The Step Brother

3. Welcome Home.

Jace

The next month passes by like some kind of shitty movie montage. Dad and Elena decide to skip the traditional wedding. Instead, they opt for a civil ceremony in the courthouse. There's always a different reason for why things are moving so fast between them: it's about money, neither of them want that attention at their age, they don't want to wait, they're old enough to make these decisions.

After Jace was pushed to sign off as a marriage witness, next came the announcement that they'd all be moving in together. Dad even hired movers to speed things along. One day, the house looked exactly like mom had left it. The next day, there was nothing left of his childhood home except for boxes among boxes and empty rooms.

This isn't just your life you're ruining! It's mine too! He wanted to scream this at his father many times but he didn't. It's not like it would make any difference now.

To make matters worse, he hasn't been able to stop thinking about Willow since Halloween. Under any other circumstances, this would appear to be very healthy, normal teenage boy behavior. Some might even call it a crush. But life was turning into one big joke and now it just meant he had the hots for his new step-sister. Any time that he would lay in bed and start to think about her in that kitten costume, or check out her ass when she got up in math class to turn in her paper, he'd have to stop and remind himself of their new family status. He has enough problems already, he doesn't need to be some demented pervert too.

She starts appearing everywhere though. Before Halloween night, he'd only ever seen her around school in the one class they shared together. Now, they were bumping into each other in the hallway constantly. Their faces would burn red when they realized who it was and they'd mumble some awkward apology to each other. He'd be in the library and spot her in between the book shelves. She'd be entering the lunch room when he was leaving. He'd be at football practice and she'd be running track during gym class. Life had no mercy.

He pulls up in his Jeep to the new house. He's irritated that this is his first time seeing it but it does look slightly bigger than their previous home. He starts to unpack the boxes from his back seat, bringing them into the open garage where Dad and Elena are directing some of the movers.

"Oh, sweetie, you could've left those in the moving truck for the movers." Elena says in her soft voice.

Logically he knows none of this is her fault. She's merely some woman who fell in love with Dad. She's really nice. Too nice. It makes it harder for him not to like her. But accepting her so soon somehow feels like a betrayal to Mom. Dad can move on and pretend she never existed but Jace won't.

"This is Mom's stuff." Jace points out in a sharp tone. He's hoping to get Dad to turn around and notice. He wants him to feel like shit over all of this.

Dad turns around and narrows his eyes to the box in Jace's hands. He slowly nods. "Right. We can keep it in the garage for now."

"I'm not leaving her stuff here to collect dust. What's wrong with you?" Jace frowns at his father.

"Not now, Jace—"

Elena holds her hand up to stop Jack. "No, no, he's right. We haven't exactly decided where everything is going to go yet but I'd love to take some time with you to go through her things and decide a place for them. Would that be okay?"

Jace barely hears her. He's too busy in a stare down with his dad.

"Or," Elena's voice is slightly nervous. "It's something we can let you and your dad decide on. How about for right now we put that stuff in the living room? You can go in straight through that door." She points to the door connecting from the garage to the house.