My Stepbrother, My Enemy {BL}

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The SUV glided along the highway, its tires crunching over miles of frost-covered asphalt as the scenery outside transformed from manicured neighborhoods to gently rolling hills dusted with a light layer of snow. I sat in the passenger seat, knees curled up under me, staring at the swiftly passing evergreens, as if they held the secrets to every poor choice I’d made in the last day.

The heater blasted warm air that carried a faint scent of Adrien’s coffee, and some low-key indie music played softly from the speakers, but ever since we left the mansion, we’d barely exchanged more than ten words.

Thirty minutes of silence felt like it stretched into three hours. I kept thinking about how to break the ice—maybe something casual, or funny, anything that wouldn’t reveal how my mind was racing between Ethan’s heartbroken face and the guy sitting just two feet away...my stepbrother, who was also the reason my heart was all over the place.

Every thought I came up with seemed either too flirty or way too awkward, so I just kept fiddling with the zipper on my backpack.

Just when I was about to blurt out something dumb about the weather, Adrien saved me from my spiral.

"So," he said, shooting me a glance with that half-smirk of his that should definitely come with a warning, "ever done something like this before? A real road trip with friends, no parents, just terrible snacks and making questionable choices?"

I exhaled a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding and turned to him, thankful for the distraction.

"Nope, never. My mom thinks letting me ’explore’ means a supervised day at the art museum with a packed lunch and a strict curfew of four p.m. She’s seen way too many true-crime documentaries to let her kid just drive off into the sunset."

I mimicked her dramatic gasp. "One minute you’re heading to a concert, the next you’re in a ditch somewhere, and the cops are asking why I didn’t put a tracking chip in you."