “Guess it doesn’t really matter anyway. God, I won’t be able to stand living at home.”
“Oh, wait! I just realized. Aaron Paul’s gonna be there too. Oooh, girl, you have to throw yourself at him,” Diamond said. “I’m not talking about a relationship, but just to get a little something on the side.”
“For the millionth time, he’s my stepbrother!”
“That’s perfect, no one will suspect!” she whispered. “Shhh.”
I let out a sigh.
Clearly, this boy-crazy room was not getting it.
Phil was related to me now.
Dating family like that would be way too weird for me.
Plus, he spent the whole wedding annoying me on purpose, so h
e was obviously a rude jerk.
I was not looking forward to having to go be around him.
And not just because he was hot, and I wished I could bang him but I knew I couldn’t.
But also because he was a douche and his mom was a cheater.
Stupid Coronavirus; it had to go and ruin everything.
Chapter Three - Tracianne
Negotiating a ride home from college was a mess. Everyone was trying to scramble to get home all at once. I mean, during a break it was always that way too, but this time seemed even more frantic.
The girl I normally rode with, whose parents lived a few towns away from my own hometown, just refused to drive anyone. She was paranoid about the virus and wanted to be all alone without any people around, which was understandable. Everyone was doing everything they could to stay safe.
Eventually, my dad convinced me to rent a car. There was this new service where I wouldn’t have to return it and they’d send someone over to pick it up. Normally, I’d find that rather lazy, but during the pandemic, it seemed to be a great idea.
Unfortunately, the car they dropped off was a Prius. It was hard to jam all my stuff into their little car, but I managed. I had things toppling over on my head during the drive.
I laughed to myself, thinking that I could probably drive in the carpool lane, since it looked like I had other people jammed inside the car with me.
After a long, traffic filled and miserable ride, where I stopped for fast food and got a little sick from it, I finally arrived ‘home.’ If ‘home’ meant the new house my dad and his new wife had bought while I was supposed to be living elsewhere.
It was cute, with a flagstone path and a “Welcome” sign hung over the front door. But I was tired from my drive and not in the mood to admire their homestead, and my new temporary abode. I was half tempted to leave my junk in the car until the next morning, but God forbid if the car guy showed up early to take it back.
Instead, I grabbed an armful of stuff and made a beeline for the sliding doors in the back, which was an easier entrance because I didn’t have to walk up the stairs that went up to the front door. Along the way, I cut across some grass and stepped on something. My foot slid out from under me and I fell, dumping a box of stuff across the lawn.