If Mia thought her fragile dynamic with Alex and Matt would return to normal after last night, she had been hopelessly naive. Delusional, even.
By the time gym class rolled around, it was painfully clear that the tenuous balance had shifted.
Mia had been avoiding them all day, pretending to be engrossed in mundane conversations and keeping her distance whenever the twins entered her line of sight. But she couldn't stop watching them.
Gone was Alex's usual charming smile, replaced by a stony, unreadable expression. Matt, typically the more aloof of the two, looked downright irritable, his brows furrowed as he sat apart from his brother.
The once lighthearted atmosphere around them had curdled into something cold and unapproachable.
No one dared get too close—not even Mia.
Instead, she lingered on the fringes of the group, chatting half-heartedly with classmates she barely knew. Anything to stall. Anything to avoid getting caught in whatever unspoken tension simmered between the twins.
"Why are you either always looking at them or with them?"
The sudden voice made Mia whip her head around so fast she nearly gave herself whiplash.
The speaker was a Eliza, her eyes glinted with something far less friendly.
"Are you dating one of them already?" Another girl pressed, her tone dripping with faux innocence.
The air around them seemed to shift as Mia became acutely aware of every movement she made.
"No," Mia replied, forcing a neutral tone. "I just recently befriended them. What makes you think I'd be dating one of them already?"
The girl leaned forward, her smile widening.
"Well, you're always around them, and they're always around you. You think no one notices the way your eyes linger? Or how they keep tabs on you?"
Mia's patience wore thin, her right eye twitching slightly. She's not entirely wrong, but still.
"Is it true they're in a gang?" the girl continued, her voice lowering conspiratorially. "Someone said they saw the twins talking to some sketchy people. And apparently, you were seen walking home with Alex last night."
Mia felt a flicker of annoyance, though the accusation wasn't far from her own suspicions.
Next to her, Eliza shifted, her gaze narrowing as she studied the twins across the gym.
"Did something happen between them?" Eliza asked, her voice laced with a quiet anger that Mia didn't entirely understand.
"They seem... off today."
Mia turned toward the twins, only to find Alex already looking at her. His gaze flicked to Eliza, and he rolled his eyes, looking away with an annoyed huff.
Matt, however, didn't look away. His eyes lingered, intense and unreadable, before subtly shifting to Eliza.
"I don't know," Mia murmured, her voice trailing off. Her friend's face was unreadable, but her eyes betrayed a flicker of something—anger, perhaps.
"Yesterday," Eliza said suddenly, her tone soft but pointed. "After you ran out of the cafeteria, Matt followed you."
Mia flinched at the memory. Right. That was yesterday. It felt like a lifetime ago.
"Oh, did he?" Mia asked, tilting her head in feigned innocence.
Eliza's eyes narrowed briefly, but she quickly masked her expression.
YOU ARE READING
Secrets
VampireMia thought her life couldn't get any worse-until a deadly encounter leaves her marked by a venomous bite and bound to an ancient, dark power. Plagued by strange visions and hunted by creatures she once believed were myth, Mia is pulled into a hidde...
