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Chapter 17
publish date:
2025-11-07 04:22:28
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STEP CLOSER, MY STEP BROTHER Part thirteen — Daylight Doesn’t Ask Questions
Someone is shaking my shoulder.“Ethan. Wake up.”I groan and bury my face deeper into my sleeping bag. For half a second I forget where I am again. Then I hear birds. A lot of them. And the soft murmur of kids already outside.Jules pokes me harder.“If I’m awake, you’re awake.”I sit up slowly, hair a mess, hoodie twisted around my neck. My body feels stiff from sleeping on the ground. I stretch and my back cracks.“This is illegal,” I mumble.Jules grins. “You survived your first night in the wild.”I glance at my phone. 7:02 a.m.I rub my face and step outside the tent.The camp is already moving. Teachers are setting up folding tables. A few kids are brushing their teeth near a portable sink station. Someone is complaining loudly about the cold water.I spot Isabella almost immediately.She’s standing near Roxie, holding a toothbrush, hair tied into a loose ponytail. She looks tired but in a soft way, like she didn’t sleep much but didn’t mind it.She looks up and our eyes meet a
STEP CLOSER, MY STEP BROTHER Part Twelve — After Everyone Sleeps
I wake up because the night feels different.Not louder. Not quieter. Just… awake.For a second, I don’t know where I am. The tent ceiling hovers inches above my face, dark and unfamiliar. The air smells like smoke and grass and something damp. Then it all comes back—the bus, the tents, the fire.Jules is asleep beside me, turned toward the tent wall, breathing slow and even. He talks in his sleep sometimes, but tonight he’s quiet.I stare up at the canvas, listening.The woods don’t sleep like the city does. There’s no full silence. Something is always moving. Leaves brushing. A branch snapping somewhere far off. Insects humming like tiny machines. It should be scary.It isn’t.I roll onto my side, careful not to wake Jules, and check my phone under the blanket. No signal, obviously. But the time glows back at me anyway.12:17 a.m.I don’t know why I do it, but I open my messages.Isabella’s name is there, sitting calmly like it belongs. Like it’s always belonged.I type slowly.Are
STEP CLOSER, MY STEP BROTHER Part Eleven — Two by Two
The teachers didn’t waste time.The moment everyone was off the bus and standing around with bags at their feet, trying to act like they weren’t overwhelmed by the trees and the quiet and the fact that there were no buildings anywhere, one of them clapped her hands loud enough to make a few birds scatter.“Okay, listen up,” she said. “We’re setting up camp. You’ll be working in pairs.”Groans. Cheers. Nervous laughter.She kept talking, explaining how everything would work. We were shown how to open the tents, how to slide the poles through without bending them, how to hammer the pegs into the ground at an angle so the wind wouldn’t knock everything over. She demonstrated slowly, like she expected us to mess it up anyway.I tried to pay attention. I really did. But my eyes kept drifting.Isabella stood a few feet away, her backpack on the ground, listening closely, her brow pulled together in that serious way she had when she was concentrating. Roxie was beside her tall, brown hair pu
STEP CLOSER, MY STEP BROTHER Part Ten — The Bus Smelled Like Goodbye
The bus was already there when Mama and I arrived.Big. Yellow. Loud.It looked too excited for how early it was, engine rumbling like it couldn’t wait to leave us behind. Kids were everywhere, dragging bags that looked heavier than they were, parents bending down to give last-minute warnings, teachers holding clipboards like shields.Mama parked slowly, like she wasn’t ready to let the moment happen.“There it is,” she said, even though I could see it.I nodded and adjusted my backpack on my shoulders. It felt heavier than usual, not because of what was inside, but because of what it meant. Three days. No Mama calling my name from the kitchen. No Papa’s late-night voice on the phone. Just me, a bus, the woods, and a lot of people pretending not to be nervous.Mama turned to me. She fixed my collar, smoothed my hair, then stopped herself like she realized she was doing too much.“You have everything?” she asked.“Yes, Mama.”“Socks?”“Yes.”“Your—”“Yes,” I said again, smiling a littl
STEP CLOSER, MY STEP BROTHER Part nine — The Woods Don’t Feel Like Stories
Some mornings it smells like chalk and paper and something dusty that makes my nose itch. Other mornings it smells like perfume and lunch and the floor cleaner the janitor uses that always reminds me of lemons. Today it smelled like rain, even though the sky was clear, like the walls remembered something the weather had forgotten.Mama dropped me off early because she had a meeting. She kissed my cheek twice, told me to behave, told me she loved me, told me not to forget my lunch. I watched her car disappear down the road before I turned toward the building. I don’t know why, but I felt like something was waiting for me inside. Not bad. Just… different.I found Isabella in class before I even sat down.She was already there, like always, sitting straight with her hands folded on her desk, her hair falling neatly down her back like she had brushed it a hundred times. She left the seat beside her empty. For me. That small thing still made my chest feel warm every time.“You’re early,” s
STEP CLOSER, MY STEP BROTHER Part eight
I was leaning against the kitchen counter when Roman came home, my palms flat on the cool marble like I needed it to hold me upright. The house was quiet in that way it only ever was when Ethan wasn’t running around, when his laughter wasn’t bouncing off the walls. It should’ve felt peaceful but instead, it felt heavy like the air itself knew something I didn’t want to say out loud.Roman’s keys landed in the bowl by the door. I didn’t turn around, but I felt him before I saw him his presence always announced itself like that. Steady. Familiar. Safe he always makes me safe in a way i do not like admitting.“Ari?” I heard him say. The way he said my name told me he’d already noticed. He always did.His arms slipped around my waist from behind, warm and solid, pulling me back against his chest. He pressed a kiss to my neck, slow and lingering, the way he did like without me in his arms something doesn't feel right. When he thought I was slipping somewhere he couldn’t follow without perm
STEP CLOSER, MY STEP BROTHER Chapter 36
Ariana’s POVI couldn’t sleep.Not after last night.Not after that look.The moment my mom opened the door and saw me saw us the room had frozen.Not from shouting. Not from anger.From silence.And somehow, that silence was worse.I’d barely been able to breathe. And now, lying in my bed, every s
Last Updated : 2026-03-21STEP CLOSER, MY STEP BROTHER Chapter 35
Ariana’s POV The silence in the kitchen was unbearable.Like a storm just waiting to break.I sat at the long marble table, staring at the untouched toast on my plate, my fingers clenched so tightly around the edge of the chair that my knuckles ached. I hadn’t slept. Not really. My body was sore i
Last Updated : 2026-03-21STEP CLOSER, MY STEP BROTHER Chapter 34
Roman’s POVI hadn’t seen her in hours, and I was already on edge.Not the kind of edge I was used to not the cold calculation I mastered in courtrooms or the sharp control I kept around everyone else.This was different.This was hunger. Restlessness. Obsession.Ariana.She’d become a drug I could
Last Updated : 2026-03-21STEP CLOSER, MY STEP BROTHER Chapter 37
Roman’s POVShe hadn’t texted me in three days.Three. Fucking. Days.I kept telling myself she was just busy, maybe tired, maybe still shaken up after her mom’s weird vibe the other night. But deep down, I knew.Something had shifted.And it was driving me insane.I leaned against my car, the afte
Last Updated : 2026-03-21
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