My Stepbrother, My Enemy {BL}-Chapter 126: A Completely Absurd Theory

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘❦✾❦∘∙⊱⋅•-

"We didn’t do anything," I said quickly, my cheeks growing hot. "It was just... a moment. Then Adrien totally messed it up."

"Exactly!" Gigi exclaimed, pointing at me as if she’d uncovered a huge secret. "Why on earth was he so mad? And don’t pull the protective card. That dude stopped you from losing your virginity before college to the most perfect guy in the planet, he should be executed!"

I let out a weak laugh and rubbed my forehead. "I honestly don’t know why he was mad, Gigi. I asked him, but he just wouldn’t give me a straight answer. He yelled at Ethan, then at me, and then just glared at me. It was a total mess."

"Yeah," she said softly, studying my expression. "You do seem... shaken."

"I am."

The truth slipped out before I could hold it back. "It was like he wasn’t even Adrien for a second. Like he turned into someone else, like some possessive...guy."

Gigi paused, her eyes scanning me with the same seriousness she usually reserved for tarot reads and emotional breakdowns.

"Noah..." she said slowly, almost cautiously. "You can call me crazy. You can say I’m delusional. You can even call me a lesbian clairvoyant who talks too much for her own good." She nibbled on her cookie, still watching me with that strange intensity. "But doesn’t it seem like... Adrien is jealous?"

I froze.

Gigi didn’t blink at me, it seemed like she was dead serious.

For the next few seconds, we sat there staring at the other.

"Jealous of you being with Ethan," she clarified, her tone gentle and careful now. "Like... really jealous."

My heart raced.

"Gigi," I whispered, my breath catching in my throat. "T-that’s... that’s insane."

Her eyebrow lifted. "Is it though?"

I swallowed hard, suddenly aware of every memory her words reached for, the lingering looks, the awkward tension, that strange protectiveness, the way he’d grabbed my wrist, the anger in his voice at the cliff.

Gigi shrugged, leaning back as she grabbed another cookie. "I’m just saying what I see."

I stared at her, my pulse pounding in my ears, the cookie forgotten in my hand.

She took a slow bite, her eyes locked onto mine.

"Your stepbrother’s jealous, bro."

The words hit me like a match dropped onto dry wood.

Gigi’s statement hung in the air for a heartbeat before it exploded in my head.

"Jealous?" I choked, actually coughing on a piece of cookie and pounding my chest until I could breathe again. "Gigi, what-no. No way. Absolutely not." I laughed, but it sounded sharp, almost like panic in disguise. "That’s nuts. You’re nuts."

Gigi tossed her curls back and grinned, like she’d been waiting for that reaction. "Uh-huh. Sure. Keep telling yourself that."

I smacked her arm with the closest throw pillow. "He’s not jealous. He’s just... Adrien. He’s mad all the time. At everyone and everything."

"Yes," she nodded, like a wise monk. "But he gets extra mad when it comes to Ethan. And now we know why."

I stared at her. She stared right back.

"Do you really think Adrien Fell" I raised my brows so high they were nearly in my hairline, "is in love with me or something?"

At first, she didn’t respond with words.

Instead, she slowly, dramatically lifted one eyebrow like she was in a soap opera.

I froze.

"Gigi," I warned.

"Noah," she mimicked, leaning in with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

A tiny squeak escaped me. "No, no, no!’

She snorted. "Relax, boy. I’m mostly joking."

"Mostly?!" I squealed, grabbing another pillow to shield myself as if she was firing bullets instead of theories.

Gigi laughed so loud the dream catcher rattled on the wall. "Look, all I’m saying is...his behavior? Super suspicious. Like, with a capital S and bold font."

"We’re step-siblings," I reminded her, trying to hang on to logic. "As in siblings by marriage. As in we live in the same house. That would be weird...and gross, right? Just... no."

"Uh-huh. Right. Totally impossible," she nodded exaggeratedly, sarcasm dripping from her words, making me want to throw cookies at her. "Just like how it was impossible for Ethan to like you. And then impossible for you to be in a relationship with Ethan. Now it’s like you guys are basically the main characters in a slow burn romance."

I opened my mouth to argue, but nothing came out.

"Exactly," she said proudly. "Silence means I’m right."

"It does not," I sputtered. "I literally can’t even express how wrong you fucking are."

She smirked. "You’re speechless because you’re actually thinking about it now."

"I am not-"

"Yes you are."

"I am-Gigi." I buried my face in my hands and groaned. "Please just stop with this freakish conspiracy theory."

She kicked her legs up onto the coffee table, stretching like a confident cat. "Fine, fine. Should we ask the divine for clarity? Consult the sacred card deck?" She said it in a mystical, dramatic whisper, wiggling her fingers like a cartoon witch. "Spirits, reveal the truth-does Adrien Fell secretly pine after our beloved Noah?"

I tossed a cookie at her head.

She dodged it like a ninja. "Oh? Violence? That’s interesting. Defensiveness is one of the signs-"

"Gigi, shut the hell up!"

She cackled and scooted closer, bumping her shoulder against mine. "Come on, imagine if you two really had a forbidden romance. It’d be poetic. Deliciously complicated. Just like that story you and Ethan wrote for English class. The one that set off your whole love arc."

"This is so weird." I groaned into a pillow. "Why am I even here?"

"Because you love me and my spiritual wisdom," she said, blowing me an exaggerated kiss.

I couldn’t help but laugh. "Wisdom? You’re the same person who once tried to sage a geography test."

"And got a B+ because of it," she defended proudly.

We both burst into giggles, the kind that warmed my insides and made the world feel lighter.

Her teasing was ridiculous...completely ridiculous, but for a moment, it distracted me from the chaos swirling around my heart.