My Stepbrother, My Enemy {BL}

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As I ventured deeper into Jace’s garden, an unsettling feeling crept over me.

At first, I tried to appreciate the beauty around me...anything to distract from the knot tightening in my stomach. The garden was stunning in that flashy, over-the-top way that rich people adored. Every hedge was expertly trimmed, the flowerbeds were arranged with a symmetry that looked like it had been torn from a magazine, and strings of soft fairy lights wound along the gravel path as if to create a whimsical night.

Of course Jace’s family could afford a private gardener. Naturally, everything here was immaculate.

Kids like them seemed to have wealth and power ingrained in their very being. They could act like monsters at school, yet the world would still accommodate them. Teachers turned a blind eye, parents brushed things off with laughter. Nothing ever seemed to affect them.

I hugged my jacket tighter around myself, rubbing my arms as the cool night air swept by. I found myself checking my phone every few seconds, even though Ethan hadn’t texted anything else.

The further I walked in, the quieter it grew. The loud party music faded to a distant thud, swallowed by the trees and hedges. For a moment, I pictured Ethan waiting near the back fence, pacing and rehearsing some serious conversation.

But then, a thought hit me so hard I stopped in my tracks.

Wait.

Why didn’t Ethan just come into the party and find me? Why go so far as to borrow someone’s phone if his battery had died? Why invite me to the one spot where no one else was?

Panic washed over me.

I took a deep breath, every instinct screaming that something was off. "Crap," I muttered, stepping back so swiftly that I nearly tripped over the gravel. "Oh my God—Noah, you idiot! You almost—"