All Chapters of RIVAL'S TO LOVER'S: My Step Brother Is Now My Roommate : Chapter 121 - Chapter 130

146 Chapters

Chapter 121: Hayden's Gaze

STEPHEN’S POV:I saw it happen before I fully understood it. At first, it just looks like tension—the kind that builds after a game when adrenaline is still running high and someone says something they shouldn’t. That’s normal. I’ve seen that a hundred times.But this… this isn’t that. Hayden isn’t just standing there. He’s locked in place, completely still and everyone else is laughing.Something cold settles in my chest as I take a step forward, my eyes narrowing as I take in the scene properly. Derek’s standing too close, that stupid smirk still on his face, like he just said the funniest thing in the world.Hayden didn’t move or react.“Alright, that’s enough.”My voice cuts through the noise sharper than I expect. It doesn’t come out loud, but it carries. It always does.A few heads turn.Derek glances at me, unimpressed. “Relax, man. We’re just joking.”“Does it look like he’s laughing?” I shoot back.That wipes the smirk off his face for half a second.I step closer, my focus s

Chapter 122: We've Got Him

HAYDEN’S POV: I didn’t remember moving.One second, Stephen was walking away from me—his shoulders stiff, his voice cold in a way I had never heard before and the next, he was on the ground.It happened too fast.The sound of his body hitting the ground echoed in my head like a gunshot and everything inside me just… snapped.“Stephen!”I was the first person to reach him.Or maybe i wasn’t, Maybe i just thought i was. Everything blurred together—shouts, footsteps, someone swearing under their breath but all I could see was him, lying there and not moving.My chest tightened so violently it felt like it might cave in on itself.“Hey..hey, Stephen…” My voice came out rough, shaking in a way i couldn’t control. I dropped to my knees beside him, my hands hovering uselessly over his body. I didn’t know where to touch, what to do, how to fix this.His eyes were closed.“Why isn’t he waking up?” I demanded, my voice breaking. “Stephen…come on, man, this isn’t funny…”“It’s not funny,” someo

Chapter 123: My Eyelids Refused To Cooperate.

STEPHEN’S POV:Voices reached me before anything else.It was like i was underwater and people were speaking from above the surface, their words muffled and warped. I tried to focus, to grab onto something, anything, but it slipped through my fingers.Then came the beeping which was slow, steady and annoyingly consistent.It anchored me and pulled me up.My body felt heavy, like I had been dragged through concrete and left there to dry. My eyelids refused to cooperate at first, fluttering weakly before finally forcing themselves open.White was the first thing I saw. White ceiling and lights which were too bright.It was a hospital.The realization settled slowly, like fog clearing. Then the memories came rushing back all at once.The argument and his voice were cold, sharp and cruel in a way that didn’t just hurt—it cut.Like you’re just a fag and not like me.My chest tightened instantly, breath hitching as the words echoed in my head, louder now than they had been in the moment.Go

Chapter 124: Blended Emotions

HAYDEN’S POV:Hospitals have a way of making everything feel louder and quieter at the same time.The hum of fluorescent lights. The distant roll of carts. The occasional beep of machines that never seemed to stop. It all blended into this constant noise that somehow made the silence in my head worse.I stood outside his room, staring at the door like it might open on its own and call me in.He didn’t.My hand hovered near the handle, fingers twitching slightly. I had been standing here for… I didn’t even know how long. It would have been minutes or maybe longer. Time felt warped, stretched thin by the weight pressing down on my chest.I deserved this.That thought had been on repeat since the moment he hit the ground.Since the moment the words left my mouth.I swallowed hard, my throat tight as I replayed it again—his face, the way everything in him just… shut down. The way he didn’t even fight back, yell or argue.He just looked at me like I had broken something that couldn’t be fi

Chapter 125: A Notification I Almost Ignored

HAYDEN’S POV:It started with a notification which i almost ignored.My phone had been buzzing nonstop since I left the hospital, messages piling up from teammates, classmates, even people i barely talked to. I figured it was just more of the same—What happened? Is Stephen okay?—questions I didn’t have the energy to answer.But this notification was different.It wasn’t a text. It was a tag.I frowned, pulling my phone out of my pocket as I leaned against the wall of my room. My head was already pounding from everything that had happened, and i wasn’t in the mood for whatever new drama was waiting on the other side of that screen.Still, i tapped it and immediately wished I hadn’t.The video loaded before i could stop it.It was shaky at first, like whoever recorded it hadn’t meant to. The angle was off, partially blocked by a doorframe, but it didn’t matter.I knew exactly where it was.It was the hospital room.My chest tightened instantly. For a second, nothing happened. It was ju

Chapter 126: The Air Felt Heavy And Tensed.

HAYDEN’S POV:The second the door clicked shut behind me, the air changed.It felt heavy, tense and suffocating.Stephen was sitting up in the bed now, he was no longer the pale, unmoving version of himself burned into my memory. There was life in him again but it wasn’t relief I saw.It was anger, not just anger, it was something colder than betrayal.My chest tightened so hard it almost hurt to breathe.“Stephen…”“Don’t.”The word cut through me instantly. I froze mid-step. His eyes were locked on mine, burning with something i had never seen directed at me before. Not even when we fought or when things got bad.This was different.“What the hell was that?” he demanded, his voice rough but strong enough to hit like a punch.I swallowed, my throat dry. “I can explain….”“Explain?” he let out a bitter laugh, shaking his head. “Explain what, Hayden? The part where you kissed me while i was unconscious? Or the part where the entire world saw it before i even knew what the hell happene

Chapter 127: I Might Have Lost Everything.

HAYDEN’S POV:Days passed.I knew that because my phone kept reminding me—notifications, missed classes, messages I didn’t open but it didn’t feel like time was actually moving.It felt like everything had just… stopped, except the damage that kept spreading.By the third day, the video wasn’t just something people whispered about anymore. It was everywhere—Group chats, sports pages, anonymous confession accounts. Even people outside the school had opinions now, like they knew anything about what really happened.They didn’t but that didn’t stop them.I stopped checking my phone after the first night. There was no point. Every time I looked, it just got worse.“Fake ally.”“Homophobic fraud.”“Closeted and ashamed.”“Creep.”That one stuck the most.Because no matter how many times I tried to twist it in my head, to justify it, to tell myself it wasn’t like that… I couldn’t deny how it looked.And apparently, neither could anyone else. *****Stephen was discharged on

Chapter 128: Soft Voice.

STEPHEN’S POV:The pity was worse than the hate. I didn’t expect that.I thought people would pick sides, throw words, make noise , anything loud enough to match the chaos that had already exploded across campus. But instead, what I got… were soft looks, tilted heads and careful voices.Like I was something fragile and I had been broken.I noticed it the moment i stepped into campus that morning. Conversations didn’t stop when I walked by—they just changed.“Is that him?”“Yeah… that’s Stephen.”“I feel so bad for him.”That word again. Like I was a victim in a story everyone else had already decided the ending to.I kept my face blank, my shoulders squared, pretending like none of it got to me. But it did. Every glance, every whisper—it all settled under my skin.Because the worst part?None of them were completely wrong.The story had spread. Of course it had. Not just the video, but everything surrounding it. People had filled in the gaps, built their own narrative out of half-trut

Chapter 129: The Silence That Came Afterwards

HAYDEN’S POV: The worst part wasn’t the punch. It wasn’t the way my knuckles split open on impact or the sharp sting that followed when Stephen’s fist connected with my jaw.It was the silence that came after.It was not immediately, no. Right after the fight, everything had been noise. Shouting, whistles and people yelling our names like we were some kind of spectacle.But after they dragged us apart… after the coaches stormed the field… after the crowd realized the show was over…That’s when it hit.The kind that lingers, heavy and suffocating, like the world itself is disappointed in you.I stood there, chest heaving, blood in my mouth, my vision still spinning from the adrenaline. My hands were shaking, not from fear, not even from pain but from everything I couldn’t control anymore.And across from me… was Stephen.His lip was bleeding. There was a bruise already forming along his cheekbone. His chest rose and fell just as hard as mine.For a second, just a second, I thought he

Chapter 130: You Hurt Yourself But I Made My Choice.

HAYDEN’S POV:I didn’t expect her to come.By the time I got called out of class, my stomach was already tight with dread. There were only a few reasons a parent showed up at school unannounced, and none of them were good.Was it the suspension or the fighting?All of it stacked up into one giant, unavoidable mess. I already knew what this was going to be.Disappointment, anger and that look—the one that made you feel about two inches tall without a single word being said.So yeah… I wasn’t ready when I saw her.She was standing just outside the administrative office, arms folded loosely, her posture calm.“Mom,” I said, my voice coming out rougher than I intended.She turned immediately, her eyes landing on me, scanning me in that quiet, observant way she had. Taking everything in—the faint bruise on my jaw, the cut on my lip, the way I held myself like I was bracing for impact.For a second, neither of us said anything.Then I looked away first. “I’m sorry,” I said quickly, the word

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