stepbrother kiss

chapter 5

"The pasta's done. Get plates."

We ate in silence at the counter.

"Thanks," I said finally. "For dinner."

"Yeah."

"And for... trying. With Madison."

He looked at me. We were sitting close, closer than necessary. I could see the flecks of gold in his eyes again, the way his hair fell across his forehead.

"I meant what I said," he told me quietly. "You're stronger than you think. Don't let them break you."

The front door opened.

"We're home!" Mom's voice, bright and happy.

Kai moved back immediately, putting distance between us.

Richard walked into the kitchen. "Something smells good. Did you cook, son?"

"Just pasta." Kai stood up, grabbing his plate. "Matea and I have a project to work on. We'll be upstairs."

Mom looked between us. "Everything okay?"

"Great," I said quickly. "Just chemistry homework."

Kai and I went to his room. I'd never been in there before. It was huge, with a king bed, a desk covered in books, soccer trophies on the shelves.

"We can work at the desk," he said, already pulling out his laptop.

For the next two hours, we worked. Really worked. Kai was smart, focused, good at explaining things.

By nine, we'd made good progress.

"We should call it," Kai said, closing his laptop.

"Yeah." I started gathering my stuff.

"Matea."

I looked up.

He was standing close again. Too close. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry. About all of this."

"It's not your fault."

"Isn't it?" He stepped closer. "If my dad hadn't married your mom—"

"Then we wouldn't be here. But he did. So we are." I picked up my backpack. "Good night, Kai."

I left before I did something stupid.

Like notice the way he was looking at me.

Like wonder what it would feel like if he kissed me.

Like forget that he was supposed to be off limits.

The weekend should have been a break. It wasn't.

Saturday morning, I woke up to my phone exploding with notifications. The @westwoodtea account had posted again. This time it was a photo of Kai and me in his room last night, visible through the window. We were sitting at his desk, heads close together, looking at his laptop.

The caption: "Study session or something more? Stepsibling goals 😏"

Five hundred likes in two hours.

I sat up in bed, heart pounding. Someone had been in our yard. Taking pictures. Through the window.

I screenshot the post and went downstairs. Mom was making breakfast. Richard read the newspaper. Kai sat at the counter scrolling through his phone, jaw tight.

"Morning, sweetheart," Mom said. "Pancakes?"

I held up my phone. "Someone was in the yard last night taking pictures of us."

Richard's head snapped up. Kai turned to look at me.

"What?" Mom took my phone, squinting at the screen. "What is this?"

"An i********: account. Someone's been posting pictures of me all week. This one was taken through Kai's window last night."

Richard stood up, taking the phone. His expression darkened. "This is unacceptable. We need to call the school. And possibly the police."

"Dad, wait—" Kai started.

"Someone was on our property taking photographs of you two through a window. That's trespassing at minimum."

"The school won't do anything," I said. "The account's anonymous."

"Then we'll involve the police." Richard was already pulling out his phone. "This is harassment."

Mom touched his arm. "Maybe we should think about this. If we make a big deal—"

"Someone was in our yard, Caroline."

"I know, but—" She looked at me. "Matea, if we involve the police, everyone will know. It might make things harder at school."

She was right. Getting the cops involved would make me look weak. Like I couldn't handle it. Madison would win.

"I'll handle it," I said.

"You're seventeen," Richard said. "You shouldn't have to handle this."

"Richard, please." Kai finally spoke. "Let me deal with it. I know who's doing this."

"You do?" Mom asked.

"It's complicated. But I'll take care of it." He looked at me. "Trust me."

I didn't trust him. Not completely. But I nodded anyway.

Richard wasn't happy, but he backed down. After breakfast, Kai disappeared into his room. I went back upstairs and tried to distract myself with homework.

An hour later, there was a knock on my door.

"Come in."

Kai walked in, closing the door behind him. He looked angry. No, beyond angry. Furious.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I confronted Madison. Told her if she didn't take down the account and stop harassing you, I'd tell everyone what really happened last spring."

I sat up. "What happened last spring?"

He was quiet for a moment. "She cheated on me. With my best friend, Tyler. I found out but kept it quiet because I didn't want the drama. But if she's going to come after you, all bets are off."

"What did she say?"

"That she didn't know what I was talking about. That the account has nothing to do with her." He paced my room. "But then Vanessa called me. Told me to back off, that I was being dramatic, that you needed to learn your place."

"My place?"

"Her words, not mine." He stopped pacing. "I told her if anything else shows up on that account, or if you get one more threatening text, I'm posting screenshots of the messages between Tyler and Madison. Let everyone see what kind of person she really is."

I stared at him. "You'd do that?"

"To protect you? Yeah."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would you do that? We barely know each other. A month ago I didn't exist to you."

He looked at me for a long moment. "You exist now."

"Kai—"

His phone buzzed. He checked it and his expression shifted. "The account's gone. She deleted it."

I grabbed my phone. He was right. @westwoodtea was no longer available.

"She actually backed down," I said, shocked.

"She didn't have a choice. Madison cares more about her reputation than anything else. If those messages got out, she'd be done at Westwood."

"So it's over?"

"For now." He moved toward the door. "But Matea? Stay away from her at school. Don't give her any reason to come at you again."

He left before I could respond.

Monday at school was different.

The account was gone. The stares were less intense.

At lunch, Riley grabbed my arm. "Oh my god, did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"Madison and Kai got into a huge fight this morning. In the parking lot. Everyone saw."

My stomach dropped. "What happened?"

"No one knows exactly, but Madison was crying. Like, actually crying. And Kai just got in his car and drove off."

I looked around the cafeteria. Madison sat at her usual table, but she looked different. Smaller. Vanessa had her arm around her shoulders. The other girls kept glancing at her like they didn't know what to do.

"Where's Kai?" I asked.

"No idea. He didn't show up to first period."

I checked my phone. No messages.

The rest of the day dragged. By last period, I was ready to go home. But when I got to the parking lot, Kai's car was there.

He was leaning against it, scrolling through his phone. When he saw me, he straightened up.

"Need a ride?"

I walked over. "Where were you today?"

"Drove around. Needed to clear my head." He unlocked the car. "Get in."

I did. He pulled out of the parking lot without saying anything, but instead of heading home, he drove in the opposite direction.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Somewhere we can talk without our parents listening through the walls."

He drove for twenty minutes, finally pulling into an empty parking lot overlooking the ocean. The sun was starting to set, painting everything orange and pink.

Kai turned off the engine and sat back. "Madison came to see me this morning. Before school."

"Riley said you guys fought."

"It wasn't a fight. She begged me not to post the messages. Said she'd do anything. Stop bothering you, leave you alone, whatever I wanted."

"And?"

"I told her it's not about what I want. It's about leaving you alone because it's the right thing to do." He turned to look at me. "She asked why I care so much. About you."

My heart started pounding. "What did you tell her?"

"That you're family. That I'm supposed to protect you."

"Is that all?"

He held my gaze. "No."

"Kai—"

"I know what you're going to say. That this is wrong. That we're stepsiblings. That our parents just got married and we can't—" He stopped. "But I can't stop thinking about you. I see you at school and I want to talk to you, but I can't because everyone's watching. I hear you in your room at night and I can't sleep knowing you're that close. And when we're working on that stupid chemistry project and you bite your lip when you're concentrating, I—"