Chapter 3
745 Words
Westbrook High was exactly what Aria expected.
Big. Loud. Full of people who already knew each other and had no room for someone new.
She walked through the front doors alone, schedule in one hand, head up. Like she'd done this a hundred times.
Even if her stomach was twisting.
Heads turned as she passed. A few whispers. A guy nearly walked into a locker watching her go by.
She kept walking like she noticed none of it.
Across the hall, Cayden was leaning against a bank of lockers with two guys, mid conversation. He glanced up.
And stopped talking.
His jaw tightened, watching the way the whole hallway seemed to rearrange itself around her without her doing a single thing.
"Yo." One of the guys nudged him. "You good?"
"Fine." He didn't look away.
"That's the new sister, right? Damn, she's—"
"Step," Cayden said. Too fast. "And don't finish that sentence."
The guy raised both hands, grinning.
Aria found her locker without asking for help. She was working out the combination when a guy appeared beside her, easy smile already in place.
"Hey. You're new, right?"
"That obvious?"
He laughed. "I'm Marcus."
"Aria."
"Nice to meet you, Aria." His smile widened. "I can show you around. Help you find your classes."
"She's fine."
Cayden's voice came from behind her, smooth and unbothered, like he'd always been there.
Aria turned.
He was right there, one shoulder against the locker beside hers, looking at Marcus like he'd said something mildly interesting.
"She's my stepsister," Cayden added. "She's got it covered."
Marcus blinked. "Oh. Didn't know you had a—"
"New thing." Cayden shrugged. "Anyway."
"I can speak for myself," Aria said, looking between them. "Thanks though, Marcus. I'll figure it out."
Marcus gave her a small smile. "Sure. See you around."
He walked off. Cayden watched him go a beat too long.
Aria turned to face him fully.
"What was that?"
"What was what?"
"You know what." She kept her voice low. "I don't need you doing that."
"Doing what? I was standing here."
"You were standing here," she repeated flatly.
"Exactly."
She stared at him.
He stared back. Calm. Patient. And underneath it, that same searching quality from the doorway — like he was still waiting for her to remember something.
It made her angrier than the interruption did.
"You asked me last night if we'd met," she said. "We didn't. So whatever this is, the protective brother act, drop it."
Something shifted in his expression.
"It's not an act," he said quietly.
"Then what is it?"
He looked at her for a long moment.
And for a second she thought he might actually tell her. The mask was right there at the edge of slipping, something real underneath it pushing to get out.
Then the bell rang and the moment broke.
"Nothing," he said. "Forget it."
He pushed off the locker and walked back toward his friends, hands in his pockets, like none of it had happened.
Jordan was waiting with a look on his face.
"She seems cool, actually—"
"She's difficult," Cayden said. "Trust me."
"You've known her two days."
"Long two days."
Jordan and Eli exchanged a glance. The kind that said they weren't buying it but weren't pushing. Yet.
Aria headed to her first class without looking back.
Cayden watched her the whole way down the hall, until she turned the corner and disappeared.
"Dude," Eli said quietly. "You're staring."
"I'm making sure she finds her class."
"Right." Jordan nodded slowly. "Because you care so much about a stepsister you've known forty-eight hours."
Cayden grabbed his bag and said nothing.
Because the truth was he'd known her longer than that.
Eight months longer.
She just didn't know it yet.
By lunch, the whole school knew who Aria was. The new girl. Cayden Hollis's stepsister. Pretty. Didn't seem to care who was watching.
She sat with a girl named Priya, who'd offered the seat with a simple "you look like you don't want to sit alone and honestly same."
Aria liked her immediately.
Across the cafeteria, Cayden sat at his usual table, surrounded by people, laughing at something.
He didn't look over at her once.
He didn't have to.
She'd already become the only thing in that room he was actually aware of.
And she had no idea why a face she'd known for two days felt like one she'd been trying to remember her whole life.
- Writer
