Seductive yet subtle

Chelsea

Breakfast was one hell of an exciting affair for everyone except me. I didn't mean to, but the moment I stepped out and saw him, my countenance changed. I hoped my step mom would not notice that the smile I flashed her as I took my place next to her was a bogus one.

My step brother, Aldrich had prepared breakfast and he was all smiles. His eyes found mine and I looked away.

"Good morning, Auntie Naomi. Good morning, dad.", I greeted with my eyes on my plate. Dad nodded as his mouth was stuffed with food and auntie Naomi patted my hair.

"Good morning, sweetie. Hope you had a nice night?", she asked. I nodded without looking at her, worried that if I lifted my head from my plate, they would meet Aldrich's.

I sat there wondering if he had that small annoying smile on his lips because he knew about the previous night. There was no way he could tell what had happened in my own dreams.

Perhaps, I had moaned out loud in my sleep and he had heard me. Or, had I called out his name?

There was a look of mischief in his eyes that I did not want to confront. When I looked at him from the corners of my eyes, I realized his eyes were on me. Had he perhaps noticed how taut I had grown when I saw him?

The questions piled up in my head and with each bite and sip of my coffee, I became even more uncomfortable, becoming more eager to leave the table and run to safety which was my room. But I sat still, my back straight and my eyes only on my plate.

Dad started to say something about the meal and how nice it was and Aldrich just kept smiling.

"You should have me make you lasagna one of these days. I'm sure I'm a pro.” he said, still grinning. Dad nodded.

"I have no doubts."

"That's right. Aldrich learned a great deal of cooking from his dad while they were in Italy.", Auntie Naomi said.

There was so much I did not know about my new step brother and it was supposed to bother me since he was living under the same roof with me and I had no idea just how long he was going to be staying with us.

When I had first saw auntie Naomi with dad, I had been happy, relieved that dad had finally found someone with whom he wanted to be with. And he looked incredibly happy too. He smiled like a boy when she was with him and he complimented her a lot.

It was what I had always hoped he'd get since after we lost mom and he had withdrawn into his shell, finding pleasure in nothing else other than his work.

But auntie Naomi brought so much light and laughter to his life and I wanted her to always be in his life, and mine too. She was the woman we needed and I would have done everything to keep her in our lives. But she had come with a son whom dad obviously knew about but somehow kept away from me. Up until the moment he walked into the house and our eyes met, I knew there was going to be a problem, because my body responded to him in such an animalistic way that embarrassed me.

Later that evening, I had gone to dad to ask why no one ever mentioned anything about the son with whom auntie Naomi had just arrived and dad had said it was not worth worrying over.

Aldrich was only to stay a few weeks or maybe months until he moved to his own place. He had just returned from Italy where he had been with his father for the past eight years of his life and was yet to have his own place set up. It had sounded like a good enough reason to him for why he hadn't told me, but it did not change the fact that the mere thought of him being under the same roof with me still gave me tremors.

"You've been staring into your plate since you joined us. What is the matter, Chel?"

I heard Aldrich's sonorous voice address me. I could have reached him and yanked his hair.

Why did he have to call me by my pet name?

Why did he sound so caring?

Why was he talking to me at all?

I took a deep breath and looked up at him, bellying all the emotions that surfaced by hearing him call my name.

"What is wrong?"He asked with a smile. I did not know how else to contain my feelings and I heard myself snap before I could hold back.

"Don't fucking..."

I realized then that I had messed up. My eyes moved from dad to auntie Naomi and then I apologized.

"I'm sorry, I kinda woke up in a bad mood."

I said under my breath. Everyone returned to their meals except Aldrich whose eyes were still on me. They were hard and piercing and he did not want to back down.

"What is wrong, Chel?"I groaned inwardly. He had no idea what he made me feel each time he called me ' Chel' someone had to make him stop.

"You gotta bring yourself to believe that there is nothing wrong with me, Aldrich."

I said, trying too hard to be polite. He smiled, but his eyes did not brighten this time.

"You had a bad dream? It's fine. You're going to be okay."

I looked up at him this time, my heart thumping wildly.

Did he know anything about any dream?

Dad cleared his throat.

"It's absolutely unnecessary to snap at anyone because of a dream you had which was not any of our making."Dad said. I turned to him, my eyes huge with surprise and panic.

"Dad, don't mention dreams, please!"