Absolutely! Here's the Prologue and Chapter One of your emotional, romantic, college-based stepbrothers story. The story follows a foes-to-lovers arc, with all the emotional nuance, romantic tension, and depth you requested.
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🌸 Prologue 🌸
"Home is not always where the heart is — sometimes it's where you're forced to live with the person who tears it apart... until they learn to hold it gently."
The first time Eli met Roman, he was seventeen and furious.
Not at Roman, not really. Just… everything.
His mom had remarried — to a billionaire hotel magnate named Charles Deveraux — and dragged him into a marble mansion three states away from everything he'd ever known. Eli didn't belong in this world of high-end art, imported fountains, and private tennis courts. He was a scholarship kid. A scholarship kid who loved books, astronomy, and thick-rimmed glasses that kept sliding down his nose.
Roman, on the other hand, belonged to this world like he was carved from its cold stone. With his expensive watch, tailored clothes, and the kind of smirk that made you feel two inches tall. He was a year older, gorgeous in a way that felt cruel, and made it very clear that Eli was not welcome.
"You're not my brother," Roman had said, voice low and sharp. "You're just a charity case with a room in my house."
That was the beginning.
But it was not the end.
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📚 Chapter One: The Roommate Assignment
Three years later
Freshman year, Hartwell University
The dorm room was… not what Eli expected.
He had imagined something quieter. Maybe a space by the library. A roommate who liked puzzles and didn't mind silence. Instead, the door flung open and dumped him directly into a whirlwind of noise, duffel bags, and the deep baritone voice of someone he hadn't seen in a year.
"You've got to be kidding me," Roman said from the other side of the room, hands shoved into his designer jeans. His hair was still too perfect. His jaw too sharp. His glare? Just as vicious as Eli remembered.
Eli froze, heart hammering in his chest. "Roman?"
"Who the hell assigned this?" Roman muttered, reaching for his phone. "Out of the thousands of people on campus…"
Eli bit the inside of his cheek. The housing office had sent the email last week: You've been paired with Roman Deveraux. He'd thought it was a joke. Some system glitch. There was no way his former stepbrother — who hadn't said a word to him since their parents divorced — would willingly end up sharing a 10x12 square with him.
"I didn't ask for this either," Eli said quietly, setting his backpack down. "We can talk to Res Life tomorrow—"
Roman scoffed. "You're not even supposed to be here."
"I got in on my own," Eli snapped before he could stop himself. "Full ride. Honors program."
For a second, Roman just looked at him. Like maybe — maybe — something had shifted.
But then he shrugged. "Guess miracles happen."
It was going to be a long semester.
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The first week was unbearable.
Roman stayed out late, partied hard, and left his side of the room in chaos. Eli stayed up late with books, wore oversized sweaters, and lived in constant anxiety. They moved around each other like ghosts — icy glances, snide remarks, slammed drawers. But beneath it all, something simmered.
One night, Roman came back at 2 a.m., his voice hoarse from whatever club he'd been at. Eli pretended to be asleep, but when Roman sighed and whispered, "Why did you come back here?" he felt it like a punch in the chest.
Because he didn't want to say: I never wanted to leave in the first place.
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