Stepbrother: Moving In/Moving Out Read Online Free PDF Page A

uses it on the door and pushes it open. I peek inside and find a dark stairwell spiraling upward into a tower.
    “After you,” he says.
    “Oh, hell no,” I say.
    He grips my hand and begins to pull me up the stairs despite my protests. We ascend the tower in silence. I try my best not to look down, but I get a few curious and regretful glances.
    “Hold on…” He stops a little more than halfway up and moves behind me. I feel his hands cover my eyes. For a moment, I feel scared, like I could trip and tumble down the dark stairs with my next step. “It’s okay,” he says, reading my body language. “I’ve got you.”
    I take slow steps. “You know, Seth…”I say. “I’ve got this thing about heights…”
    “I know,” he laughs. “Just trust me.”
    I sigh and continue going upward, my white knuckles gripping the banister.
    “Okay,” he says. “Stop. And close your eyes.”
    “Seth, come on…” I close my eyes against my better judgment. My legs tremble beneath me. “Just tell me one thing — I’m not about to be murdered, right?”
    “Okay, okay—” He positions me on the steady floor at the top but keeps his hands on my hips. “You can open your eyes now.”
    I take a quick breath and open them.
    “Whoa…”
    I’m met with an astonishing new view of the campus. The same grounds I’ve seen and traveled through hundreds of times are now mapped out in front of me, several stories above it all. The moon casts its glow on everything, leaving deep blue shadows in every corner. A gust of wind pushes me slightly, but I keep my grip on the top railing.
    “Fast forward to last year,” Seth tells me with slightly winded breath. He stands next to me, gazing out the open window along with me. “It’s a week until Christmas. I’m sitting in the dining hall across the street and my roommate, our mutual friend, Carter , asks me if I’m cool with him dating my sister.”
    “He did that?” I ask.
    “Yes, he did.”
    “What did you say?”
    “Well…” He turns his back to the view and reaches out an arm to rap his knuckles against a giant, metal bell hanging from the top of the tower. I turn around and count seven large bells of varying sizes along with it. “Before I could open my mouth to speak, these bells started chiming. Which is no big deal — you hear them every hour on the hour every day — but this time… this exact moment…” He looks at me.
    “Jingle bells,” I finish the thought.
    “I immediately flashed back to that school play,” he says. “In fact, every time I hear Jingle Bells, I think about you in that play.”
    I say nothing. My eyes linger on him for a moment more before turning back to the campus view.
    “That moment stuck with me,” he says. “And now every time I hear the bells, every hour on the hour everyday, I think about you. It’s automatic. It’s reflex. A primal urge that I don’t fully understand.”
    “So,” I say as I fiddle with my fingers. “What did you say?” I ask again with a smile, still curious about the answer.
    “I told him… that it was a bad idea.”
    “Oh, really?”
    He nods. “Yep. I said you probably wouldn’t be interested and it’d be weird if he dated you. He seemed fine with it, but then…”
    “He asked me out anyway,” I say, recalling the memory.
    “Kind of figured out at that point what kind of man he is.”
    “He’s not that bad,” I say.
    “He takes what he wants with little regard of others,” Seth argues.
    “Is that why you brought me up here?” I ask. “To somehow talk me out of choosing him?”
    “No,” he answers. “I came here to tell you the truth. We’ve both been living in our secret bubbles for years and now that they’ve finally popped, I want to clear the air, level the field, and just… talk to you for the first time. I mean, really talk to you . Unfiltered. Now tell me that doesn’t sound amazing to you.”
    I lick my lips and nod. “You’re right,” I say.
    “There’s not a