My brother and the Jock

Prologue

One day that's all it takes to ruin a life.

This isn't my story, but I made it happen. My name is Rose. I'm 16, and so is my twin brother, Ben. We couldn't be more different if we tried.

For starters, we both have a crush on the same guy Ethan, the school's golden boy. He's charming, athletic, and has this effortlessly cool aura that seems to draw everyone in. Ben came out as bisexual a few months ago, and while I want to be supportive, I'd be lying if I said it didn't throw me for a loop. I'm trying to understand, but it's not exactly easy when we're practically competing for the same guy's attention.

You'd think being twins would make us inseparable, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Growing up, we were closer than close. Ben was my built-in best friend, the person who knew me better than anyone else. We shared everything; jokes, secrets, even our frustrations with Mom and Dad. But somewhere along the way, we drifted apart. We used to be close, practically joined at the hip, but everything changed last year when Carter, Ben's best friend, died. Carter was more than just a friend to Ben he was like family. They'd been inseparable since elementary school, always laughing, always planning their next big adventure. And then, out of nowhere, Carter was gone. I remember the day it happened so clearly. The phone call in the middle of the night. The ring wakes up the whole family, Mom yells at Ben to pick it up. I looked at him as I saw the way Ben's face crumpled when he found out. It was like the light went out of him. Carter's death hit Ben like a freight train, and the brother I knew disappeared overnight.

Since then, Ben has been a shell of himself. He shut everyone out our parents, his friends, and even me. He stopped talking about the things he loved and stopped smiling the way he used to. Instead, he burrowed deeper into himself, drowning in his grief. I tried to reach out at first, but every attempt felt like hitting a brick wall. Eventually, I stopped trying as hard.

While Ben's been lost in his pain, I've been busy trying to keep up appearances. High school is its battlefield, and being part of the popular crowd isn't as easy as it looks. There's an unspoken pressure to always look like you have everything together. My days are filled with parties, popularity contests, and carefully practiced smiles, and it's exhausting. But at least it's something I can control. Ben became the quiet, bookish type a total nerd. He spends most of his time holed up in his room, headphones on, lost in a world of video games or fantasy novels. Me? I'm one of the popular kids. My life is full of parties, late-night group texts, and carefully curated social media posts. It's not that I don't like who Ben is; it's just that we've grown into completely different people. It's like we're living in two completely different worlds now, and I don't know how to bridge the gap. Sometimes, I catch myself looking at Ben across the room and wondering if he misses me as much as I miss him. I want to reach out, but it's hard. How do you fix something that feels so broken?

Then there's Ethan. His easy grin, the way he carries himself like he owns every room he walks into it's hard not to fall for someone like him. I see the way Ben watches him, though, with this quiet, yearning look that breaks my heart. It's not fair. It feels like just one more thing pulling us apart, one more reason to stay on opposite sides of the chasm between us. But the truth is, I'm tired of pretending everything's fine. I miss my brother. I miss the way we used to be. And maybe, just maybe, it's not too late to fix things.

But things don't stay buried forever. Secrets, heartbreak, and guilt have a way of creeping back up, and sooner or later, the choices He's made are going to come crashing down on him.

A/N: This is the prologue or the discretion but Wattpad said it was too long.

(Word Count: 716)