Roman and Ryder always got their way. Ever since my mom married their dad, I’ve been relegated to secondary status. I’m totally unable to compete with my handsome, outgoing stepbrothers.
Everyone’s always cooing over them. They’re congratulated on their latest lacrosse win; the last championship meet; and even their most recent exam where they got the highest scores. I was embarrassed because it was senior year and admissions letters had started arriving. Of course, Roman and Ryder were admitted early to Princeton, while I was still waiting to hear from a few community colleges.
But it doesn’t matter. I want to be a nurse, and it’s not like Princeton even has a nursing program. To get the type of education I want, I know I’ll be better off working with patients from day one and getting the kind of hands-on training that’s increasingly rare today. So in a few months we’d be headed our separate ways, and I’d be spared my brothers’ endless needling.
“Hey sis,” remarked Roman to me one morning. “What do you want for graduation? A training bra?”
“Or maybe a padded bra?” added Ryder, smirking.
I hated them at that moment. Hated their perfect, athletic bodies, the green eyes, and the chiseled jaws that made every girl at our high school swoon. It wasn’t fair. I stammered and looked down at my feet, flushing madly. It was true. I was skinny - basically a beanpole with non-existent boobs, but the comments about my lack of cleavage still hurt.
“Whatevs,” I mumbled, leaving the kitchen. But the boys didn’t hear me because their attention was drawn away by the TV in the kitchen. That’s how little I mattered and it stung, as always.
Furthermore, despite my efforts to make myself scarce, I always seemed to run into them at the most awkward times. There was the time my period had come unexpectedly and I’d rushed home in the middle of the day to change my skirt.
Who would be there but Ryder and Roman, lounging in the living room.
“Why … why aren’t you in class?” I stammered, trying to keep my back against the wall so they couldn’t see the telltale red stain. But they just looked me over and laughed, as if already knowing my secret.
“Athlete privileges, what else?” said Ryder. “We have study hall one period a day, and coach doesn’t care if we do it at home or at school.”
Well, they clearly weren’t studying. They had some porn on. It was some pay-per-view stuff known for being hard-core and no-holds-barred.
“Shh, shh,” said Roman, gesturing for us to hush. “This is the good part,” he said, with a teasing grin before turning back to the screen. I stopped for a minute to watch, curious despite myself, and was just in time to catch a girl getting nailed by two men from both ends, squealing lustily as they did her. Her boobs heaved as she crouched between them and the expression on her face was pure ecstasy.
Roman threw me a glance.
“Don’t you wish that was you?” he asked with a twinkle in his eye. Ryder added some hand gestures, popping his finger into his mouth and giving some fake oral.
I was so humiliated that I beat feet to my room, not even caring if they saw the red stain seeping into my skirt. But they didn’t notice. Their laughter wafted up the stairs, interspersed with moans from the screen. When I left to go back to school, I didn’t bother to say goodbye or see if they wanted to ride together. I just slipped out the door, quiet and unnoticed.
As a result, it’s just been one embarrassing episode after another, and I can’t wait to go to college. I hope Evergreen Valley admits me because they have the most amazing nursing program. Best of all, it’s in California, and as far from handsome stepbrothers as you can get.