BRITNEY ASTON.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we’re about to begin our descent. Please fasten your seatbelts and seatbaack as we prepare to land.” If there was one word to perfectly describe how I felt, it was going to be “Jet lagged”. The after effect of long flights with your whole body feeling pretty much fucked up. But rather unfortunately for me, I couldn’t completely put the blame on the plane. The several hours flight I’d just embarked on was barely enough to birth such strong nausea and jet lagged feeling in me- my new life was. Standing at the Heathrow international airport, my phone in one hand, barely tidied luggage in another, I wanted to throw up. For a second, i impatiently couldn’t wait for my mother to finally show up and drag me to her new house and my new life but few minutes later, I hoped she’d just take her time and show up several minutes later. At least, late enough for me to have pulled myself together. “Britney! Oh my goodness, Britney!” I could have cried as I immediately recognized the piercing loud voice that belonged to my mother. She was here. Finally, here. “Hi mum,” the fatigue was evident from my voice as I struggled to walk up towards her. “Hey.” “Hey, hunny!” She threw her arms around me, enveloping me in an unfamiliar hug that made me immediately shudder. For a second, I had to step back, remembering the fact that I barely had time to take a shower, the scent of the man I’d spent the night with still reeking all over me. “How are you? Long flight? How have you been? Oh my goodness it feels like it’s been ages since I last saw you!” Technically, it was. “Yeah,” I managed to squeeze in a hug then pulled away barely five seconds later. “I am really exhausted.” “Of course, you are,” she quickly took the bag from me and led the way. “Come on, allow me. I’ll drive you home.” “Home?” I almost hiccuped. “Your new- home?” “Yes,” she nodded innocently. “Your new dad can’t wait to meet you.” “Stepdad,” I quickly corrected, failing at trying to hide my lack of enthusiasm towards her attempt at a new perfect family. “Of course,” my words must have struck a nerve as her face immediately went sour. “Jack can’t wait to meet you.” “Yeah, me too,” I nodded. “I can’t wait to meet him.” She served me a look that made me feel she thought I was lying but quite honestly, I wasn’t. I was genuinely interested in knowing what the man who caught her eye and gave her the permission to live in such delusions looked like. No more words were uttered as we walked to her car, got in and began the ride to my new home. An entire hour passed and finally, I could tell we were almost at my new house. My mum’s face that looked plain, almost emotionless, throughout the drive suddenly lit up and she turned to spare me quick glances, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “Have we arrived?” I did her the favor of speaking up first. “Is this where you- where we would be living?” “Yes,” she nodded excitedly and in a few more seconds of her gaze fixed on the road, she drove straight into an already opened gate. “Here we are! We’re home!” Her excitement as she got down from the car and helped me with my luggage served as enough distraction for me as I took my time to stare at my new surrounding. All it took was a couple of seconds for me to realize my mum had indeed hit the jackpot with her new husband. He was rich and literally anyone could tell. The house erected right in front of me was close to five times bigger than my old house, making me wonder just how many rooms it could have. The entire compound screamed luxury, a couple of fancy cars in sight from a distance. It had a well trimmed garden outside, a sprinkler alongside a mini water fountain bringing life to it. The walls were all painted white, expensive looking bulbs lurking around every corner. Quite frankly, I was impressed. And only became more impressed the moment I finally stepped into the interior part of the house. It was literally another level of luxury, the exterior part of the house clearly serving as just a preview. It was huge, beautiful and for a second, got me excited about my new life. “Do you like it?” My mum asked as my eyes scanned a ceramic ornament adoring the corners of the living room. “Jack was almost going to redecorate just so you would feel at home. I told him he didn’t have to. It suits your taste like this, doesn’t it?” “It does,” I nodded, my eyes catching a glimpse of shimmer from one of the chandeliers dangling from the ceilings. “Um, do just the both of you live alone?” “Yes.” My eyes widened. “Just you two?” “Well, most of the time,” she nodded. “But not anymore! You are moving in and so is Jack’s son! So it’ll be four of us now. Oh, doesn’t that sound exciting?” For some reason, my stomach immediately churned. Maybe it was because I had no idea my new stepfather had a son which automatically meant I having a stepbrother. But before I could figure it out, my thoughts were interrupted by unfamiliar sound of footsteps walking into the living room. “Rose,” the unfamiliar steps were accompanied by an unfamiliar voice. “Hi, honey. I didn’t know you were back.” “I am,” my mum grinned as she turned to give the unfamiliar man behind her a quick peck on the lips. “I wanted to surprise you so, surprise!” His gaze shifted from my mum’s painted red lips to meet my eyes and I immediately recognized him as Jack. My new stepfather. “Oh, hello.” His reply was almost immediate, followed by a bright smile on his face as he approached me. “Hello! You must be Britney. Oh, I’m so glad we finally met. I’ve heard so much about you!” “Same here,” I forced a smile and stretched my hand to give him an handshake only for him to ignore it and pull me into a quick affectionate hug. “Oh, a hug.” “We’re family now,” he was still grinning by the time he pulled away from the hug. “We don’t have to be so formal with each other. Alright?” I forced another smile, his strong British accent piercing my ears. It strangely sounded familiar, making me wonder if it was just the few number of British people I’d encountered ever since I arrived. “This must be new for you,” he continued. “But I promise it won’t be for long. I love your mother very much and I hold her dear to me. Which means, I automatically hold you very dear to me too.” “Sure,” I swallowed, sparing my mum a quick glance. She was grinning from ear to ear, the impromptu declaration of his love for her clearly doing wonders to her system. “Yeah.” “Your room’s upstairs,” he seemed to never run out of words to say. “I can help you with your luggage and help you settle down, what do you say? And then you can head downstairs for dinner.” “I’m sorry I wanted our first meeting to go perfectly,” he bit his lip, glancing at his wristwatch. “But my son seems to be running late.” “Oh, it’s fine,” I quickly shook my head, preventing him from apologizing one more time. “It’s fine. Things are already good as it is.” “Oh you’re so sweet,” he smiled again. “But worry not, Travis would be here soon. He’ll definitely join us for dinner.” I nodded sluggishly, not particularly interested in meeting my new stepbrother. When I was younger, I did want a sibling but as I grew older and got to know more about my mum’s lifestyle, I quickly deleted that idea from my mind so the thought of finally having a sibling didn’t exactly excite me anymore. “I’ll just go freshen up then.” With waves and smiles, I was led to my room by my mum. Just as they said, it was upstairs- one of the numerous rooms on the upper floor. I stepped into the room, impressed at the work done in it. It was clearly refurnished with new wallpaper and furniture that gave off girly vibes. Thankful for the thoughtfulness put into it, I quickly dropped my luggage, locked the doors and stripped off my old clothes to get into the shower and freshen up for the first time in almost 24 hours. Hot water gushed out of the taps as I showered but it was barely hot enough to get rid of the now familiar scent still lurking around me. The cologne was strong. So strong it had me taking breaks from the shower to inhale it and remind myself of how good it felt to be in direct contact with the owner of the smell. “Snap out of it, Britney,” I muttered to myself as I felt cold shivers run down my spine. “It’s over. It was a one night thing. It’s never going to happen again.” With every attempt to get it out of my head, the memories only became more vivid. I could literally see his face. Feel his breath against my skin. Feel his body against mine and feel an unexplainable heat between my legs as every new memory assaulted me. “Britney!” I pinched myself this time to snap out of it. “It’s over! You’re never going to see him again. He lives in the U.S and you’re now in London. For heavens sake you don’t even know his freaking name.” I could write a poem about why i needed to delete that one night event out of mind and recite it over and over in a desperate attempt to forget it all. But I barely had time for that so instead, I muttered the same old words over and over, reminding myself to forget it all. “It’s over. You’re never going to see him again. It was just a one night stand.” “It’s over. You’re never going to see him again. It was just a one night stand.” Throwing fresh clothes on, I walked out of the room and headed downstairs. I could already smell the aroma of freshly cooked food, temporarily distracting me from my erotic thoughts as I walked down the stairs. “Britney, there you are!” I took my first step towards the dining and quickly, my mum showed up to usher me in. I didn’t object as she locked arms with me and led the way, her smile still on her face. “Travis is finally here,” she spoke up. “I was afraid he would miss dinner but he’s here.” “Oh, okay. Cool.” She tightened her grip on me as we took a sharp turn to walk into the dining room. Instinctively, the second we got there, my eyes roamed around, probably in search of anything familiar or probably because my nose had suddenly picked up a familiar scent. A familiar scent…. A very familiar scent… I froze in my step, my eyes refusing to look around me any further. There was something strange going on. Something was just not right. “Britney,” my mum’s voice pulled me out of my short trance. “This is Travis, your new step brother.” The familiar scent of that cologne shouldn’t have felt so close to me. It was alluring, distracting and even terrifying. It belonged to no one but the guy I had a one night stand with the night before. And he lived in the U.S, thousands of miles away from me. So why could I suddenly perceive it so closely? “Britney?” Snapping myself out to my wild imaginations, I pulled myself together and plastered a fake smile on my face, ready to meet my stepbrother. “Hi, I’m-“ I shouldn’t have raised my head. No, I shouldn’t have met his eyes. Rather, I shouldn’t have taken the flight to London to live with my mum. And more importantly, I shouldn’t have had a one night stand with a stranger simply because I thought we were never going to bump into each other again. Because, fate had a wicked way of playing with me and just when I thought I was ready for my new life, memories from the past simply came back to make a mockery of me. And of all ways to make a mockery out of me, it chose by having the guy I slept with barely 24 hours ago suddenly showing up right in front of me as my step brother!BRITNEY ASTON Within the span of barely 24 hours, I’d gone through a series of emotions. It had been a roller coaster, ranging from happiness, sadness, lust, despair, anger, frustration, hope, intrigue- the list could go on. But not even a single one of them could match up to the emotions that suddenly overwhelmed me as I stared at the good looking stranger from the club introduce himself as my step brother. “Why are you two silent?” My mum asked, effortlessly clueless. “Britney, say something. Aw, are you shy? Travis, say hi to your new sister.” She kept on talking to us like we were kids who were incapable of making up words ourselves. We probably were because at that moment, I couldn’t come up with a single word even if I tried. I was horrified, to say the least, memories I’d uselessly tried to get rid of resurfacing in the worst possible manner. I couldn’t get it out of my head. Especially not when the main character of all my dirty thoughts was only a few inches away from me.
BRITNEY ASTON “What?!” I could have sworn I yelled, my already flushed cheeks getting even more colour. Red as a tomato, I immediately pushed him away from me, bewildered and flustered to the core. “What the hell are you talking about?!” I almost couldn’t believe him, my entire body reaction serving as more than enough proof. What was he thinking? How could he even manage to birth such thoughts? In contrast to me, he simply let out a chuckle, taking a step backwards to regain composure after I abruptly shoved him away. I could tell he was amused, the corner of his lips curling into a smirk as he made his way back to his bed. How did I not notice how annoying he was the night we first met?! “Nothing like that would happen between us again!” I had to say, watching him begin to focus on his phone once again. “Do you get it? I didn’t come here to ask you to- No. I only came here to tell you what happened between us was nothing but a mistake. A one night mistake. One that’s never g
BRITNEY ASTON Though I hated to admit it, my mum was right. Remaining locked up in my room simply because I didn’t want to run into Travis was becoming very suffocating. Especially when I knew well enough I was going to eventually run into him whether I wanted to or not. So after spending a couple more hours in my room without doing anything, I eventually pulled myself out of bed, got freshened up and decided to head out. My mum was nice enough to spam my messages with nearby places I could visit. Malls, restaurants, the bus route to take- it was all she flooded my phone with and honestly, I was glad. Dressed in a casual jeans and crop top, I stepped out of the house and in no time, found myself not as lost as I was on my first day. My mum’s direction proved to be really helpful in navigating the city and helping me get familiar with the popular landmarks and destinations she had in mind. Truly, London was a beautiful place to be. There were tons of places to explore and tons
TRAVIS LEWIS My phone vibrated, immediately followed by a hiss escaping my lips. The vibration was signaling a text. A text from my father. VC: Come to my office. I need to talk to you. There were various perks of having my father has the vice chancellor and honestly, I hated it all. Though I loved being popular, I hated the extra popularity being associated with him brought. Simply put, I hated being associated with him. He was my father and was nothing more than that. He was simply the man that slept with my mum, got her pregnant and for some reason unknown to me, the man she decided to get married to. Ever since I was little, we never shared a normal relationship. We never had a reason to be close to each other, not even when my mum died, and quite frankly, I’d gotten used to it. More than used to it in fact, making his new attempts at trying to suddenly be more than just the man partially responsible for my existence nothing but irritating to me. “What is it?” My closest f
BRITNEY ASTON The weekend went by slowly. Rather slowly. It was finally Monday and I was expected to finally resume college as planned but I didn’t feel even the tad bit excited. Instead I felt a whirlwind of emotions, confusion and anxiety topping the list. I’d spent the past two days in the house, alone. Though my mum and Jack were home, occasionally calling me out of my room for breakfast and dinner, it didn’t count- the house still felt empty. And it was all thanks to Travis’ absence. Considering the fact that I desperately wanted to stay away from him, it was supposed to be a good thing. But strangely, his absence didn’t feel good. Not in the way I expected. Instead of relishing over the fact that I finally had moments to gather my thoughts, I spent my time wondering where he could be and why he just wasn’t showing up at home. Given his reputation, I wondered if he was spending his weekend with different girls, sleeping around and being as shameless as possible. For some
BRITNEY ASTON I watched Travis drive away, a wave of confusion washing over me. It could swear I was confident the feeling of confusion wasn’t going to last. After all, I was finally at school and was naturally supposed to find something else to catch my interest. But that didn’t happen. At least, not immediately. With the brochure in my hand, I managed to navigate my way around my faculty in hopes of finding the classroom lectures were supposed to hold. However, it was quickly proving to be harder than I expected, as an unsettling feeling began to linger around me. It felt strange and completely bizarre but I was confident it was happening. For some reason unknown to me, i could feel eyes on me as I took my every step. It was almost like I was the new topic of fascination for everyone I walked past. Slowly, it grew past the eyes and turned into whispers, fingers slowly pointing in my direction as I moved. “What is going on?” I muttered to myself, wondering why everyone had su
TRAVIS LEWIS. If there was one thing I was slowly bringing myself to accept, it was the fact that I couldn’t completely wrap my head around the type of person Britney was. One minute she’s acting like she didn’t care about me and I could swear I felt the same and the other, she’s acting all bothered about me and in return, leaving me equally bothered about her. Maybe it wasn’t necessarily ‘bother’. Maybe it was more of intrigue. More of me wondering what type of person she was. How she could wrap her head around the whole scenario of her mum getting married again and be so cool with it. How she could manage to stay in the same room with my father and not notice he was basically sheep in wolf clothing. Or maybe, it was something more about her I considered fascinating. But whatever it was, it was intoxicating and extremely disturbing. Staring at the empty wine bottle in front of me, I clicked my tongue and contemplated fetching another one. After all, it was all I could think of
BRITNEY ASTON “What?” I stared at the phone in my hands, unsure of where my confusion was majorly stemming from. The fact that he gave me his number voluntarily or the fact that he was offering to drive me around whenever I needed him to. Lucas’ words rang in my head, fueling my confusion even more. What exactly was goin on his head? And just why was he willing to drive me when apparently driving girls around wasn’t his thing? “Why are you giving me your number?” I couldn’t help but ask. “I thought you-“ “You can delete if you want to,” he tried to reach for the phone having me immediately flinch. “Your choice.” “Whatever,” I rolled my eyes, shoving the phone into my pocket to prevent him from trying to snatch it from me again. Though I was still confused on why he gave me his number, I was going to get the answers to my question without necessarily losing the number. “I thought so too,” he smirked then turned away to leave. “You’re welcome.” “What? I’m not-“ Before I cou