My Jealous Stepbrother
MANY PROBLEMS

"Do you need anything more official?"

"No, that's all. Have a good night," the officer said as she walked away.

I heard the footsteps walking away and the door closing, but I still didn't move from my hiding place.

"You can come out now."

I quickly jumped out of my clothes taking a big breath of clean air in the process, while trying not to trip over anything dirty and smelly.

"Are you crazy? What if he found me?" I punched him again in his chest.

"It wasn't going to occur to you to go through the laundry."

"You don't know that!!! What would have happened if he happened to think to check everything." Ryan just shrugged.

"Now you have to tell me how exactly it was that you got here."

I sighed heavily. Let's just make it a quick recap.

"I took the keys to dad's car, went out the window, as I was coming down the road I got pulled over by the police for speeding. He asked me for my license which I obviously still don't have and as I tried to explain that the car was my dad's he asked me to get out of the car, obviously not believing me. And... I panicked and sped off. He chased me to the campus and I parked the car on the soccer practice field and I ran like hell so he wouldn't catch me and I hid in some bushes. I was found by your friend that we met the other time we went for ice cream and he told me where your room was and here I am!!!" I spoke so fast that again I was out of breath.

Ryan just rubbed his temples painfully before looking back at me wearily. "That's it?"

"Yes."

"I can't believe you're a delinquent now," he said still with his serious face. was he even joking with me? Well that means he's not totally pissed off.

"There's nothing I can do just ignore that Dad's car is in the middle of a soccer field and he'll probably be hysterical when he finds out," he said calmly. I forgot that all-important little detail. "Now back to something more important."

Ryan moved closer, cornering me between the wall and his body with his arms on either side of my face height, our gazes could not be separated and I felt more and more spellbound by his closeness.

"So will you stay with me tonight?" Ryan asked softly as if he didn't know the answer, why was he saying it in that seductive way?

I could only nod, afraid that if I opened my mouth to answer I was going to ruin the mood. I had no choice anyway, I don't know what time it is but it was surely already early morning and he wasn't missing to go out by himself. Besides I didn't want to go out there and run into the cops. Even though I knew perfectly well that thinking like that was just an excuse.

This was possibly going to bring more consequences but I didn't care. It's not bad to enjoy a little.

Isn't it?

My eyes opened heavily at an irritating sound but I thought better of it and figured it must not be that important so I rolled over to better embrace the warm pillow next to me. A warm pillow? I don't remember falling asleep with any pillow big enough to hug with my legs, and when the pillow hugged me back I panicked. Crap.

I slightly opened one of my eyes to check my suspicions, Ryan was hugging me. Shirtless! Was I supposed to check under the covers? No, no, not in the daylight.

That woke me up immediately. I started to move him slightly to wake him up too, but there was no response from him, just some incomprehensible babbling. I think he was saying to let him sleep, but I can't do that!

"Wake up!!!" Ryan just snorted half asleep. "You better wake up I need to go to the bathroom!"

"Agh, okay, screamer. But for your information the bathroom is across the hall, so you'll have to fix yourself up better to get out of the room," he said, removing his arm from my waist and pointing to the shirt I was wearing that is clearly bigger than me and I could tell it wasn't mine. I blushed until I couldn't remember last night.

Ryan just smiled showing all his teeth, how can he be so handsome so early in the morning?

At first it was a lie to get him to let go of me, but now I really needed to go to the bathroom. "Okay, I'll be right back."

I changed as fleetingly as I could and ran out to the bathroom, luckily I didn't find anyone down the hall, it was either too early or it was too late for me to have seen anyone. When I came back Ryan was sitting on the single bed and holding my phone in his hands, I looked at him furiously, his eyebrows were so furrowed they were drawn together. Something is not right.

"Ryan, is everything okay?" I asked cautiously even though the question was silly because it was clear that it wasn't.

"I don't know you tell me, is everything okay Samantha? I don't know weren't you supposed to tell me everything?" what could he have seen on my phone to make him get like this? And then I remembered, all the messages from the stalker were still on my phone, along with the pictures. "How did you know the password?!"

"It's not like it's too hard, you always pick the same numbers for everything. The date of your birthday plus the number eleven, who wouldn't know?"

I was in big trouble.

Suddenly the door to the room rattled behind me, I jumped where I was standing at the sudden clang, it was as if someone was pounding on it furiously from the other side. "Open the door right now!!!" is my father's voice. I was in soooo much trouble.

If I kept going like this the door would be completely destroyed. Should I hide in the laundry again and pretend I'm not?

But before I could do that Ryan reached for the door handle and as he was about to open it I yelled at him to stop. "Wait!"

"You can't run away forever, Samantha."

"I know! Just... Don't tell Dad about the messages please I beg you. I really promise to tell you everything, without hiding anything."

"Everything?"

"Everything!"

"Fine, I'll fix it. But you better make good on your promise," Ryan said decisively. "Now get behind me and expect the worst." "What's the worst?"

And I understood when he unlocked the door. Dad came into the room and grabbed Ryan by the collar of his shirt and lifted him off the floor, he looked ready for anything and I really think he was capable of hurting him. It's not that he is a violent man with us, in fact I had never seen him so angry but he had a terrifying expression on his face.

"Dad, no!"

"Don't hurt him please!"

"Stay out of it, Samantha. That's between me and him."

"This is my business too! Why don't you ever listen to me! I love him, and I'm the one who ran away and lied all this time! You should be mad at me not him," I'm angry, because my father still thinks I'm a child. "Besides what does it matter if we are step-siblings or not, I want to be with him!"

"Sam, you missed the point. It's not because Ryan is your stepbrother."

"What are you talking about? Isn't that why you're so angry?"

"No, I'm angry because he didn't follow through on his promise. He promised me to stay away from you and hide his feelings until he's an adult, when he lives under his own hard earned roof then I'll give him the okay to be with you. Besides he's still a kid, with those crazy hormones and both of you living together he couldn't even sleep peacefully at night!"

Was all of this true?