Eighteen Days to Forget You

Eighteen days after giving up on Jarrett Sheppard, Alayna Dickerson cut off her waist-length hair and called her father, announcing her decision to move to California and attend the UC Berkeley College of Music.

Her father, Samuel Dickerson, surprised, asked about the sudden change, reminding her how she'd always insisted on staying with Jarrett. Alayna forced a laugh, revealing the painful truth: Jarrett was getting married, and she, his stepsister, could no longer cling to him.

That night, she tried to tell Jarrett about her college acceptance, but his fiancée, Kisha Prince, interrupted with a bubbly call, and Jarrett's tender words to Kisha twisted a knife in Alayna's heart. She remembered how his tenderness used to be hers alone, how he had given her her first harmonica when she was eight, becoming her musical mentor, and how she had poured out her heart to him in a love letter at seventeen, only for him to explode, tearing the letter and yelling, "I'm your brother!"

He had stormed out, leaving her to painstakingly tape the shredded pieces back together. Her love, however, didn't die, not even when he brought Kisha home and told her to call her "sister-in-law."

Now, she understood. She had to put that fire out herself. She had to dig Jarrett out of her heart.

Chapter 1

Eighteen days after she decided to give up on Jarrett Sheppard, Alayna Dickerson cut off her waist-length hair. She stood in front of the mirror and smoked her first cigarette, the smoke curling around her fingers. The taste was bitter.

That night, she called her father across the country.

"Dad, I got into the UC Berkeley College of Music."

Her voice was quiet.

"I want to move to California. I want to be with you again."

Her father, Samuel Dickerson, sounded surprised on the other end of the line. "After your mom and I divorced, I settled down here. I always asked you to come over, but you insisted on staying with your step-brother, Jarrett. Why the sudden change?"

Alayna lowered her eyes, which were red and swollen. She forced a small, light laugh.

"Some paths you have to walk to the end to know they're dead ends."

She paused, her voice shaking slightly.

"Jarrett is getting married. It's not right for me, his sister with no blood relation, to cling to him anymore."

Her father sighed, his voice full of sympathy. "It's good you've figured it out. Come live with me. You can pursue your music dreams properly."

"Okay," Alayna said, then hung up.

She saw her swollen eyes in the reflection of the dark phone screen. She went to the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face. She had two weeks until she left for Berkeley. She had to pull herself together.

She walked down the hallway and noticed the light was on in the study. She hesitated for a moment, then pulled up her e-acceptance letter on her phone and knocked on the door.

"Come in." Jarrett's voice was cool and magnetic.

Inside, Jarrett Sheppard sat at his desk. He wore gold-rimmed glasses and looked elegant, aloof, and disciplined as he typed on his computer.

"Jarrett," Alayna said softly. This was the man who was her step-brother. He was also the secret, hidden crush of her entire teenage life.

Jarrett looked up from his screen, his brow furrowed in a slight frown. "Something wrong?"

Alayna pursed her lips, hesitating. "The college admission results are out..."

Before she could finish, a cute, bubbly ringtone cut through the quiet room. "Darling, answer the phone~"

Jarrett's frown vanished instantly. He picked up his phone, and a gentle smile spread across his face as he listened to the person on the other end.

"Kisha, what's wrong? You can work directly with the wedding planner. Just tell them to arrange whatever designs you want. Remember, money is no object."

A sharp bitterness filled Alayna's chest. Jarrett's tenderness used to belong only to her.

When she was eight, her remarried mother brought her to the Sheppard household. She stood awkwardly in the grand mansion, lost and alone. Young Jarrett had walked over and handed her a delicate harmonica, playing a simple children's song. "Little Alayna, let music speak for you," he'd said.

That was the beginning of her musical dreams, and the beginning of her falling for him.

Then, on her seventeenth birthday, just before Jarrett graduated from college, she gave him everything. She gave him a diary filled with her feelings and a love letter where she poured out her heart.

That day, Jarrett exploded. He flipped the gift box over, sending its contents scattering across the floor.

"Alayna Dickerson, are you sick? I'm your brother! Do you have no shame?" he had yelled.

He stormed out of the house that day without a second glance. Alayna cried as she picked up the shredded pieces from the floor.

But on the day she finished high school, Jarrett brought a woman named Kisha Prince home.

"Alayna, call her 'sister-in-law'," he'd said.

That night, Alayna cried until she couldn't breathe. She finally understood that the ninety-nine steps she had taken through thorns to reach him meant nothing. She and Jarrett would only ever be siblings. There was no other possibility.

The intense love that had burned in her heart for years now felt like a fire that was burning her alive.

Now, she understood. She had to put that fire out herself. She had to dig Jarrett out of her heart.