ISABELLA'S POV
"Honestly, Kai, believe me when I tell you I've had the craziest week ever."
I slammed my head on the table as I let out a groan, feeling Kai's hand over my back as he gently consoled me. I faked a sob then tilted my head, meeting his face as he flashed me a sympathetic smile.
"Your mum got married," he recalled the parts of the week's events I shared with him. "Her third marriage. Man, it must feel awful with you being in the middle all the time. At least, you don't hate her new husband this time, do you?"
I shook my head and let out a light laughter, Kai easily doing the same. That had to be one of my favorite things about him- his ability to make me come up with a smile regardless of how shitty I was feeling.
I became friends with Kai Sommers during my first year of college. We were in the same department and coincidentally, both lost our ID cards on our first day. Spending more than half the day both searching for our ID cards, the two of oddly bonded quickly and ever since then spent most of our times together.
"So look at the bright side of things," he gave my back another affectionate stroke. "Maybe her husband this time would be cool. Having a cool step-dad would definitely come in handy don't you think?"
Kai and I were close to tell each other most of our personal issues. But despite how close we were, I just couldn't bring myself to tell him the son of my mum's new husband was my mate.
"I'd hope so," I grabbed his drink and took a large sip. "Mhm, where did you get this? Why didn't you get one for me?"
"Because you said you weren't thirsty, remember?" he yanked it from me and rose to his feet. "Let's go. I'll get you one if you're now interested."
I returned his smile and joined him on his feet, quickly grabbing the rest of my things and throwing them into my bag so I could catch up with him. Realizing I was yet to catch up, he paused his steps and the moment I was back to his side, collected the bag from me and threw his arm around my shoulder instead.
"You'd better stop sulking once I get you that drink. You've been frowning all day and you know I-"
I laughed at his words but it didn't take long for that laughter to fade, the rest of his words quickly blurring into the background too. My steps that matched his suddenly stopped, my whole body following suit to freeze.
"Why did you stop walking?" Kai turned to look at me. "What? What are you staring at?"
He followed my gaze in search of whatever could have made me freeze. Almost immediately, he was able to figure it out, Grayson barely giving him a chance not to.
"Grayson?"
The word didn't come from me- I was too frozen to speak. All I could think about was how the same face I'd spent the entire weekend avoiding was now walking up to me.
The rest of the previous night was spent with me locked up in my new room. Though the entire house felt unfamiliar, I wasn't ready to explore it. Not yet. Not with the probability of me running into him existing.
I wasn't even sure he returned after leaving suddenly but I wasn't willing to take the risk. I didn't want to know if he spent the night out with whoever called him and at the same time I didn't want to know if I had return.
And now, I definitely didn't want to know why he was suddenly walking up to me.
"What are you doing here?" he shoved his hands into his pocket the moment he stopped walking, standing right in front of Kai and i. he was dressed in black jeans and a matching black hoodie, his hair falling over his face like the first time I met him.
"Why would you ask me that question?" Kai spoke up before I could, my stomach immediately knotting. "You're the one in my faculty. I-"
"I wasn't talking to you," his tone went cold as he cut Kai short. "I was talking to her."
"And why would you be doing that?" I felt Kai's grip around my shoulder. "Who do-"
"Because she's my step sister," he took a bold step towards us. "What about you? Who is she to you?"
"What? Your stepsister?" Kai's grip around my shoulder loosening pulled me back to my senses for a while. He turned to face me, my cheeks now flushed from both panic and embarrassment. "Isa, don't tell me he-"
"Are you his new girlfriend?" Grayson's next question was obviously directed towards. I looked away from Kai to meet his gaze, his eyes filled with something similar to disgust. "Are you dating him?"
"Who-"
"What are you doing here?" my voice overshadowed Kai's as frowned at Grayson. "Why are you even talking to me? You do not belong to any of the faculties here so why did you come here?"
"Because I wanted to see your face," the words fell out of his mouth so easily it rendered me speechless for a second. "But now there's something else I want. Want to know, actually. Are you dating him?"
"What?" I breathed out, his mere presence making me comfortable. "No, we're not dating. Now can you leave? Why would you come here to-"
"I see," he cut me off, a smirk immediately appearing on his face. The smirk deepened and then turned into a smile. One I could only consider as a mocking smile. "Good. You shouldn't be dating anyone."
"Excuse me?" every word from his mouth combined with his presence now made me mad. "What the hell do you mean- Hey, I might not be dating Kai but I have a boyfriend!
That was a lie. I didn't have a boyfriend. But with him standing in front of me with that stupid condescending smile on his face, I couldn't let him think he was right in any way.
"You'll have to break up with him then."
"What?!" I was in utter disbelief. "Why would i- what the hell makes you think you can-"
"You know the reason," the smile on his face returned back to its original form- the smirk. He glanced at Kai and then me, suddenly leaning towards me to whisper in my ear. "Or do you want me to remind you? Here? In his presence?"
I quickly pulled away, wiping my ears with my fingers like that could change anything. My actions only made him laugh and then shake his head before shoving his hands into his pocket.
"So, whoever it is, break up with them yourself or I'll do it myself," he took a step backwards as he said. "I'll see you at home later then. Bye."
He flashed me a wink then turned to walk into the crowd, leaving a shock and confused me and Kai behind.
The two of us remained in silence for a while, both taking our time to process what had just happened. I had no intentions on telling Kai about my step-brother situation since I never expected them to run into each other like that. But with all of that suddenly happening, it felt like I was suddenly forced into a corner.
"So what part of the story did you mention Grayson Zucker being your new stepbrother?" Kai slowly turned his head to face me. "Or did I just miss that part?"
"I didn't-" I bit my lip then blinked. "Wait, you said Grayson Zu- do you know him?"
He looked at me and let out a sigh. A very deep sigh. "The question you should be asking is, who doesn't know Grayson Zucker?"