My Stepbrother, My Enemy {BL}-Chapter 82: How To Love (BC)

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I flopped onto my bed with a soft sigh, feeling the mattress sink beneath me like it had been missing my weight. My hair was still a bit damp, and I could smell the faint scent of soap on my skin as I stared up at the ceiling. Being back felt peculiar, familiar yet foreign all at once. The quiet sounds of the city outside and even the smell of polished floors and fresh linen...all of it screamed home, but after nearly two weeks away, it didn’t quite feel like home anymore.

Adrien was seated at the foot of my bed, his long legs stretched out, absentmindedly rubbing the back of his neck. He seemed unusually contemplative, the playful glint in his eye replaced by something more serious.

"It’s weird being back," he remarked after a moment, his voice low and thoughtful. "Everything feels the same, but... not really."

I turned my head toward him and nodded slightly. "Yeah," I murmured. "It’s like we left the world behind, and now it’s just waiting for us to catch up."

He let out a snort. "Something like that."

"So," I said after a beat, trying to lighten the mood, "are you excited to see your dumbass friends again? You know, your little party crew? I’m sure they’ve missed you."

Adrien scoffed, leaning back on his elbows with a smirk that didn’t quite reach his eyes. "I should be," he said dryly, "but honestly, I’m not that thrilled."

That took me by surprise. I pushed myself up on my elbows, studying his face. "Really? You? The guy who practically lived for those parties?"

He shrugged, his expression hard to read. "I guess some things just stop being fun after a while."

I frowned, wanting to dig deeper, but there was a note in his tone that told me to leave it alone. I knew how toxic his so-called friends could be, the constant gossip, the phony smiles, the shallow loyalty. Maybe he was finally waking up to that.

"Well," I said, trying to sound casual, "at least you’ll have me to annoy you if they get boring again."

He chuckled softly. "Lucky me."

I rolled my eyes and decided to change the subject before he could tease me any further. "I can’t wait to see Gigi and Skylar again. They’ve probably lost their minds without me."

Adrien raised an eyebrow. "Those are the lesbian friends of yours, right?"

I groaned and tossed a pillow at him. "Adrien! You can’t just say it like that!"

He caught the pillow effortlessly, laughing. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"It’s the way you said it," I replied, glaring at him while trying not to laugh. "You make them sound like some kind of novelty act."

He grinned, unbothered as usual. "Chill out, Hamster. I didn’t mean anything by it. They actually seem pretty cool. I saw them at that art show last semester, they couldn’t keep their hands off each other."

I couldn’t help but laugh, picturing Gigi and Skylar practically glued together that entire night. "Yeah, that’s is putting it mildly. Gigi says their love was written in the stars, and Skylar... she practically worships the ground Gigi walks on."

Adrien tilted his head, as if imagining it. "Sounds exhausting."

"It’s adorable," I corrected him, smiling at the thought of my friends. "They’re proof that love doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else. It just is."

He shot me a sidelong look, a smirk playing at his lips. "You sure you’re not just a bit jealous?"

"Of what?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That whole ’fated love’ thing," he said casually, picking at a loose thread on my blanket. "You seem like the type who’d secretly want that."

I threw another pillow at him, though I was smiling now. "Shut up, Adrien." 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

He caught it again, laughing softly before tossing it aside. "So, I’m right."

"Maybe," I said, leaning back with a huff, "but at least I’m not terrible at being a decent human being."

He snorted. "Debatable."

I turned on my side to face him, fighting the grin pulling at my lips. The air between us felt light again, comfortable even, like the silence that followed was more relaxed than awkward. For a moment, I just watched him sitting there, his expression softer than usual as he stared out the window, his fingers drumming idly against his knee.

Yeah, being back was strange...but maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t all bad.

Adrien had grown quiet again, which usually meant one of two things, either he was bored silly or something was weighing on his mind. He leaned back in my desk chair, arms folded behind his head, eyes half-closed as if lost in thought. And I was about to say something snarky about him brooding too much when his voice suddenly broke through the stillness.

"Have you ever been in love?" he asked casually, but the question hit me like a splash of cold water.

I blinked, caught completely off guard. "What?"

He glanced over at me, his expression blank, like he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer. "You heard me," he said with a small shrug. "Ever been in love?"

My mouth opened and then closed again as I tried to process the fact that Adrien Fell...sarcastic, emotionally stunted Adrien, was asking me something like that. "T–that’s kind of a personal question," I said, hugging a pillow to my chest.

"Yeah," he replied simply. "So?"

I rolled my eyes, but I could feel my cheeks warming. "I mean..." I trailed off, biting my bottom lip as I thought it over. "I guess I really like Ethan. My heart flutters when I see him, and I think about him often, but..." I frowned, realizing how uncertain that sounded. "I don’t know if I’d call it love. It’s more like... I care about him deeply, but sometimes I wonder if it’s just because he feels safe, you know?"

Adrien hummed quietly, still looking at the ceiling. "But he says he loves you," he pointed out.

I hesitated, fiddling with the pillowcase. "Yeah," I said softly. "He does. But I’m not sure I feel it the same way. Maybe I just don’t understand what love really is."

A brief silence settled before I glanced at him again, curiosity bubbling up inside me. "What about you?" I asked, trying to redirect the conversation. "Do you love Vanessa? Even if all you two ever do is... hook up?"