Blended Hearts #2 (An Interracial Stepbrother Romance Book) (3 page)

“Hey,
you,” Elise said, as she stepped up to me. “Where are your manners, missy?
Since when don’t you say hello to your friends?” She was right in my face while
Sylvia and Simone had a fit of the giggles.

“Sorry,
Elise,” I said, trying to push past her, “I don’t have time…”

“No
time for what, Madison?” Elise said, re-planting herself in front of me. “No
time even to say hello to your best pals?”

“Just
drop it,” I said, trying to get out from under their menacing gazes. “I just
want to be left alone, okay?” I managed to push past Elise by shoving her aside
and going through the doors leading to the school yard.

But
they were not to be deterred.

This
time Sylvia took the lead. She was a tall girl with superb black hair. Her face
reminded me of one of the Kardashians.

“Elise
is right,” she blurted, catching up to me, “you’ve got no manners, have you? We
were talking to you; or didn’t you notice?”

I
looked up at her five-foot-seven mannequin frame and shook my head. “Well,
let’s make this right,” I sneered, “Good morning, Sylvia dear!” I turned to
Elise. “Splendid morning to you too, dear Elise…”

“Stop
that!” Sylvia yelled. “You’ve got no right to treat…”

Before
she had time to finish her sentence, Daniel appeared on the scene. He looked
gently
menacing.

A
pall of silence suddenly enveloped the five of us.

Daniel’s
eyes traveled from one girl to the other until they landed on Elise.

“Elise,
I didn’t know you could be so petty. At your age? Teasing anyone should be
beneath you. And if you’re trying to make an impression on me or my friends,
you’re not!”

“We
just…” Sylvia tried to say.

Daniel
turned to her. “Don’t, Sylvia. Do you think being a bully is going to look good
on your resume? I don’t think so.”

“We’re
only trying to teach your step-sister some manners, Sweetie, that’s all,”
Simone said
vampishly
, hanging over Daniel’s shoulder
like a temptress.

Daniel
chuckled and literally brushed Simone’s hand off his shoulder as if it were a
bug. “Really?” he said. “Sounds to me as if you tried your best to make Madison
uncomfortable.” His gaze ran around the circle again. “I don’t know why you’re
doing it.” He turned toward the nearest table. “I’ve been sitting at that table
every day for weeks now and all I hear from you three are derisive comments
about Madison.” He returned his attention to Elise. “And I hear that it’s been
going on for years, hasn’t it?” He smiled at her. “It’s truly amazing to me.
You three are acting like middle-
schoolers
when
you’re a few months from getting out there or even going to college, and you
act like kids.”

“Okay,
since you’re her step-brother and you care about what happens to her, I guess
we’ll think twice about talking to her.”

“I
suppose that’s your choice, Elise, but remember, none of the boys like a bully
or even a tease. We like women who can handle themselves, not kids who pretend
to be adults.”

Whoa,
I thought,
I really couldn’t have said it
better myself.
 

“If that’s your opinion,
you’re entitled to it, Daniel Robson,” Elise said in a huff, “but it’s a free
world.”

Daniel was not having it.
He wouldn’t stand for a brush-off. I could sense his temper rising.

“Listen Elise, you’re
getting on my bad side right now. So get off your pedestal and get real, okay?”

“As I said, it’s a free
world, Mr. Robson.”

If Elise had been a boy,
I think they would have exchanged a few well-placed fists. He glowered and
added, “Just leave Madison alone from now on, do you understand what I’m
saying?”

“Are you threatening her?”
Simone intervened.

“Not at all,” Daniel
answered, “Just making it clear to the three of you: you tease my step-sister
and you tease me, understood?”

The girl fell silent and
turned on their heels toward another corner of the schoolyard.

How was I to cope with
this incident? There was no way on earth for me to ignore what he had just done
for me. With a few well-spoken words, he had chased my demons away. I hoped.

“Are you okay?” he asked
me, peering into my eyes.

I lowered my gaze and
nodded. “Thank you,” I said quietly.

“Let’s sit down and have
something to eat, okay?”

“I only have an apple…,”
I said sheepishly.

He laughed quietly, as we
went to sit at the table under the shade of a tree. I was glad to have worn my
jacket. The autumn weather was getting a little cool to be eating outside.

“Don’t worry; I’ve got a
couple of sandwiches that I picked up at the cafeteria before coming out here.”
He looked at me and smiled. “Do you want one?”

“Yes; that would be nice,
thanks.”

“Which do you prefer?
I’ve got roast beef and Swiss cheese or chicken salad.”

“Chicken salad would be
great,” I replied, taken the wrapped sandwich he handed to me.

“And for drinks, I have
apple or orange juice – which will it be?”

“You came prepared,
didn’t you?” I said, giggling. “I’ll have the orange juice, please.”

“There you go then,” he
said, handing me the orange juice carton. I was sure I wouldn’t be able to
drink the whole thing. “How about we share?” I suggested. This is much too much
for me.”

“Good idea. I’ve got two
straws anyway,” he added, pulling them out of his bag.

“Were you counting on
having lunch with me, by any chance?”

He shook his head as he
bit into his sandwich. Once he swallowed, he said, “Actually, no. I was going
to have lunch with Gill, but I lucked out on that score. He’s having lunch with
his sister. Something to do with college, I think.”

I nodded and continued
eating. The chicken sandwich tasted great. I didn’t know if it was the fact
that Daniel had bought it or because we were finally having a normal
conversation; it just felt good.

When Daniel went back
inside and I was left on my own, I had to reflect on what had taken place. He
just walked over to them, told them off and they practically didn’t fight. Sure
they put on a show of strength, especially for my benefit, but there was
something else to this whole thing. It felt as if Daniel had some kind of hold
on them. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it felt odd somehow. As for having
lunch with me, I had to admit it was nice to behave normally for a change.
But
 
it
almost seemed
as if it had been pre-arranged somehow.

I wouldn’t believe for a
moment that Elise was in on Daniel’s plan, but the fact that he stepped up just
at the right moment, seemed awfully timely. Maybe I was making a whole lot out
of nothing, but a girl cannot hide from her “little voice” or her gut instinct,
now can she?

I knew he was popular; he
was Mr. Right for many of the women in school, but was it just his popularity
that gave him enough power to send the three of them back to their corner?
Something was definitely off. But I couldn’t think of what it could be.

I got up from the bench
when I drank the last of our juice, threw the carton in the recycling bin and
made my way back to the school cafeteria. There wasn’t much time until the next
period, but I wanted to find Gaby and ask her if she really had lunch with her
brother – or maybe it was another of Daniel’s little white lies to get me to
have lunch with him.

I ran up the stairs and
pushed the door of the cafeteria only to bump into Gill.

“Oh wow!” he burst out.
“Sorry about that, Madison. My fault. Wasn’t looking where I was going.” He
turned and pointed to the inside of the room. “Gaby is finishing her lunch, if
she’s the one you’re looking for.”

“Thanks, Gill. And I’m
sorry, too. I was in such a hurry… Anyway thanks,” I blurted. “See you!”

As I approached Gaby’s
table, she smiled. “Hey girl, how’re you?”

“Just fine,” I replied,
sitting across from her. “I know we’ve got to get back to class, but I’ve got a
question for you.” I inhaled a breath. “Did Daniel ask you or your brother to
stay out of the school yard at lunch today?”

Gaby frowned.

“Well, did he?”

“Really, Madison, do you
imagine for one minute that Daniel or anyone could ask my brother to stay out
of anywhere?”

“I guess not.” I shook my
head. “I was just curious. That’s all.”

Gaby smiled. “Okay,
what’s going on?”

“It’s just that I had
lunch with Daniel…”

“You did? How come? I
thought you two were not on speaking terms.”

“Well, how can I refuse
to have lunch with the guy who told Elise, Sylvia and Simone where to get off
and to stay out of my life?”

Gaby was staring.

“Are you serious?”

“Absolutely. They were
trying to bar my way to the school yard – as usual – and all of a sudden here
he was. He tore them down one-by-one, and then told them to behave like adults,
and not like kids.”

“Three cheers for
Daniel!” Gaby said, rather louder than I had expected. I turned my head around
to see if anyone had paid attention. No one had. The lunch room was practically
empty by now.

Gaby stood up. “I think
we better get to class,” she suggested.

I followed.

“So what’s wrong now?”
she asked as we were going down the stairs.

“I don’t know. It’s just
that it seemed so easy for him. It felt as if he had something over the girls.”

Gaby stopped on the first
landing and turned to face me. “I told you many times, Madison, you see things
where there’s nothing to see. I wish you would accept good things for what they
are – just good things.”

“Alright, alright… I
guess I’m overreacting. I’ve never had anyone stand up for me. It feels weird
somehow.”

“I bet it does,
especially when you wouldn’t believe it could happen to such a
nasty little paranoid girl
like you.”

Once again, Gaby had
managed to put some laughter in my thoughts.

I loved her for it.

CHAPTER
5

Not having to worry about
Elise and her followers made a lot of difference. Going to school became a
rather pleasant experience. I was still not taking the same bus as Daniel in
the morning or in the evening though. I spent time with Gaby at the pool in the
morning, continued with my calisthenics routine and swam with her three times a
week. At lunch I tried avoiding Daniel, even though we would exchange a furtive
smile here and there.

When Friday evening came
round, Mom and Richard decided to have dinner at the restaurant and go see a
movie afterward. Mom had been cooking a storm most nights and Richard thought
it was about time to “let her out”, as he put it, but she wasn’t about to let
us starve. She had left a homemade pizza in the oven for Daniel and me. We just
had to bake it for twenty minutes and we would have another fantastic meal –
with a glass of wine this time. Neither Daniel nor I wanted to drink that much,
but one of Mom’s pizzas deserved a nice wine with it.

I was in the kitchen when
Daniel came home. He burst in through the back door, took one look at me and
ran up the stairs, saying, “I’ll have a shower first.”

I had to laugh to myself.
This was a little more than “wash your hands before dinner,” I said quietly,
but was pleased that he did. He had thrown a few hoops at the park with his
buddies, I was sure, and he was probably reeking of sweat and dirt. Meanwhile,
I set up the table and turned the oven on.

Ten minutes later, Mr.
Wonderful Abs came down dressed in jeans – and no shirt! I looked at him and
said, “Okay, does that mean you want to eat by yourself in the kitchen?” and pointed
at his chest.

He looked down and
smiled. “I thought you liked nice abs.”

Smarty
pants,
I thought. “Not when I’m eating,” I retorted. “It’s
either eating with a shirt on with me or dining alone – which is it going to
be?”

I wondered if he was
enjoying the banter as much as I did.

Since the famous lunch
the previous week, we were more civil toward one another. We stayed out of each
other’s way, but at least we were not playing that stupid cat and mouse game anymore.
We were behaving like brothers and sisters should.

A few minutes – or was it
seconds – later Daniel came down with a t-shirt that read: “Been there, done
that, got the T to prove it.” I grinned as I turned toward the oven. The pizza
was almost done.

Daniel opened the wine
and poured a half a glass for each of us. He brought my glass to where I was
standing near the oven, and said, “Cheers. Let’s make it an evening to
remember.”

I answered with, “to
friendship,” making sure I emphasized the word “friendship”.
 
We had to get that straight between the two
of us. We had to be friends – nothing else. Perhaps my obdurate, immovable
position in this matter was silly, but it would be wrong, terribly wrong, to be
otherwise.