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They arrived in that rattly old suburban, a sense of both excitement and fear ran down Amber's spine. She had never met her step-fathers sons. Well, step-father wasn't exactly accurate, but how else could she describe him to her friends?
He was actually her mother's latest boyfriend, the first to last more than 6 months after her father had died and her mother decided the best way to cope was to replace him. They weren't married, in fact John was already married to another woman, but they had been separated for 5 or so years and divorce was illegal here.
John's sons, were both slightly older than her, Miguel was 18 and Karlo was 20. She had never really felt comfortable around boys, but these were her new brothers after-all.
Amber, Maddie, and Joseph waited inside looking out the window from Joseph's room. It had never felt fair to Amber that Joseph had his own room. He was only 11 years old but mom always said that gender was a more important factor than age in getting your own room. What a load of crap that was, Amber was already 17 and still sharing bunk-beds with Maddie.
John got out of the car first, brushing his greasy hair back and replacing his hat over his brooding eyes. Amber had never liked John much, he always looked at her like he was waiting for her to slip so he could back-hand her again. He wasn't a very nice man but mom for some reason had decided that he was dad's replacement.
Dad was nothing like John. Dad was refined, clean-cut, smaller in stature but he had an aura of success about him, he wore a suit. John wore jeans with grease all over them, his fingers were dirty and he always smelled funny. It wasn't body odor, Amber couldn't quite place the smell; almost like burning trash, but it was powerful and seemed to follow him anywhere he went. Yeah, dad was nothing like John....
They all came in the front door, mom seemed exhausted, they'd been gone since before Amber woke up and it was now past noon. Apparently they had to pickup the boys at their mother's house, 5 hours away. Karlo was attractive in a strange way. He wasn't traditionally good-looking, but he obviously worked out and took care of his body. Miguel was less so, he had dark skin and the strangest haircut Amber had ever seen, but he had an air of confidence about him which was intriguing, and he kept looking at her in the most peculiar way.
The boys went upstairs to the room that mom and John had prepared for them over the past week. Amber and the other kids dispersed back to their rooms, anything to stay out of view of John should he get upset at them for this reason or that. He had a way of striking chills into your very bones with a mere glance.
