Share

Chapter 4: Not Enough

Author: Nancy's Best
last update publish date: 2026-01-02 18:11:33

Hayden's POV

Stephen didn't move from his position even as I stared at him in disbelief. He actually apologized. He fucking apologized and was even all melancholic about it. That served him fucking right. I was beyond pleased so I stood up from the bed and approached him. I made him straighten so that he was shielding me away from Mom and the dean.

“You're such a loser, look at you,” I whispered to him, but he didn't flinch; he didn't even look hurt.

“Apologize too, Hayden.” I heard the dean say and I stiffened, glancing away from Stephen to look at him. “You pushed him to the wall. You are the reason the fight erupted in the first place so you should apologize.”

My mood immediately soured, and I turned to Stephen, who was staring at the ground like something was interesting on it. The way he was acting robotically made me narrow my eyes at him, and I knew that he was up to something. But I couldn't place my hands on it.

“I'm sorry, Stephen. I shouldn't have pissed you off.” I muttered in the most insincere way, and Mom noticed, but she didn't say anything about it. She simply nodded in approval and I stepped away from him.

“Both of you, pack your things and move to the new dorm assigned to you. Dorm room 1267. Immediately.” He ordered, and I let out a sigh, feeling stressed out already. I just knew that living with him would be so uncomfortable but there was nothing to worry about.

I could always crash at my friend's place. Anything to make sure I don't go insane.

“My boys.” I heard mom say as she walked up to us and took our hands gently. I loved her so much that I couldn't try to start another argument with her. “Promise me you'll be good, hm? If I'm gonna come back here, it should be because you both are getting along just fine. And if you do, we'll go to your favorite places. I promise.” She muttered with a smile, but none of us looked as enthusiastic as she did.

“Not enough? Okay, Hayden, I'll get you that gaming system you've always wanted if you keep up with him. And Stephen, that MacBook you've always wanted? It'll be yours. One year together is all I ask. Please?” She pleaded and our eyes both widened when she made those offers.

“Deal,” I muttered instantly and Stephen nodded as well. She leaned closer and placed soft kisses on our foreheads before squeezing our hands gently.

“I love you both so much. Be good.” She whispered and then let go before walking out of the infirmary, leaving just me and Stephen in here.

A year. All I had to do was play pretend with Stephen, and I could get what I've always wanted for a long time. This was beyond perfect. I turned to Stephen to see him staring at me with a mischievous smile and disgust coiled down my skin as I stepped away from him.

“No matter what, you're not allowed to touch me or come near my space. I'll stab you in your sleep if you attempt it.” I said immediately and he shrugged with a nonchalant expression as he turned to leave.

“Seeing you apologize was so satisfying. You must have been so humiliated, right?” I asked with a sneer and he stopped for a second. “The whole school now knows you're a fag, and I don't regret it one bit. Your poor ego and reputation must have been so squashed now right?” I asked with laughter erupting from me but when he turned to me with a grin, my smile faded.

Why the hell did he look like he wasn't shaken? He was supposed to be mad, angry, or ashamed. He simply shot me a victorious smile and walked out of the infirmary, leaving me in confusion.

I reached for my pocket and took out my phone that now had a crack because Stephen surely loved to push me to the ground. Disgusting fag.

Seeing the time, I realized that I must have passed out for over two hours. But that wasn't what surprised me at all. The school group chat was buzzing with messages entering all at once, and I was sure it was like that because of exposing Stephen.

But when I saw a post made by Stephen himself, I froze in shock.

“Hi, everyone, to clarify the issue on what my stepbrother said, I'm not homosexual or a faggot. But I do like boys and girls. I'm bisexual. I never planned on hiding it anyway. If you think I'm weird, you're not human, you belong to the aliens. Love you.”

The whole group chat was buzzing because of that, and not in a bad way as I expected. But everyone was proud that he actually was so bold to come out like that. Some even said horrible things about him for calling Stephen a faggot. The girls were still so madly in love with him that the boys felt lucky that he would notice them.

The tables had turned so horribly and I was the bad person here. Everyone was praising Steven for being so bold to come out despite his homophobic brother's remarks.

I let out a groan and almost threw my phone across the room in anger. I remembered how he had placed his lips on mine earlier, and it made me even angrier than I was because nothing worked out as I had imagined. His reputation wasn't soiled, mine was. I was the homophobic stepbrother.

“Fuck!” I groaned and slammed my phone on the bed, feeling very pissed off. My phone buzzed on the bed but I ignored it. Then it buzzed again, so I had no choice but to pick it up, and when I saw it was from Stephen, my heart stopped for a minute.

He sent a picture. For no reason, my hand trembled as I clicked on it and when the picture filled my screen, my breath hitched in my throat. It was a picture of him with a random boy I've never seen before and their lips were so close that they were almost kissing. He was staring at the camera— at me— with that smirk that said he won and I lost.

Under the picture was a simple message. Four words that wanted to make me strangle the fucking life out of him.

“Would you steal him from me too?”

I groaned and dropped the phone to the bed again, pulling my hair in frustration. He was disgusting. Has everyone gone mad or blind? How could they encourage that?

Another message entered my phone, and I almost ignored it, but I knew it was from him again, so I picked it up.

“You got headphones? You'll need them at night because we don't know how to keep quiet. I swear to fuck, he's a loud moaner.”

That fucking asshole.

Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App

Latest chapter

  • RIVAL'S TO LOVER'S: My Step Brother Is Now My Roommate    Chapter 196: The End Was Ment to Be.

    HAYDEN’S POVAdjusting a bow tie shouldn't have felt harder than executing a perfect sliding tackle in the pouring rain, but my fingers were shaking so violently I nearly ripped the silk."Let me get that before you choke yourself, big guy," Blake’s voice cut through the nervous hum of the dressing room. She stepped forward, a brilliant, knowing smirk firmly on her face as she batted my hands away and expertly fixed the knot. She looked stunning in her bridesmaid gown, though she still possessed that sharp, no-nonsense attitude that had kept us all in line since camp. "Can’t have the star striker looking like he’s being held hostage on his own wedding day.""I'm not nervous about the wedding," I grunted, my voice rough. "I’m just... ready. I’ve been ready for years.""We know, man," Amber said, leaning against the doorframe of the suite right beside her. Amber walked over, resting a hand on my shoulder, while Blake gave my tie one final, satisfied pat. "You two earned this. Every

  • RIVAL'S TO LOVER'S: My Step Brother Is Now My Roommate    Chapter 195: The Future Was Ours.

    STEPHEN’S POVThe deafening roar of sixty thousand people vibrating through the stadium turf wasn't just noise… it was a physical force slamming into my chest. The bright, blinding stadium lights cut through the humid evening air, reflecting off the pristine green grass of the United FC home stadium.It was the forty-fourth minute of our very first professional match.The scoreboard overhead read 0-0 against our fiercest conference rivals, the clock ticking down mercilessly toward halftime. The tension in the stadium was taut as a wire, the fans screaming for blood, for a breakthrough, for a sign that the millions of dollars Vanguard had dropped on us wasn't just hype.My lungs were burning, my jersey soaked through with sweat as I marked my run down the left flank. The opposing center-back was tight on me, his shoulder digging into my ribs, trying to crowd my space and cut off my passing lanes.Then, across the pitch, my eyes locked onto the number nine jersey.It was Hayden.He h

  • RIVAL'S TO LOVER'S: My Step Brother Is Now My Roommate    Chapter 194: Multi-Million Dollar Penthouse.

    STEPHEN’S POVIf you had told me two months ago that I’d be standing on the floor to ceiling glass balcony of a multi million dollar penthouse in the heart of the city, looking down at a skyline that actually belonged to my future, I would have told you to go fuck yourself.But here I was.The air up here tasted different. It didn't carry the suffocating, heavy humidity of our old camp or the rancid stench of the scandals that had threatened to bury us alive. It felt sharp, clean, and expensive as hell.Vanguard Group hadn't played around when they finalized our pre-draft corporate acquisition. The moment Hayden and I signed those United FC tier-one affiliate contracts, the corporate handlers essentially handed us the keys to this high-rise paradise. It was a massive, sprawling concrete-and-glass flex of a penthouse, meant to keep their new "assets" comfortable, secure, and entirely isolated from the bullshit below.I leaned against the sleek black steel railing, taking a slow sip

  • RIVAL'S TO LOVER'S: My Step Brother Is Now My Roommate    Chapter 193: My Arm Wrapped His.

    HAYDEN’S POV:The bass from that fucking campus club was still rattling around inside my skull, matching the rhythmic, heavy throb of the tequila flowing through my veins. It was our last night in this godforsaken town. Our last night in this camp before we packed up every single piece of baggage literal and emotional and drove the hell out of here toward the United FC facility.We had spent the last four hours drinking like the world was ending, celebrating the fact that we were finally free.The group had fractured in the best fucking way possible around midnight. Amber had been eyeing some tall, dark-haired guy by the bar who actually looked at her like she was a person and not a headline, and by one o’clock, she’d given us a sloppy, triumphant wave before trailing him out the front door. Ten minutes later, Blake had hooked her arm through some regular from the gym, looking entirely ready to take whatever she wanted for the night and leave no survivors.That left Stephen and me

  • RIVAL'S TO LOVER'S: My Step Brother Is Now My Roommate    Chapter 192: High Energy Cheer .

    HAYDEN’S POVMy forehead was still resting against Stephen’s, the steady, rhythmic warmth of his breathing anchoring me to the locker room floor, when the heavy metal door of the facility rattled on its hinges.A few weeks ago, a sudden noise would have had us breaking contact instantly, hearts racing with the panicked, defensive instinct to hide what we were. But today, with the weight of two professional contracts sitting on the wooden bench behind us, I kept my hands firmly on Stephen's hips, turning my head just enough to see who was invading our space.Blake walked in first.Her usual high energy cheer posture was completely gone, replaced by a loose, almost breathless exhaustion. But it was her face that made me pause. Her jaw was slack, her eyes wide and glittering under the harsh fluorescent lights.Right behind her was Amber. She was holding her phone tightly against her chest, her fingers trembling so violently against the plastic case that I could hear the faint click of h

  • RIVAL'S TO LOVER'S: My Step Brother Is Now My Roommate    Chapter 191: The Smell Of Damp Grass.

    STEPHEN’S POV:The silence of the locker room after everyone else had cleared out was deafening, a stark contrast to the thunderous roar that had been vibrating through my skull just an hour ago. The smell of damp grass, sweat, and deep-heat liniment still clung to the air, but the chaotic energy of the match had finally settled into something thick and heavy.My phone vibrated violently against the wooden bench next to me.I picked it up, my hands still slightly trembling from a combination of lingering adrenaline and pure exhaustion. It was an email. My eyes scanned the header, and my breath hitched instantly in my throat.OFFER OF PROFESSIONAL CONTRACT / NOMINATION FOR THE SENIOR LEAGUE DRAFT PINNACLEFrom: Vanguard Athletics & Sporting Group (Consortium for United FC)My heart hammered against my ribs, a fierce, frantic rhythm that made me dizzy. I stared at the bolded text, my thumb scrolling rapidly through the legal jargon, the financial breakdowns, and the official club sea

  • RIVAL'S TO LOVER'S: My Step Brother Is Now My Roommate    Chapter 23: Bad timing

    STEPHEN’S POVI knew they would be going back together. I just didn’t expect it to hit me the way it did.The party had ended in chaos—shouting, spilled drinks, Ella storming out with tears in her eyes, and one of the cheer girls, Jesse, standing there like she didn’t care who she hurt. I told her

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-21
  • RIVAL'S TO LOVER'S: My Step Brother Is Now My Roommate    Chapter 20: The prove i needed to sink

    STEPHEN’S POVI didn’t want to go.That was the lie I told myself while Marcus adjusted his collar in the mirror and asked me for the third time if the black shirt made him look “approachable but dangerous.”“You’re going,” he said when I didn’t answer fast enough. “If you stay in the dorm sulking,

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-20
  • RIVAL'S TO LOVER'S: My Step Brother Is Now My Roommate    Chapter 18: I got frozen half way

    HAYDEN’S POVBy the time school ended, the gym already sounded like it was game night.Music thumped through the speakers. The bleachers were packed with students, athletes, and even a few teachers pretending they weren’t invested. Someone had hung handmade signs over the railings. Half of them rea

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-19
  • RIVAL'S TO LOVER'S: My Step Brother Is Now My Roommate    Chapter 10: The Hallway

    STEPHEN’S POVI didn’t remember deciding to leave.One second I was standing in the hallway, Hayden’s door still vibrating from where it had slammed shut, my chest tight and buzzing like I’d swallowed broken glass. The next, I was outside, the night air hitting my face like a slap.I deserved worse

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-17
More Chapters
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status