I Fell For My Brother’s Rival

The whispers started the second I walked through the main double doors.

Students pointed at their phone screens, then cut their eyes toward me. The entire Westbrook high school hallway buzzed with a toxic, electric energy.

Before I could reach my locker, a heavy hand clamped onto my shoulder.

Caleb shoved me into the empty alcove near the science labs. He planted his palm flat against the cinderblock wall right next to my ear, trapping me in the narrow space.

"I told you to stay away from him." His voice was a harsh rasp, barely louder than a whisper, but it cut like a skate blade.

"Move your arm, Caleb."

"Did you think I wouldn't find out?" He leaned closer, blocking the fluorescent lights. "The entire roster has that picture."

"We didn't do anything!" I pushed against his chest, but he felt like a brick wall. "I went to the lake to paint. He was already there."

Caleb's fingers locked around my wrist. He squeezed.

"Ow! You're hurting me."

"You're going to listen to me." His grip tightened just enough to send a sharp ache radiating up my forearm. "You have no idea what you're walking into."

"He was freezing to death on the ice. Was I supposed to leave him?"

"Yes." Caleb stared down at me, his dark eyes entirely devoid of sympathy. "Because he put himself there. Just like he did all of last year."

"What are you talking about?"

"Scarlett."

The name made my stomach drop.

"Ethan's precious first love," Caleb sneered, spitting the words out like poison. "She overdosed a year ago. Ended up in a rehab center upstate. And Ethan? He completely rotted from the inside out."

I stared at my brother. The sheer anger radiating off him felt suffocating.

"He spent six months drinking himself blind," Caleb continued, his tone merciless. "He picked fights in parking lots. Broke a guy's jaw behind the diner. I had to beg the cops to let him go with a warning."

"People grieve, Caleb. He was hurting."

"I was the one pulling him out of those alleys!" Caleb yelled, his voice echoing down the corridor. A few freshmen scurried past, keeping their heads down. "I covered for him. I kept this team together while he played the tragic victim. He showed up to morning practice reeking of cheap whiskey. Coach was one strike away from kicking him off the roster entirely."

"That doesn't mean he's a bad person."

"He's not a good guy, Lily." Caleb shook my arm slightly, demanding my full attention. "He's a mess. He is a grenade with the pin pulled. And I'm not letting him drag you into that."

Adrenaline spiked in my veins. I twisted my arm hard, tearing my wrist out of his grasp.

"I'm not something you own!" I yelled.

"I am trying to protect you!"

"You don't understand me at all." I rubbed my aching wrist, glaring at him through blurry eyes. "You just want to control everything."

"Lily—"

"Leave me alone."

I spun around and marched down the hallway, ignoring the stares of a dozen students who had stopped to watch.

***

The final bell finally rang, offering a brief mercy. I stayed in the art room for an extra hour, organizing the drying racks just to avoid going home to Caleb's suffocating rules.

When I stepped out into the quiet corridor, a tall shadow blocked my path.

Ethan leaned against the doorframe.

He looked terrible. The arrogant hockey captain from the parking lot was completely gone. His broad shoulders slumped under his heavy winter jacket. Red rims circled his amber eyes, and a rough layer of stubble shadowed his jawline.

"Hey," he rasped.

"What do you want, Ethan?" I kept my distance, gripping my backpack straps tight.

"I came to apologize." He rubbed the back of his neck, refusing to meet my gaze. "For yesterday. On the lake. I was out of line."

"You were drunk."

"Yeah. I was." He finally looked up, his expression exhausted. "You shouldn't have had to deal with that."

I stared at him. Beneath the tough exterior, he looked incredibly fragile.

"I don't normally do this," Ethan muttered.

"Do what? Apologize?"

"Acknowledge I messed up." He shifted his weight, his sneakers squeaking against the linoleum. "I'm sorry, Lily."

"You could have died out there."

"I know."

"Why were you on the ice, Ethan?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It matters to me." I took a step closer. The hallway was completely silent, the afternoon sun casting long, orange streaks through the windows. "Who's Scarlett?"

Ethan flinched.

It was a violent, full-body reaction, as if I had just swung a baseball bat into his ribs. The apology vanished from his face instantly. His amber eyes hardened into cold, flat glass.

"Where did you hear that name?" His voice dropped an octave, scraping against the quiet corridor.

"Caleb told me."

"Of course he did." Ethan clenched his jaw.

"He said she went to rehab. He said you fell apart."

Ethan stepped forward, towering over me. The vulnerability I had seen two seconds ago was entirely erased, replaced by a defensive wall of ice.

"None of your business."

"I held you on the lake for an hour while you shivered and called her name. I think it is my business."

"You think wrong."

"Is she why you drink on the ice?" I pushed, refusing to back down.

"Stop."

"Is she why you hate the old team logo?"

"I said stop, Lily."

He turned his back to me.

"Ethan, wait!"

He didn't stop. He walked away, his heavy strides echoing against the metal lockers as he disappeared into the fading orange sunlight at the end of the hall.

I stood in the center of the corridor.

My hands curled into tight fists. My fingernails dug deep into my palms, sending sharp bites of pain through my skin. Caleb wanted me to stay away. Ethan wanted to shut me out.

But I had seen the cracks in his armor. I was the only one who had sat with him in the dark.

I was going to find out exactly what happened to Scarlett Vance. Even if digging up the truth ripped his scabbed wounds wide open.