No Strings Attached

*You the one that I dream about all day

You the one that I think about always

You Are The One So I Make Sure I Behave!

My love is your love, your love is my love*

I answered my phone immediately, knowing who was calling from the personalised ringtone. “Hey, Ash, what’s up?” I asked, pressing it up against my ear.

My best friend must have decided to bypass greetings altogether because the first thing she said was, “Has he arrived yet, Blake?” in a very excited tone. I could only assume that the person she was referring to was Jason, my newly appointed stepbrother. She’d created a new level of excitement especially for him; in her eyes it was the right thing to do since he was- in her words, not mine- one of the hottest things to walk this fine earth.

“No, for heaven’s sake,” I said, rolling my eyes in the process. “You’ve been calling me every half hour. Why are you so obsessed with this?”

“You have seen him, right?” She giggled down the phone. “Do you think he has a girlfriend?”

“I don’t know, Ash,” I told her. Jason Miller was not boyfriend material. On the contrary, I had it on good authority that he was known as a notorious playboy in various areas. But I didn’t have the heart to tell Ash that; I’d always had some sort of maternal instinct when it came to her. It was like I was her big protector or something. It’d been like that since we met.

Ash and I became best friends in middle school when I stopped a couple of bullies from kicking her ass. Let’s just say that she wasn’t too popular back then. Kids could be mean in the sixth grade, especially when you looked a little gawky and had glasses with lenses that were as thick as school textbooks.

I took her under my considerably less gawky wing, and now Ash and I ruled Black Wood High school. Nobody would mess with you once you’d lost your god awful glasses and knew that you weren’t beneath hair-pulling when it came down to it, trust me.

“Blake, will you please, please, please just call me after he arrives?” she pleaded.

I let out a sigh. “Fine, but I really need to go now. They should be arriving any time soon.”

“Okay,” Ash said. “You promise?”

“Yeah, I promise.”

I hung up the phone and started to get ready to welcome the new members of the Mitchell family. Dad wanted me to look what he would call ‘presentable’, so I began with trying to tame the curly red mess also known as my hair and put on a little makeup to look like I’d made some form of effort.

I checked how I looked in the mirror and felt like I’d done alright. My green eyes really popped when I used mascara. I’d inherited them from my dad, but apart from that I looked pretty much like my mom. That’s what the photographs told me, anyway.

My mom died eighteen years ago in childbirth. She had to choose between herself and me. She chose me. Dad never really got over that, and I think that he honestly believed that she was his true love- his soul mate. I guess that was probably why he was always dating bimbo after bimbo.

His new wife didn’t seem to fit the usual category, though. She wasn’t just another dumb blond woman digging for riches, and she didn’t have one of those typical bimbo names like Candy or Bubbles. Instead her name was Madeline Miller, and she had brown hair and plenty of money on her own.

I liked her well enough, and if it weren’t for one little thing I’d see no problem with her moving into our home. That one little thing was that her ass of a son, Jason, was part of the deal. Even I had to admit he was pretty good-looking with his jet black hair, golden eyes and ridiculously toned body. He was the very embodiment of the term ‘bad boy’, and he had the leather jacket and motorcycle to prove it. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t an idiot, though, because he most definitely was.

I wandered downstairs to find that Madeline and Jason had already arrived, and they were in the living room chatting away to my dad. When my new stepmother noticed me in the doorway she practically ran over to give me a hug.

“Oh my god, Blake, I’m so excited that we get to be a proper family now!” she gushed, genuinely elated at the prospect.

I smiled back for her sake and gently extracted myself from the embrace. “It’s nice to see you again, Madeline.”

When I turned around I found Jason blatantly checking me out. Did he have no shame? I knew I wasn’t ugly, but he also knew that I had a boyfriend- not to mention that we were basically brother and sister now.

“Hello, Jason,” I said as civilly as possible.

His eyes made another circuit of my body and I sincerely think I saw him run his tongue across his lips.

“Hi.”

I was even more surprised when he came in for a hug himself. It took me a few seconds to register what he was doing, but after that I made myself reciprocate out of politeness.

I felt his mouth go to my ear. “You look sexy in those jeans,” he whispered. “Maybe I’ll have the pleasure of taking them off tonight.”

I am telling you now that it took all of my self-control not to kick him in the family jewels at that point. Instead I basically sprang out of his hug and huddled close next to my dad for refuge.

“Blake, why don’t you give Jason a tour of the house and show him to his room?” my dad suggested- so much for refuge.

I felt the muscles in my face struggle to produce a smile. “I would love to,” I lied.

Jason grabbed his bag up off the floor and walked ahead of me, winking as he went past.

Things just got complicated.