Page 2 (1/2)

CHAPTER 1

Cold air fogged the bayin our living rooled to see outside Anyinto the driveway He’d gone to Logan Airport to pick up his son, Elec, ould be living with us for the next year while his nment overseas

Randy and my mother, Sarah, had only beenwell enough, but I wouldn’t say ere close Here’s what little I knew about Randy’s former life: his ex-wife, Pilar, was an Ecuadorian artist based in the San Francisco Bay area, and his son was a tattooed punk who, according to Randy, was allowed to do whatever he wanted

I hadn’t ever met my stepbrother before and had only seen a picture of hio, shortly before Randy married my mother From the picture, I could see he inherited dark hair, probably fro with tanned skin, but had Randy’s light eyes and fine features He was clean-cut then, but Randy said Elec had entered into a rebellious stage as of late That included getting tattoos when he was only fifteen and getting into trouble for underage drinking and shty and too focused on her art career, thereby allowing Elec to get aith murder

Randy claied Pilar to take a teallery so that Elec, now 17, could come live with us

Although Randy took two short trips out west a year, he wasn’t there on a daily basis to discipline Elec He struggled with that and said he looked forward to the opportunity to set his son straight over the next year

Butterflies swarmed in my stomach as I stared out at the dirty snow that linedfor my California-bred stepbrother

I had a stepbrother

That was a weird thought I hoped ould get along As an only child, I had alanted a sibling I laughed at how stupid I was, fantasizing that this was going to be soin’ Donny and Marie Os, I heard an old Coldplay song I never even knew existed called Brothers and Sisters It’s not about siblings per say, but I convincedto be okay I had nothing to be scared about

My mother seemed just as nervous as I was as she repeatedly ran up and down the stairs to get Elec’s room ready She had turned the office into a bedrooether to buy sheets and other necessities It eird picking stuff out for so

I startedabout what I would say to him, ould talk about, what I could introduce hi at the same time

A car door slahten my wrinkled shirt

Calm yourself, Greta

The keysound Randy walked in alone and left the door cracked open, allowing the freezing air to seep into the roo on the sheet of ice that covered the ay but no Elec yet HeRandy stuck his head back out the door “Get your ass in here, Elec”

A lump formed in my throat when he appeared at the doorway I sed hard and took hi harder and harder as the realization hit that he looked nothing like the picture shown to me

Elec was taller than Randy, and the short hair I remembered fro his eyes He sarettes, orfrom his jeans He wouldn’t look athi on the floor

Thud

Was that ?

He looked over at Randy, and his voice was gravelly “Where’s my room?”

“Upstairs, but you’re not going anywhere until you say hello to your sister”

Every ed at the term There was no way I wanted to be his sister For one, when he turned to ot my first look at his chiseled face, it became abundantly clear that while my mind ary of him, my body had been instantly put under a spell, one I would have given anything to come out from under

His eyes bore intoI took a few steps forward, sed my pride and reached out my hand “I’m Greta Nice to meet you”

He said nothing Several seconds passed before he reluctantly took rip was uncomfortably hard, almost painful before he quickly released it

I coughed and said, “You look different…than I pictured”

He squinted at me “And you look pretty…plain”

My throat felt like it was going to close up For a quick second, I thought he was paying me a compliment before he followed the word “pretty” with “plain” The sad part was, if you’d asked ht have been the term I would have used

His eyes were looking me up and doith an ice-cold stare Despite the fact that I detested his personality, I was still in awe of his physical likeness, and that sickened ht, and his jaas defined His lips were perfect—too perfect—for the filth I was sure came out of thehtmare Still, I refused to let him see that his words had an effect on me

“Would you like me to show you to your room?” I asked

He ignored s and headed toward the stairs

Great This was going well

My mother ca

“It’s so nice to finally meet you, honey”

His body stiffened before he ripped himself away from her “Wish I could say the same”

Randy storer “Cut the shit, Elec You say hello to Sarah in a decent way”

“Hello to Sarah in a decent way,” Elec repeated in a monotone voice as he walked up the stairs

My mother put her hand on Randy’s shoulder “It’s okay He’ll warm up Let him be alone This cross-country move can’t be easy He doesn’t know me yet He’s just a little apprehensive”

“A little disrespectful prick is what he is”

Whoa

I had to say, I was surprised to hear Randy speaking that way about his son regardless of how badly Elec was acting My stepfather had never used words like that withto deserve it But Elec was being a disrespectful prick

That night, Elec stayed behind closed doors Randy went in there once, and I heard the, but Mom and I decided to let the on between them

Onto stare at Elec’s closed bedroo us was indicative of how the entire year would go or if he would even last the entire year here

Planning to brush ht of Elec wiping his wet body down from the shower Steam and the smell of men’s body wash filled the air For so out, I froze More disturbing, instead of covering himself with the towel, he let it fall nonchalantly to the floor

My mouth dropped

My eyes were now glued to his ck for a few seconds before aze traveled up to the two shamrocks inked on his ripped torso and then to the full sleeve tattoo on his left ar ater His left nipple was pierced By the time my eyes landed on his face, they were met with an evil smirk I tried to speak, but the words just wouldn’t come out

Finally, I whipped my head away and said, “Uh…Oh my God…I…I’m so…I better leave”

As I turned around to head out the door, his voice stopped uy nad before”

“Actually…I haven’t”

“How disappointing for you It’s gonna be really hard for the next guy to measure up”