Sebastian and I stared at each other with narrowed eyes while silently wishing the other would die.

The silence was interrupted by my brother clearing his throat. "So, why are we just randomly staring at each other like weirdos?" my brother called out with an awkward laugh.

Completely ignoring Max's remark, Sebastian gave me a disgust-filled once over. "Well, if it isn't Miss perverted little princess," he scoffed.

"And if it isn't Mr, annoying pain in my arse," I bit back before I could stop myself.

Lara stepped forward with a look of confusion on her face. "Wait, you guys know each other?" she asked as she looked back and forth between her brother and me.

"Hmm," Sebastian and I muttered at the same time as we continually glared at each other.

Breaking our staring contest, Sebastian swiftly turned to his sister. "Lara, let's bounce, his sister is trash."

As my lower jaw hung itself open, the bastard had the cheek to do a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree spin before heading back for the door.

He barely made it two steps before Lara snatched him back by the scruff of his shirt before swinging him back to face me. "Hey, get back here you idiot. Have you got no manners," she hissed as she slapped him upside the head.

Sebastian glared at her. "Ow, no need to be violent," he snapped as he gingerly rubbed his head.

Lara's eyes went fiery mad. "Well, there's no need to be rude, is there? I don't care what your beef is with Phoebe, you're going to behave," she scolded, very much sounding like a mother telling off her three-year-old brat.

Unable to help myself, I let out a half snicker. "Sebastian? Behave?" I laughed. "We'd have better luck training a monkey."

As I was met with another heated glare from Sebastian, I was suddenly jerked back by a swift pull on my elbow. Pulling me further to the side, my brother swung me away from them. "Phoebe," Max hissed, sending me a warning glare. "What happened to making this dinner perfect? Play nice!"

Remembering my earlier words about being on my best behavior, my eyes softened, and I reluctantly nodded my head. Feud or not, I had to at least try and act civil for the sake of Max, no matter how disgusting the idea of dining with Sebastian sounded.

Stepping back round to face them, my brother's face spread into a warm happy grin. "Yeah, of course, we don't mind that Sebastian's here; the more the merrier," he laughed.

Sebastian's and I's eyes met over the shoulders of our siblings before instantly narrowing.

"Now, why don't you guys follow me, dinner's already on the table," Max smiled, as he nodded his head for them to follow.

As Lara, and Max walked on ahead laughing about something, Sebastian, being the annoying nuisance that he is, decided to hang back so he could walk along beside me in step.

Letting out a loose snicker, Sebastian spared me a glance. "I should have guessed you live here now; you definitely act spoiled enough to. Don't you little Miss cheer princess?"

Though ten different insults arrived at my head all in a second, I bit firmly down on my lip and fought back the urge to spit one out. This is about Max; not you, Phoebe. This is about Max; not you.

Stabbing at little bits of my peas, I listened on with a faint smile as Lara finished talking. It had only been about ten minutes into dinner, but I had already decided I was in love with Lara. She was the ideal kind of person to date – beautiful, funny, and down to earth. Or, in other words, the complete opposite of Sebastian. I do, admit I was feeling kind of skeptical of what she might be like since she had an asshole for a brother but luckily, she had proved herself to be absolutely nothing like him. After taking some time to look at her properly, I had also realized I had in fact bumped into her a few times, years ago, when I used to hang out at Sebastian's house, but we never really talked too much since she always seemed to be on the way out to meet with friends.

"Aww, you met working at Dad's company. That's so cute," I gushed once she'd finally finished talking. Apparently, the two of them had worked side-by-side since she converted Portuguese, German, and Spanish for him as the company's interpreter.

Lara smiled back at me from across the table and was seconds away from replying to me when she was interrupted.

"Aww, you met working at Dad's company. That's so cute," a voice said, imitating me in a high falsetto tone.

Turning to my side, I was unsurprised to find none other than Sebastian Diaz, the no-brain moron, making faces as he finished off his cheap imitation of me.

Clutching my fork, in a tighter grip, I imagined burning lasers through his head. And before you ask, I have no idea why they sat this imbecile next to me, but all I know was that it was testing all my patience.

"Is there a problem, Sebastian?" I spat tightly.

Smiling at me in that annoyingly charming way, Sebastian put on the act of his life. "None, at all, Phoebe," he said, blinking back at me with feigned innocence.

Narrowing my eyes, I reluctantly turned back around, knowing I couldn't say anything under the keenly watching eyes of our elder siblings.

My brother leaned forward in his chair, and his eyes twinkled as he looked back and forth between Sebastian and me.

"Wait a second, are you little ten-year-old, Seb? As in the Sebastian that used to tag along after Phoebe back in elementary school?" Max asked with recognition sparking in his eyes.

Sebastian froze a little at his words, clearly as uncomfortable as me at being reminded that we were ever friends.

"Hmm," Sebastian nodded. "A long, long time ago," he murmured, his voice cut with sharpness.

Frustration worked through my chest at how he was making a friendship with me sound. That bastard was lucky there was ever a point I called him my friend.

"Aww, no way," Max smiled. "You're so big now, I hardly recognized you. I'm pretty sure you must be taller than me now," he laughed, as his eyes rocked back and forth between Sebastian's fondly.

Making a fist over the tops of my lips, I pretended to cough. "Not so big in other ways though," I muffled out in a cough before shooting Sebastian a sly look.

He seemed to clock on in an instance that I was talking about his dick, and sent me the most hate-filled glare. And being the little conniving bitch that I was, I merely responded with a wink.

Ironically, I thought his junk was actually rather large. But that fact, by no means, was going to stop me from slipping in tiny dick comments at every opportunity I could.

Luckily for me, Lara and Max shot me a confused look, not seeming to know what I was on about. But that was fine by me, as long as the right person knew what I was talking about, I was happy as pie.

As Max and Lara continued on with whatever conversation they were having, I smirked a little as I felt Sebastian's spite-filled eyes digging into the side of my face. Then, stiffening in surprise, I froze in confusion as Sebastian brought his lips up to my ear. I shivered as his breath brushed against the side of my ear. "Game on, Brooks," he whispered.

The moments the words left his lips, I instantly smelt trouble and my heart stopped. Having dealt with him for so many years, I was well aware of his amazing ability to fuck things up for me in seconds.

To unnerve me even further, Sebastian relaxed back in his chair all with a content little smile. Crap. Crap. Crap. I was fucked, very much fucked.

Seconds away from excusing myself to go to the toilet, I was interrupted by my brother. "So, Sebastian," my brother smiled. "How have things been with you? What's happening at school?" he asked curiously.

With an easy smile still planted on his face, Sebastian shrugged. "Oh, nothing much. Got full marks in my Bio paper, got selected for some weird science award, and...erm...let me see, I stayed after school and beat my record in swim," he listed off, all while sparing me boasting glances.

I rolled my eyes at his completely undisguised bragging. Like, what? Did he think listing a few measly achievements out to me would get me to drop my panties and blow him a kiss? Huh, not likely.

Hoping to drown out my pain, I snatched up my glass of water and took a long ass sip.

"Oh," he said suddenly. "And how could I forget. Phoebe over here also got a look at my dick," he announced abruptly.

Completely unprepared for that statement to leave his mouth, my water suddenly lodged itself down the wrong end of my throat and I started manically coughing.

"WHAT!" Max and Lara both shouted out simultaneously, their eyes widening to the size of saucers. For whatever demonic reason, Sebastian found this funny, and he soon started to piss himself with silent laughter.

"You saw Sebastian's dick. That's the dick you saw today," my brother stammered out, clearly remembering back to our earlier conversation.

"Yup," Sebastian called out with a smile, being of absolutely no help.

With a racing heart, I collected myself together some from my coughing fit and shook my head frantically. "No, no, no, no. You do not understand," I rushed out breathily, desperate to rectify the situation.

"Why the fuck were you naked at school, Sebastian? " Lara cried as she looked her brother up and down in shock.

Sebastian completely unfazed continued smiling. "Oh, because I was in the locker room shower. Phoebe just decided to join me. Isn't that right, Phoebs?" he said, as he shot me a mischievous look.

So horrified at this point, all I could do was stare into Sebastian's soulless eyes as my left eye started nervously twitching away.

My brother whipped his head back in my direction. "The shower!" Max screamed. "You had sex in the boy's locker room shower! At school!"

My eyes widened, and I shook my head so fast I almost got whiplash. "No, no, no, god no, I-"

I was interrupted by Max's sharp cry of disbelief. Running a hand through his hair, he looked at me stunned. "Phoebe, I know I said, I didn't mind you branching out sexually, but I did not mean at school and in the boy's fucking shower! That's some crazy shit!" he cried out.

The sound of Sebastian's deep bellows of laughter soon broke the air. Snapping my head over to his with spite, I found him shaking with laughter as he struggled to regain back his breath

As the last of his cackles left him, he sobered himself up and straightened himself back up in his chair. "Guys, I'm just messing around," he smiled. "Phoebe was just helping her coach collect lost clothes from the locker room, and she stumbled on me by accident," he explained as his gaze drifted to mine. "Though I must admit, I do like my version better," he chuckled as he shot me a wink.

Simultaneously, Max and Lara's shoulders sagged down in relief as though they could finally breathe again. "Oh, thank god," Lara murmured, holding a hand to her chest.

Slowly, after the shock had subsided some, Lara and Max continued on with their conversation while Sebastian's eyes twinkled back at me with a smirk.

I stiffened as I felt him lean his lips up to my ear. Goosebumps erupted on me, at the feel of his breath. "Remember this, the next time you want to talk negatively about my dick," he whispered.

Slowly, bit by bit the dinner soon drew to a close, not without a few back-and-forth leg kicks and snide comments from Sebastian and myself, of course. As my brother and I, collected up everyone's plates, I counted down the glorious minutes, until we could officially kick Sebastian-the tattle-telling prick out of our house. And in case you're wondering, I'm very much still holding a grudge against him for his stunt at dinner. If he had pulled that shit when my parents were home, I would have been grounded for the rest of my life.

Once Max had cleared away the last plate, he made his way back to the table. I sat up straighter in excitement, knowing it was soon Sebastian- kicking-out time.

Then I watched in confusion, as Max shot me one of his guilty smiles. "Phoebe, I'm so sorry but Lara and I kinda want time alone, so would you mind taking Sebastian up to your room so we can-"

"NO!" I interrupted before he could even finish. "Nope, no way, not a fucking chance," I cried out dramatically as I rose to my feet.

Both Lara, and Max blinked back at me in shock, clearly, a little caught off guard by my sudden reaction. Letting out a bitter laugh, I sent a spiteful look toward Sebastian. "You're having a laugh if you think I'm taking that to my room," I scoffed

Sebastian angled himself towards me, and put a hand to his chest, in a pretense of hurt. "Why Phoebe? Are you saying you don't want to spend time with me?" he asked, blinking back at me softly.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying," I hissed. Catching my brother's eyes, I watched as they softened. "Come on Phoebs, I know it's hard but can't you just-"

"No," I interrupted. "I won't have him there, I just won't," I spat stubbornly, not caring how much I sounded like a spoiled five-year-old brat. "I bet he's not even house trained. Who's to say he won't take a piss on my floor, the minute I turn my back," I accused.

Sebastian frowned. "That's not true, at all," he mumbled.

Scoffing, I raised a singular brow. "Is it not?" I snapped sassily.

"No," he smiled. "I'd take a piss on your pillow," he winked.

Letting out a disbelieving cry, I turned back to my brother. "See, that was a literal confession. Don't you see what I'm dealing with," I cried.

There was a moment of silence before I heard the clearing of a throat. Looking towards Lara, I watched as she gave me a short yet heartfelt smile. "Don't worry about it, Phoebe, we can just go. I know how much a handful my brother can be," she sighed as she rose to her feet. "Come on, Seb," she said, nodding her head for him to follow after her.

Watching her take her first step away twisted something in my heart and I suddenly remembered how much I liked her. She didn't deserve this.

Feeling guilty, I opened my mouth. "Wait, Lara, maybe I can-"

"Thank you so much Phoebs, you're a lifesaver," Max smiled. Then before I got a chance to get a word in otherwise, my brother grabbed Lara's hand and started dragging her away to our cinema room.

As I stared after the two of them flabbergasted, I heard the sound of steady footsteps draw closer.

Glancing to my left, I found Sebastian by my side. He snorted. You know, they just played you, right?"

"Yeah...," I sighed. "I know..."

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Next update: Thursday