“See, she’s coming to meet me,” Jason said, smiling.
“Yeah,” I murmured, but I hoped she would turn around so I didn’t have to introduce her to Jason, but she walked up to us, leaving me no choice but to introduce them. “Jason, my stepsister, Jenn. Jenn, Jason.”
I watched as they shook hands with the usual “nice to meet you.” Jason drooled all over Jenn, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d have said the attention wasn’t lost on Jenn. She openly flirted with him, much to my disgust.
“All right, let’s go back to bowling,” I snarled, standing and breaking up whatever connection they might have had. I didn’t want it getting past hellos.
“But I want to talk to Jenn a little more,” Jason said. I looked at Jenn, thinking she’d go back to bowling with me, but she sat next to Jason and made herself more comfortable.
“You’re done bowling?” I asked.
“Not yet,” she said. “Just need to catch my breath.”
“Jason?” I asked, hoping Jason would come with me, but I already knew the answer before I even asked him.
“I’ll be here,” he said, sitting down next to Jenn.
I left them and walked back to the bowling lanes. I did my best not to look back as I walked away from them, but I couldn’t resist it. A quick glance and I could see the two of them laughing hard at something one of them must have said. It made me so jealous that some other guy could make her laugh like that. I was jealous of another man being close to Jenn, which made me realize that our relationship was going to be a lot more than just stepsiblings fucking. I needed her more than just that!
JENN
I spent most of the next morning after our bowling trip sitting in the bathroom, nauseous. It had to be the pizza, because that was the only thing I had eaten that could have made me sick. When I finally made it downstairs, no one was home. Dad and Mom had gone to work and Tyler was nowhere to be found.
“Tyler?” I called a couple more times but got no answer. I went to the kitchen to see if he’d left a note or explanation. His note simply said, “Out with Stacey.” I read it again to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. He had just told me he didn’t care about Stacey and was done with her. How did she get back into the picture so quickly? Was he lying about their relationship so he’d score? I was about to pick up the phone and curse him out when I realized I knew the exact way to get back at him.
I picked up my phone and dialed the number I had been given from the night before. “Jason?” I said into the mouthpiece. You’d have thought he’d won a lottery. “Want to hang out?”
“Sure,” he said. “I’ll pick you up?”
“Sure, about an hour?”
I got off the phone and took a quick shower. Luckily, my stomach had calmed down. I had no more bouts of nausea except when I gargled while brushing my teeth. I made a mental note to avoid gargling while brushing, and no more eating pizza in bowling alleys or even being too close to Lauren when she cooked.
I dressed in a simple outfit—a pair of jeans and plain sweater—appropriate for wherever Jason wanted to go. I was thinking of going to the movies, but I would leave it up to him in case he wanted to go somewhere else. When he arrived, the way he looked at me spoke more than his words ever could.
“You look nice,” he said as he escorted me to his car.
“Thanks.”
“Where’s Tyler?”
“Out with some girl,” I said. Even though the words rolled out of my mouth, the realization that Tyler was probably somewhere fucking some other girl was just too much to bear.
“Oh, yeah, Tyler’s the ladies man.”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at this revelation, so I sipped the water I had been carrying and did what came naturally, which was an awkward mix of laughter and crying.
“You okay?” Jason asked.
I nodded and added, “I just drank way too much water too fast.”
“Oh, okay,” he said as he opened the passenger side door of a car that looked like it cost a fortune, something Tyler never did. I guess Tyler was used to thinking of me as his stepsister, so he didn’t really know what to do with me being his fuck mate. The only thing that really changed in our relationship was what we did for each other in secret and at night, not how he felt about me.
I didn’t realize Jason was talking until he touched my arm, cutting off my thoughts of Tyler. “You sure you’re fine?”
“Yeah, I’m good. I was just wondering if I had locked the door after we left,” I said.
“Want to go back and check?”
“No, I think I did. I just worry a lot sometimes.”
“That’s okay, so do I. So where do you want to go?”
“Anywhere,” I said.
“Have you ever been to Broadway?”