“You good?” A deep sounding voice asks, still holding onto me like I’ll fall without his help. I pull myself aways as gracefully as I can muster and turn around to face the voice.
A man with a chiseled jawline peppered with a neatly trimmed beard looks down at me with stunning hazel eyes. I swallow hard feeling the embarrassment heighten. “Y-yes. I’m fine.”
He assesses me, adjusting a sling backpack over his shoulder. A mop of brown hair swoops lazily across his furrowed brow, looking like he’s just stepped out of a magazine.
“You wouldn’t happen to know where I can find Chase Milford would you?”
His expression takes on a stormy look and his mouth forms a hard line.
“What do you need with Chase?” I’m beginning to understand that my new stepbrother has quite the reputation at this place. Something that might have been helpful to know beforehand, but my mom and her new husband couldn’t be bothered to give me many details.
“I’m supposed to find him. That’s all.”
His eyes narrow on me and I feel like I’m being picked apart underneath his stare. I shift uncomfortably. All I want to do is rest before I start my classes tomorrow.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll take you to him.”
Relief floods me. “Thank you. My name’s Melody,” I say flashing him a smile.
“Liam,” he says curtly. His demeanor, just like that Jenna girl, has shifted, like he’s wary of me for some reason. I can’t help but wonder what the hell is up with this Chase guy that has everyone acting so odd.
Jenna and Carla are locked in a heated exchange as we pass by, and I catch the word ‘slut’ being thrown around. I roll my eyes. Some girls like to pit themselves against other girls like they’re in some competition. I have no interest in participating in that nonsense. They look seconds away from pulling at each other’s hair. Pathetic.
Liam catches my reaction, and something flickers across his face too quickly for me to decipher. “It’s this way,” he says. Liam takes me into the building and up a flight of stairs. He grabs my luggage from me after I protest, but secretly, I’m glad not to be carrying it myself. I’m tired and can’t wait to collapse on a bed. A long hallway emerges with doors on either side. Dim lights line the walls giving the enclosed space an eerie glow. It smells faintly of weed and stale beer. Lovely.
As we walk together, he looks over at me, hair falling across his brow in an effortless way that has me wanting to push it off his face. He’s cute.
“So, you just starting here?”
“Yeah. My mom married Chase’s dad and pulled some strings to get me in.”
Liam’s dark eyebrows shoot up. “So, you’re Chase’s new stepsister?”
“Guess so.”
That acknowledgement seems to shift something in him. “Well, just be careful with Chase. He’s known to have a temper.”
I file that information away as he brings us to a halt outside of room 222. I can hear the faint sounds of music filtering through the closed door.
It’s not the typical rap that I’ve come to expect from guys my age. No, this is… evocative and classical. Something that I haven’t heard before. It’s mournful yet also powerful.
“You going to knock?” Liam asks, eyebrows raised as he watches me. I was so lost to the music feeling it stir something inside my soul, I forgot where I was just now. That, or I’m more tired than I realize.
“Yeah. Yes.” I smile, trying to exude a level of confidence I don’t feel.
The door flies open, and we’re greeted by a disheveled looking guy with a mop of dirty blonde hair in desperate need of a shower, and headphones slung around his neck.
“Oh, shit. You scared me,” he says gripping at his chest.
“Sup, James?” Liam asks with a tilt of his chin in that way guys do when they’re acknowledging a friend.
James. So not…
“Chase,” Liam says, eyes reduced to mere slits. Even the way he says his name sounds like a chilling rebuke.
I slide my eyes to where Chase is standing behind James in a dark black hoodie. His soft brown curls peeking through the hood that lays on top of his head like a cocoon. I can feel my mouth drop open as I finally see the guy that’s my new stepbrother.
Devastatingly handsome yet menacing at the same time doesn’t seem to encompass his very presence. His gray eyes are storm of emotions that I feel all the way down to my toes as he stares me down.
