New Step Brother, New Family, New Life? Thanks for Nothing, Dad

My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe who I was staring at. My brain went on overdrive. Why would he just show up randomly? I haven't even seen him in what, a month? Well, I guess that's not true. I saw him just recently. But we didn't talk or anything. So why in the hell would he be standing on my front porch? Had he noticed me that day? No he couldn't have, so this doesn't--

My thoughts were cut off as I was pulled back to reality by his voice. "Hey McCartney." I quickly closed my mouth, partly for fear of catching bugs, and partly for the fact that I probably looked like an idiot. I stood, frozen, and stared at none other than, my ex-boyfriend Kris Holland.

At one point, I had thought Kris was cute. He was tall, a basketball player, and had shaggy blonde hair that flopped down into his grey eyes. Kris was tan and toned, but not overly muscular. He had been sweet and kind when I first met him, a real great guy.

That, however, had obviously changed.

"Kris," I spat, venom dripping from the word. He flinched, and I saw a look of anger flash across his expression, disappearing without a trace. I thought for a moment I had imagined it. But this is Kris we are talking about. Of course the anger had been there.

"Listen, I want to talk. I know--" Kris began but I didn't want to hear a word of it.

"No, Kris, I don't want to talk, thanks for asking. You need to leave," I stated, trying to shut the door. But Kris stuck his foot in to keep it from closing. He then used his strength over mine and pushed the door open again. I almost fell backwards and end up standing several feet away from the door. Kris stepped inside and shut the door behind him.

"Let me rephrase. We need to talk. I saw Smokey the other day and thought of you, I mean... Well, c'mon let's go to your room for some privacy," Kris replied, grabbing me roughly by the wrist. I struggled to pull my arm from his grasp but failed. The tips of my fingers soon went numb as he dragged me to the staircase.

"Kris, stop! You're hurting me," I said the familiar words, knowing for a fact that he wouldn't let go.

Or so I thought.

Kris's grip vanished from my forearm. I nearly fell off balance again, only keeping myself on my feet by taking a few steps backwards. I glanced up and saw Ethan. He stood partially between Kris and I. I couldn't see Ethan's face, his back was to me.

"I think you should leave," Ethan growled. For a quick moment, I thought it was cute. But that anticipation was zapped from my mind in the next instance.

"She's my girlfriend," Kris replied with the same harsh tone. I kept my jaw from dropping in pure shock. Was he seriously that crazy?

Ethan glanced at back me and my expression. He then replied without hesitation, "No, I believe she is your ex-girlfriend." Kris's face contorted into anger. He glared at Ethan, than over Ethan's shoulder at me. Without word of explanation, Kris disappeared out the front door.

I let out a sigh of relief, rubbing my wrist. Ethan turned to me, holding his annoyed expression for a moment before softening. He exhaled and scratched the back of his head.

"You have a lot of explaining to do," Ethan said quietly, watching me carefully. I looked at him for a moment and simply nodded.

"It's a long story. But c'mon. Let's go to my room and I'll tell you," I answered. Turning on my heels, I walked up the staircase without checking to see if Ethan had followed or not. I reached my room, finding Smokey wasn't in it.

I skipped randomly over to my bed and hopped up on it, sitting with my legs criss-crossed. Ethan sat in my computer chair.

"OMG deja vu!" I said. Ethan looked at me strangely, compelling me to explain. "I mean, the first day you came here. We were in this exact same position when I was giving you the tour." Ethan formed an "O" with his mouth and nodded.

"So... What's with your ex?" Ethan asked, wanting me to reveal my past with Kris Holland. Truthfully, I didn't really want to remember. But I owed it to my soon-to-be stepbrother.

"Ok... I dated Kris eighth grade, freshman and the beginning of my sophomore years. He was awesome, a really great guy. We went out a lot and had a lot of fun together. He was my first boyfriend and first kiss. I met his parents, he met my dad. Everything seemed perfectly fine," I stated. I thought for a moment, staring at nothing before continuing.

"But half way through freshman year, things began to change. I don't know whether it was that we were growing apart or that Kris was becoming... different. I mean, more and more distant. He stopped sitting with me at lunch, calling or texting me, even saying more than two words to me. One day, I went over to his house to ask him what was wrong. You know, what was going on with him and why he was treating me the way he was. I caught him cheating, making out with some chick on his bed half-naked. I broke up with him after that.

"He wanted to explain, wouldn't take no for an answer. It seemed he really cared and really wanted to make things right. So I gave him a second chance. This was at the end of the our freshman year. We spent the whole summer together. It had been amazing, especially since things had gone back to normal. He had gone back to normal. School rolled around and the same thing began happening again. Kris became cold and even mean to me. He would yell at me multiple times everyday. This lasted for about six months. But I stayed loyal because I was stupid enough to believe he loved me. Finally I had had enough, and so I dumped him," I finished abruptly.

Ethan watched me intently, though I could tell he was thinking hard. He had leaned forward, elbows resting on his thighs with his interlocked fingers to his lips. I couldn't tell what his thoughts were at the moment. His expression was unreadable.

"You forgot the best part," Smokey spat from the doorway. I hadn't even noticed her there at all. Her tone was angry and as I turned to look at her expression. Smokey's face shown anger, her fists clenched with her fingernails digging into her palms.

I silently hoped she wouldn't tell Ethan what I thought she was going to as I said, "Oh? What would that be?"

Smokey let out a harsh laugh, and it was at that moment that I knew she wasn't angry at me. She was angry at Kris, at the memories he had brought back. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's the fact the Kris hit you? Multiple times? Hard enough to leave bruises at points?" Smokey answered.

For the umpteenth time that day, I was flooded with complete shock. I turned my gaze to Ethan, who had confusion, surprise and fury written all over his face and into his body language.

"I should kill him," Ethan said with such forced composure that it made me shiver.

"That's what I said the first time I found out," Smokey replied, flopping down in my red bean bag chair.

Ethan turned his attention to me, staring me down. "Did you even tell anyone? Your dad, the police, anyone but Smokey?" he questioned. I had to shake my head 'no.' He sighed heavily and nodded.

"How bad?" he continued with the interrogation. "How bad did he hurt you?" The room was filled with hostile tension. I hesitated before pulling down my shirt collar an inch or two to expose the thin scar across my collar bone.

"He pushed me into a table and broke my collar bone. Had to have surgery," I said quietly.This night was quickly going downhill. Ethan just nodded, still deep in thought.

"I'm going to kill him. Just wait until the guys find out about this. They'll help me kill him," Ethan spat, looking me directly in the eyes. I was sent into a fit of panic.

"No! You can't! No one can know. Not even my dad. Please you have to keep this a secret! The only reason I told you is because I owed you that much," I exclaimed in a fast blur of words.

Ethan growled as he had earlier, lowering his gaze to the floor. We stayed like that, frozen in silence for a few moments. Finally, in the spirit of strange male PMSing, he looked up at Smokey and I, smiled and clapped his hands together.

"Well then, let's have a slumber party. Watch some movies. Eat junk food," Ethan said excitedly. I couldn't help but laugh. The weight of the tension and sadness had lifted almost immediately.

"You know, that was amazingly random and almost girl-like," Smokey said with a giggle. Yep, she giggled. I just rolled my eyes and smiled.

"That's what I was going for. McCartney, you get the food. Smokey, movies. I'll got to the entertainment room and make an awesome bed-type thingy on the floor. Break!" Ethan said, getting up and leaving the room.

Smokey and I looked at each other and shrugged, leaving to do our randomly assigned jobs.

In the end, I had grabbed popcorn, multiple assortments of soda pop, chips and dip and the cherished bag of Oreo cookies. Smokey wanted had to watch Sherlock Holmes and Eagle Eye. I don't know why, she just loves those movies.

We lay on a pile of blankets, pillows and sleeping bags, eating the delicious movie food with Smokey and Ethan on either side of me. Somewhere in the middle of Sherlock Holmes, I fell asleep, comfortable in between my best friend forever and newest but still awesome friend. I guess my life is just a giant rollercoaster.

Once it goes down, it just comes right back up.