Forbidden Desire

It started out innocent enough, I guess. When his dad married my mom, and we all moved in together, we’d both spent some time adjusting to the new family dynamic. Both only children before this, it had taken some getting used to, but the fact that we were older had helped ease the transition.

I was more preoccupied with mom’s happiness after dad had hurt her, leaving her for someone else after fourteen years of marriage, and since she and I had been alone for a good few years before Eric, that’s Tyler’s dad, came along and swept her off her feet, I was very protective of her.

Lora

Eric hadn’t introduced us to his son right away, so I’d only heard stories about him, but always brushed them off as a father’s boastings about his offspring. But once we met, I got to see for myself that Tyler really was as kind and handsome as his dad liked to brag with that twinkle in his eye when he’d joke that the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree.

After the wedding and the move, I just expected that we’d get along at least for our parents’ sake, but it hadn’t taken me long to like him for himself because he was just a cool standup guy. Nowhere in my mind did I ever entertain the possibility that we could become a thing; it was just too weird.

Not that I didn’t find him hot upon meeting him. I’d have had to be blind for that to be the case, but I never let my mind travel to such places, that is until the rumors started. It had taken some getting used to the new school and finding my place there.

Tyler had gone out of his way to pave the way for me, introducing me to his friends and their girlfriends so that I wouldn’t feel left out.

I’d always been one of the popular kids at my old high school and was deathly afraid of not fitting in here if only for the fact that these kids were in a whole different financial bracket than I was used to. You see, Eric is filthy rich, the kind of rich you see on those TV shows about the wealthy and their homes with the five-car garage that house their collector’s cars, etc.

Before dad left us for his skank, we were maybe comfortably middle class, but since he’d allowed his new girlfriend to convince him to skin mom and I in the divorce, leaving us with nothing because of the lies and made up shit that he’d sold to the court, we were skirting very close to the line of poverty.

Mom, who I’m sure had only held herself together for my sake had decided to leave our hometown, the place where she’d grown up and where I’d been born to make a new start for her and I. Who knew that within weeks of moving here she’d meet someone who’d fall for her and want to give her more than she’s ever had? But that’s their story.

As excited as I had been to move away since seeing my friends with their perfect families still intact and hearing the whispers around town had started giving me a nervous tummy, I was still not sure that a move was the right thing.

My nana and grandpa were still there, as well as my grandparents on my dad’s side. Not that we had anything to do with them after the divorce since they chose to side with their son even though they knew he was a lying sack of shit.

But once mom and Eric got hitched and we moved into his mansion in the upscale community where my new room was twice the size of my old one, I knew life was going to be different, at least for mom, but I didn’t know exactly where I’d fit in.

It’s not like Eric hadn’t been nice to me while they were dating, far from it, but he had a kid of his own, and I wasn’t a cute little first grader but a teen with issues who in all honesty wasn’t looking for a new dad. I wasn’t cold with him, or disrespectful, in my teenage mind, I was just happy that mom had found someone like him who was way wealthier than my dad and his new hag.

I was still in vengeance mode back then, so my mind didn’t dwell on much else other than the petty. But when it came time to register for school and the reality of my new surroundings hit, I was terrified that I wouldn’t fit in, that I’d be the laughing stock with my thrift store jeans and outdated tops.

The summer before the new school year started, Tyler had started introducing me to some of his friends, and it was obvious that they all came from similar backgrounds. The girls were like those YouTube influencers who spent hours doing their makeup and showing off their shopping hauls from high-end boutique stores, something I’ve never been able to enjoy.