Page 33 of Stepbrothers with Benefits
“With your dad?”
“My bio dad, yeah.”
“You said he looked like you, didn’t you?”
“I’m pretty much a carbon copy. It’s like...creepy levels of similarity.”
“Hmm, I kind of like the sound of that.”
I thought about that for a moment before wrinkling my nose. “Please tell me you are not trying to angle for a threesome.”
“The thought might have crossed my mind...maybe.”
“Bro, ew.”
“What, if he looks like you, that just means he’s hot, just older.”
“Bro!”
He laughed, the sound a little evil, but it made me huff in relief because it meant he was fucking with me… probably. “You can’t blame me for thinking about it.”
“That’s my dad.”
“Who you don’t know.”
“I don’t care, that’s still my biological father. Ever heard of incest?”
“Right, right. And then there’s your brother?—”
“That’s mystepbrother; he’s straight anyway,” I said, and in the momentary silence, I realized a moment too late that I hadn’t made the right argument against it. “A-and, I wouldn’t want to be with him anyway. Geez, it might not be incest, but still, c’mon.”
“Uh-huh,” he said, and it was impossible to tell what he was thinking under his laugh. “Things going alright between you two?”
“Yeah, it’s weird. It’s awkward like I expected, but it’s nice too...which I hoped it would be, but I didn’t want to hope too hard, ya know?”
“Figured out why he was playing deadbeat?”
“He wasn’t being a deadbeat,” I contested in annoyance. “I haven’t got into it much with him, but I remember what my mom was like about the subject. I bet she did her part to keep him away.”
“Sure, sure,” he said lightly as if nothing in the world could bother him. “Everyone’s got a story.”
“What, you don’t believe me?”
“I didn’t say that, don’t put words in my mouth.”
“I’m not, but it sure sounds like you don’t believe me.”
“Look, all I’m saying is that everyone has a story, and when people tell their story, they don’t include the parts that make them look bad. And when you listen to their story, you always go in with your own hopes and shit. That can make it hard to see the real story.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“What, you haven’t heard? There’s one person’s story, the other person’s story, and then there’s the real story. It’s just how people work, Milo. It’s nothing personal.”
I knew what he was saying, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. “Yeah, I guess.”
“I can hear that you’re pissed.”
“I’m not pissed.”
