My New Step-Brother - Part 1 (Patreon)

"Come down and introduce yourself!" My mom hissed from my bedroom door.

"I don't want to introduce myself, mom!" I snapped back, turning over in my bed and mindlessly scrolling through my phone.

"Oh stop acting like a big baby!" She barked "you're eighteen, now get down that stairs in the next five minutes and stop being so rude!"

My door slammed so hard that a picture frame fell off the wall, and for her transgression, I gave my mom the middle finger from my bedroom, as she returned to the garden.

I don't know why she insisted on me being there, it's not like I even liked her boyfriend, let alone his son. I groaned as I kicked the bed sheet off me and sat up in the bed.

Dustin was a giant douche. He didn't like me, and I didn't like him, and we were both happy to continue like that, which was fine, except for my mom, who insisted that we spent as much time as possible 'bonding'.

Hunting, football and beer were the only three things that Dustin seemed interested in, which was about as interesting to me as watching paint dry. So being forced to accompany him and his moron friends to football games had been a bitter pill to swallow.

They'd been together for nearly a year, him and my mom, and I was yet to work out what she could see in him. He was rude, arrogant and lazy, and I just knew that his son would be the same.

I'd been dreading the day since I was told about it over a week ago. A miniature Dustin was the last thing the world needed. Another selfish, racist, homophobic asshole sounded about as fun as pouring sand up my ass.

I pulled on a t-shirt and a pair of shorts and reluctantly slugged toward the door. The only reason I was obliging was because I wanted my mom to be happy. The last year had been the first time in many years that she seemed genuinely happy, and so I decided that it would be easier for everyone if I just went along with it.

I glanced at myself in the mirror before I went down. I wasn't a bad looking guy, but I wasn't the hottest guy in the world either. I didn't have washboard abs, or defined pecs, I didn't having bulging biceps or a perfect tan. I guess I was just a normal eighteen-year-old.

I did have the best god damn eyes that I'd ever seen though, I had to give myself that. Light grey was an unusual eye colour, and mixed with the fact that they were quite big, I'd spent most of my life being complimented on them.

Besides that, my features were quite standard. I had black hair which I tried to keep shaggy, but Dustin being the dick bag that he was, insisted on giving me bi-weekly haircuts, and so I resembled a disgruntled soldier more often than not.

I was quite thin, and no matter how hard I tried, it seemed impossible to put on any weight. Thankfully I wasn't sickly thin, but there was about as much muscle on me as there was on a butcher's knife.

I took one last sigh and left the room. I'd spend thirty minutes maximum, and excuse myself for one reason or another. It was all I'd be able to take, if Dustin's son was anything like his father.

I walked into the kitchen to find a topless Dustin searching for beer in the fridge.

"Did you take my beer?" He growled, his large belly hanging out over his dirty shorts.

"No" I spat.

"Don't say no like that" Dustin snarled "and none of your weird shit today in front of Tucker, he don't take kindly to that Nancy shit".

It was weird having somebody so anti-gay living in my house. I came out to my mom when I was fifteen, and she actually celebrated it. When I say celebrate, I mean celebrate. The only reason my entire family wasn't invited around for a 'coming out' party was because I was still too nervous to tell anybody else.

My mom however, seemed to wear the fact that he only son was gay, as a badge of honour. She told her work colleagues, her friends, even our neighbours, and her reaction made me so comfortable in myself that Dustin seemed alien to me.

"Nancy shit?" I scoffed.

"Yes, Nancy shit" he snapped back "where we come from that shit aint normal, so keep it to yourself"

"Damn" I sighed "and I was planning to vomit rainbows onto his lap, maybe take him to a gay bar, but I guess I'll just stick with my rendition of YMCA"

"Don't get smart with me, boy" Dustin spat, eventually finding his beer in the back of the fridge. "You ain't too old for an ass whoopin'"

"Yeah, I'm sure you'd have the physical capability for that" I mumbled as I walked out the back door and the scorching sun hit me.

My mom was sitting at the garden table, engrossed in conversation as she sipped a glass of wine, and my eyes landed on Tucker.

He was laughing about something, and his brilliant white teeth seemed to shine in the sunlight. He was stunningly beautiful, and for a moment I wondered if perhaps Tucker had brought a friend, and that was who I was staring at, because there was simply no way that the young man before me had come from Dustin.

"Ah Jayden!" My mom beamed, as though she hadn't specifically threatened me to come down.

Tucker turned to me, his beautiful face beaming as I walked, jelly-legged toward them.

He was older than me by three years, I already knew that much. He wore a white muscle shirt, which allowed his large, bulging biceps to show clearly. His skin was golden, the type of thing that you'd see in a movie or magazine. His hair was golden too, and he reminded me of a Disney prince, if Disney princes were shredded and said 'bro' after every sentence.

I felt my mouth become dry as I reached them.

"Sup bro" he grinned, and I knew that my suspicions had been correct.

Tucker looked exactly like what you'd expect a high school rom-com romance film to show. He was perfect in every single aspect, and as much as I found the young man to be brutally attractive, I disliked him immediately.

"Nice to meet you" I lied, extending my hand as he stood up and grasped it so hard that I fully expected it to explode.

"Yeah, you too man!" He smiled "we were just talking about you"

I glared at my mom who ignored me and sipped from her glass again.

"You like photography, huh?" He asked, and I was glad that it was my hobbies that had been the topic of conversation, and not my sexuality.

"Yeah" I smiled politely, sitting down.

"That's sick, bro" Tucker added and I forced a smile again as his unsightly father joined us.

"Did you tell them?" Dustin asked his son, elbowing him in the arm as he sat down.

Tucker's cheeks reddened ever so slightly, but enough for me to notice.

"No, dad" he mumbled.

"Oh come on, son!" Dustin laughed, slamming his hand against Tucker's solid back.

"Tucker here has only gone and won the state finals in his weight division!" Dustin announced proudly, and neither myself nor my mom had any idea what that meant as the twenty-one-year-old whispered to his dad to shut up.

He gained some respect for that move, I'd give him that.

"That's wonderful, Tucker!" My mom gasped, and I could tell by her tone that she was desperately confused.

"It's boxing Lynda" Dustin said, evidently unhappy with my mom's lack of sporting knowledge. "Tucker beat the best of the best, didn't you son?"

Tucker squirmed in his chair and reached for his beer instead of answering.

"A real man's hobby" his father continued, gulping from his can and spilling most of it down his chin. "Not like that picture-taking nonsense".

"Dustin!" My mom snapped, but the man dismissed her with a wave.

"I'm just saying, Lynda" He shrugged "there's men and then there's men"

"I think it's cool" Tucker said, and a deafening silence fell as we all turned to look at him, including his dad who looked horrified.

"HA!" Dustin scoffed "I think somebody has had too much to drink!" The overweight man's face was turning purple as he silently willed his son to take his side and bash me for something, anything.

"No, really" Tucker continued, staring directly at me "I'd love to see some of your photos some time".

I felt a warm sensation wash through my body as I stared back at him, shocked.

"Jayden" my mom hissed, waking me from whatever spell Tucker had put me under.

"Yeah" I nodded "yeah sure".

The painfully beautiful young man smiled at me and returned to his drink. He was adopted, he had to have been adopted. There was simply no way that such a stunning specimen, who also seemed kind and caring, could have come from Dustin. It was just impossible.

An hour or so passed, with deep conversation about politics coming mostly from Dustin. He spewed his normal vulgar garbage as me, my mom, and oddly, Tucker silently but clearly disagreed with him.

"Yo bro" Tucker whispered to me as his father moved on to his stance on abortion.

I turned to him and listened.

"Wanna show me your photos?" He asked, and for some reason, my heart began bursting in my chest.

"Photos?" I repeated "my photos? Yeah... I mean... Yeah if you want... I could show you them, yeah"

I wanted to punch myself for being so damn weird all of a sudden, but Tucker just grinned and stood up.

"Jayden's showing me his photos" he told Dustin and my mom, and Dustin looked furious.

"Maybe you could show him some uppercuts" Dustin laughed to himself, and I knew that the second we left, him and my mom would have an explosive argument.

"Come on" Tucker sighed and we walked into the house.

"Look, I'm really sorry about him" he said as we walked through the kitchen, and I couldn't quite believe that Dustin's own son was as disgusted by Dustin as I was.

"It's cool" I shrugged, and led the handsome boxer upstairs.

"Sorry about the mess" I squirmed as we walked into my bedroom.

It wasn't that messy, but I hadn't expected America's next top model to walk in either.

"Bro when I was eighteen my room was much worse" he laughed, and looked around.

I had always been quite shy, and nothing much had changed, but something about being in the presence of Tucker made me relax slightly. It was an interesting feeling indeed.

"Is that your dad?" He asked, and I felt my heart squeeze.

"Yeah" I replied, watching him as he looked down at the small photo of me and my dad.

"You guys were close then?" He asked, continuing to stare at it.

Once again, I wanted to punch myself as I felt a lump in my throat. It had been nearly two years since he'd died, and yet every damn time I spoke about him I cried.

"Mmhmm" I coughed and walked over to my PC.

For the next twenty minutes, I flicked through photographs that I'd taken over the last few years. I'd shown enough people to know the difference between someone being polite and persevering, and someone being genuinely interested, and so far, my mom had been the only one interested, until now.

"The detail" Tucker said in awe, leaning over my shoulder "how did you get so close?"

"It's a macro lens" I explained, rather excitedly but trying not to get too technical and put him off.

"Macro" he repeated "bro, you're seriously talented"

"Nah not really" I laughed "anyone could do it"

"I couldn't" he told me "no way".

"I could show you" I said, and instantly felt stupid for suggesting it.

"Deal" Tucker nodded, and sat back on my bed as I remained in the chair.

"Can I ask you something?" He said, and I turned around to look at him, shrugging as I did.

"My dad" he half winced, "he told me... I mean... He said that you... That you're uh... That you're gay?"

That was it. Any idea that I had in my head that Dustin's son was the complete opposite of his moronic father was about to be blown to shreds. Part of me wanted to just open the bedroom door and let him walk out now instead of waiting for the answer.

"Oh" I sighed, feeling my cheeks burn as he stared at me. "Yeah, I am".

A silence fell as I waited for Tucker to either storm from the room or come up with something cruel and nasty to say to me.

After a few painful moments, the handsome young man stared straight into my eyes and nodded.

"Good" he said "because I have something to tell you".