Promised To The Alpha Twins
Chapter 2

The alarm clock went off just before six, giving me more than enough time to get to school. By that time, Lia had already left for work, and I knew Dub wouldn’t do so until much later, almost around noon. I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, combed my hair, put on the least wrinkled outfit I had, and grabbed a bag of potato chips from the kitchen, which I promised myself to replace later once I had secured a new job. Although, upon considering it, I deduced that the bag of chips had been bought with the money that my father, ever since Lia took custody of me, deposited into her bank account. She never mentioned it, but it was the same story as when my grandmother took care of me: a strange monthly deposit made by a man who claimed to be my father, and it was better not to ask questions.

I arrived at school with enough time to calmly make my way to the principal’s office, passing through the students crowding the parking lot and mingling with those who arrived on foot, like me, on one of the school buses. I wondered how far they could go if the town seemed rather small. Barely looking around and also trying not to draw attention, I introduced myself to the principal, a woman approaching middle age, of a rather broad build, short stature, and thick glasses that constantly slid down the bridge of her small, pointed nose.

“So, you must be Sussan,” said the principal with a wide smile. She seemed so delighted to receive me that she only needed to pinch one of my cheeks. “Is your last name Sforza, or is it a typographical error?”

It was Sforza, there was no mistake. I had taken it from my father despite my mother, according to my grandmother, insisting that I should take hers after he left. But after some arguments, I managed to keep it.

“Well, it’s beautiful, like Italian, isn’t it?” said the principal as she handed me my class schedule. “You even have something of that Mediterranean air, the beauty of the women from Tuscany.”

I didn’t really know what she meant because despite my last name, I had always considered myself a very fair-skinned girl with darker rather than light hair. Although I must admit that when it’s very sunny or the day is clear, my hair seems to shine more brightly and even lighten, while my skin easily darkens.

I thanked the principal for her kindness, and as I was leaving her office with the class schedule in hand, I got distracted trying to figure out which classroom I should go to, and my eyes refused to see the back of the person I bumped into. As I fell, my backside hit the ground with force, and when I looked up, thinking I had bumped into a wall, I saw, horrified, not only that I had a hundred eyes on me, but also the eyes of two tall and well-built twins looking at me as if I were a lizard that had dared to jump on their heads and they only needed to shake to throw me to the floor.

Observing them from the ground, I saw that they were identical twins with very dark, short hair, tanned skin, thick and full lips, light eyes, and an unwavering proud profile that seemed to mock me just by looking at me. A slender and graceful blonde was holding onto one of the twins’ arms, and her gaze, rather than mocking, seemed disgusted.

“Are you blind? Watch where you’re going,” she said with disgust, as if the mere fact of speaking to me diminished her status.

“I… I’m sorry. I got distracted.”

The twins exchanged a quick glance, which gave me the impression of being loaded with a thousand phrases that only they understood between themselves. After that, they walked away, leaving me abandoned with the same indifference they had received my blow. When they did, not only did I perceive the strong scent of their cologne, which tickled my nose as if it were the most delicious fragrance I had ever smelled in my life, but I also stayed hopeful that at any moment they would turn their gaze and I could see their perfect and very attractive symmetrical and masculine faces again. They didn’t, and so I stood up alone, making sure not to attract the attention of the school, which seemed to have already forgotten my existence.

I managed to reach the first class without stumbling again and I had the hope that perhaps there, I would have the chance to see the twins again, but they weren’t there, nor was the blonde who seemed to be one of their girlfriends. After introducing myself to the teacher, he assigned me a seat, the only one that was still available, next to a girl with tied-up brown hair and large glasses.

From the moment our eyes met, I knew I would get along with that girl with the big glasses because she had that “I don’t mess with anyone, nobody messes with me unless I choose to” type of vibe. She must have felt the same because, after a somewhat formal greeting and taking advantage of the fact that the teacher assigned us a pair work, we talked a little.

“So, you were the one who tripped in the hallway?” my desk mate, named Aly, asked.

“Yeah, it was quite embarrassing,” I said after recounting my anecdote and with the intention of asking Aly about the twins, who were still engraved in my memory as if they had always been there. “But what can you tell me about those two? They seem very popular at school.”

Aly nodded. “They are, not just because they’re twins and both incredibly attractive, but also because they have very strong personalities and are kind of ‘bully’ types. So, despite how attractive you may think they are, I suggest you don’t mess with them.”

Instead of preventing me, Aly’s warning intrigued me even more. “You haven’t told me their names.”

Pretending to be doing the class exercise, Aly told me their names were Ethan and Liam.

“And how do you tell them apart?” I asked.

Aly shook her head. “Until a few months ago, I would have said there’s no way, but since one of them, Ethan, cut his hair shorter, it’s easier. Liam now has longer hair.”

I tried to remember, and I believed Ethan, the one with the short military-style haircut, was the same one who was with the blonde who looked like she came straight out of a modeling magazine cover.

“And what about the blonde girl with them?” I asked.

“That’s Chloe, and if I warned you not to mess with the twins, with her it’s even worse because she’s quite possessive and jealously guards Ethan as if she owns him.”

I thought I had gathered enough information; I didn’t want to seem obsessed with the twins already, and we had to get on with our classwork. But even though my words didn’t mention them again, they continued to linger in my mind, refusing to simply disappear.

My growing obsession must have conjured fate because Aly wasn’t in the next class, and there was only one seat left at the table where the twins were sitting. I felt like dying at that moment, especially when the teacher confirmed what I already suspected.

“Take that seat,” she said, pointing at Ethan and Liam’s table.

I sat down as if I didn’t care and hadn’t noticed who was beside me, but the truth was my heart was racing so fast that I felt it could burst out of my chest at any moment. I looked in any direction other than the perfect faces of those two men sculpted by a Renaissance artist, pretending to be indifferent.

“Isn’t this the girl who bumped into you, Ethan?” Liam asked his brother.

“Yes, it’s her. The one who angered Chloe so much.”

“She’s acting like she’s not listening to us.”

“I’ve noticed, Liam,” Ethan mocked. “She thinks that just by not looking at us, we won’t realize she’s not listening.”

I wanted to die, or for the ground to open beneath me and swallow me whole. It would have been much better than being there, with my heart pounding in my ears.

“You’re going to regret it if you keep pretending not to listen to us, sweetheart,” Ethan said.

The term of endearment could have been either part of the mockery or a compliment; I couldn’t tell, but the word caught my attention, and I decided to confront them.

“Oh, look, Ethan, the girl has decided to look at us.”

“Well, good for her, because she’s saved herself from a lot of trouble. And now that the teacher has assigned us a class exercise, we can ask her to work with us.”

The “us” in reality meant the two of them making somewhat lewd comments about every girl in the class, except me. Although I could already imagine what they would say when I wasn’t present. I tried to act like I didn’t care and, to avoid joining their horrible conversation, I did all the classwork that Ethan conveniently took from me to put his and his brother’s names on it. I thanked the bell like I had never done in my life, grabbed my backpack, and left with the same presumed indifference with which I had arrived.

Now that I had seen them, I wished I didn’t have to see them again, but it hadn’t even been two minutes since the class ended that I already wished for it. What was happening to me? Why this sudden obsession with two high school “bullies”? Yes, they were attractive, but it didn’t take much to realize they were the type I detested the most in the jungle that was high school.

With that strange and, at the same time, fascinating sensation, I headed to the next class and nearly died when I saw it was gym class because I wasn’t wearing the required uniform. But if I thought I had problems because of that mishap, I knew I really had them when I arrived at class and saw the two twins there.

Now, for real, I wanted to run away from that place.