All Chapters of Beneath The Ice : Claimed By My Stepbrother : Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

Theo~The problem with Noah was that the second he got even the smallest amount of hope, he looked at you like he had already won. I hated that. Mostly because it made me want to give in.I stood in my doorway staring at him while my heart tried to punch its way through my ribs. Time. That was all I had said. Three stupid words. And somehow Noah looked happier than he had in months. Which immediately made me want to take them back. Not because I did not mean them. Because I did. That was the problem.For weeks I had been convincing myself that distance was helping. Then I came home, saw another girl sitting on his lap, nearly had a breakdown in the living room, and now Noah was standing here looking at me like I had personally handed him a winning lottery ticket.I rubbed both hands over my face. “This is exactly why I did not want to come home.”Noah’s smile disappeared immediately. Good. Not good. Shit. I did not know. The point was that he looked normal again. Less hopeful. Less da

Theo~I barely slept.Every time I managed to drift off, the same scene played in my head. A girl sitting on Noah’s lap. Her hand on his face. Her kissing him like she had done it a hundred times before. Then I would hear my own voice cutting through the moment.“What the fuck is going on here?”I would wake up annoyed all over again.By the time my alarm went off, I was already staring at the ceiling. I rolled out of bed with a groan, threw on the first hoodie I could find, grabbed my hockey bag, and headed downstairs.Mom was already in the kitchen. She looked up from her coffee and smiled.“Morning, honey.”“Morning.”“You look exhausted.”“I slept like shit.”“I can see that.”She didn’t push, and I was grateful. If she had asked why, I honestly wouldn’t have known what to say. I couldn’t exactly tell my mother that I had caught my stepbrother with a girl on his lap.Jeff walked in a moment later, his tie hanging loose around his neck as he searched the counter for his car keys.“

Melody~I decided I liked Benito after exactly four minutes.Not because he was funny.Although he was.Not because he talked too much.Although he definitely did.It was because he walked into our group like he'd always belonged there.Most people got weird around us at first. Jeremy had what I liked to call an "aggressively friendly" personality, which usually scared new people. Nikolai looked like he was permanently deciding whether murder was worth the paperwork. Theo... well, Theo wasn't exactly known for making strangers feel comfortable either.Benito somehow managed to ignore all of that.By lunchtime, he was already arguing with Jeremy over whether pineapple belonged on pizza."It absolutely does," Benito said, pointing his fork across the table. "You're all just cowards."Jeremy looked personally offended."You're disgusting.""I'm cultured.""You're a criminal.""I've been called worse."Theo snorted into his drink.Benito immediately pointed at him."See? Theodore gets it.

Theo~Coming back from the Super Team should have felt strange.A few weeks ago I couldn't wait to get away from Blackwood. Now that I was back, everything looked exactly the same, but it didn't feel the same anymore. Maybe I was the one who'd changed. Maybe leaving for a while had given me enough distance to breathe.Or maybe I was just lying to myself again.Either way, life had settled into a routine faster than I expected.Most mornings started the same now.Benito would text me something stupid before I even got out of bed.Coffee?Or...If you're late again, I'm telling Coach you're secretly eighty years old.Today had been:Get your ass downstairs. I already ordered.By the time I walked into the campus café, he was waving at me from the corner booth with two coffees sitting on the table."There he is," Benito announced dramatically. "Sleeping Beauty finally woke up."I rolled my eyes as I dropped into the seat across from him."It's eight.""Exactly.""Normal people sleep.""C

Benito~One thing I'd learned about Blackwood in the week since I transferred was that everyone loved gossip.Two things I'd learned?Most of it was complete bullshit.By Thursday afternoon I'd already heard that Coach had punched a referee, Melody had rejected three professors, Jeremy had secretly failed Chemistry twice, and Theo apparently terrified first-years so badly they'd cross the hallway just to avoid walking past him.Only one of those sounded believable.Coach absolutely looked capable of punching a referee.I was halfway through laughing about one of those rumors when Theo walked into the cafeteria carrying two trays."I got your coffee," he said, dropping one in front of me.I looked at it suspiciously."Why are you being nice?""You paid yesterday.""So this isn't poison?"He deadpanned."Drink it and find out."I took a careful sip."Hm.""What?""I can still feel my legs."He sighed dramatically."I should've tried harder.""There he is.""The asshole?""My asshole."T