Stepbrother With Benefits 18 (Third Season) (5 page)

She starts to shift around and struggle against me. I just saved your ass, Princess. Speaking of asses, I decide it's a good idea to smack hers quick. I mean, it's right there, just begging to be smacked, so why not?

She stops struggling once I spank her. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

"Rule number nineteen is you're not supposed to keep teasing me after the first time," she says, matter-of-fact. "If you spank me again, you're breaking the rules, Ethan. If you break the rules, I'm going to punish you!"

"Oh yeah?" I ask her.

"Yeah!" she says.

"Alright, then I won't," I say, carrying her down the halls.

"Oh," she says, disappointed. "You can if you want, though. Um... I mean, I guess you shouldn't, because you have to go to class, but..."

"Nah, don't go saying that, Princess. We made the rules for a reason. If we just stop following them, what kind of relationship are we going to have?"

"We stopped following rule number one," she points out.

"We didn't stop following it," I counter. "We made another rule that says rule number one is null and void."

"I kind of want to make a rule saying that rule number nineteen is null and void," she says.

"That's a bad idea," I tell her. "Think of how much teasing I'm going to put you through if I know I can do it for days?"

"I love you, but sometimes I think I hate you," she says.

"Aww, poor baby," I say, patting her ass.

"Ethan!" she shrieks at me. "No teasing!"

"I'm not teasing you. I'm soothing you. There's a huge fucking difference. I'm trying to be here for you in your time of need."

"Shut up, you asshole."

"Whoa, you're getting kind of vulgar, don't you think?"

We get back to my room. I put her down before then. Yeah, she can walk on her own. It's kind of fun to carry her. Whatever. We get to my room and I let her in before me. I'm a fucking gentleman like that.

"I miss you," she says all of a sudden.

"I didn't even leave yet," I remind her. "I'm still here."

"Hurry up and leave then so I can miss you!" she says, pretending to pout at me. "Wait, no, don't leave yet. Can I give you a kiss goodbye?"

"Is that a real question?"

"Um, maybe?"

I grab my backpack and sling it over my back, then I wait. She watches me, waiting, too. I laugh. I can't help it.

"Yes," I say.

She hurries over and gives me a kiss goodbye. It's the sweetest fucking thing in the world. On tiptoes, hands on my chest, her lips against my cheek, all of it.

"Bye," she says, blushing.

I had my cock in this girl a few minutes ago, my fingers on her clit, teasing the fuck out of her, and here she is blushing at me after giving me a kiss goodbye.

Why is she so fucking perfect? I don't even need an answer.

"Bye, Princess," I say, smiling. "I love you. See you soon, alright?"

She nods, fast. "I love you, too, Ethan."

I
'm
in Ethan's dorm room. Alone. I didn't think this through very well before, but what am I supposed to do now?

I guess I can leave? It's not like I'm going to go anywhere that far away. I could walk around the dorm, or maybe go to the common room. That might be weird, though. This is a guy's floor, right? Do girls hang out in the common rooms on the male-only dorm floors?

I actually have no idea. I've never really spent much time in my own college's common rooms before. Yes, Ethan and I watched a movie with Scarlet and Caleb last night in the common room, but...

Alright, now I'm just overthinking this. Cut it out, Ashley!

Actually, the most logical thing for me to do right now would be my homework. Except I don't have any. I did it all on the plane ride over here. Why did I do that? Why am I questioning why I did homework? Ugh.

I'm trapped in Ethan Colton's dorm room and I'm going insane. I'm becoming crazy. I'm...

My phone beeps. I have a text message. Oh, good! Or not. Wait, what if it's Ethan? I think that'd be good, because I miss him, but he's supposed to be paying attention in class, so...

I check. It's not from Ethan. It's Scarlet.

I text her back, because it's probably better than going insane. I tell her that, too, though.

She texts me back almost immediately.

For some reason this makes perfect sense to me. Ethan always says Scarlet is crazy, right? Also, yes. That's it. Just yes. I text that to Scarlet.

And then I start to head towards Ethan's door, to let myself out and walk down the hall to Caleb's room, except...

I'm still wearing my pajamas. That's what I wore to go take a shower with Ethan, and that's what I put on when we got out of the shower, but I haven't bothered changing. And, you know what? I see lots of girls walking around the dorms wearing pajamas. Maybe not
these
dorms, because I haven't been in them for more than a day, but at my dorms it happens all the time.

I'll do it. I'll walk around in pajamas. I'll...

Nevermind. I've changed my mind. Nope!

I change quick, just into some jeans and a t-shirt I brought along. It's a far cry from the scandalous looking dress I wore for Ethan yesterday, but I think my outfit is cute. Ethan better think it's cute, too, or I'll punish him again.

I take a quick picture of myself with my phone and then text it to him quick before heading out the door. He responds with one word.

Good. You're safe for now, Ethan...

I make sure to leave the door unlocked when I leave, so I can get back in instead of being trapped outside. Hurrying down the hall, I head to Caleb's room and knock on the door.

Someone opens it half a second after I knock. It's Scarlet. She pulls me in like she's some sort of spy or kidnapper or something, then shuts the door behind me.

"Hey," she says, staring at me. "What'd you get all dressed up for?"

"Um, what?" I ask.

She's still wearing pajamas. Actually, they're super adorable, too. She's got a white tank top on with a smiley cartoon kitten face in the middle, and pink pajama pants with more kittens on them.

"You even took a shower, huh?" Scarlet asks, pointing to my still damp hair.

"Um... sort of?" I tell her. "It's complicated."

"With Ethan, right?" she asks, smirking.

"Nope!" I refuse to admit it.

"Oh, yeah,
su~re
," she says, sighing and shaking her head.

"Shut up. Where's Caleb, by the way? I'm not really sure what's going on with this whole art exhibit plan. You two were going to leave this morning with Ethan?"

"Yeah, that was the plan, but since Mr. Moneybags is letting us use his dad's private jet, we kind of scrapped it. Caleb went to class. Everyone else from my classes is already gone, including the teachers, so I thought I'd just hang out here."

"Oh," I say. I'm not sure what else to say.

Scarlet goes to sit on her bed. I'm not entirely sure how to explain that one. This isn't even her dorm room, but she's got a bed. Am I the only one who thinks that's weird?

"Um, by the way, can I talk to you about something?" I say.

"Sure?" she says, looking up at me.

"I know we talked about it a little yesterday, but I'm still not sure how I feel about what happened between you and Ethan."

Scarlet was looking at me, but now she looks away. Her cheeks burn red, but the rest of her face turns pale. She looks down at her toes, then out the window, and then over to Caleb's bed. Basically she looks at everything except for me.

"Sorry," she says after an extremely long couple of seconds.

"Do you like him?" I ask. "Ethan, I mean. Is that what happened?"

"Nah, it's not even like that," she says. "He's cool, I guess. I like hanging out with him. That's it, though. There's nothing else there."

"Do you like
anyone?
" I ask, prodding.
Like, hm... Caleb?
I don't add that part, because I don't want to make things awkward for Caleb, but...

Wait, how can things get less awkward for either of them? Aren't they planning on making a sex tape together? I'm kind of jealous. I wonder if Ethan would make a sex tape with me. Then, um... I remember when my mom came home and caught us playing around with our webcams.

"You help Ashley find her clothes and get dressed and stop recording sex tapes. I don't want to find sex tapes of you two on the internet, do you hear me?"

Scarlet distracts me from my sex tape thoughts by saying, "I don't know if I like anyone. I guess that's the problem."

"Is this about the sex tape?" I ask.

"Yeah, kind of," she says. "What if Caleb hates me after? He's my best friend, Ashley. What if I fuck everything up with him over this stupid idea? I thought it'd be cool at first, but then I realized I didn't really have anyone to ask to do it with me. Um, except Caleb, you know? Which is cool. I really like Caleb, so it's not about that. It's just..."

"What exactly do you mean by 'you really like him?'" I ask.

"He's my friend? Don't you really like your friends?"

I don't know if she's being intentionally obtuse or what. She looks completely serious and confused right now, though.

"Um... you know... sometimes when two people really like each other... the birds and the bees?" Yes, I feel really stupid for having just said that. "Didn't your parents ever have that conversation with you?"

"Nah," she says. "Caleb's mom talked with me about it, though. My dad, um... yeah... let's just say he's not really good at talking."

"Well, that's alright," I say. "So... do you like Caleb as a friend, or do you like him... as a bird? Or a bee? Actually, which one is which? Are girls the birds and guys the bees? I think that makes sense, because bees have stingers, and guys have... you know... penises. It could be a good metaphor, right?"

"Maybe, but I'm pretty sure that bees don't have sex with birds," Scarlet points out.

I scrunch up my forehead, coming to a sudden realization. I feel like I should have realized this before now, but it took Scarlet pointing it out to really hit me, and now that it has...

Birds don't have sex with bees. Not even a little bit. Not even possible! Why do they call it the birds and the bees, then? Ugh!

"Let's forget the birds and the bees," I say. "Do you want to have sex with Caleb because he's your friend and you're comfortable with him and it'd be the easiest way to do your art project, or do you want to have sex with him because you think he's cute and you want to kiss him a lot and go on dates and hold hands and have little Caleb-Scarlet babies together?"

"Whoa, hold up! What the fuck? Babies?" she says, panicked. "This is definitely not that kind of video. I'm not ready for this. I..."

"Focus! It's not about the babies, Scarlet. It's about--" Except I'm not even sure what this is about anymore.

"You want me to focus? Why are we even talking about this? I thought you wanted to know if I had a thing for Ethan, and I don't, so isn't that the end of the conversation?"

"Oh, right. I mean, I'm glad you don't. I'm still upset, though. You can't just go trying to have sex with other people's boyfriends, you know?"

"Yeah, I know," she says. "Sorry."

"Just... just don't do it again, alright?"

"Why would I do it again?" she asks. "Ethan fucking yelled at me enough already. And now you're mad at me, too. I'm really fucking thankful Caleb doesn't know, or else everyone would be mad at me. Fuck..."

"You want to go get breakfast?" I say all of a sudden. "If you buy me breakfast I'll forgive you."

I think this is the easy way out. That's what I thought when I said it. Now I'm not so sure.

"Yeah, um..." Scarlet says, trying not to cry. "I... I mean, I have money. I'm not poor or anything, don't take this the wrong way. I just... I don't have a lot, and I've only really got my meal card, which is just enough for me. Sometimes I can get extra money from selling some of my art, but the school year just started and I haven't had a chance yet, so..."

Wow. Way to be a huge bitch, Ashley. I can't believe how horrible I am. I didn't know, though. I...

"What if I buy something from you?" I ask quickly.

"Um, what?" she says, giving me a weird look.

"Oh! Ethan said once that you do henna tattoos sometimes? Can you do one for me?"

"Right now? I don't have the stuff for it yet."

"No, not now, um... just later, you know? Whenever. I'll... here." I reach into my pocket quick and take out some money. I try to hand it to Scarlet, but she stares at me, uncomprehending. "Just... here. It's payment for the tattoo. A down payment or something like that."

She finally takes the money. "This is just so I can buy you breakfast, isn't it?" she asks.

"No," I say. "Of course not. Why would you think that?"

"Because I'm not stupid?"

She's got me there. I don't even know what to say to that.

"Fine," she says. "Let's go have breakfast. I'm doing that tattoo for you, though. You can't change your mind. You already paid for it."

"Well... good!" I say, probably louder than necessary. "I won't!"

"I have to change, too. You want to just go to the cafeteria? It's pretty good food. They should still have breakfast for a little while."

"Sure," I say. "Wait, do they have pancakes?"

"Yeah, probably. No idea if they're good or not, though."

I can't understand what she just said. How can pancakes not be good? I know that everyone makes them differently, but I'm not sure I want to live in a world where bad pancakes are something that exists. I don't even want it to be possible for them to exist. I refuse to believe it.

It's happening again, isn't it? I'm going crazy. This time I blame it on Scarlet, though.