Chapter 13.

**Narrator’s POV.

The speaker of Tessa’s cellphone blared out her ringtone, waking her from her peaceful slumber. Grumpily, she grabbed it off the bedside table and picked it without looking at the caller identification, “What?”, she said into the phone,

“Well, you sound happy”, Alex’s cheerful voice said from the other side, “You’re still asleep?”, he asked. Tessa moved the phone away from her ear and assessed the time, she groaned and placed the phone back on her ear,

“What the fuck, Alex? It’s six in the morning”,

“I thought you would happy to hear from me but I would take it that you aren’t a morning person”, he shrugged, forgetting she probably could not see him.

“I am happy, Alex”, she sighed and ran her hand over her sleepy face, “I just couldn’t sleep last night”, she admitted,

“Neither could I, truth to be told, I haven’t slept yet. You’ve been on my mind for the last few hours”, he said to her and blood rushed up to her cheeks, the way he managed to flatter her even in the morning was a surprise to her.

“Well, you had better get some sleep, we don’t need you looking like a zombie during the day”, she teased and her let out a loud scoff,

“I’ve gone days without sleeping before, one night is nothing”, he said smugly, “Anyways, I just wanted to tell you that you’re having breakfast with me in the main house. Be ready by seven thirty?”, it sounded like a question but she knew it wasn’t. He wasn’t taking no for an answer.

“Okay”, she sighed, “Now, can I go back to bed?”, she valued her sleep more than life and hated to be woken up involuntarily- another reason why she hated school and dreaded the idea of going back to be woken up by six thirty by an alarm clock.

“Yes, I will see you later”, before she could reply, the line went dead. Not reading much into it, she shrugged and threw her phone back on the bedside table, making a mental note to put it on vibrate whenever she wanted to go to sleep.

Alex’s POV.

After ending the call, I shoved my phone under the pillow and rested my head on it, thinking of how petty I was planning to be. I mean, my step-brother that I hate has feelings my girlfriend- how could I not use that as an advantage or a means to kick him around and get his blood boiling?

Being awake since he had cornered me in the hallway had me thinking of many ways, I could get him back for making me look like a complete weakling against his larger than life size. My plan was somewhat simple, I get him extremely jealous by plastering my relationship with Tessa in his face- it was easy honestly, my only problem was timing, but that could be arranged.

For one, I knew that Gabriel always went for his morning jog an hour before me and an hour after Kevin, it was the only way to keep us from crossing paths and beating the shit out of each other- it had happened before between Gabriel and Kevin so Gravin, the chief security officer gave each of us a time that we could go on our jogs, an hour interval.

To achieve my plan, I knew I had to forfeit my workout session for the day- not that it would do anything to my body, I was just risking a three hundred day streak.

I waited patiently till seven thirty for Tessa to arrive but she probably wanted to be fashionable late and if I wanted this plan to go smoothly, she had to get here before seven fifty when Gabriel would be coming back.

A few minutes later, I heard a knock on my door. Quickly, I took my phone that I had showed and checked the time, it was seven forty-five- right on time, now I had to figure out a way to stall her in the hallway for five more minutes. Trying my best to while away time, I walked as slowly as I could towards my door and opened it, before she could enter, I came into the hallway and closed my door.

“Hey Tess”, I greeted her with a smile so wide, I could feel my jaw throbbing and my lips trembling at the impact,

She eyed me suspiciously and tried to look past my shoulder, her eyes practically drilling holes into my oak wood doors, “Hey Alex”, even her tone sounded like she was suspecting my actions- I would too if I was her though, I was acting like a cheating boyfriend but I really don’t think I am capable of doing that to her.

“So, how did you sleep?”, I asked while resting my body on the threshold, where the fuck was Gabriel?

“Other than you waking me up, not too great, I couldn’t sleep after you woke me up”, she groaned, it surprised me how cute she sounded while she groaned, when other girls did it, it sounded like a very annoying, nagging siren.

I heard his footsteps before I saw him and I knew what my next line of action was, “I would love to make it up to you”, I said before grabbing her and pushing her to the wall opposite my room and besides Gabriel’s door. Before she could say anything, I bent my head down and placed my lips on hers. I could tell she was surprised but she kissed me back with her eyes closed even though mine were wide open and waiting to see Gabriel’s expression.

He turned to the hallway, his phone in his hand and his head buried into it, look up you bastard. Someone up there had heard my silent prayer because he looked away from his phone and was taken by surprise at the sight in front of him. His surprised expression did not last though as it was replaced with a stone cold stare, he looked ready to rip my head off my shoulder and bury me six feet underground- I had successfully gotten under his skin.

He cleared his throat and it caught Tessa’s attention, she quickly pulled away from the kiss and a blush coated her cheeks once she realized we had been caught making out in the hallway- well, she had been caught, I on the other hand planned the whole thing. “Excuse me”, he said with gritted teeth, “But this is a hallway, kindly take your shit to your room”, he still had his gaze fixed on me,

“I sorry”, she apologized and I looked down at her small, cowering frame,

“Don’t apologize to him, this is my house as well”,

“Yes, but take your business elsewhere. What if it was father that caught you with the chief maid’s daughter?”, he tilted his head to the side, a move he did when he was trying to intimidate me. I gave him a blank stare, showing that it was not working on me- at least, not this time. He walked towards us in long strides and I backed up to my side of the hallway, he paused in front of Tessa who bowed her head down in fear, why the hell is she scared of him? “Move, whore”, her head snapped up at the insult and she narrowed her eyes at him,

“Did you just call my girlfriend a slut?”, I spat angrily and walked back to him,

“Shocking, I didn’t know you kept girlfriends”, why was he so confident about this? Yesterday he was acting differently. This guy had to be insane, there was no other explanation.

“Clearly, you don’t know me”, I said, my teeth grinding together painfully,

He turned to Tessa, “Be careful, he is bound to cheat on you with anything that’s in a skirt”, he snorted at what he said, “Now, if you would excuse me, I have a meeting very soon- apparently, I am the only son with ambition”, he shoved me aside and walked into his room, locking the door behind him. I looked at the sad expression on Tessa’s face, why did it seem like my perfect plan had backfired tenfold?