OFF LIMITS STEPBROTHER

LEILANI’s POV I hated parties like this, don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t a buzzkill or anything of that sort, but what was the point? The point of celebrating the end of a chapter while seemingly starting a new one with lots of uncertainties. I tried to keep my feet in the moment, swaying my head a little as the DJ played Tyla’s Water, but it was difficult, not when I had a half-empty box waiting upstairs for me to pack up. Or was it half-full? I honestly didn’t know. “Laney, you look gorgeous in that red dress!” I heard Nora’s screech from about eight feet to my left, and before I could even turn around, she was already paddling her way through the crowd towards me, swinging a glass of whatever that was in her hand. My best friend lived for parties like this. In her words, they were the pinnacle of being young and enjoying our youth. I beg to disagree though. Whatever happened to reading as many romance novels as possible until we slowly began losing our cognitive abilities? Which, according to something I read online, starts around seventy-five or thereabout. “If you weren’t such a party pooper, I would have asked you to save me a dance,” she yelled over the music as she finally got to me, pulling out the chair beside mine and making herself comfortable. “I see you finally went with the gold dress,” I pointed out, ignoring her earlier comment. “Duh.” She stuck out her tongue at me. “It was a no-brainer, especially if I wanted to ceme…” She suddenly stopped. “Holy cow.” I followed the direction of her eyes and instantly regretted it. “s**t,” I cursed under my breath, quickly retracting my gaze and focusing on the glass of juice in front of me. “He’s not s**t,” she protested, shoving me lightly in the side. “He’s dreamy.” I rolled my eyes. “And frankly speaking, I don’t know why you didn’t bring him as your date to the party.” How about this? Because every girl at this party had a crush on him and would probably kill me before the party even began. I managed to raise my head again, and thankfully, he had his back turned to us. So I used the opportunity to take him in properly. I had seen him in T-shirts all year and even sleeveless shirts once or twice, but this? This was an entirely different masterpiece. The black shirt seemed to hug every single muscle on his back, and if he flexed, I was almost certain you would see the muscle contract. Now that I thought about it, I had only ever seen him wear black. Black tees, Black sweatshirts, Black hoodies, Black jerseys and the black ink of his tattoo. But that was beside the point. “Laney.” I looked away so quickly that my neck hurt. “What?” “Look.” Nora nodded her head towards our left. “I’m sure as hell they’re talking about you.” I didn’t even need to strain my ears to catch a wave of what they were saying. “If I had a stepbrother that hot, I wouldn’t be sitting in a corner nursing a juice glass.” “He looks like a Greek god.” True. I agreed inwardly. “Imagine having him as your stepbrother.” They rambled on, “I’d be sooo lucky,” I nearly choked on my drink at the word Lucky If only they knew. Hardin had always been the kind of person people noticed without him having to do anything. He could walk into a room and somehow the room would adjust itself around him. People wanted to talk to him, girls wanted to be around him, and somehow he always looked completely comfortable with all of it. Then there was me. I could barely walk into a room without wondering if everyone was staring at me for some reason. And unfortunately, somewhere along the line, while everyone else was busy seeing him as the hot, popular guy with the perfect smile and the stupidly good body while i basically just … existed. Which was probably the worst part of all this. “Happy graduation, Leilei.” I didn’t need to look up to know who it was. As if the situation couldn’t get any worse, he was the only person who thought it was cute to refer to me by the other half of my name. I mustered a smile with every ounce of strength in me, hoping it didn’t look as fake as it felt. Judging from the way his lips curled up in return, I could say he was buying it. No one dared make a complaint as he pulled out an empty chair and sat beside me. “You know you should be up there dancing with one of your many admirers,” I muttered, bringing the juice glass to my lips. “But what if there’s no place I’d rather be than here?” The simple words seemed to heal a part of me I had no idea had been aching for the longest time, and for a moment, I let myself imagine that it was just us two. Well, until… “Hardin.” I didn’t need to meet her eyes to know she was scowling at me. “Shasha.” I didnt need to look up to tell there was an edge to his voice. “I told you, I won’t be dancing tonight.” “And why’s that?” She glanced at me. “Are you too busy babysitting your couch potato stepsister that you’ve forgotten to have fun?” “Enough, Shasha,” he bellowed. He jumped out of his chair so quickly that for a second, I thought he was actually going to pounce on her. But he didn’t. Hardin would never. “It’s okay, Hardin. You can leave,” I pleaded, tugging lightly at the hem of his shirt. He looked down at me before turning back to her. “Leave, Shasha. Now.” She opened her mouth, probably to argue, but one look at his face seemed to change her mind. “I’m sorry, Leilei,” he muttered. Then he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and patted me gently. He was so close that I caught a whiff of his scent, and surprisingly, it wasn’t the typical oud scent I would have expected from someone as masculine as he was. Instead, he smelled like dew and clean soap. Which was unfair, really. “But you know she’s right though.” I squeaked the words out before pulling away from him and looking up. The girls who described him as a Greek god couldn’t have done any more justice to his appearance. Because look at that nose. “You don’t need to,” I continued, swallowing the lump that followed as I struggled to repeat Shasha’s words. “Babysit me. Especially on an epic night like this.” “Okay.” My heart sank at his response. Of course I was being an ingrate. He had blown off whatever plans he had to come sit beside me, and here I was giving him every reason not to. But it was for a good cause. I didn’t want to be anyone’s pity case. Not that it mattered anyway. I’d be leaving tomorrow. “Here.” Hardin’s brooding voice pulled me out of my head, and before I could register what he meant, I felt something cool land on my lap. My lips parted. I probably looked like a fool because, before I could utter a single word, he rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. “I got you a gift.” I stared down at the neatly wrapped box sitting on my red dress. “For graduation?” He nodded. I looked back at him, still trying to process the fact that he had actually gotten me something. “You didn’t have to.” “I know.” There was something about the way he said it that made my chest feel strange. “There’s one more thing” he continued, taking my hands in his and pulling me up with me. My legs moved before I had the time to process what was happening. I turned my head towards the dance floor again, hoping to find Nora to atleast help remind me that i wasnt in a trance of some sort. But she was nowhere in sight. Of course. Typical Nora. “Where are we going?” I asked, finally looking back at Hardin. “You’ll see.” He smiled, dragging me out of the hall and into the corridor.