“Haha. Yeah, sure aunt Isa. I’m going back to football,” Kiegan replied, and with that, he turned, but at that point the smells from the barbeque had begun wafting towards the rest of the company, and it was quickly obvious that the football game had broken up in favour of the promise of food.
I stared down at the table while the men began to mingle in with us women and make their way towards the barbeque that Elton was expertly handling. I couldn’t believe this. It wasn’t enough that Kiegan was making my life hell at school, it turned out he was my stepbrother, too? He was going to be my brother, for the rest of my life? The thought made me want to puke.
“Are you alright, Tina?” my mom asked, noticing something was wrong.
“I’m fine, mom. Just feeling a bit under the weather.”
“OK, well go inside if you’d like.”
I shook my head. “I’ll be fine. Thanks.” I knew I had to be. I wasn’t going to be able to run forever. Kiegan Hunt was going to be a part of my life for the foreseeable future, I had to learn to deal with it.
“Alright, well listen, let me introduce you to Edward and Jacob, Elton’s brothers.”
My mom motioned at two men by the barbeque and they came over.
“Edward, Jacob, this is my daughter Tina.”
“It’s lovely to meet you,” Edward told me, the State Senator giving off that perfect feeling of making you feel like the only person in the room. I understood immediately why the man was so popular with voters, I was years away from casting my first ballot and I already felt like I wanted to vote for the man. I went to shake his hand, but he opened his arms wide and hugged me instead.
“You’re family now, shaking hands is what I do with factory owners and lobbyists,” he told me as he held me close.
Jacob Hunt, for his part, shook my hand. He was also a politician, a local congressman, but who admittedly hadn’t reached quite the same heights as his brother, who was definitely considered to be a future presidential candidate. He was obviously the youngest of all the siblings; no grey had touched his hair yet and the lines on his face weren’t quite as pronounced.
“Alright, lunch is ready!” Elton announced with a flourish, as plates and plates of meat and veggies were suddenly made available. The waiter came out of nowhere with jugs of lemonade and bowls of salad that made their way onto the table, and a low rumbling of chit-chat began as everyone started to get up and make their way towards the food.
“Hey sis, could you get me a steak and some corn?” Kiegan hollered at me from one of the chairs. He was leaning on the back two legs of the chair, with that same smile he gave me at school when he’d insulted me.
“Say please, Kiegan,” Isabella ordered.
“Pleeeeease,” my new brother continued, exaggeratingly. There was nothing more I wanted than to tell him to get his own fucking steak, and to tip his chair backwards so he’d fall on his head, but I knew I couldn’t. After all, this was his family. They were always going to think he was a cherubic little angel, no matter what. Plus, they didn’t know that he’d been bullying me at school. It would just make me look like the bad guy.
Instead, my face burning with rage and embarrassment, I went to the barbeque, picked out the ugliest looking steak from the pile – which I had to admit was pretty tough, the food did look amazing – and slapped it onto a plate along with a cob of corn. I took it over to the table where Kiegan was sitting and slammed it down in front of him as hard as I dared.
“Now, now,” he whispered to me, another one of those dumb smiles dancing on his face, “don’t worry, there’s lots of food left, I’m sure there’s enough, even for you.”
I swore I wasn’t going to let him see how angry he made me. I wasn’t going to let his fat joke ruin my day. I went back to the barbeque and got a hot dog and a couple chicken wings, along with some veggies. Sitting back down at the table as far as I could from Kiegan, I mainly listened as the adult started talking.
The topic of my mom’s wedding came up, and she and Elton revealed they were tentatively planning for June of next year. It was like a dagger to my heart. I didn’t want to be a part of this new family anymore. Sure, everyone was nice to me, and all that, except for Kiegan, and he was so bad he was ruining all of it.
I also couldn’t deny my body’s reaction – no matter how much I tried to resist him, Kiegan turned me on. I wanted to rip his clothes off. I wanted him to take me, to break me in, to make me feel things I had never felt before. He was on my mind a lot more than I liked to admit, and it made every jeering comment, every hurtful thing he ever said to me hurt even more.
After lunch Elizabeth, Anne’s daughter, and I went for a walk along the grounds.
“He’s a bit of an asshole, isn’t he?” she asked me as the sounds of the adults, some of whom had had a martini or two too many, began to fade into the background and be replaced by the sounds of rustling leaves and birds that were deciding to brave the winter rather than move south.
“Who’s that?” I asked, playing dumb. I knew who she meant.
“Kiegan.”
“Oh, him. Yeah, I guess so.”