Stepbrother JEEZ! (The Stepbrother Romance Series - Book #4) Read Free

kind of guys they were; they took any
excuse they could to party. I’d gotten texts from them complaining about how
incredibly boring it was at home with their families—until things had really
blown up with Jaxon I’d even laughed at them and told them to enjoy the rest
from the constant party life.
    I got back to the dorms as quickly as I could and
that was my strategy. I would leave as close to the time for my classes as
possible and go straight there and straight back. If I had to get food from the
dining hall, I’d get it to go and bring it to my room. I thought about spending
some time in the library—they had private study rooms where I could be
completely by myself and no one would even know I was—but the private rooms
were almost always spoken for before classes even started for the day.
    Everyone who knew me knew that something was up;
even when I’d been avoiding Jaxon, I’d managed to make it over to the frat, to
hang out with the guys who I’d been friends with far longer than Jaxon. I’d hit
the courts, I’d gone out and done things. I got texts from everyone inviting me
to come watch the game and have a couple of beers, or to come play a pickup
game, or to hit the gym. Yo , Mia, what’s going on? Mia, grab dinner with us. Yo —they’re doing a BBQ down by the volleyball
court, you in? I’d te ;; the guys I’d really spent
time with that I didn’t feel like going anywhere or doing anything; it wasn’t
really an excuse and I knew they could see through it, but it was better than
the nothing I had for everyone else.
    I just didn’t have the time or the energy to try and
make things right with anyone. As classes started up, the first few days back,
everyone got back into their usual schedule except for me. Yo , you sick or something? Do we need to get you to the campus nurse?
What’s going on ?   As I made my way to and from
classes every day, hurrying to get there, keeping my gaze on the ground in
front of me so I couldn’t even see people, doing my best to be as invisible as
possible, the thought that plagued me was: Next
thing you know, I’m going to find out I’m related to Jeremy. Or
Mike. Or Alex. I kept waiting to get a
phone call from my mom telling me that I had some new family member. It was a
stupid thought, but it had taken me so much by surprise to know that Jaxon and
I were related that I couldn’t get it out of my head.
    It got worse by the day; at first it was just texts
and phone calls, but inevitably my strategy of avoiding everyone I knew other
than my roommates started to fall apart. Rushing to class, someone would call
out my name—one of the guys from the frat, one of the guys I played ball with,
one of the members of the team. I made myself pretend like I didn’t hear them; I breezed past and didn’t look up. It was easier with
headphones on, but then I risked literally running into someone—with my eyes on
the ground and my ears full of music, it made it harder to avoid people instead
of easier. Once or twice my friends actually tried to grab me—my hand, my
arm—but I pretended not to even notice, and just kept moving forward.
    I knew I was basically ruining any kind of social
life I had. I knew that eventually everyone would quit trying altogether, but I
couldn’t deal with the possibility of telling anyone anything about what had
happened. I couldn’t let myself get talked into going back to the frat house
and then running into Jaxon. I just had to keep to my dorm, to my classes.
    It was so frustrating; I started spending a little
time with my roommates even though I didn’t want to have anything to do with
what they were up to . I watched endless hours of Real Housewives or some other mindless
show when I would have rather been watching a game with the guys in the frat
house. I went to the mall and wandered behind them from store to store just to
have something to do. I listened to the stupid bullshit that they wanted to
talk about—guys they were going