Free Wrong: A Spoiled Stepbrother Romance by Pfeiffer Jayst

entertaining such ideas. On my bed I tried to think of literally anything else to take my mind off of Rorke’s perfect body
    “Hey,” I heard come through the wall, “You can always come in the bathroom while I’m in there. Just get in the tub and sit down on my lap. Seriously, you don’t even have to knock.”
    “I’m sorry, it was an accident,” I pleaded back.
    All I could make out was him saying “uh huh.” Whatever, I didn’t care if he believed me or not. Prepared for an onslaught of rude innuendos, I was surprised when he asked, “How’s your job and stuff?” through the wall. I was momentarily touched by his concern about my day. While I desperately wanted to believe it was genuine, I knew full well who I was dealing with. Still though, I needed some place to vent.
    My explanation was kept brief, as a courtesy, I didn’t want Rorke to be under the impression I was a complainer. There was still enough in my tone for him to figure out that I wasn’t happy.
    “Is it what you want to be doing?” he asked and my silence gave him his answer: It wasn’t what I wanted to be doing and thinking about wasting any more hours there felt like torture. “You shouldn’t go back,” he insisted. Since Rorke had never been one to have to hold down a job, I didn’t hold his naivety against him. At some point he would learn that you couldn’t just do whatever you wanted, or at least the rest of us couldn’t.
    “So, um, how’s the boxing?” I politely asked during the next lull in our conversation. Rorke came alive behind the wall, his voice animated as he insisted he was “killing it” and getting better everyday. More than a few times he told me that I should come to his fight but each time I reminded him that boxing wasn’t “my thing”. None of that dampened his enthusiasm and it was welcoming to hear, nice to listen to someone being so passionate and positive. The way he described what he was doing in that gym everyday made me want to be closer to him. With the door to my room safely closed, I pressed up against the wall and felt the vibrations from his voice caress my tired body. Every word he spoke ran through me in a pleasant buzz. For a few moments, I allowed myself to forget who I was and where I was, instead dropping it all and releasing my inhibitions to feel good for once, no matter how naughty I was being.
    My meditation was suddenly interrupted when I didn’t feel his voice echoing through me. He had abruptly stopped talking and I wasn’t sure why. Having been so wrapped up in the moment, I wasn’t sure if he had asked me a question or was waiting for a response of some kind. After a few more moments of silence, Rorke gave up on me and I began to hear that familiar beat again, he was playing that song again. Instead of being annoyed, I lowered down onto my side, pressed myself firmly against the wall and closed my eyes, wanting to fall asleep to the same music my stepbrother was listening to.
    *****
     

ROUND NINE
    *****
    Madelyn
    As the days went on, I sadly found that lunch time at the new job was anything but exciting. There was a small, depressing break room where I would use what little money I had to get maybe a bag of chips or a granola bar from the one sad vending machines in there. Nobody ever sat with me or paid much attention, I would just spend the time scrolling through my phone, looking for entertainment and hoping to be anywhere else. This workplace loneliness made ignoring Derek's continued messaging all the more difficult.
    "Hey"
    "You there?"
    "Just let me explain"
    His messages didn’t vary much, pretty much the same three short phrases over email or text, though he never found the need to actually call. My boredom and loneliness actually caused me to contemplate responding, just for something to keep me occupied and maybe give me some excitement in my life. The daydream fantasies I came up with in that break room always imagined the best-case scenario, as unlikely as