Wanting Sera

Chapter 1: I Should’ve Known Better

“Please don’t ask why I have eyebags,” I muttered the second Julie saw me approaching campus. “I genuinely don’t have the emotional strength for it today.”

Julie stared at me for two seconds before gasping dramatically. “Oh my God. You had sex.”

“What? No.”

“You absolutely did,” she accused while grabbing my arm as we walked toward our building. “Girl, those are not normal tired eyebags. Those are ‘I got railed all night’ eyebags.”

I almost tripped.

“Can you not say things like that this early in the morning?”

Julie narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Wait… you actually didn’t?”

“No,” I groaned. “Unfortunately, somebody else did.”

“Aaaaand now I’m confused.”

“You don’t wanna know.”

And she really didn’t.

Because there was absolutely no universe where I would ever tell another human being that I spent half the night listening to my stepbrother have a threesome loud enough to qualify as a public performance.

Just thinking about it again made me want to evaporate.

I sighed heavily while adjusting my bag on my shoulder, trying to mentally prepare myself for surviving another exhausting day at this university without accidentally committing homicide.

Honestly, I would’ve been fine if Rouge had just stayed out of my life completely.

Before our parents got together, we already avoided each other despite going to the same university. Rouge was infamous around campus for being reckless, arrogant, and stupidly attractive in the kind of way that made girls ignore every red flag waving directly in front of them.

Meanwhile, I preferred peace.

Distance.

Sanity.

Now somehow, we lived under the same roof.

Worst downgrade of my life.

Julie was still talking beside me when suddenly someone slammed into my shoulder hard enough to shove me forward violently.

“What the—”

My balance disappeared instantly.

I hit the floor with a painful gasp while my bag slipped off my shoulder, notebooks scattering beside me across the hallway.

Whispers immediately erupted around us.

Humiliation burned through me before I even looked up because somehow — somehow — I already knew who it was.

Rouge stood a few feet away with one hand in his pocket, looking down at me with an expression so irritatingly calm that rage flooded my system instantly.

“Oh,” he said lazily. “Didn’t see you there.”

Liar.

Julie immediately helped me up while muttering insults under her breath, but Rouge barely looked apologetic. If anything, he looked entertained.

Like always.

I clenched my jaw so hard it hurt before shoving my notebooks back into my bag.

“Let’s go,” I muttered tightly to Julie.

We barely took two steps before Rouge’s voice cut through the crowded hallway.

“You didn’t enjoy last night?”

Silence.

Literal silence.

Every nearby conversation stopped almost instantly.

My entire body went rigid.

Slowly, I turned around while heat rushed violently into my face, only to find Rouge watching me with the same unreadable expression from last night, completely unaffected while confused whispers started spreading around us.

“What the hell is he talking about?”

“Wait… them?”

“No f*****g way.”

My blood pressure skyrocketed.

This psychopath.

***

“What the hell do you think you're doing?” I demanded the second Rouge walked through the front door, my arms crossed tightly over my chest as I stood in the middle of the living room waiting for him like an irritated wife ready to start a fight.

He barely spared me a glance.

Honestly, that annoyed me more.

Rouge simply shut the door behind him before starting up the stairs with that same lazy attitude he always carried around like the entire world bored him. His black hoodie hung loosely over broad shoulders, dark hair slightly messy like he’d just gotten back from somewhere loud and reckless, and the worst part was how completely unaffected he looked after humiliating me earlier at school.

Meanwhile, I’d spent the entire day internally dying every time someone looked at me for too long.

“Are you seriously going to ignore me right now?” I snapped.

That finally made him pause halfway up the stairs.

Slowly, Rouge glanced over his shoulder at me, one eyebrow lifting slightly as if he genuinely couldn’t understand why I was angry.

“You already got your attention earlier,” he drawled casually. “Why are you still complaining?”

I stared at him in disbelief.

“Oh, you mean when you shoved me in front of half the university and made it sound like we slept together?” I shot back, my voice rising despite my efforts to stay calm. “Yeah, sorry if I’m not exactly grateful for that experience.”

A smirk slowly pulled at the corner of his mouth.

God, I hated that expression.

“You’re dramatic.”

“You’re an asshole.”

Rouge leaned one shoulder against the railing, crossing his arms over his chest while looking down at me with that infuriatingly amused expression that always made me want to throw something at his head.

“Maybe,” he admitted. “But you looked cute getting mad.”

My eye twitched.

“You seriously think this is funny?”

“I think,” he said slowly, “you care way too much about what people think.”

I let out a short laugh, completely humorless.

“Easy for you to say when your entire personality revolves around acting like a walking red flag.”

That actually made him chuckle under his breath.

For some reason, the sound irritated me even more.

“You know what your problem is?” I continued before he could respond. “You act like everybody else exists for your entertainment. You push people around, embarrass them whenever you feel like it, then stand there acting amused when they get pissed off.”

Rouge’s expression barely changed.

If anything, he looked calmer the angrier I became.

“You done?”

“No, actually, I’m not done.” I took a step closer toward the stairs, glaring up at him. “I already tolerate enough from you inside this house. The random girls, the noise, the complete lack of boundaries—”

“You barged into my room.”

“You were loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear!”

A smirk tugged at his mouth again.

“You still walked in.”

Heat instantly crawled up my neck.

I hated that he kept bringing that up.

“That is not the point.”

“Seems like the point to me.”

I clenched my jaw so hard it hurt.

Sometimes talking to Rouge genuinely felt like arguing with the devil himself because no matter how irritated I got, he always stayed unfairly calm, watching me lose my patience like it entertained him.

“I’m serious,” I said firmly. “Stop dragging me into your bullshit at school. I don’t want people associating me with you.”

That finally wiped the amusement off his face a little.

Not completely.

Just enough for something sharper to settle behind his eyes.

“You think I care whether people know we’re related?”

“We’re not related.”

The words slipped out before I could stop them.

Silence immediately filled the space between us.

Rouge stared at me for a second, unreadable.

Then his tongue pressed briefly against the inside of his cheek before he gave a slow nod.

“Right,” he said quietly. “We’re not.”

For some reason, the way he said it made something uncomfortable twist in my stomach.

I ignored it.

“You should blame your father for falling in love with my mom and dragging us into this mess,” I muttered instead. “Because trust me, I never asked for any of this either.”

My voice came out more exhausted than angry that time.

Maybe because I was tired.

Tired of the tension.

Tired of the fighting.

Tired of feeling uncomfortable inside my own house.

Rouge looked at me for a long moment before pushing himself away from the railing and walking slowly back down the stairs until he stood directly in front of me.

Too close.

I immediately took a step back.

His eyes flickered downward briefly before returning to my face, and suddenly I became painfully aware that I was wearing nothing except an oversized shirt and shorts.

“You done avoiding me now?” he asked softly.

I frowned. “What?”

“At school.” His gaze stayed locked on mine. “You spend all day acting like I don’t exist.”

“Because I wish you didn’t.”

That earned me another small smirk.

“Liar.”

My heartbeat stumbled so suddenly it genuinely pissed me off.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I snapped.

Rouge leaned down slightly, close enough for me to catch the faint scent of smoke and expensive cologne clinging to his hoodie.

“You get this angry every time I look at you,” he murmured lazily. “Kinda hard not to notice.”

I shoved him backward immediately.

“Disgusting.”

A low laugh escaped him as he straightened again, completely unaffected.

“You keep saying that.”

“Because you are.”

Rouge stared at me for another second before dragging a hand through his messy hair with a quiet sigh.

“Then make me stop, Sera.”

God.

I wanted to punch him.

Instead, I glared at him one last time before brushing past his shoulder hard enough to make my irritation obvious.

“You’re unbelievable.”

“Still talking to me though.”

I ignored him and stormed upstairs before I actually committed a crime.