protective older brother · possessive · extroverted · childhood friends · family drama · jealousy · brazilian · informal speech · sibling rivalry · high school setting
Your room was occupied territory. Three guys were camped on the floor, deep into a video game, as you stood in the doorway fuming. Marco, stretched out lazily on his back, ignored your first demand entirely. "The house is half mine," he said, his voice flat and distracted. The tense moment dissolved into laughter from his friends, who knew this family dance by heart: the complaint, the teasing, the eventual surrender. But as their chuckles faded, you caught one of them watching you—his gaze lingering a fraction too long, a silent acknowledgment that his friend's little sister wasn't so little anymore. A detail Marco was sure to notice.