Stepbrother Bestie (A Stepbrother Romance Novel) Read Online Free PDF

my best though, leaving the first chance I
got, when it wouldn’t look completely out of place. I shifted out of my chair
and made my way out to the picnic tables, which were located outside. It was still
fairly chilly, but I was happy to be away from the tension that was building at
that table.
    Yet, almost as soon as I was settled,
waiting for the time to run out on lunch so I make my way to study hall where
Valerie couldn’t find me, I heard the door open and a familiar voice behind me.
    “Can we talk?” Valerie asked, fairly
heated.
    “Do we really have to?” I squinted my eyes
at her as I looked up against the blustery glare.
    “Yes!” She sat down across from me on the
bench. She was glowering at me, but I wasn’t sure why she was so upset. I was
the one who had an ax to grind, not her. “What is it with you?” She demanded
after a pause.
    “What do you mean?” I asked heatedly,
matching her tone and expression.
    “You just ignored me. Why?”
    “Because I normally ignore you.” I
replied, this time with a little bit more venom to my voice than I had meant to
inject, but that also didn’t stop me. “Or have you been too busy having a
perfect life to notice…or even care.”
    I was surprised that my harsh words didn’t
seem to resonate as bitterly as I had thought they would. Instead, she looked
as though she felt sorry for me. Her hand immediately came out and clasped
against my own. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Shawn, but I don’t know what I
did.” She stared at me once again with a strange look on her face. She didn’t
seem angry, as I would have guessed she would be, and that bothered me.
    In an odd way, I wanted her to feel the
same kind of anger that coursed through me on a daily basis, but instead, I was
receiving compassion. “Just leave me alone!” I growled. “Don’t you get that I
just don’t want to have anything to do with you?”
    At this, Valerie’s head craned back and
her eyes narrowed; but she was more confused than angry. “Why, Shawn? What did
I do that was so bad that you can’t even talk to me about it?”
    “What gave you the impression that I even
wanted to talk? You seemed to be okay with our relationship, or lack of, going
on like this for a long time now. You haven’t sat at my table in months.”
    “Because I didn’t feel wanted,” she
insisted and I was sure that I was ruffling her feathers a little bit.
    “That’s because you weren’t,” I spat,
laying it on thick, even though I knew I would feel terrible about it when it
was all over.
    She gasped and took back her hand.
However, she didn’t speak at first. Valerie seemed to stop what she was doing
and contemplate what I had just said to her. Once she found the words that she
wanted to use, I supposed, she tried again. “I’m sorry. I thought that after
the other day, after the past weekend, maybe there was an opportunity to get
back what we so obviously lost.” She bit her lip nervously before she added,
“This weekend made me realize how much I missed you and it put into perspective
exactly how far we had grown apart. It made me realize exactly what we had and
what I wanted to get back.” She stopped, sighed and laced her fingers together
thoughtfully. “I guess that just isn’t possible, but I wanted to try…” After
another pause, she added, “Although, I do want to know what it is that destroyed
us, the friendship that we used to have…everything that used to come so
naturally to the both of us. The friendship that we both said would never
fade.”
    She stared at me now with a sense of
righteousness.
    I thought for a moment, feeling warm under
the keen piercing of her eyes. I knew that I did owe her an explanation, if she
ever asked. I had always known that she deserved that. In fact, she deserved
better, but better was something that I was not able to provide. So, I settled
for just the clarification, at least what I was able to provide, how I
understood it, knowing full-well