42 Older brother

Mia realised she wasn't as confident with her plans as she had thought. There were some things one couldn't change— time, season, and Mia's attitude towards her education.

She had made up her mind earlier that day that she wasn't going to go to school, but that decision made her very uncomfortable. Her brain kept reminding her she had a class by 1pm and even after convincing herself that she wasn't going to go, she found herself in front of her school gate at exactly 12:45 pm.

She had come too far to give up on her education at this point. Maybe she could change other aspects of her life but not her education because she was not sure she would be able to handle it if her results dropped. 

As usual, the school environment was rowdy and busy. It always reminded her of how much she hated going to school. She couldn't wait to graduate.

"Vote for Benjamin."

"Vote for Henry"

"Vote for Tiffany"

Those words kept echoing as she head to her class. 

She sat down at the back seat and sighed when Jeremy joined her. 

"Are you okay?" He looked at her with concerned eyes and she began to wonder when they became friends for him to care about her. 

"Why?" She asked.

"You are late. Something happened before you came."

"What is that?" She asked curiously. Normally, she would have said "I am not interested." It was in her nature to not care about anything that was happening around her. But now, she wanted to know. 

He was about to say something before the teacher entered.

        ****************

Leo could not help but yawn. He was in a meeting at a fancy café with a client who wanted him to be the photographer at his wedding.

As he listened to the man talk, he made up his mind to reject him. The man sounded very rude and arrogant and he hated those kind of people.

"You must understand that I also have my terms Mr Will"

"I beg your pardon?" Mr Will carefully placed his coffee mug on the table and raised a brow at him. 

"I'll lay them out for you"

"What's there to tell me about?" Mr Will interrupted.

"I'm paying you for this job and I don't see any reason why you should give me any terms. All you have to do is pick up your damn camera and do what you can do best." He said with a scowl.

Leo frowned. One thing he hated the most was people insulting him or his profession and this was an insult. 

Mr Will was a major car dealer in his mid thirties. He was tall, average looking, and with this little time they spent together, he could tell he was an egotist.

"That's insulting" Leo said with a disapproving frown. 

"I am just stating the fact."

"Sorry, you mentioned a previous client of mine recommended me to you right? Who is that?" He asked curiously. He didn't deal with clients like this so he wondered why someone would recommend him to this type of person.

"Cherry Anderson. She mentioned —"

"Wait what?" Leo sat up and frowned even more. 

"Cherry Anderson?" He stood up from his seat immediately. He had been looking for an excuse to not work with him and now he had two. If he had known it was Cherry Anderson, he wouldn't have agreed to this meeting in the first place. 

"I'm sorry Mr Will but I won't be working with you." As he turned to leave, he paused to add, "And you have a shitty attitude. You better work on yourself." 

          ***************

As he drove back home, he passed by his family's hospital and remembered Mia was supposed to go there for her shot. 

He had taken her number from her phone the previous night and returned her phone when he went to meet her later that night, so he sent her a quick text to remind her she was to go over to the hospital later. 

When he remembered their conversation this morning, a smile creeped up his face. 

Maybe she wasn't as bad as he thought even though he still felt very uncomfortable by her new change in attitude.

When she asked "Are you saying you may be sexually attracted to me?"

He had been a bit startled by her bluntness but he had chuckled– especially because of the shocked look on her face when she asked.

He had assured her nothing was going to happen because he saw her as his younger sister but the look on Mia's face showed that she wasn't very convinced by that. She had looked at him with a red face and opened mouth and after a few seconds, she ran back inside her room without looking back. 

He couldn't believe there was ever going to be a day where he would think she was 'cute' but surprisingly, he thought so now. 

He was very sure he would be able to handle things but first, he needed to tell her to dress properly around the house. 

He may try to convince himself that she was like his 'younger sister', but he wasn't sure his body felt the same way. 

He had seen her, touched her, indirectly kissed her, and even lay on top of her and he remembered how soft her body felt under his. 

He still had the mental picture of how she looked like half naked.

Mia living under his roof was a big temptation but somehow, he was confident that he would be able to overcome it..... or maybe not.

    ***************

Mia was inside the school cafeteria with Jeremy when her phone alerted her of a message.  

Her ringtone was unusally loud and sounded funny so a few eyes darted towards their direction, giving her a funny look. 

Jeremy raised his brow in amusement when he saw her take out her phone from her bag. He couldn't believe that people still used those kind of phones. 

Mia was oblivious to whatever was going on around her. 

She noticed the text was from a strange number and clicked on it.

        'Remember to visit the hospital. And make sure you eat something. From your Older brother.'

Mia smiled when she read the text. Older brother indeed. 

"This is the first time I'm seeing you smile like this. Your boyfriend?" Jeremy asked curiously, although he was skeptical about it since he knew she liked Benjamin.

Mia shook her head and kept back her phone inside her bag.

"A certain older brother." She answered with a short laugh.