Stepbrother

prologue

Leland
*10th grade; 3 years earlier

He smelled so good. My crush was sitting in front of me in math class. I never really talked to him but one of these days I would work up the guts to.

"Hey..." He turned around to look at me. His smile was so cute, perfect teeth, and skin so smooth babies were jealous. Guess the universe felt like my time was now.

"Yeah?" My voice jumped and my cheeks flushed with heat.

"You best friends with Maia, right?" The teacher looked at us from her desk to say something but decided against it by the way her mouth opened and shut.

"Yeah, why?" My gaze dropped a little. Everyone always wanted to talk to Maia, I mean guys would completely ignore me just to start a conversation. This time was no different apparently.

"I think she's cute, I wanna ask her to homecoming, can you help me?" He wrote his number down and slid it to me. "Tell her to text me later." He turned back around in his seat and continued working on our quadratics equation assignment.

Slightly defeated, I folded the paper he'd given me in half and slipped it in the pocket of my binder. I had next period with Maia, so I'd give it to her then.

Odell
*1 Month Later

Maia's milk chocolate brown skin looked amazing in her black dress. The diamond homecoming tiara she wore and homecoming sash draped across her body had everyone looking at her as I stood next to her on stage. Who would've thought Maia Greene, homecoming queen, would be my date? I gazed proudly at her, yearbook students took photos to capture the moment as she smiled back at me, her grip tight on my forearm. "Congratulations baby." I whisper in her ear.

She placed a kiss on my cheek, the flashes went off once again. "Thank you."

Leland
*11th grade; 8 months earlier

Maia was crying in my shoulder during lunch. Odell, the dog, Beckham had once again broken my best friends heart in the worst way possible, leaving me to pick up the pieces. I will never for the life of me understand what I once saw in him, it didn't help either that my mother was seeing his father and things seemed to be getting really serious. Maia's chest rattling tears shook me as I rocked her back and forth in the school's courtyard. The piece of shit couldn't even wait to do this until after Christmas. "It'll be okay boo." I comfort, shushing her as other students walked past with curiosity in their eyes. "It'll be okay."

Odell

I walked towards my car, about to go get lunch when I saw Maia and her friend Lee off in the courtyard, Maia balled up in Lee's lap. I guess fucking Maia, then leaving the breadcrumbs that I had been cheating on her was a bit much, but I had to do something to get the girl off my back. I really only wanted one thing from her and I got it, making the idea of staying with her even after that...utterly unbearable. Leland looked up for a second and locked eyes with me, anger washed over her face. They'll be okay.

a/n:
Really short prologue but it sets the tone for the animosity between Lee and Odell. enjoy everybody!