CHAPTER ONE
BRIANNA'S POV
"Gross, she has feelings for her own brother? Someone actually wrote a fanfic about Kenneth?"
The voice cut through the cafeteria chatter like a serrated blade.
I froze mid-step, my plastic cafeteria tray trembling so violently that my carton of apple juice rattled against the tray.
It started as a low murmur, a collective shifting of chairs, but within seconds, the room had descended into a dissonance of pings.
Ping. Ping. Ping.
Every single student was staring at their phone, their eyes flickering from glowing screens to my face, then back to their screens again.
Giggles erupted from the table near the windows, followed by sharp, biting laughter.
Just then, a boy near the salad bar stood up, cleared his throat, and began reading a line aloud—a sentence I had labored over, in the dim light of my bedroom, at three in the morning.
"‘His scent is so intoxicating that I could drown in it,’" he read, his voice dripping with mock-romantic flair. "‘I want him so badly but the wall between us makes it forbidden and it hurts my heart.’"
The cafeteria exploded.
"Freak," someone hissed. "She’s actually a total creep."
My heart hammered against my ribs, a panicked bird trapped in a cage. I didn't need to look at the screen to know what was happening.
The secret notebook I’d documented all my yearning for my stepbrother had just been linked! And I didn't need to be told we did it.
I stumbled toward a corner table, my vision blurring, and pulled my phone from my pocket with shaking fingers. My lock screen was already flooded with notifications: tags, shares, and a screenshot of my handwriting, unmistakable and humiliatingly intimate, plastered all over the school’s anonymous gossip feed.
I looked up and I almost wished I didn't.
Across the room, Kenneth was sitting with his hockey teammates. His usual composed, athletic posture was gone; his jaw was clenched so tightly I could see the muscle throbbing. When our eyes finally locked, there was no confusion in his expression, or hurt instead It was pure, unfiltered disgust.
"Oh, it gets better!"
The voice belonged to Imogen— the bitch who undoubtedly linked all this. I still couldn't wrap my mind around how she found my notebook. I never took it home cause I didn't want Kenneth seeing it and just kept it in my locker. But my locker was always locked, so how did she get it?.
My focus shifted back to her, she had climbed onto the base of the salad bar, her cheerleading skirt flared, her phone held aloft like a trophy. She looked like she was crowning a queen, but I was the sacrificial lamb.
"Our resident wallflower, Brianna, has been writing a little bedtime story," she announced to the room, her voice saccharine and cruel. "And the star of her little fantasy? None other than her own stepbrother."
The cafeteria erupted in laughter.
I tried to stand, my voice dying in my throat as I whispered, "Stop it. Please, just stop."
Just then, Kenneth pushed through the crowd. I almost let out a sigh seeing him walking toward me. But all thought of him coming to save me out of this mess died, the moment I saw the burning disgust on his face again.
My chest tightened as he got closer.
"Brianna? Tell me this is fake. Tell me you didn't write this." His voice cracked.
That small, human sound hurt worse than the public shaming. I opened my mouth to lie, to save what little dignity I had left, but Imogen waved her phone again, waving the physical proof of my obsession in his face.
Yesterday after Kenneth asked her to be his girlfriend in the locker room, she had promised me she’d make my life miserable.
She had kissed Kenneth just to watch me crumble, and when I’d warned her to stay away from him, she had laughed. “He’ll forget you ever existed, Brianna. You’re just the girl who burdens him… his useless stepsister”
She had found out about my obsession with my Stepbrother a few days ago and ever since had set her eyes on my distraction. I never admitted and just played dumb with her, as long as she didn't have any proof I was saved. Or so I thought.
She had won.
The shame felt like a crushing weight, pinning me to the floor. I braced myself for the next wave of insults, my eyes squeezed shut.
"Actually, you’ve all got it wrong."
The deep, gravelly voice wasn't Kenneth’s. It was darker, lazier, and commanded instant silence.
I opened my eyes to see Mikel, the team captain and Kenneth’s fiercest rival, stepping into the circle. He was the school’s golden boy—arrogant, untouchable, and a known playboy.
"It’s not about Kenneth," Mikel said, his tone bored, as if he were correcting a minor math error.
The entire cafeteria went dead silent as if holding its breath.
"The story is about me," Mikel added, his gaze cutting through Imogen’s smirk.
He didn't wait for a response. He crossed the distance between us in three long strides, his presence overwhelming. Before I could even process the movement, his arm was around my shoulders, pulling me into his side. His warmth was startling, a contrast to the cold dread that had been consuming me.
Unconsciously, my gaze flashed to him. I doubt if we exchanged more than three words in the last three years I’d been stuck in this school and now he was saving me?
"She’s been keeping it a secret because I asked her to," he lied, his voice dropping to a smooth, convincing hum. "But since you’re all so invested in my Sunshine’s writing, I figured it was time to clear the air."
“Brianna is my girlfriend."
"We wanted to keep it a secret but since our dear Imogen won't let my Sunshine be and wants to poke her ugly bitchy nose in our business. Here you go!”
My breath hitched.
