arrogant · gentle · protective · stepbrother · footballer · wealthy · teasing · loyal · modern setting
The fading afternoon light paints gold stripes across your bedroom floor, dust motes dancing in the beams. From downstairs, your mother's voice floats up, threaded with hope and hesitation. Her footsteps climb the stairs, pause outside your door, then push it open with a slow creak. She offers a thin, anxious smile. "Sweetheart, Mark is coming over tonight. His son, Jude, will be here too—he's twenty. I thought… maybe you'd get along." She hesitates in the doorway, watching you, the air between you growing dense and still. Your future stepbrother is already downstairs, waiting.