The Evil Twin's Door

HAZEL

Sweat makes the two movie tickets stick to my palms. Tonight is the night. Valentine's night. I am finally going to confess my hidden feelings to my best friend, Cole. Three years of harboring this secret crush, three years of analyzing every lingering glance and accidental brush of our shoulders, it all comes down to this specific moment. I look down at the crumpled paper in my hands. I thought tonight would be the perfect night. We would sit in the dark theater, our knees brushing, sharing a bucket of popcorn. Then we would walk home under the streetlights, and I would finally say the dreadful, terrifying words out loud.

I trace the small silver heart on the necklace he gave me for my seventeenth birthday. It bears our initials. That has to mean something.

Taking a shaky breath, I raise my fist to knock on his dorm room door. Before my knuckles even brush the wood, the door swings wide open.

My heart drops into my stomach.

Instead of Cole's familiar, comforting smile, I am greeted by a sprawling expanse of bare, tanned skin. A ripped, muscular chest fills my line of sight. Intricate black ink traces the shape of fluttering butterflies, starting from a chiseled right pectoral and trailing up over a broad, scarred shoulder.

I blink, my brain stalling out in shock. Cole does not have tattoos. Cole is not this huge.

"Are you done staring, sparrow? Close your mouth before you start drooling."

The deep, mocking drawl hits my ears. I snap my gaze upward, colliding with a pair of intense, piercing pale blue eyes. Long dark hair falls carelessly around his sharp cheekbones, framing a face that is a dangerous, sharper reflection of the boy I love.

It is Cade Vance. Cole's evil twin brother. The guy who constantly seems to manifest out of thin air exactly when my life is falling apart.

He looks down his nose at me, his lip curling into a familiar sneer. Cade is the bane of my existence. We have never had a single pleasant conversation. He looks at me like I am gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe. He wrecked my sophomore Halloween costume by mocking it until the whole party laughed. He terrorized my first real date so badly the poor guy blocked my number. He is a walking omen of bad luck.

I take a step back, frustration boiling over. "What are you doing here?"

Cade deadpans, his face an unreadable mask. "I should be asking you that question."

I crush the movie tickets in my tightening grip. "This is Cole's dorm. I come here all the time. I am looking for Cole."

He leans against the doorframe, crossing his arms over that distracting chest. "I will save you the trouble of explaining the obvious, sparrow. Unfortunately, your precious light isn't here. Did you get lost following him around like a stray dog?"

"You are just a jerk. Stop being a pain in the ass."

"You are a little too hard to notice. Why should I waste my energy being jealous of you?"

The casual cruelty of his words lands like a solid punch to my ribs. My cheeks heat up, a hot flush of embarrassment crawling up my neck. I already struggle with my confidence. Always wondering if I will ever score myself a boyfriend. If Cade thinks I am this pathetic and invisible, maybe I really do not stand a chance with Cole.

Tears prick the corners of my eyes. I swallow hard, trying to keep my voice steady. "We were supposed to see a movie tonight."

Cade stares at me for a long, heavy moment. He steps out into the hallway and pulls the heavy wooden door shut behind him. "Are you sure about that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Because he really isn't here. He is at the campus bonfire with Chloe."

The revelation hits me like a physical slap across the face. Chloe is the former high school cheerleader and current popular sophomore it-girl. She is gorgeous, blonde, and everything I am not. If Cole is hanging out with her tonight, knowing we had plans, what does that make me? An afterthought. A joke.

I refuse to believe it. My hands shake as I dig my phone out of my jeans pocket. My thumbs fly across the cracked screen. I try to convince myself there is a logical explanation. Maybe his phone died. Maybe he got the days mixed up.

*Hey, where are you? We had a movie tonight, remember?*

I hit send and stare at the glowing screen. I count the seconds under my breath. Cole usually answers my texts right away. A small read receipt pops up under the message bubble. The tiny blue checkmark of betrayal glares back at me. He saw it. He ignored it. Unwanted tears blur my vision as the crushing weight of my three-year unrequited crush crumbles around me.

"Hazel."

The sound of my actual name pulls my head up. Cade never calls me Hazel. Ever. It is always sparrow or some other mocking insult. His normally cold, judging gaze softens into something I cannot quite decipher.

"Do you want me to drive you to the bonfire?"

I swallow the last pathetic shred of my remaining pride. If there is a chance this is a misunderstanding, I have to take it. "Please."

Sitting in the passenger seat of Cade's car is a fresh kind of torture. We are trapped in a tense, heavy silence. I keep waking my phone screen, staring at the empty chat with Cole. Still on read. My stomach twists into a painful knot.

I press my forehead against the cool glass of the passenger window. The passing streetlights cast long, moving shadows across the dashboard. Every second that ticks by feels like a heavy weight pressing down on my chest. I keep glancing over at Cade's profile. His jaw is clenched tight, his grip on the steering wheel white-knuckled. I always thought he hated me. So why is he doing this?

Cade lets out a heavy sigh from the driver's seat. "Sparrow."

I snap my head toward him, my defense mechanisms flaring. "What?"

"You really shouldn't get your hopes up."

His brutal honesty stings worse than the silence. He does not know anything about me or my feelings. He does not know how many times I have replayed that one time Cole almost kissed me on the bleachers. I want to tell him off, but the fight drains right out of me. Instead, I bring my thumb to my mouth and bite down hard on the side of my nail. It is a stubborn nervous habit I use to ground myself. I stare out the window, trying to ignore the stinging truth of his warning.

The tires crunch over loose gravel as we pull into the dirt parking lot near the campus woods. A massive orange glow lights up the dark sky just beyond the tree line.

Cade shifts the car into park. "We are here."

My hands are shaking so badly I cannot operate the seatbelt. I fumble with the metal clasp, my clumsy fingers slipping against the hard plastic.

Cade leans over the center console. His broad chest brushes dangerously close to my arm. The intoxicating scent of his cologne washes over me, a dark mix of cedar and spice that makes my head spin. I press myself back into the leather seat, hyper-aware of his proximity and the sheer size of him in this confined space. He presses the button, and the belt snaps back. He pulls away just as quickly.

I push the heavy car door open and tumble out onto the dirt. My knees feel unsteady. Cade steps out of the driver's side and walks around the hood, towering over me in the cool night air.

We walk toward the roaring fire together. Music thumps from a portable speaker, blending with the loud chatter of college students holding red plastic cups.

I spot them instantly. My worst fears are confirmed in sharp clarity.

Cole is sitting on a fallen log near the edge of the firelight. Chloe is pressed right up against his side. She is draped intimately in his oversized denim jacket, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. She tilts her head back, smiling brightly at something he just said.

My throat constricts. I force myself to keep moving. I gather the fractured pieces of my courage and take a step forward.

I freeze just a foot away.

Cole reaches up, threading his fingers through Chloe's blonde hair. He pulls her in, and they share a hard, passionate kiss.

My breath catches in my throat. It is not just a quick peck for a stupid party game. He pulls her flush against his chest, his other hand gripping her waist. Chloe melts into him, wrapping her arms around his neck. The firelight dances across their faces, highlighting the brutal truth I have been too blind to see. A wave of dizzying nausea washes over my entire body. The ground beneath my boots feels unsteady. My vision swims with unshed tears. The three years of pining, the careful hopes, the movie tickets crinkling in my pocket, it all shatters into worthless dust.

The surrounding crowd erupts into loud cheers and hoots.

I blink through the haze and notice the empty glass bottle spinning on a flat rock in the center of their circle. It is just a game of Spin the Bottle. But the kiss was real. The way he held her was real.

I instinctively take a step back. I want to flee into the dark woods. I need to run away from this humiliating nightmare.

Before I can turn around, Cade's large, warm hand settles firmly on my lower back. The pressure is grounding, rooting me to the spot. His touch sends a strange jolt through my spine, stopping me from running away.

A girl with dyed blue hair in a pixie cut points straight at us. "Oh, lookie! We have newcomers! Come play!"

She aggressively grabs my wrist, dragging me forward into the playing circle. She yanks Cade by the arm right after me.

Cole pulls away from Chloe. His eyes widen in sheer shock as he registers my face. His gaze drops to Cade, then back to me. He opens his mouth to speak.

It is too late. The blue-haired girl has already spun the bottle again.

The glass spins in a blur of green, reflecting the dancing orange flames. It slows down. It comes to a dead stop.

The mouth of the bottle points directly at me.

Chloe claps her hands together excitedly, her perfect smile widening. "Oh! It is fate! Hazel, truth or dare?"

My brain glitches under the immense pressure. A dozen faces stare at me, waiting. Cole is watching me. I cannot think straight. I cannot process the fact that my best friend just kissed someone else in front of me.

The word slips from my lips before my rational mind can stop it. "Dare."

Chloe beams triumphantly. She knows exactly what she is doing. Her glimmering eyes dart directly past me, locking onto the towering, imposing figure standing at my side.

"In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I dare you to kiss Cade Vance."