Step-Secrets

Chapter 4 - Her Emerald SurprEYEZ

Tiffany POV-

Here I am in my very cramped room, on a random Saturday afternoon, making out with my gorgeous boyfriend, Cliff, just like I've been doing since the couple weeks since we've been together. Cliff is everything I'd ever want in a boyfriend; he's tall, handsome, smart and athletic. He's thoughtful, caring and loyal. He's the envy of a lot of my friends. Both Gina and Jessica have boyfriends but they're the stereotypical high school jocks.

"You're such an amazing boyfriend," I say, taking a big breath in between kisses, "kissing you is like a drug, baby."

"Ditto, Tiff," he replies back, "but, y'know, we're supposed to be studying. I'm trying to help you keep your GPA up so you can stay on the v-ball team."

"Hey," I say back, "way to kill the mood, Clifford."

"I'm sorry, Tiff," he says, "but maybe me tutoring you wasn't the best idea."

"Yeah," I begrudgingly agree, "you're right. But we're having so much fun." I say with a bright smile.

Cliff's phone rings

"Oh," it's my mom," he says, "I gotta get going. I'll call you later."

"Okay, fine." I say reluctantly. We get up and kiss one more time.

"Try to find another tutor, okay?" He says as he leaves. "Maybe ask your stepbrother, he seems pretty smart." This annoyed me.

"You better leave before I decide to break up with you." I say kinda jokingly and kinda not.

As much as I tried to prevent it from happening, the inevitable happened and now everyone knows that Josh is my stepbrother. If it were up to me, they would never know but I know that's an unrealistic wish.

It all started when Cliff noticed Josh's garden in the backyard and asked me about it. I tried to pretend it was my garden, but since I know nothing about gardening, Josh appeared and explained it to him.

Cliff recognized Josh from the school library. For whatever reason, Cliff's taken a liking to Josh and interacted with him at school and that's how the truth came out. In a way, Cliff is very similar to Josh in that he keeps to himself and does his own thing. He only interacts with my popular friends when he's with me. The major difference is that Cliff is so handsome and more...normal. A

As expected, most of my friends continued to label Josh a loser and some had no reaction at all. But, surprisingly, it didn't have a bad effect on me. In fact , they actually sympathized with me for having to live with such a loser. So I still won't associate with him at school, though. However, like Cliff said, Josh is smart and my grades have been going down lately.

I've been turning in homework late or not at all or just not do well on the assignments because I was too busy daydreaming about Cliff while in class or I've just skipped class all together. I've been too busy going to parties and hanging with Cliff to care about that stuff. I also have the volleyball team stuff and my my activities have effected my performance and my GPA has gotten dangerously too low to be on the team. That's why I first asked Cliff but just as what happened earlier, we just end up making out.

I just have to grim and bear it and go see him and ask Josh to help me. He is smart, after all. With all the craziness going on, I still haven't read his letter. Our parents had a family meeting a couple months ago where my mom and Josh's dad, Fred, where they tried to get us to get along. In short, the meeting accomplished nothing; I was defiant, complaining that there's no room for my stuff in his old room. At the same time, Josh said nothing. I don't know what it is, but recently there's been something about him that really irks me............

Reluctantly, I make my way to the basement to Josh's room. As I get closer, I hear alot of hammering and sawing. There's a DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door. I bang hard on the door.

"Hey! Josh!" I holler, no answer.b"It's your lucky day, I actually need something from you!" I don't know why I'm shouting, he's not hearing me with all the racket he's making.

There's no lock on the door so I just open it and walk right in. I had never really gone past the doorway so I never got the full scope of his room.

It's a circus. He's wearing a hard hat with a visor and sawing away on something while his bunny rabbit is running around the room in a ball. He's listening to that weird Irish or Scottish music and he's got CNBC running on his laptop. I really don't know what to make of it . I almost forget why I came here to begin with.

"Hey, Josh!" I holler again. I've had enough. I walk over to where the saw is plugged in and tank the chord right out.

"What happened here?" I hear him say to himself.

"Josh!"I say once more to get his attention. He looks up and notices me.

"Tiffany?" He asks. "What're you doing in my room?" I'm about to answer when he suddenly shouts, "oh, blast, you're not supposed to see this!" He's referring to whatever he's building. "I have that sign up for a reason." He takes a tarp from the floor and covers the thing.

"I'm delighted that you're visiting my room," he says, "but you've been less than kind to me ever since we became step siblings. You must need something."

He's still wearing the hard hat I can't see his eyes through the visor.

"Yes," I say, "like I tried to tell you earlier, today's your lucky day." Explain what's going on with my grades and that I'd like him to tutor me.

However, while I'm talking, something stops me mid sentence. Josh has taken off his hard hat and removed the visor. He's standing fairly close to me. It was just a split second before he wiped off his sweat and put his glasses on. This might be the first time since maybe early elementary school that I've seen him without his glasses.

What catches me off guard were his piercing, stunning green eyes.

"Okay," he says, bringing me out of my daze, "I'll do it. But I want something in return." Normally, I'd probably have some snide remark to answer back but I'm still mesmerized by his beautiful eyes. Oh my God, what is wrong with me? Josh is a loser, how could I think anything about him is beautiful.

"Alright," I say meekly, "what do want in return." 

He paused for a little bit and then says, "I want you to teach me how to make friends."

If the sight of his eyes weren't enough, now he leaves me speechless by his request. All I can do is say, "Deal. When do you want to start?"......

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