Walking back into this place felt like slipping on an old jacket I thought I’d burned years ago.Everyone stared when I entered the cafeteria the first time. Some whispered, some gawked. I soaked it in, letting my trademark grin spread across my face like none of it mattered. That’s what they expected from Ethan—the charming troublemaker, the guy who never took life too seriously.And I delivered.Because if I didn’t, the cracks inside me would show.When I tossed that nickname at Lila yesterday and watched the entire cafeteria ripple with shock, part of me was doing it for the fun. I’d missed the thrill, the rush of shaking up a crowd.But another part of me—one I don’t admit out loud—was testing the waters.Because the truth is, I don’t like her that way anymore. Not the way I used to. That crush burned out a long time ago, scorched by time and distance. What’s left now isn’t desire, it’s loyalty. A promise I made silently to myself when I left: that I’d keep her safe, even from afa
I should’ve been happy.That’s what I kept telling myself, even as my stomach twisted into knots and my chest ached like someone had dropped a weight on it. Ethan was back. My twin. My other half. The person who was supposed to know me better than anyone else.And yet, standing in that cafeteria yesterday, staring at him like I was seeing a ghost, I hadn’t felt happy.I’d felt betrayed.Again.Because he didn’t just leave. He vanished. No phone call. No explanation. No warning. I woke up one day and my brother was simply gone.And now he was back, with that cocky grin, throwing out flirty nicknames at Lila like he hadn’t ripped our lives in half the moment he walked away.All day, people whispered about him. They whispered about me too, because of course they did. Twins always attract attention, and now they wanted to know how someone like Ethan could be my brother.I wanted to scream.I wanted to tell them all to shut up, to stop staring, to stop asking questions I didn’t have the en
The world hadn’t stopped spinning after Ethan walked into the cafeteria, but it certainly felt like mine had.I’d never been more aware of eyes on me. Students whispering, Jason tensing beside me like he was ready to tear someone apart, Alex watching with that sharp, calculating look that always made me feel exposed. And then Ethan—smiling like the whole scene had been orchestrated for his amusement.It should’ve felt like a dream, seeing him again. Instead, it was a nightmare I hadn’t prepared for.Because Ethan wasn’t just Ava’s twin. He wasn’t just the boy who had disappeared without a word. He was a piece of my past I had buried under layers of excuses, half-truths, and silence.And now he was back.Loud. Flirty. UntouchableActing like I was still “Sunshine.”Like nothing had changed.I spent the rest of the day walking through campus in a fog. People’s whispers followed me like shadows: Who is he? Did you see how he looked at her? My name and Ethan’s tangled together in conversa
There’s a saying my father used to repeat: never underestimate the man who smiles the loudest.Sitting in the cafeteria earlier, watching Ethan strut in like he owned the place, I finally understood why.The guy was trouble wrapped in charm. A wolf in designer clothes. And the way he casually dropped a pet name for Lila—Sunshine, of all things—sent a ripple of tension across the room I could still feel hours later.Jason’s fists were practically begging for a fight. Ava froze like her brain short-circuited. And Lila… well, Lila was the one who looked like the ground had just been yanked from under her feet.And me?I sat there.Watching.Studying.Cataloguing every twitch of his smirk, every flicker of his gaze, every calculated pause in his words.Because men like Ethan didn’t walk into a room without purpose.And I needed to know exactly what his purpose was.Later that afternoon, the campus buzz hadn’t died down. Ethan had turned one cafeteria entrance into a full-scale rumor machi
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s that people only believe what you give them.You flash a grin, throw out a careless nickname, lean against a table like you own the room—and suddenly, you’re untouchable. A mystery wrapped in charm. Nobody asks questions when they’re too busy laughing at your jokes or rolling their eyes at your shameless flirting.That’s the trick.That’s the mask.And today, in the cafeteria, I wore it better than ever.Because if I hadn’t, someone might’ve noticed the truth—that walking into that room wasn’t confidence. It was chaos.I just refused to let anyone see it.The moment I said “Sunshine,” every pair of eyes turned on me.Jason stiffened, his fists practically itching for a fight. Alex went rigid too, the kind of controlled silence that told me he was already running war strategies in his head. And Lila… she flushed scarlet, lips parting like she’d forgotten how to breathe.Mission accomplished.Chaos achieved.But underneath my smirk, my che
From the second Ethan walked into the cafeteria, I knew trouble had arrived.The energy shifted the moment he stepped through the doors—like a ripple across the room. Heads turned, voices faltered, and then every gaze seemed to follow his path as if he was some kind of gravity no one could resist.Classic Ethan.Even after all this time, my twin still knew how to command a room without trying. His smile was the same—easy, confident, a little bit dangerous. And when he leaned casually against a chair like he owned the place, tossing a flirty nickname at Lila, I almost groaned out loud.“Sunshine.”Oh, Ethan. Really?I didn’t even need to look at Jason to know his jaw had clenched hard enough to crack. Alex had gone rigid, his eyes flicking between Ethan and Lila like he was calculating a hundred outcomes at once. And poor Lila… her face had flushed deep crimson, the kind of red that could mean a million different things.Ethan thrived in that kind of chaos.But I did not.My twin thoug