Smirk: A Stepbrother Romance Read online

  Uh-oh.

  “Cindy... don’t do it!” I warned her. “Don’t beg him to take you back just because you want to get your revenge. That’s not going to end well. You’re more dignified than that!”

  She gave me a puzzled look.

  “Who told you I’d go back to that jerk?” she asked.

  “Uhm... you said something about giving him a dose of his own medicine, right?” I reminded her.

  “Yes... but that doesn’t mean I have to do it.”

  “Huh? Then who?”

  And for the first time since I met her that day, she grinned. There was something different about her smile, though... something that was replete with dread and foreboding. It didn’t take long for me to discover why I felt that way.

  “You will, darling,” she answered impishly. “You will play the player.”

  Chapter 3

  HAYDEN

  Frankly, I couldn’t remember her name.

  But she sat on my lap as I was sitting on one of the benches just outside the Arts and Science building. I was all alone, at first, which was how I preferred things that lazy Monday afternoon. But then, she came along, hopping and skipping and jumping into my knees, throwing her arms around my neck, pressing her tits against my arm, wriggling her perky butt so that I’d feel it, whispering words in a slurred tone that can only be described as infantile.

  “Don’t be lonely now, you poor thing,” she purred with a voice that she probably thought was cute. “I’m here and I’m gonna take good care of you,” she added as she played with my nose with her finger. I quickly brushed her hand away.

  Yes, I couldn’t remember her name... but I did remember her fine form and her okay face. I slept with her one... or twice... or maybe thrice before. In Zack’s dorm. In her dorm. In the English lab. I couldn’t recall where, but it didn’t really matter.

  I reciprocated her affectionate acts with feigned politeness. I could pretend that I knew her intimately well. I was used to dissemblance.

  “How was your day, you sweet little thing?” she continued to coo, as she fidgeted wildly to give me a better feel of her breasts. I didn’t know where to place my hands, so I hooked them over her waist and rested them on her thighs. Then I felt her bare skin and noticed that she was wearing the tiniest pair of shorts I’ve ever seen. “Naughty, naughty,” she bawdily murmured.

  I pulled out my hands as quickly as I could and clasped them behind my neck. Some of the people who were passing by stared at us, and that made me feel quite uncomfortable.

  Suddenly, she drew her head closer to mine, and rubbed my nose with hers.

  “You’ve been a good boy?” she asked, still with that annoying puerile tone. “What does my baby want...”

  It was then when I pushed her way. I might’ve shoved her a little too hard as she almost fell from my lap.

  “What the fuck?!” she yelled in shock as she held on to my leg for support.

  “Please... don’t talk to me like that,” I requested. I was breathing faster than before and my voice was louder than normal. I realized that I was mad, and I was trying my best to restrain my anger.

  She stood up and crossed her arms over hear breasts. She gave me a sharp look.

  “You’re so fucking infuriating!” she furiously said. “You’re such a jerk! You probably don’t even know my name, huh?”

  I shrugged and gave her a sardonic smile.

  She flashed both of her middle fingers in front of me and darted off, away from sight.

  Peace and quiet, at last!

  As I extended my arms over the backrest of the bench, however, a familiar voice greeted me.

  “What was that all about, bro?” he asked as he sat beside me and gave my chest a friendly nudge.

  “Some chick,” I answered.

  “She looked hot,” he said. “What’s her name?”

  “Dunno,” I replied.

  He chuckled.

  “As expected,” he said.

  I met Donnie when I was a freshman. We became friends almost immediately. We were together as neophytes of Epsilon Gamma Omega. We became fraternity brothers at the same time. Now, he was a graduating senior. I still had sixty more units to go, which would take me at least two years to complete, if I’d go full load for four semesters. Somehow, I doubted if I was capable of that. College was fun. I wasn’t in a hurry to finish.

  “Any worthwhile adventure you wish to share?” he asked, pertaining to what he once described as my conquests.

  “Worthwhile? Not really,” I nonchalantly told him. “How are you and Elaine?”

  “We’re good, we’re good. We just celebrated our tenth monthsary last Saturday. Two more months and our relationship would be a year old.”

  “Monthsary? You actually commemorate that stuff?”

  “Not my idea, bro. But you know how girls are.”

  “Yes. They’re complicated creatures.”

  “Complicated? Is that the reason why you don’t take them seriously?”

  “I just don’t like the idea of being tied down, you know? Life is too short. How can I make the most out of it if my days would revolve around one person?”

  “It can be a satisfying experience, bro.”

  “So says the guy who celebrates monthsaries.”

  “Heh! Why don’t you give it a shot? A relationship? A real, genuine, monogamous relationship? Who knows? It might give meaning to your life.”

  “My life is full of meanings as it is.”

  “More meaning, I mean.”

  “That’s... not possible.”

  “Just once, bro.”

  Donnie was being unusually persistent. It’s not like he hasn’t tried to change my ways before... but his previous efforts were clandestine... clumsily handled but subtle nevertheless. That afternoon, though, he was being direct and somewhat forceful.

  “Donnie, I can get any girl I want,” I told him. It wasn’t a brag. It was true. I knew what I had, and I knew that what I had was desirable for them. “Why should I settle for just one?”

  “Because that one may be the one... you know... a girl who can make you happy for the rest of your life. A girl you can grow old with. A girl who you wouldn’t be able to live without.”

  He wasn’t only being persistent, it seemed. He was also being overly dramatic.

  “You taking Prozac?” I had to ask.

  He laughed.

  “Hayden, I love you, bro, but I beliece that, sometimes, you think too highly of yourself.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t think you can get any girl you want. I’m sure that there’s someone out there who’d be able to resist your charms.”

  I dismissed his comment with a snigger. I thought he knew me well. I may have been mistaken. He was talking to a guy who has never been turned down before. Never.

  “Seriously,” he added. “I am sure... I am very sure... that there’s a girl out there who’d be able to say no to you.”

  “Show me,” I challenged him.

  His eyes surveyed the area around us. He studied every female who passed by, even those who were quite distant from us. It took him a few minutes before his eyes lit up.

  “There!” he exclaimed. “Right there!”

  “Where?”

  “Going down the main steps... see her?”

  I turned to look at where he was pointing. And then I saw her.

  Pigtails. Denim jumpsuit with a very loose shirt underneath. Dirty white sneakers. Books secured in her arms. A backpack that was probably a hand-me-down from his brother. And glasses that were thick enough to serve as a chopping board. She clumsily looked at her surroundings as if she was lost, almost missing a step of the stairs and sliding all the way down to the pavement.

  “Her?” I asked just to be sure that Donnie was referring to the same girl.

  “Yep,” he confirmed. “I doubt if you’d be able to win her heart... and get her to bed,” he added with a mischievous smile.

  “She’s a freshm
an,” I reminded him. I didn’t know who she was, but she looked very young, and she carried all her books with her. Only first year students were that... extremely diligent.

  “So what?” he remarked. “It’s not as if you haven’t fucked freshies before.”

  “But she’s... she’s...” I wanted to be as politically correct as I could, but Donnie was a friend, and friends could speak freely to one another. “She’s... a little too... healthy... for my tastes.”

  “That... may be true,” he tentatively agreed. “But hey, you did say that you can get any girl you wanted, right?”

  Damn. He was trapping in a corner. But for what? What was his point?

  “Easy,” I told him. “I’d just wink at her and she’d beg me to take her.”

  “You seem so sure about that.”

  “Girls like that? Never been kissed, never been touched? Haven’t had a boyfriend since birth? I’ll just show her a little attention and she’d be crawling to me in no time, pleading for some tender loving care.”

  Again, Donnie chuckled.

  “Want to put that to a test?” he asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “A bet.”

  “Oh... how very original,” I sarcastically replied.

  “I just want to know how sure you really are about your claim, bro.”

  “Tell me about this bet you have in mind.”

  “Your Hummer for my Playstation 4.”

  “That’s hardly fair.”

  “You’re the rich boy. My PS4 is my most cherished possession. Besides, are you afraid to lose?”

  He was goading me to accept his ridiculous wager. He knew me well enough to know my weakness: my pride.

  “Alright Donnie. If I don’t get her to bed by the end of the week, my Hummer’s yours. But if I get to pop that innocent cherry of hers within that period, your stupid video game machine will be mine.”

  “Done!” he quickly agreed.

  “Now, if you’ll excuse me,” I said as I started to get up from the bench, “I have work to do.”

  Chapter 4

  PHOEBE

  “I still don’t think this is a good idea,” I told Cindy as we met again at Alvin’s Pizzeria that afternoon, a restaurant which was just a stone’s throw away from the campus.

  “But it worked!” she enthused. “It really fucking worked!”

  “Are you sure?” I asked her, my heart was filled with perturbation.

  “Yes, Phoebe!” she verified. “Donnie texted me the details. He did his part well!”

  “And Hayden Summersmith doesn’t know that Donnie’s your cousin?” I tried to clarify once again.

  “Hell no! He and Donnie have been friends for like four years now. If that jackass knew that I was his friend’s cousin, he wouldn’t have even considered dating me. Trust me, Phoebe... that prick has no idea - no idea at all - about what’s coming to him.”

  “I dunno, Cindy,” I said, my voice almost cracking with anxiety and dread. “I’m... I’m not really cut out for this...”

  “Nonsense, Phoebe! You’re the perfect girl for this plan!”

  “No, I’m not. I mean... look at me,” I dared her. “I’m not really the skinny type of girl he would go out with.”

  “Oh, don’t be a drama queen! That’s just baby fat.”

  “You’ve been saying that for five years now,” I sullenly reminded her.

  She pulled her chair closer to mine and gave me a hug. She rested her head on my shoulder as I continued to mope, in frustration because I agreed to her plan, and in fear of what was to come.

  “Yeah... you’re not thin like those Victoria’s Secret models,” she murmured. “You won’t be able to wear some of the clothes you fancy. And you might not even win the immediate attention of guys. But Phoebe, I’m being honest here... when they manage to spend some time with you, they’ll come realize what I already know.”

  “And what’s that?” I questioned in confusion.

  “That you’re more beautiful than they can possibly imagine.”

  She was sweet. She always was. But at that time, I didn’t know if she was being honest or if she was just encouraging me to stay with the plan she has devised. I flicked the bridge of glasses... a habit I always had whenever I was confronted with work that needed to be done.

  “You’re my friend... my dearest, dearest friend... my BFF,” she added, validating my thought that she was just lifting my spirit to give me the confidence to push through with her vengeful scheme. “Please, Phoebe... do this for me... we’re in this together...”

  I let out a deep sigh.

  “So... what’s the next step?” I asked her, with noticeable resolve... though I wasn’t sure if it was genuine or simulated.

  She enthusiastically got up and flashed a wide grin.

  “Well based on my research... which is based on my experience with that dickhead... he will try to establish contact,” she stated. “He’ll make it look accidental so that you’d entertain the idea that it might be destiny.”

  “A serendipitous encounter?”

  “Yes!”

  “So what should I do?”

  “Just play along.”

  “Play along?”

  “Yes. Act surprised. Pretend that you didn’t see it coming. That would make him think that his nefarious tactic is working.”

  “You do remember that I’m a lousy actress, right?”

  It’s true. One time, when we were in junior high, she asked me to tell her dad that she slept over our place which would explain why she didn’t come home the night before. I said my piece, but when her dad started to blast me with questions, I withered like ice under the sun. I stuttered and babbled and almost fainted. We were lucky that her dad was in a hurry as he had to attend a town hall meeting that day.

  “Let the hatred drive you, Phoebe,” she suggested.

  “What hatred?”

  “Your hatred for him... on my behalf. Hey, I’m your BFF! My enemy is supposed to be your enemy too.”

  “Right,” I cynically replied.

  “Just remember how much you hate him, and that will give you the conviction to carry out our plan.”

  “Okay,” I said as I nodded. “But if I do manage to pull it off... if I do succeed in pretending that I knew nothing about his fake accidental meeting... what then? Where is this headed? What’s your end game?”

  She paused to contemplate my question. She rubbed her chin for a few seconds before responding to my query.

  “You will have to make him fall in love with you,” she told me.

  “I don’t know if that’s even possible,” I expressed my doubt.

  “It is possible!” she exclaimed. “It is very possible! We’ll work on that together. We’ll make sure that he will covet your heart.”

  “Assuming that he does fall in love with me - and that’s a very big assumption to make - what then? How will that give you the payback you’re looking for?”

  “When he does fall in love with you, Phoebe,” he replied with a smug smile, “you will dump him. You will make him feel the same kind of pain he has inflicted on me... and so many women before me.”

  That sounded so wicked. It was something that I never dreamt of doing to another person. I never wanted to be hurt like that, and I never desired to hurt someone the same way. But Cindy... Cindy’s my friend... the closest thing to a sister I have ever had. I should do this for her so that she could move on.

  “But always remember one thing, Phoebe,” she was quick to add. “Whatever happens, whatever he does... don’t you ever fall in love with him.”

  That was the only part of her plan that I was confident about.

  Chapter 5

  HAYDEN

  I had to flirt with the receptionist at the Students Affairs desk just to get her details and her schedule.

  It was quite a taxing way to start a Tuesday morning. But it was something that I had to do. A wager was placed, and my reputation was at stake.

  At first, th
e receptionist - a student volunteer - was hesitant to provide me what I sought. A simple smile and a few flattering words, though, made her change her mind.