stepbrother ➼ luke hemmings (REWRITING)

36 - YET TO BE REWRITTEN

So I approached her. I linked my arm with hers, asked her for a cherry-red lipgloss, one in which she gave to me with shaking hands.

"I like you," I remember saying to her. "You and me? We're perfect for each other, don't you think?"

She just stared at me through the mirror in the girls' bathroom as I slathered more lipgloss on, puckering my lips so that I'd get an even coat.

"Right?" I'd interrogated her, raising an eyebrow with an expectant look on my face.

Sophie gulped, her eyes clad in anxiousness as she gingerly shook her head yes.

"Good," I smirked, enjoying the reaction I got out of her.

"Best friends for life. Isn't that so, Soph?"

She nodded. And I smiled; more to myself than her, but I was hoping she didn't notice.

Then, when her brother came to pick her up, I felt my heart flutter as he came over to us. He asked her who her new friend was and I shoved her eagerly to the side, enveloping Luke in a hug.

"I'm Chloe," I chirped happily. "Sophie's best friend."

"Nice to meet you," he'd smiled. It was a genuine gesture, something I'd been longing for ever since I first heard the gaggly group of girls in Home Ec talk about him. "I'm Luke."

I don't know what happened to me that day, but I found myself slowly becoming obsessed.

I'd ask Sophie how her brother was doing, and her poor, clueless soul never caught on to just how interested I was in him.

I guess I was angry at her for a lot of different reasons. One of them being, she had an effect on Luke without even trying. Whereas I had to wear skimpy tops and short skirts just to get him to look my way.

The next few years were then spent trying to get Luke to notice me, despite the fact that he had a girlfriend.

Then again, girlfriends and friends could be replaced as easily as they were obtained; family members couldn't.

So I did everything in my power to make him see me as anything but an aquintance.

I came around when he was at the house, pretending not to notice how good he looked simply sitting on the couch, and I left the same time he did.

I even started listening to the sort of crappy bands he liked, playing them at full volume through my earphones whenever we were in the same room.

I walked Sophie home, not because I wanted to make sure she was safe (although she believed my lie when I told her) but because I knew her hotter, older brother would open the door and thank me for looking after her later.

It's almost funny how quick they were both to disregard me.

I bet he saw me as nothing but his little sister's hot best friend, whilst I saw him as my next target.

But I never quite got there, did I? Because Sophie and Luke started something else. Something that was to be expected, wholeheartedly, yet something undeniably forbidden.

I always suspected that something was going on. Yet I was still stupid, and believed Sophie all those times that she told me not to worry.