The Stepbrother I Hate to Love novel · Chapter 2 of 24
Chapter 2: The Lock
Drunk Torin pins Ansel to the door and says he knows about Ledger; Ansel finds the proof on the laptop and Torin wakes sober.
Ansel backed up until his shoulders hit the door.
Torin came across the room slowly.
He was drunk, and Ansel could smell it, whiskey under the sweat.
He was also steady on his feet, which was worse.
"You took my notes," Ansel said. "My key. My sweater."
"The sweater was on the floor of the study room for two days," Torin said.
"Nobody wanted it."
"I wanted it."
He put both hands on the door, one on each side of Ansel's head.
He did not touch him anywhere else.
His face was close enough that Ansel could count the stitches in the scar through his left eyebrow.
"I know about Ledger," Torin said.
Ansel's stomach dropped.
Ledger was the name on the account he used to sell papers to people who would not write their own.
Nobody was supposed to know it was him.
"I don't know what that is."
"Locker 114, second floor of the library, every Tuesday and Thursday before six."
Torin's voice was low and almost gentle.
"A USB in a gray envelope.
"You walk out with your hood up.
"I followed you for three weeks, Ansel."
"That's insane."
"Yes."
Torin said it.
"I know it's insane.
"I can't stop.
"You came into Marsh Hall in August carrying a lamp and a box of books.
"I haven't slept right since."
Ansel's throat was dry.
"You're drunk."
"I'm very drunk."
Torin's forehead dropped, and for a moment it rested against the door above Ansel's.
"I'm telling you the truth because I'm drunk.
"Tomorrow I won't."
He was breathing in short, hard pulls.
Ansel could feel the heat coming off him.
Fear was in his own chest, but it was not only fear, and he hated that he noticed.
He ducked under Torin's arm and went to the window.
It was a sash window, painted shut at the corners.
He got his fingers under the frame and pushed with everything he had.
It rose four inches and stuck.
A hand closed over his wrist.
"Don't," Torin said.
"It's a second floor.
"You'll break something."
"Then open the door."
"I don't have the key."
Torin sounded honestly miserable.
"Jory has it.
"He's an idiot.
"I love him."
Ansel looked at him, at the split knuckles and the tired eyes and the swaying shoulders.
The fear started to settle into exhaustion.
"Sit," he said. "Before you fall."
Torin sat on the bed.
He lay back all at once and kept Ansel's wrist in his hand the whole way down.
"Stay," he said, to the ceiling.
"You can hate me tomorrow.
"Stay tonight."
Ansel pulled.
The grip was loose now, and it would have been easy to get free.
He stood there with his wrist in Torin's palm and did not pull the second time.
Torin was asleep in under a minute.
His mouth was open, and the hard lines had gone out of his face, and he looked like somebody's kid.
Ansel eased his hand out and stood very still.
The house had gone quiet below.
Then he did what he would have done in any lab.
He looked at the evidence.
The laptop on the desk was still open and the screen was awake.
There was one window open, and it was a mail draft.
The address line said Dean of Students.
The subject said Academic Integrity, Marsh Hall, student A. Wray.
The body was three lines long.
It said Ansel Wray was selling papers under the name Ledger, and it listed the locker and the days.
Under the text was an attachment, a photograph.
Ansel in his hood, locker 114 open, an envelope in his hand.
The cursor sat blinking after the last line.
The email had never been sent.
It had been saved as a draft forty-one times.
Ansel read the number twice.
Forty-one.
He sat in the desk chair, and the chair creaked, and Torin did not move.
Ansel looked at the sleeping man for a long time.
He thought about his mother's overdue rent notice, which was folded in the back of his wallet.
He thought about the scholarship letter that said any academic violation ended it.
He thought about the way Torin had said his name at the refrigerator.
The window went from black to navy to grey.
At half past six Ansel put his head down on his folded arms.
He told himself he would only rest his eyes.
The mattress creaked behind him.
Torin took a long breath, and bare feet crossed the floor.
Ansel did not lift his head.
He did not know why, only that being asleep suddenly felt safer than being awake.
He shut his eyes and listened to the man who owned the wall of notes get up.
← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend