"What's up, Kelly," Luke asks as I log into one of the cash registers inside the candy bar.

Luke graduated from Rockstar Bay Academy at the end of last year and is someone I never really knew or spoke to before we started working at the cinema together. He's a jock, and I'm a musician, and in Rockstar Bay the two don't often mix well. There has always been some rivalry between the athletes and the musicians at the Academy, because unlike everywhere else in this country, athleticism in Rockstar Bay comes second to music. And athletes don't like that too much.

"Not much," I say, pausing what I'm doing so I can look at him. "I was just wondering, would you mind giving me a ride home tonight?"

The grin he offers me is huge. "Of course not. I always offer, you just never take me up on it."

I smile back at him. "I know. Still, you might have been busy tonight."

"I'm free. Is the bike broken?"

"No, but I'm not allowed to ride home late anymore, apparently."

The grin vanishes. "Did something happen?"

"No. Well, other than me moving further away from the cinema."

"Right, the new step-family situation."

Everyone in Rockstar Bay knows what's happening in my personal life thanks to the widely publicized wedding.

"Yup."

His smile returns as he leans on the counter, facing me. Work is always slow on a Monday night, but the place is dead tonight. Meaning, I'll have little to distract me when Ethan walks in here with Ainsley.

I try to block out the thought and focus on Lucas.

"You know, we could hang out sometime," Luke suggests. "If you're looking to avoid your place."

"And where would we hang out?" I ask, raising an eyebrow as I try to work out how serious he is.

Luke is pretty good looking. Unlike the guys in the music program, he's clean-cut in every way. His blond hair is cut short but sticks up when he runs a hand through it. His hazel eyes always seem to smile, and his body is lean and strong from running. He's the definition of hot, and he knows it. He's often flirted with me, but since he flirts with anyone and has a bit of a reputation for being a heartbreaker - something the girls at work have told me about - I've never really paid much attention to his attention.

But I do want to get out of the house. And Luke would be a fun date.

"The Rockstar Bay Beach Festival is on next weekend. We could go together?"

I grin. The festival always takes place on Australia Day and it's a huge deal in the Bay. "That sounds good."

"All right then," he nods, looking happy. "Remind me to grab your number when we ride home so we can organize it."

"It's a date."

I reach out and touch his arm before he can walk away, remembering Kennedy and I always go together. The festival is an Australia day tradition.

"I usually go with my friend, you know, Kennedy Dale?"

"Cool. I have a mate who might want to double. How does that sound?"

"Perfect."

Luke and my co-workers, Jenny and Kimberley spend the next while cracking jokes and chatting with me, all of us trying to avoid boredom. Just as I realise I'm actually having a really good time, Kimberley's shift ends, Jenny goes on break, and the dreaded foursome enters the cinema.

"The family has arrived," Luke says. "Is that Maddison Taylor with Asher?"

"Uh-huh."

"The guy has pull, I'll give him that."

I scowl at Luke and his deep laugh rumbles over me, causing Ethan and Asher to look over at us from the entrance.

"Relax," Luke says, then winks. "You're prettier."

It's nice of him to say, but Luke is a charmer and I never know if he's genuine.

He nudges my shoulder with his. "I have to refill the slushie machine, so you're going to have to serve the fam without me."

I roll my eyes. "Thanks."

"Kidding, Jen is on her way back."

I breathe a sigh of relief when my co-worker exits the staffroom.

"You're just in time," I tell her as she logs into the register beside mine.

She flips her long brown hair over her shoulder and looks over at the foursome, who are now standing in the empty ticket line, staring up at the posters of current movie releases.

"Ah, Rockstar Bay Royalty. They here for you?"

"Kind of."

Once the group have bought their tickets, they join the nonexistent candy bar line. Jenny calls over Asher and Maddison, leaving me to serve Ethan and Ainsley.

 Ethan is wearing a plain striped polo t-shirt with dark blue jeans, and his thick brown hair is gelled back. 

"Hey," Ethan says, a wide smile on his handsome face as he approaches.

Ainsley, on the other hand, wears a pout.

"Hey," I say to Ethan, ignoring Ainsley. "How was rehearsal?"

"Good. How's work?"

"It's alright. Quiet."

"Yeah, not many people going to see movies tonight."

"What are you seeing?"

"Ah, the latest Marvel flick."

Before I can stop it, the memory of the last time Ethan and I came to the movies as a couple floats through my mind. We bought tickets to a Marvel movie, but we didn't spend much time actually watching the screen. We were far more interested in all the things we could do under the cloak of darkness. The thought of Ethan doing those things with Ainsley in the dark cinema makes me feel like battery acid just exploded in my stomach.

As if she knows what's going through my mind, Ainsley smiles viciously at me, and I remember the horrible things she said about me in the article. Anger burns in my gut. Anger at her for being a giant bitch to me because I dated Ethan before her, and anger at Ethan for bringing her here and flaunting everything we aren't any more in my face, even if that isn't his intention.

"Thanks for checking up on me," I say, looking at Ainsley instead of him. "But I have a ride home."

I want Ainsley to know Ethan is here because he wanted to give me a ride home. And I fully intend to have words with Ethan about bringing Ainsley with him, no matter how well-intentioned he is. 

Ethan stops smiling and glares at Luke. "I'd rather you come home with us. I mean we're going that way anyway. It makes more sense, don't you think?"

"No. The movie finishes before my shift ends."

"Forty minutes earlier. We can wait." He turns to Ainsley. "Can't we?"

Ainsley looks up at Ethan seductively. "I can think of plenty of things to do in forty minutes."

And...I'm going to throw up.

"Thanks, but I'm not coming home with you," I glare at Ethan as angry heat climbs my neck and face. "And really, why stay and do all those things here when you can go home and do them there?"

My voice is supposed to be ice-cold, but I know Ethan has heard the hurt beneath the ice because he winces. No doubt if he heard it, Ainsley heard it, too.

I hate letting Ainsley see that she's getting to me, but I hate the idea of them making out here or at the Cassidy mansion that is now my home.

Sensing he's fighting a losing battle, Ethan puts his hands together as if he's about to pray. "Please, Lilah. I'll feel better if I'm not worried about your safety."

It's on the tip of my tongue to tell him that he should be worried about Ainsley's safety. Because when I get my hands on her...

"Are you ordering anything to eat? People are waiting in line."

There's one person in the queue, and Jenny is almost done serving Asher and Maddison, but I'm over this conversation. Over everything to do with Ethan and Ainsley.

"Is everything okay, Lilah?" Luke asks, appearing at my side.

"It's fine. Ethan was just about to order something. I think."

For a tense moment, Luke and Ethan stare at each other, then Ethan briskly orders a large combo deal.

"You okay?" Luke asks quietly as we work side by side, getting the order ready.

"I'll be fine."

He nods, hands me the large box of popcorn, and I walk back to the counter.

After paying the total, Ethan waits for me to meet his gaze, "Stay safe. I'll talk to you later."

"Later," I nod.

We need to talk. I need to make sure Ethan understands boundaries. Somehow, the two of us navigated a friendship after our break-up, but at this moment in time, I'm not one-hundred per cent certain it can or should continue. Ethan is trying to take care of me in his own way, but he needs to take a step back. We can't be buddy-buddy the way he wants to be while he's romantically involved with Ainsley. 

Because as much as I've tried to convince myself I'm over the worst of the heartbreak, it lingers. And now that we're living together...it's a wound that is going to keep being scraped raw every day.

***

Ethan is sitting at one of the marble benches in the kitchen when I make my way downstairs for breakfast the next morning. Wearing nothing but a pair of red boxer-briefs, he's scrolling through his phone. As I walk past, I stem the impulse to go up to him and run my hands over him. He isn't mine to touch and he hasn't been for a while.

"Morning," he says tentatively, putting his phone down when he sees me standing there.

"Morning," I say, equally tentatively. "How was your night with Ainsley?"

Casting his gaze downwards towards his phone, he says, "It was fine."

The thought of just how fine it might have been is a punch in the gut that I really don't need before I've eaten.

"Great."

"So," Ethan starts, standing up. "What do you want for breakfast?"

"I'm actually not that hungry."

"Come on, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You always told me so."

I want to walk out of the kitchen and come back later. The way we're sort of looking at each other but not quite meeting each other's gaze isn't usual for the two of us, and I just feel awkward. But I need to talk to Ethan about the way I'm feeling, so I nod.

"You better show me where everything is, then."

He gets up and takes me on an in-depth tour of the kitchen, opening nearly every cupboard to show me what's inside. I decide on yoghurt and a piece of wholemeal toast, while Ethan pours himself a giant bowl of cereal. When we both have everything we need, including glasses of juice, we sit down at the large marble benchtop to eat.

"I heard you get in last night," Ethan says after a moment.

He is clearly looking for a response or a reason why I didn't come in until close to one when I finished my shift at midnight.

I shrug. "I sat in the car talking to Luke for a bit."

Ethan glances down at his cereal, chewing and not looking at me. Once he finishes his mouthful, he looks at me, locking eyes with me.

"He has a reputation for playing with girl's hearts and then and breaking them, you know that, right?"

"I do."

His jaw clenches. "You're not worried?"

"I'm not. And nor should you be."

"I can't help it, we're-"

"Please don't say you're looking out for me because we're family."

"We're not just family, Lilah, we're friends."

"Well, maybe we shouldn't be," I blurt out.

He hunches over as if I've just punched him in the stomach, and his blue eyes fill with hurt. "How can you say that? I've done everything possible to show you that we can still be friends."

"You have a girlfriend, Ethan-"

"So what? Ainsley's existence doesn't stop me caring about you. It didn't stop me from coming to the cinema last night to bring you home."

"Yes, but you brought Ainsley with you. I told you I didn't want to spend time with you and her, and yet you turned up with her last night and I had to listen to her..."

I trail off, my throat suddenly tight as I remember what she implied about how she would spend her free time with Ethan. I want to be over my ex-boyfriend – my stepbrother – and I'm trying hard, but her barbs always pierce my heart. I don't want to hurt anymore.

"Lilah..."

The way his eyes soften as he reaches out to take my hand in his makes my heart hurt even more.

"Friends try not to hurt each other," I continue, pulling my hand free. "You keep forgetting I don't want to be around her, or you when you're with her. I've told you this before."

"I know, but-"

"It still hurts to see you with her, Ethan," I say, holding his gaze, trying to make him understand with more than just words that he needs to take me seriously. "Especially when you're...when she's making it clear you guys are hooking up."

"I'm sorry for bringing Ainsley to the cinema with me." Each word he says is weighted heavily with regret. "I want to hang out with you, and if you don't want to spend time with me and Ainsley, I'll make sure Ainsley isn't with me during those times, okay? I don't want to lose our friendship. It's too important to me. You are important to me."

"I know you care about me, Ethan, but now we're living together, and we're step-siblings, and...you walked into my bedroom yesterday like we were still together, saying my bed is your favourite." I trail off, trying to find the words I need. "You're not supposed to say that stuff to me anymore. If we're friends, then we're friends. You can't blur the lines between us that way. Not when you're going out with her later to do...everything that we..."

Everything we never did.

"Okay. I'll...be more careful with what I say."

"Thank you. And on the subject of Ainsley," I push on before I lose my momentum. "I'm angry that she said those things about me in the article. I mean, did you talk to her about it? Did you read the article and see what she said about me?"

"Yes, and I told her I wasn't happy about it." He sighs, running a hand through his hair and messing it up more than it is already. "She's insecure."

"That's no excuse."

"I know that."

It is my turn to sigh. I'm not sure how he can be friends with me and date her. I don't know what he sees in her.

"She knows that you're still important to me," Ethan says quietly. "She's jealous. That's not your fault, it's mine. She thinks...I still love you."

I hold my breath as he holds my gaze. There is no point in asking whether he is or isn't because it doesn't matter. Not when he can't – won't - pick me when his brother tries to force him to make choices. So why does he have to say things like that to me?

"No matter what she thinks, she doesn't get to lash out at me because you broke up with me and then got with her."

Again, Ethan looks like I punched him. "I didn't cheat."

"I never said you did, but you sure moved on quickly."

Hurt drips from my words and slides along my veins, bleeding out of my chest. It is something I've felt before but never voiced. And now that I have expressed my feelings aloud, I want him to explain how he could throw away what we had and walk into someone's else's arms like I never mattered.

"She's hot and she's popular," Asher says, swaggering into the kitchen at that moment. "And according to Ethan, she puts out. Why wouldn't he move on with her?"

If I was hurt before, my chest feels as if it has been cracked wide open with an axe now, and I feel ill. It's bad enough knowing Ethan is sleeping with Ainsley without hearing Asher confirm it. And does Asher know that I never went all the way with Ethan? Has Ethan told him that?

Asher's eyes narrow on me as he opens the fridge, clearly trying to gauge my reaction to his words. It's so exhausting putting up with his constant jabs, and I have no respite in sight. Not now that he's in my life as my stepbrother. 

When Asher puts the carton of juice to his mouth and drinks from it, I push my glass away.

Asher's gaze never leaves mine as he wipes his mouth and walks up to the bench Ethan and I are sitting at. Neither of the Cassidy brothers appears to prioritize getting dressed for breakfast. Asher is shirtless, the tattoos on his chest on display. I lower my gaze to my breakfast the moment I realize I'm counting his abs to see if he has a sixpack or a supposedly impossible eightpack. 

"Are we going to the beach today?"

When I glance back up at Asher's face, I'm relieved to see he's talking to his brother and not me.

Ethan looks at me. "I was just about to ask-"

"No," Asher says, cutting him off. "She's not coming with us. Ainsley will be there, and Lilah doesn't want to spend time with you and your girl."

Both Ethan and I stare at Asher as we realize he must have heard at least part of our conversation.

"He's right," I say to Ethan. "I actually have some homework to get done, anyway."

"But it's summer break and studying is so...so lame," he sputters.

"Maybe, but them's the breaks," I say, repeating one of my mother's favourite phrases.

I want to make a comment about hanging out with Asher being lamer, but I'm not interested in causing any more waves or friction with my stepbrother from hell, and the sooner I can get away from him the better. Truthfully, I do have work to do. If I want to be the best singer-songwriter the world has ever seen, I have a long road ahead of me. A really, really, really long road. As much as it cut me to hear the things Asher said at the dinner table last night, some of them were true.

Seeing Ethan's disheartened expression, I say, "Don't worry about me. We'll hang out another time."

When he isn't hanging out with people I want to avoid.

Not that making plans to hang out with him is something I plan to do a lot of for the next little while. Truthfully, we need a real break. Or at least, I need as much of a break as I can get from him.

"What are you going to work on?" Ethan asks me.

"My music. I haven't written much since school ended."

Who knows? Maybe with all this heartbreak that I'm feeling, I'll write the best song of my life and win one of the headlining spots in the end of year showcase. I can only hope that channelling the pain I feel might work in my favour.

"I'll probably spend the rest of the hols writing my songs when I'm not working," I say after finishing a mouthful of toast.

Ethan shakes his head. "We've talked about this before. You need inspiration regularly to feed your creativity."

"She has plenty," Asher says as he takes a bowl out of the cupboard. "She'll probably be sobbing over the pages, writing about you and Ainsley."

I shoot Asher a death glare, wishing he'd wither away on the spot and expire. The fact he's so easily guessed what I plan to write about is annoying as hell. He smirks over his shoulder at me as if he knows what I'm thinking. Ethan, on the other hand, looks horrified by the idea I might write a song about him and Ainsley.

I finish the rest of my breakfast in a hurry and then take my dishes over to the sink, rinsing them.

"Have a good day," I tell Ethan.

"Lilah, wait," he calls before I can leave the kitchen. "We always go to the Australia Day Beach Festival together. I'm taking you this year."

"Thanks," I say quietly, crossing my arms and looking him dead in the eye. "But I've got a date."

Ethan's jaw drops, then he curls his fists as his expression darkens. "Tell me you're not going with Luke."

I shrug. "He offered. Kennedy is coming with me. We're doubling."

"But..." he sputters.

Asher puts a hand on his brother's shoulder and when Ethan whirls to face him, Asher says, "We need to get ready."

It's the window I need to walk away, and Asher just willingly provided it. I shouldn't be surprised. Asher is all for me moving on from Ethan. 

When Ethan and I were together, Asher's desire to keep us as far apart as possible was a problem. Now that we're not together, and now that I'm doing my best to move on, Asher's desire to prevent Ethan from spending time with me might actually be something I can use to my benefit. I'm determined to move on. And the sooner Ethan gets out of my way and allows it to happen, the better.

And hey, moving on after heartbreak, moving on from the one I love, might be a good song to start writing this morning.

Walking up the stairs, I start composing in my head before sitting down at my desk and jotting down some lyrics to go with the piece of music that is taking form in my head. A song that hopefully won't be compared to bubblegum pop by my teachers.