Tatiana
“You are an hour late.” Emily is standing by my locker when I get to school. She looks furious and a little concerned. I stuff my books into my locker before turning to her.
“My car wouldn’t start, and my foolish brother thought it wise to get on my nerves while I was trying to fix it. I swear, sometimes I think he enjoys watching me struggle.” I can see the tension in Emily's shoulders relax slightly as she rolls her eyes, her expression softening. “Well, at least you made it. Let’s just hope we don’t miss the first period again.” Just then, Hasan walks by with a group of friends. He smiles and winks at me before wrapping his hands around one of his friends, blabbing nonsense as they disappear into the hallway. “God! Isn’t he dreamy?” Emily gushes, bringing her hand to her chest whilst dramatically hitting her back against her locker. There’s a big smile on her face and her wide eyes are glued on Hasan’s behind, I swear you could see the stars in there. Bile rises in my throat, and I make a fake gag sound. “Jesus, Emily! That’s my f*ck*ng brother. Of course, he isn’t dreamy.” “Come on, don’t tell me you haven’t once had a nasty thought about Hasan since his transformation.” Emily looks at me briefly before turning back to stare at the hallway where Hasan and his group of fuckers were. “Because I sure have. Every night, I dream of him doing nasty, dirty things to me.” I roll my eyes, and this time, I almost vomit. Not from disgust at Emily’s thoughts of my brother, but out of jealousy because I have had those thoughts about him too. Hell, I even acted out on those thoughts, and I fear he may have caught me. But of course, I don’t tell Emily that. I leave her standing, dreaming about my brother, and walk to class. Seconds later, she’s by me, struggling to meet my pace. We march steadily to class, and she begins recounting the meeting with the cheerleading team I missed. Although it was the first day back in school, the school football team had a match. My girls and I spent the last days of summer practicing. While I had trust in them to do an amazing job, I still wanted to discuss some details with them. Thankfully, Emily was aware of this and did that in my absence. We made it to class before the tardy bell. The teacher walked in almost immediately after we took our seats. She scribbled her name on the board before addressing us. “Good morning, class. Welcome to AP Chemistry. I am Miss Treton.” Her introduction was brief. She took attendance, and each one of us answered present. Except for Hasan. She called his name the second time before it struck me that he took up AP Chemistry. I remember Mom’s orders. Suddenly, I didn’t want Hasan to get in trouble on the first day of school. “Miss, Hasan Olivera is part of the football team. They’re currently out for practice.” I regretted my lie as soon as I spoke. What if it comes to bite me in the *ss? True, the football team did have practice, but not until break. Miss Treton doesn’t say a word and begins class. An hour later, when the bell goes off, everyone walks out of class. “A word, Miss Olivera.” Miss Treton calls out. Emily and I exchange puzzled looks. I signaled for her to wait for me outside. “I understand Mr. Olivera is your brother— “ “Step.” I quickly corrected, shrinking on the spot when she looks at me with a look cold enough to freeze me on the spot. “He is my stepbrother.” She resumes scribbling in her jotter. “I understand Mr. Olivera is your brother, and you are trying to look out for him. Lie to me one more time and I will fail you. We don’t want that soiling your Yale application, do we?” her voice lowers into something low and threatening, a stark contrast to the sharp, happy voice she used when she introduced herself. I swallowed a gulp and nodded. She dismisses me. HOURS LATER The football game was about to start. The girls and I met an hour earlier to run our choreography one more time. The stadium was large and filled with students from Windsor High, our high school, and a few from the team we were competing against. Dressed in our cute little cheer dresses, the girls and I stood on the exit way that led to the field, cheering our poms as the boys walked out. Hasan was the captain and stood first on the line. He winks at me, and my insides do somersaults, and I almost forget my routine. My girls, however, gushed and squealed, thinking Hasan had winked at them. I roll my eyes and give them a stern look, silently telling them to be on their best behavior. In effect, I acted out of jealousy. I hated that they would even think Hasan had winked at them. He belonged to me and me alone. What? Wait? The roaring in the crowd tears me from my daydream only to realize that the girls had already transited to the next routine. I mentally curse myself for letting Hasan and his gimmicks get to my head. I rapidly fall into the routine, hoping that no one took notice of my fault. The game starts. The first shot from the Windsor team has the crowd roaring louder than when they had first sprinted in. In seconds, we hit our first touchdown, and the crowd went crazy, the cheer team included. By the end of the game, Windsor High was leading by a whopping twenty points. I mean, did the other team even practice? After the game, I am in the locker room cleaning up. A group of girls walk in, blabbing and gushing about being invited to a party being organized by the head of the football team. I slam my locker shut and immediately scurry for the boy’s locker room. I didn’t think twice as I walked in. It hadn’t occurred to me that the room would be full with a bunch of horny high school boys. But alas, the deed had already been done. I sprint for Hasan’s locker as though I had been in here a dozen times, ignoring the murmurs and coos that came in as I walked past. Hasan is talking with some friends when I slam his locker shut, drawing his attention to me. The brown of his eyes and the whiteness of his teeth almost knock me off my feet. He raises his left hand and rests it against the locker. My eyes follow his movements hungrily. “Yes, Taty?” he lifts a brow in a nonchalant yet s*xy way. “You’re hosting a party?” “I am. Matter of fact, you are invited.” Hasan retorts almost immediately. He picks a towel from the bench and begins to wipe his damp hair. He drops the towel and walks away from me. Momentarily, my eyes are glued to his hair, each strand seeming to have a life of its own. I quickly snap out of my daydream, remembering what had brought me into this horny trap in the first place. “No, you can’t. You’re under my care and I refuse to let you make a mess of the house. Mother will kill me if she finds out.” I follow behind him as he grabs his shirt and throws it over his head. “And you will take very good care of me, won’t you, Taty?” his voice lowers into something low and sultry that makes a tear roll down my thighs. “You’ll have to put an extra eye on me so you can report back to mummy dearest, right?” He winks and walks past, leaving. That f*ck*r! He knows. He knows what I did last night. He’s going to use that to taunt me to his heart’s satisfaction. I go to clap back only to realize Hasan had left the locker room. “Hey, Taty! Want to s*ck my d*ck?” I roll my eyes at Hasan’s dorky teammate. “S*ck what? The same d*ck you were born with? Yeah, no.” His friends burst into laughter, and I dart out of the locker room, hoping to finish my conversation with my hot stepbrother.__________
TatianaThe words that spewed out my mouth burned in my chest, louder than the pounding of my heart. I couldn’t keep the fury bottled up any longer from when Hasan had defended Miss Treton and now that I overheard them flirting, it just enraged me more. “You want to fuck your teacher now? How shameless can you be?” Hasan’s ‘what-on-earth-are-you-on-about’ look felt like a knife twisting deeper into a wound that wouldn’t heal.“You think I want to sleep with her?” Hasan questioned, disbelieved etched on his face. He begins to walk out of the living room when I yelled after him, mimicking his tone. “You think I want to sleep with her?” I spat. “You just let her waltz into the house like she owns the place. You expect me to sit there and watch after you openly flirted with you and you sat there thinking with your lazy ass dick?”Hasan scoffed, the casual way he dismissed me only fuelled my anger more. “Taty, you’re crazy. She’s my tutor. OUR mom gave her the go ahead. Get over yourself
HasanThe metallic taste of blood still lingered on my tongue.I hadn’t meant to bite Tatiana that hard. But the rage I felt, coupled with frustration and guilt had driven me to that kiss. My fingers still tingled from touching her face, and my groin throbbed from where she’d kneed me. Fair trade, maybe. But my pride was wrecked. Again.I stood in the middle of the living room, chest heaving, Tatiana’s voice echoing in my head like a curse I couldn’t cleanse.‘I wish Mom would have let you rot in that orphanage.’That one hit differently. Deeper and dirtier, like salt in a wound that had barely begun to heal. And then, right when I was about to kiss her again, and like life loved nothing more than to test my limits, I heard a polite little throat-clear behind me.“Am I interrupting something?”I turned, heart still pounding, coming face to face with who had spoken up. Miss Treton stood at the entrance, clutching a leather folder to her chest. Her navy coat hugged her figure like it ha
TatianaAs soon as I heard Hasan’s car pull up in the driveway, I staggered downstairs. Emily had sent me a message sometime in the morning, where she detailed how Hasan had accused her of being the mastermind behind the video and the photos.I had been raging with anger, which subsided after a while, but with Hasan back, the anger came spiralling back a thousandfold.Emily was my best friend. My soul sister. We were moulded from the same clay, and I knew she would never do something like that, despite me having hurt her in the most despicable way. So, having Hasan accuse her of something so ruthless; when she has been nothing but understanding, is something I could not tolerate.I was already downstairs, and as soon as Hasan walked through the doors with his backpack thrown over his shoulder, I marched toward him. Standing close to him, I used all the strength I could muster and pushed him against his chest, but the asshole was too strong and too huge to even budge.“What the hell ar
HASANAt school, I am wary of everyone who smiles at me. Tatiana might have said that the blackmailer who came to her while she was in the toilet had the voice of a woman, but I was still suspicious of everyone. I mean, anyone could fake a voice these days.While classes drag on, I shift my gaze from everyone in class, analyzing why they would want to hurt us. I started with the most obvious ones.Dave and Emily.Although Dave and I haven’t really spoken in a while—and by "a while," I mean since the retreat—he still had reason to hurt Taty. I mean, I did publicly humiliate him for kissing her, and although he swore never to, I couldn’t entirely rule him out.And Emily, she was her best friend. She has been by her side since the video went public, and Tatiana had already confirmed that I was the boy in the video. She was understanding. Too understanding, if you ask me.I mean, you find out your best friend has been lying to your face and fucking your boyfriend—well, supposed boyfriend—
Tatiana“Hasan! Where are you running off t—”The words blur out as I stop at the balcony, a few feet away from the stairs, watching Hasan’s interaction with Mom. His shoulders look tense—more tense than they had been when he was freaking out over whatever he saw on his phone.Mom’s gaze meets mine, and I feel goosebumps all over me. Her stare is cold and full of disappointment, like they have been since the video leaked.She pulls her gaze away from me, and I watch her lips move before she walks past Hasan. Hasan turns, his gaze following Mom’s behind as she mounts the stairs, and when they finally collide with mine, he shrugs. I squint my eyes in a bid to communicate with him but quickly square my shoulders when Mom meets me at the balcony.“Why are you here?” she questions in a tone that would make even the toughest soldier vomit all war secrets.“Nothing. I saw your car pull up in the driveway, and I thought I’d come help with your bag,” I lie, unable to meet her gaze.Mom stares
Hasan“What do you mean ‘gone’?” she asked, sitting up straighter. The panic on her face made it difficult to continue, but now that she was starting to feel comfortable with me around, I decided being entirely honest – no matter how bad the situation was – was so much better than lying to her.“I had them stored in a secure folder,” I explained. “Password protected. I checked the day the video leaked… and the folder was empty.”Her breath caught. “How is that even possible?”“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “No one knew about it. I labeled the folder where the videos were in such a way that if I ever lost my drive, no one would access it. But I was wrong.”Tatiana’s eyes narrowed slightly. “So what? You think someone hacked you?”The panic I’d been bottling up burst open then. My voice came out louder than I meant it to—sharper.“I’m being blackmailed, Tatiana!”She flinched, and I hated that. I hated the way my voice made her recoil, like I was another thing she had to brace herself