My little brother, whose voice was cracking through puberty, came to my room to leach off my Wi-Fi. “Sis, can I just crash your network? I’ll stand right by the door, I won’t come inside.” My childhood best friend and arch-nemesis, on the phone with me, completely misheard the situation. He roared into the phone: “What the hell are you doing? I’m coming to your place right now! Tell that guy not to move!” Chapter 1 What’s the consequence of not coming home from college for a year? Well, you get a life-or-death call from my dearest and most revered mother. “Skylar Li! If you don’t get your butt back here this summer, don’t bother coming back ever!” I had no choice but to pack my bags and head home. When I saw Jamie Li at the station, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I remember him as a little squirt before I left for college, but now he had stretched out and actually looked like a decent human being. Seeing me, his eyes lit up, and he waved sheepishly. “Sis!” I hurried over and reached up to pat his head. “Not bad! A year away, and you’ve shot up so tall. Your voice is deeper, too. Are there a lot of girls at your school who have a crush on you?” He blushed even harder. “Sis, what are you talking about?” He took my luggage and led me out of the station to grab a cab. I blinked twice. “Where are Mom and Dad? Aren’t they here to pick us up?” He blinked twice too. “Mom and Dad went to Miami two days ago. They aren’t back yet.” I was stunned. “Wait, they made me rush home, but they aren't even here? Is that reasonable?” Jamie was silent for a few seconds, then said, “I have even worse news. Want to hear it?” I sighed. “Spit it out. Nothing can break me now.” Jamie: “Our home Wi-Fi is busted. No internet at home; we have to use data.” Okay, I was too arrogant. I should have said, any slight inconvenience can absolutely break me. The Wi-Fi being broken is pure cruelty for two internet-addicted teens like Jamie and me. It’s like finding a bathroom when you’re desperate but there’s no toilet paper, or pulling out an umbrella in a downpour only to find it’s broken. I asked expressionlessly, “So what now? Let’s crash an internet cafe all night.” He asked, “Do you have any money?” Me: “?” Jamie smiled sweetly, delivering the most brutal truth. “My allowance got cut off because my grades sucked last semester.” The air was quiet for a moment. I stated a painful fact: “Truthfully, mine was, too.” We stared at each other, seeing mutual despair, pity, and the shared agony of not being able to function for the next few days. “Wait a minute!” I suddenly remembered something, and my eyes lit up. I started digging through my bag. I pulled out a small white device and waved it in front of Jamie. His eyes lit up too. “Sis, is that a mobile hotspot?” I nodded. I had bought this mobile hotspot recently, but the signal was so-so, and I was planning to return it. I never expected it to be so useful now. Back home, I immediately set up the mobile hotspot. Seeing the full signal strength, I smiled with relief. Just as I finished fiddling with it, my phone rang. I glanced at the caller ID, pursed my lips, and answered grumpily. “Caleb Evans, are you sick? Why do you call me every day?” He said smugly, “Just checking to see if my arch-nemesis is still alive and kicking.” I scoffed, continuing to hook up the data cable to my laptop, my butt sticking out. Caleb then asked, “Skylar, what are you doing? Why are you breathing so heavily?” Before I could answer, Jamie lightly knocked on the door, pointed to his phone, and asked pitifully, “Can I just crash your network? Don’t worry, I’ll just leach here. I won’t come inside.” I chuckled. Ah, the awkwardness of a teenage boy. He used to barge right into my room, but now he understood boundaries. I waved him in. “It’s fine. You can come in, I’m just…” “SKYLAR LI!” Caleb’s voice blasted through the phone, straight to my skull. “What are you doing right now?! Who is that dog of a man next to you?! I’m coming to your house right now! You wait there!” Me: “Are you psycho?” Chapter 2 I hung up. Jamie looked at me, full of gossip. “Sis, who was that?” I answered without thinking. “Just a childish punk who still wets the bed at eight years old.” He nodded knowingly. “Oh, right. Caleb.” I froze. “How did you know I was talking about him?” He shrugged, looking slightly exasperated. “Every time you two fight, you bring up Caleb wetting the bed at eight. I’m sick of hearing it.” I looked up at him, suspicion in my eyes. “I do that?” “Yeah, you do. If I didn’t see you two fight so fiercely all the time, I’d actually suspect you had a thing for Caleb.” I narrowed my eyes and ground my teeth. The look of a person plotting murder is hard to hide. But clearly, my sweet, naive little brother didn't realize his beautiful, kind fairy sister was out for blood. He just kept chattering away. “But I remember after you graduated, you stopped fighting with Caleb so much. He’d look for you, but you wouldn’t go out. I thought you guys had a falling out, but I guess not.” I pursed my lips, lowering my gaze. A fleeting memory flashed—two figures wrapped in an embrace in a dark alleyway that night. I clicked my tongue and said threateningly, “Jamie, if you don’t shut up right now, you will lose your Wi-Fi access.” Before I finished, he immediately stopped and made a gesture of zipping his mouth shut. I nodded in satisfaction and continued connecting the cables. Once everything was set up, I gave Jamie the password and graciously allowed him to play on the beanbag chair in my room. I pulled out my own phone and started scrolling through videos, though my mind was elsewhere. Suddenly, I heard the sound of the front door code being entered and failing downstairs. I nudged Jamie with my foot. “Did you hear a noise downstairs?” He took off his headphones, listened closely, and looked at me. “Yeah, I heard it.” We stared at each other. I heard a dry, strained voice squeeze out of my throat. “Mom and Dad went to Miami, right? Then who is opening the door?” He swallowed, grabbed the small vase from my side table, and eyed the door warily. “Don’t worry, Sis! I’ll protect you!” I heard heavy footsteps pounding up the stairs, and Caleb’s easily recognizable, almost-piercing voice shouting, “Skylar Li! I’m coming in! Put some clothes on!” Me: “?” I didn't know why he was emphasizing the clothes, but I yelled back, “I am wearing clothes!” As if my response triggered him, my bedroom door was kicked open with a bang. The force was so strong the lock mechanism flew off the frame. I ignored the door, staring at the person standing in the doorway—sweaty, breathing heavily, completely out of breath. I asked in disbelief, “Caleb Evans? What are you doing here?” I hadn’t seen him in a long time. The image of the awkward, young boy from high school was now replaced by the outline of a man. He looked… maybe a little hotter than before. Caleb caught his breath, checked out Jamie for a few seconds, then looked back at me, his voice filled with anger. “Skylar Li, how dare you bring a man home when your aunt and uncle aren’t here?” Me: “?” Perfect. My earlier thought about him being hotter was clearly wrong. He’s the same old jerk. Jamie turned his head, blinking blankly at me. “Sis, Caleb?” I nodded, got out of bed barefoot, gave Caleb a hard flick on the forehead, and gritted my teeth. “What the hell are you rambling about? That’s my brother!” Chapter 3 Speaking of which, Caleb and I grew up together; we were childhood friends. But unlike other childhood friends—who usually end up dating or are like siblings—we were sworn enemies who fought constantly. For instance, we’d argue for three days straight over whether to dip dumplings in vinegar or soy sauce, or whether sweet zongzi (rice dumplings) were better than savory ones. Any contentious topic would trigger an argument between us. But since my mom and his mom have been best friends for decades, and they're godmothers to both of us, Caleb and I were in the same school and class all the way up. For the first eighteen years of my life (minus the years we couldn’t talk), we had a huge fight every three days until we went to different universities. I watched the outrage on Caleb’s face crack, replaced by confusion. I sighed, stating the facts. “This is Jamie.” He repeated in disbelief, “This is… Jamie?” Jamie nodded. “That would be me.” Caleb gave a dry laugh. “Ah, well, I haven’t seen you in so long. You’ve grown so much. I almost didn’t recognize you.” Jamie said earnestly, “You mean you didn’t recognize me, right?” Silence is the new aesthetic. With a mouth like Jamie’s, I knew he hadn't dated anyone. Who would want to date a guy who kills a conversation instantly? I sighed, breaking the awkward silence. “Caleb, how did you get our front door code?” He answered righteously, “My godmother gave it to me, of course! She said she was worried about you being home alone and asked me to come take care of you.” Jamie raised his arm, pointing a finger at himself, and interrupted. “Wait, my mom said my sister was home alone? What about me?” Caleb smiled apologetically. “Sorry, she didn’t mention you were here. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.” Jamie’s heart shattered. He turned and trudged upstairs dramatically. I felt like I’d heard the punchline to the world’s greatest joke. “My mom, asking you to take care of me? Did I hear that right?” He shrugged. “If you don’t believe me, call her.” I immediately grabbed my phone and called my mom. “You made it home?” My mom’s lazy voice came through the phone. I was slightly annoyed. “I sent you the train ticket info. I’ve been home for a long time.” “Oh, I didn’t look. Why are you calling?” I was even more annoyed, asking concisely, “Mom, did you give Caleb our front door code?” She admitted it instantly. “Yes, I gave it to Caleb.” I glanced at Caleb, who gave me a smug look, as if saying: See? I told you so. I covered the phone, whispering, “Mom, how could you give our code to an outsider?” My mom scoffed. “Caleb is my godson. He’s not an outsider. Besides, you’re home alone, and your dad and I were worried. Your godmother and the Evans are with us, so the two of you can look out for each other.” “Jamie is home! I don’t need his help!” “Oh? Jamie’s home? I forgot. Oh well, that’s the deal. Your dad and I are about to go skydiving. Gotta go.” Before I could say anything else, she hung up. Me: Confused-Black-Man.jpg Chapter 4 I stared at the disconnected phone, completely bewildered. I’d never had such a ridiculous day. Caleb stood there, hands in his pockets, saying arrogantly, “Now you know I was telling the truth, right? If my godmother hadn’t begged me, I wouldn’t have come to babysit you.” I rejected him instantly. “No thanks. Ugly alert.” If I had called him ugly before, he would have argued with me for hours. But this time, I watched him open his mouth, swallow his response, and then smirk, hitting me with a soul-crushing question: “Do you two know how to cook?” First blood. “You want to order takeout? I heard your godmother cut off both your cards.” Double kill. “I remember neither of you can cook. Are you planning to blow up the kitchen?” Ace. His barrage of insults completely dazed me. I managed to ask, “You’re being so eager. Are you planning to poison the food and assassinate me?” He looked at me like I was an idiot, subtly asking back, “Did someone pay a hundred million bucks for your brain?” I snapped, “Your brain is the one that’s never been used!” After weighing the options between delicious, home-cooked food, instant ramen, or risking food poisoning by cooking myself, I decided to temporarily bury the hatchet with Caleb. Caleb had suddenly started learning to cook in high school, and I remembered his food was actually pretty good. With that in mind, I sincerely welcomed him. “This household welcomes you. It’s an honor for you to join us.” Caleb: “?” I rubbed my hungry stomach and issued a cooking invitation. “Since you’re here, why don’t you cook before you go?” He twitched, then resignedly turned and headed downstairs to the kitchen. I happily followed, intending to grab a snack from the fridge to tide me over. He cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. “What, you think I’ll poison you?” I rolled my eyes. “I’m hungry. I’m going to grab a snack from the fridge.” “Eating snacks when dinner is almost ready?” My phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out to check the message, complaining as I did so. “Caleb, why do you sound like my mom?” “That just proves that your godmother and I are on the same page. Look at your unhealthy diet.” I mumbled, “Uh-huh, Nsdd.” (Not So Damn Disagreed) “What was that?” I ignored him, quickly scanned the message, typed a reply, and sent it off. I locked my phone and smiled at Caleb. “You can just cook for Jamie. I’m going out to eat.” His face instantly changed. “Going out? Why? With who? Boy or girl? Do I know them? What time are you coming back?” I tossed my hair. “Stay out of a beautiful woman’s business.” I turned and walked upstairs. Only when I got back to my room did I remember that Caleb had kicked my door down. Looking at the door, which was hanging precariously on its hinges, my temple started throbbing. How much force did that jerk use to kick my door? I frowned, debating for a moment. I decided to change clothes behind the curtain drawn between the closet and the bed, hidden from the doorway. “No way, Skylar Li, you have to tell me who you’re meeting. Otherwise, what am I supposed to tell my godmother?” I heard Caleb’s voice getting closer. I frantically tried to pull my shirt off, but the clasp snagged in my hair. The more I struggled, the tighter it got. “Wait…” Before I could warn him, he was already in the room. “Why aren’t you talking? You…” Caleb walked in, and we made eye contact. He suddenly choked on his words, his eyes locked on me. My shirt was still snagged at my neck, the bottom hanging down, but offering no real coverage. Even though I instantly spun around, it was too late. My face burned. Seeing him standing there, frozen like a crashed computer, I gritted my teeth and roared, “Caleb Evans! Get the hell out and turn your back!”
? Continue the story here ?? ? Download the "MotoNovel" app ? search for "386930", and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel