My life was simple. Or it used to be. Until I found out that the attractive yet arrogant guy I just met was my soon-to-be step brother. Complications arose and I found myself getting closer and closer to him than I probably should...

Chapter 1

It was a hot summer afternoon. Instead of swimming out to the beaches and getting tanned or going overseas to cool off like what sixteen year old girls like me usually do, here I was, working as a server/bartender/mixer at the bar at the beach. And since I was working on the beach, my uniform was this red swimsuit (I shuddered to think of the word 'bikini') with a see-through dress on top. Great. I wasn't really complaining since I got paid decently here and the 'swimsuit' was quite decent as well but that didn't mean the customers were decent. Guys just kept hitting on me. It was getting on my nerves. I would've loved to used my karate, though that would be out of the question since this was a job.

Okay, here's another blockhead. Brace yourself, Lils.

A guy around my age sat on the bar, eyeing me interestedly. Gag. Plastering yet another fake smile on my face, I asked the customer, "What's your order, sir?"

"Can I order you?" he said, smirking slightly. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and kept my cool. Relax, Lily. Actually, the guy was hot. And boy, he had ripping muscles and an angel's face. But arrogant wasn't really my type, though. "Kidding. Just tequila, please."

I was tempted to put poison in his glass, but well, there was no poison available. And I couldn't be bothered. I handed him his drink and wondered why there were still some guys who drink at this time of the day.

The guy's eyes—which were strikingly blue, by the way—stared directly on my swimsuit-clad chest through my almost (or practically) transparent top. Typical girls would be flustered when hot guys stare at them like that. Some girls called bitches would practically shoved their boobs on hot guys' faces.

I was far from typical girls, anyway.

Rolling my eyes, I turned my back on him and busied myself with arranging the bottles on the cabinet, which were already in perfect order. I had nothing to do to avoid that jerk's eyes from staring at me, anyway. After a minute or two, I figured he'd stop looking.

Pervert. Now, he was staring at my behind.

"I wish you'd stop that, sir," I said rudely without thinking. Crap, I'm starting to lose my temper. "Could you please look somewhere else," I said in feigned politeness, with yet another smile. I felt sick of doing this every crappy day. Ugh.

"The name's Kei, not sir," the guy said, running his hand through his messy black hair, a smirk plastered on his face. "By the way, I'll look where I pleased."

Giving me a wink, he put down his already empty glass and a single bill down the counter. "See you around," he said and walked back down the beach, leaving me infuriated as hell. What an arrogant jerk!

Grumpily, I took his empty glass and his payment and my jaw dropped. Holy cow! A hundred bucks! This guy sure was a money-wasting, rich kid. Stupid, perverted jerk.

"Mom, I'm home!"

"I'm in the kitchen, honey!" Mom called back.

I frowned. Kitchen? My mom rarely cooked. It didn't mean that she couldn't cook. It was just that she was too tired or lazy to cook so either she waited for me to come home from work and cook or she'd just order pizza.

I dropped my bag inside my room upstairs and followed her to the kitchen. My mouth began to water at the smell. I knew what it was instantly

"Lasagna?" I asked, knowing the answer already.

"Yep," mom replied, smiling. "Your favorite. How was work?"

I shrugged. "Well, a hot bastard hit on me. Can you believe it? He paid a hundred bucks for a glass of tequila? That was way overboard for a tip, you know!"

She chuckled. I always went home and ranted about something along those lines everyday. I meant, how could I avoid not getting hit on by guys when I practically threw myself to my own doon when I started working at the beach. "Well, you're beautiful, that's why."

"Yeah, right," I said, rolling my eyes. "Well, I'm sick and tired of guys eyeing me like I'm some piece of meat. Seriously, I wanna chuck their eyeballs out."

She laughed and said, "That's disgusting, you know."

I scrunched up my nose in agreement. "Anyway, enough about me. How's your day?"

Her expression changed instantly. She averted her gaze from me and settled at staring at the oven instead. I knew there was something wrong. She was such an open book. We might've looked alike, but our personalities quite clashed.

"Mom," I said in a firm tone. "What is it?"

Sighing, she said, "Come here, Lily." She led me to the living room and we sat side-by-side on the couch. I looked at her expectantly, saying, "So? What's up with you? Bad news?" I guessed.

Mom nodded. "Don't be mad, Lils," she said, biting her lip. I braced myself for the worst, but it was definitely not what I expected. "I'm pregnant. And his dad and I want to get married."

My jaw dropped in shock. "Is that a joke?" I snapped when I finally found my voice. The answer was written all over her face.

She wasn't joking.

Usually, wasn't it the daughter who would frighteningly confide to her mother that she got pregnant, and the mother would be the one who would get mad?

But between mom and me, it was the opposite, though. It always was. This was no different.

"How could you be so irresponsible?!" I yelled at her, standing up and beginning to pace in front of her, trying to get hold of my anger. I kept shooting daggers at her direction and she kept cringing in response. "And you were supposedly the one who told me to be careful around boys all the time!" I cried in exasperation. "You were the one who told me not to—to get pregnant accidentally, like what happened to you when you were only eighteen! And you know that we barely had enough money for ourselves and you'd go around adding two more mouths to feed! And who's the bastard, anyway? Why did he have to do it? Why did you have to do it? I'm disappointed in you, Mom! Why do you always do something like this to make me so infuriated?!"

I glared at her again but when I noticed that she was crying, I sighed and sat beside her again. "Sorry, that was out of the line. I was just…you should've told me sooner. How long have you been seeing this guy, anyway? Why would he want to marry you?" I cringed at my last question. It was tactless of me. My dad left us as soon as she found out my mom married. "Sorry, ignore my last question."

She sniffed and said, "We've been seeing each other for almost a year now."

"What?" I snapped. I had a bad temper, alright. "And you haven't told me until now?"

She bit her lip and hung her head in shame. I closed my eyes, and took in deep breaths. Calm down, Lils, I told myself.

Why was my mother so…irresponsible? It was always like this. She never thought rationally and did things as she pleased without thinking of the possible outcomes. She was so clumsy and naïve. I was the total opposite of her.

It was a good thing that I loved her. If it wasn't for her clumsiness, I wouldn't have been born, anyway.

"So…" I said, trying to keep my cool. "When will I meet this guy?"

"Er, I asked him to come over tonight at nine," she admitted, looking at me with frightened eyes. I must've shaken her a bit.

I sighed and nodded. We only had about ten minutes before they arrived. "Good thing I asked you that or I might die of heart attack when I see him unexpectedly," I said, rolling my eyes. "I'm gonna change. You look after dinner."

She nodded and I retreated to my room. So I was going to meet the man who got my mother pregnant. Great. Still, for mom, I at least put on some decent clothes—dark, denim skinny jeans and a grey shirt with three-fourths sleeves. I put on some matching gray flats, combed my long, auburn hair, put some lip gloss and crashed down the stairs just as I heard a knock on the door. Taking a deep breath, I opened it.

Outside stood a tall man with tanned skin, dark hair and piercingly blue eyes. Wearing a white, long-sleeved polo and jeans, he seemed decent enough. He smiled kindly at me and said, "You must be Lily. I'm Mark Rosenfels."

I smiled and said, "Nice to meet you, Mark. Come on in, mom's waiting." I opened the door wider and was startled to see another person behind him.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot. This is my son, Kei."

Kei stepped closer and when the porch light flooded his face, my jaw dropped.

It was the hot yet indecent guy from the beach before.

"Hello, Lily," he said, smiling devilishly. "Pleasure to meet you." Again, he mouthed. Grinning, he winked at me and followed his father inside.

I stood there, dumbfounded.

This couldn't be happening to me.

A/N: Hi! So, what do you guys think? Yay or nay? I know this chapter is sort of short. I swear this is gonna get better on the next chapters, though. ;D

This is my first time posting something on fictionpress, but I've a couple of stories on FanFiction.

Anyway, please review! :))

xoxo