Triple Sext: A Reverse Harem Bully Romance (Accidental Stepbrother Book 4) Page 2

  I stared down at myself for a second and tried not to cringe. The diet that I said I would go on after my graduation, stopped and started on the same day. I was unfit and needed to cut down on the donuts, cakes and everything else coated in chocolate that I couldn’t resist. Maybe being around New Yorkers would do the trick for me.

  Sometimes, when I look at mom and myself, it was as if I was adopted. She could easily be on the cover of a magazine and had natural blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. Well, I adopted those features just not the body on the cover of a magazine part. But when I thought about it, I realized that my mom walked so much at work that she probably did on average 20 miles per day just running around the diner and she ate like a bird. She said that eating felt like another task she had to complete at times, not like the pleasure it should be. I never understood how doing something so natural for me, felt the complete opposite for her, but I’d never worked in a diner, or as hard as she did.

  “You be a good girl now,” Mom said as she gave me a big hug. I choked up a little as her thin arms went around me. I was off to my new life, there were so many mixed emotions, that I clung to her, too afraid to let go for a moment.

  Then Nan popped up out of nowhere and scared us both. “Now, you just remember NOT to behave!”

  She winked at me and I laughed as I always did. She’d always encouraged me to walk on the wild side of life, even though she knew I never had. I shook my head at her and returned her impish smile. “Nan, you’re always such a bad influence.”

  Mom pushed her out of the way and hugged me again. It almost felt as if I was being sent off to war and they might never see me again. I had to blink away tears when a sniff from Mom made my eyes well up.

  “I’ll be back.” I tried to put on a fake smile. The one that I always put on to pretend that everything was alright. Something that I’d adopted over the years which should have become natural by now but was still a struggle to do at the worst of times. I knew that I wouldn’t be coming back for a long time because it just wasn’t an option. We had one problem in our family, one that had been a constant in our lives.

  A distinct lack of money.

  I calculated that between the money my family raised for me to buy all the things that I couldn’t afford to buy even with financial aid, the job at the library that I would start next week and the savings that I know Mom had given to me that I wouldn’t have a lot of money for luxuries. The money I’d made over the summer working for the realtor wasn’t going to last that long. I had to be smart with my money from the start, so my Mom told me.

  “New York ain’t cheap, Celia, and neither is a university education, so try to be really careful and don’t spend what you don’t have to. But have a good time,” she said it all in one breath and I remembered thinking that I’d done a very bad thing. I’d put pressure on myself, Mom, and even Nan. The poor old woman had got a part-time job cleaning despite her bad hip.

  I had to go off to school with my one mission in mind; to get that degree. The one that Mom would say was worth all the sacrifices we’d all made, the one that I could use to pay them all back, over and over again.

  I chose NYU for a reason. It had one of the best neuroscience programs in the country, and I wasn’t going to let them down. There would be heartache and it would be hard saying goodbye, but it would only be for a little while. Four years would come and go in the blink of an eye. I’d come back home for a little while and then head back, hopefully, to complete a master’s degree.

  “Guys, stop it. You’re making me feel bad. I’m coming back and if it gets to be too much you can come to visit.” I smiled reassuringly at Mom knowing that it wasn’t an option for now. The hotel prices were through the roof and there was no way she could stay with me at the dorm. Unless my roommate was cool with it and I wouldn’t know that until I got there.

  Too much was going through my mind. Last night, I was dreaming about my pretend boyfriend and all the naughty things he’d do to me. This was my reality. I was going off to school to help my family. Nothing more and certainly nothing less.

  “I love you, Mom.” I squeezed her good and tight as the tears escaped from my eyes.

  “I love you even more.” She hugged me even tighter. I broke from her embrace thinking that I needed to get in Nan’s car and get on that bus. Otherwise, there’d be no helping myself, let alone the rest of the family.

  Chapter Three

  Celia

  I’d been on the bus for way too long, and I was exhausted. The trip had taken almost 30 hours because of storms in several states, and I’d had to change buses in Chicago. That had been an adventure all on its own. I climbed down off the local bus I’d picked up at the bus station around lunchtime and forgot all about how exhausted I was.

  I wandered around like Alice in Wonderland for so long that by the time I did get to the dorm, I was barely able to make my feet move. I wanted nothing more than to make my bed, order a pizza, and pass out. But that would mean I’d continued my old habit of comfort eating.

  I hated it. It was never about eating out of hunger, but more to make me feel good, or to quench that sudden urge. It never really made me feel good though, because not only would I regret it every time I put on my pants and found out they were a little bit tighter, but the guilt of eating so much garbage would always weigh heavily on my mind.

  “Shit!” I yelped as I tried to open the door to my new room. I had too much in my hands and every bit of it fell as I reached to stick the key in the doorknob.

  My purse was over my arm, my phone in one hand, and my rolling suitcase clutched between the two, while my other hand grasped the packet the guy at the front of the door had given me, along with my keys. I hadn’t even managed to get the door open, and I was already making a mess.

  The door swung open, and a girl peered out at me. “Hey, you must be Celia. Let me help you.”

  Great! My new roommate had caught me red-handed and now knew that I was a klutz as everything I held had dropped to the floor. I wasn’t that great at making first appearances, but I had wanted to today of all days.

  “Rachel? Hey, I thought you were coming in after the first semester?” I said as I bent down to pick up the things I’d dropped.

  We’d exchanged emails once we were assigned our rooms and I knew a little about her. Like me, she had financial aid and we seemed to share a lot of the same interests. Like me, she was studying so she could be the first one in her family to have a university education and she loved to eat. She claimed to love chocolate and by the look of her, I thought that she didn’t enjoy chocolate as much as I did. She was a perfect size 6, maybe an 8 at a push, with dark brown hair and matching eyes.

  She was everything that I wasn’t, and my nerves started to kick in again.

  “Yeah, I’m Rachel. I decided to go ahead and come early since the dorm room had to be paid for anyway. Let me help you.”

  I nodded as we both bent down. I put my phone back together, grabbed my bag which revealed the extra fifty dollars that my mom gave me, and would have to last me until Monday. Everyone in our family had pulled together to help send me here but the thing is, we were all kind of forgetful and clumsy sometimes. My uncle was supposed to put money in my account before I left home, but he didn’t remember to, so I had to wait until Monday now.

  I didn’t mind. I was grateful for everything that they’d done for me. I may not be rich like most of the kids in college in terms of money, but I sure as hell was rich in love.

  “Sorry,” I whispered as I stood back up. My daydream wasn’t going to happen, I thought. The one that I’d been dreaming about as soon as I left home. My tearful departure and the idea of going to new pastures was exciting and frightening at the same time.

  “Yeah. I’m not the best at organizing myself. I spend a little too much time with the books and not enough on me.” She winked and gave me a reassuring smile as she packed my bag and handed it to me. “You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. You’re just nervous.
It took my mom an hour to leave. And even then, we’re meeting up tomorrow. I don’t know who’s more nervous about me being here, her or me?”

  She laughed nervously as she stood up and walked away.

  I was shocked at how open she was with me and we’d only just really met. Sure, we’d talked in emails, but I still wasn’t used to this openness. Back in high school, the kids either ignored me or constantly made fun of me. The idea of someone my age being kind to me, made me feel better. Made me feel like a person and not a thing. The only time kids did speak to me back then was to ask me to help them with their homework or exams. I did it thinking that in time, we could be friends, but it never failed. They were just using me.

  “Yeah, my mom was the same, but New York’s so expensive…”

  “She couldn’t afford to come.”

  I nodded to let her know she was right and thought about what my Nan said before I left home.

  “There’s no shame in being poor. The shame is in being ashamed of being poor.”

  “Yeah, but once I get a job and things work their way out, she can come. Then, I’ll get her here in no time.”

  She agreed as she started to excitedly go through her papers, “Don’t you worry, we’ll figure it out. There are lots of opportunities for us here. We just have to see where we fit in.”

  I liked the idea of the word we.

  “Here, I printed some of them off at the office I was working at before I came.”

  I listened and read intensively as she guided me through them. I realized that I’d made the right choice. Rachel was turning out to be a friend, quicker than I could I have hoped for. I had nothing to be nervous about anymore, just someone to enjoy being with and that was my new roommate.

  Chapter Four

  Celia

  We unpacked and shared our secrets. It started with Rachel when she turned to me with a shy smile.

  “I didn’t look like this at high school. I shed fifty pounds to make sure that no one called me fatty when I got here.”

  My eyes went wide and smiled. “Wow, that’s really great! I’m impressed!”

  She had a lot of willpower, then. I didn’t and for a split second, I wished that I had.

  “It was a lot of work, but I did it.” She twirled a little and smiled happily. She waited for something, I wasn’t sure what and then it hit me.

  She’d shared a secret, now it was my turn.

  “I’ve never kissed a guy,” I smiled, knowing that she would figure out that this meant that if I hadn’t kissed one, there was no way that I’d been down and dirty with any of them.

  We were talking like a couple of women that’d had a little too much to drink and were in their apartment sharing secrets. Maybe it wasn’t really that odd, I thought. We were freshmen at NYU with not a friend in sight, and maybe that was the reason that we were bonding.

  Whatever the reason, I didn’t care. I was enjoying it as we bounced like little kids on her bed and exchanged secrets.

  She pointed a knowing look at me. “You know the crazy thing is, I saw this boy that I liked right before I left. Like really liked in high school. He saw me one day after I’d lost the weight, and he asked if I was new in town!”

  “Shut up!” I screamed out thinking that the same thing would happen to me if I managed to lose some weight. Any weight. “What did you say?”

  She blurted out her reply, pleased with herself. “Yes.”

  We both sunk back on the bed laughing at the idea of her claiming to be a new person. Maybe in some ways, she was right. I bet that she was like me before she lost it. Comfort eating and not feeling good about herself.

  I swear I could feel the confidence as it radiated out of her now. It felt as if it came out of her like a sunbeam. It was addictive, and I knew I needed to be around that kind of positive energy.

  “What’s the first thing that we need to do?” Her question felt like test. I thought that it meant that I needed to unpack and see if I could start work earlier than planned or even better get a second job.

  I must have thought about it too long because she laughed and answered for me. “We need to go and register for some clubs to join or something. I mean we came here to make friends and get laid right?”

  I nodded thinking that this must be her subtle way of confirming that we’re both virgins. I was kind of flattered that she felt that there was a chance that I could have done it before.

  “So, you coming, or what?” She asked as she abruptly got up and stretched her hand.

  “Damn right, I’m coming!” I said assertively, my exhaustion

  was forgotten because she was right. I could find a job, another job and still have a little bit of social life between studies. This could be my only chance to have fun. I wasn’t going to let the family down, I would never do that, but I knew that this was my one opportunity to have fun and I couldn’t turn it down.

  She excitedly clapped her hands together as if I’d just given her a million dollars. I couldn’t help but feel just as excited. She was so happy that I couldn’t help but be happy with her. I’d already learned that Rachel could just draw you in like that, without even trying.

  “So, where do we start?” I asked as we started to walk out of our room and down the halls. She had only been here a little while longer than me and already some girls were smiling at her and saying hello. I knew that I was lucky that I had her as a roommate and a friend.

  Yep, we were going to be friends, I decided that from the moment she replied to my email to my new roommate. That decision was proven to be right the moment I met her in my room. Being with her just clarified it all.

  “So, what’s your talent?” she asked as we got outside, and I started to wonder if this idea wasn’t such a great one. “Do you play an instrument?”

  “Nope.”

  “Sport?”

  Hell no! Was she fucking with me right now? I looked at her, my face clearly gave away my thoughts, because she laughed and nudged me with her shoulder.

  “Yeah, I’m fucking with you. I could hear how strained your breathing was when we got down the stairs and we weren’t even running down them,” she said as she smiled at me. I should have been annoyed at her observation but that would be stupid. I knew that she was telling the truth, even though I hated hearing it.

  “Okay, Rachel. I don’t play any instruments. No, I’m not into sports and apart from working and getting into college, I have no real interests. Everything I did in high school was to get into NYU and get financial aid. Nothing else.” It took the wind out of me, to make such a confession, but the truth was that I didn’t owe her an explanation. Yet, I was embarrassed about it all and felt like I needed to say something to defend myself.

  “Chill. Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.” She held out her hand, an apologetic smile in place. “Let’s find something that interests you but something that doesn’t have anything to do with your studies.”

  I agreed and decided that I needed to stop being so damn sensitive about every damn thing.

  “I like singing in the shower,” I said with a hopeful look.

  “That’s my girl. I like singing in the shower too, but I don’t think that anyone wants to hear me when I sing! Far from it!”

  We laughed and I took her arm as we started to hit the stalls. I wanted to find something that I could do between studies and work and I figured that one of these stalls might just be the key. Maybe I’d do more than work after all. My friendship with Rachel was taking a step in the right direction after only one day. My dream about going to NYU had happened, maybe being happy and having a fulfilled life might be an option too. Something that I never thought would be possible.

  Chapter Five

  Celia

  “That was fucking nuts!” I cried out as I shuffled through all the information on the stalls and decided that I’d signed up for one too many. The problem was, we got to the stalls and we were so busy signing up to stuff together, that we didn’t notice exactly how much we�
�d signed up for.

  Rachel saw some girls that she met when she first arrived on campus and she pointed them out to me. She said that they were going to have a party in their dorm which seemed a little crazy to me, but she said we could go if I wanted to.

  I looked at her, a little confused. We’d just got here, and they were already having a party? I wasn’t ready to be that sociable yet. In the space of five hours of being here, I’d already told my roommate may be a little too much and I hadn’t even called Mom yet, let alone Nan, to tell them that I’d arrived safely.

  I held my hand up to Rachel as soon as the thought occurred to me and pulled my phone out of my back pocket.

  “I have to call my mom,” I said as soon as the phone came on. She left with a wave of her hand and I absently waved too, absorbed in my phone for the moment.

  It was the first phone that I’d ever owned, but I’d heard a couple of girls at the stalls complain about the fact that they needed a new phone because they wanted an upgrade. Before I came here, I didn’t own one. If Mom went to the diner, then she’d leave her phone at home and that we way we could communicate. Either I’d call her at the diner or vice-versa. Part of the money that I made during the summer was used to buy the phone I now had in my hand. I was proud of it and being able to call home all the time was the main reason that I bought it. Now, I’d given fifteen different societies my number. One that I’d thought only my mom, or my nan, would ever know.

  “Celia, is that you?” Mom cried as soon as she answered, and I felt guilty about taking so long to call and tell her that I’d arrived safe and sound.

  “Yeah, Mom, it’s me. Sorry, I took so long to call.”

  She laughed, “The important thing is that you called and that you’re safe.”

  Beep!

  I had a message coming through, I assumed that it was one of the societies that I joined but thought that it would be crazy for them to send me messages so soon. Must be from the clubs I signed up with.