"Sólo asumí que ella quería estar sola"

-

She panted, panted, and panted. The room suddenly felt a little too warm, a little too small, and a little too tight, although she knew fully well that this was one of the biggest rooms in the entire Las Encinas. 

She didn't know what emotion she was feeling as her heart began to thump so hard she was convinced that Samuel could hear her from across the room. Her bloody fingers clutched her chest as she hyperventilated, her eyes blurring, as she slowly dropped to the ground. Everything around her went quiet as she laid her blurred eyes on the lifeless body of her childhood friend. In that moment, all she could think about was her coldness, her distance, her neglect, all towards Marina. 

A big, deep, sob she felt in her heart escaped her lips as she cried her name.

"Marina!" 

She began to cry constantly over and over again. She screamed louder each time, louder than the next. So loud that she didn't even hear the thundering footsteps of her twin brother barrelling towards her to hold her. He was in even greater shock than she was, but as he set his eyes on his sister portraying some emotion that wasn't anger, he knew he had to be strong . . . he had to be there for her.

"Tranquila, por favor. Tranquila, Alaska."

He chanted over and over to her, in an attempt to calm her down. Pointless.

From across the room, Samuel, just as shaken as Alejandro, looked down at his bloody hands and then to the swimming pool, and then back to the twins.

He had no idea how this happened.

"Tranquila Alaska."

-

"Alaska!" The blonde's eyes opened abruptly as she began to fully feel the weight on her stomach and the hands gently slapping her cheeks in an attempt to wake her up. Without even looking at whoever it was sitting on her stomach, she already knew which nuisance it was.

"Alejandro, juro por Dios-"

"Well wake up then! Mama said we have to be up earlier today because Alba made a big breakfast and she said she helped a lot more this time." Alejandro claimed as he continued to wiggle infant of her. As much as he knew how annoyed she was, he also knew that in three, two, one - 

"Ale! G-Get off me" she yelped as she burst into a fit of laughter, her face even turning red. 

She wasn't a morning person, so he tried. her best to lift her spirits as many mornings as he could. He liked it when she laughed.

"Well get out of bed then and start getting ready. Do you really want to be late for the first day of school?"

"If it were up to me, I would never show my face there again, let alone be on time - Ale!" she didn't even get to finish before her twin suddenly put all of his weight on her, leaving her slightly short of air, but that didn't stop her from laughing all over again.

"Okay, okay! I'm up, please stop." she laughed, making him finally get up from his sitting position on her stomach, and turned to face her.

"We have to leave at 9:30, I'm going to give you twenty minutes to get ready and go down for breakfast." 

"Twenty minutes is not nearly enough, you haven't even done your workout yet."

"Do you know how long I've been awake? I've done my work out and then some. Twenty minutes." he announced one more time before turning around and closing the door leading in and out of her room.

As soon as he was gone and the door shut, it was as though he took her happiness with him because then and there the smile dropped from her face as she looked around her room trying to find her bedroom slippers. 

She was back to her usual feeling. Nothing.

Alaska Velazquez could be described as many words. A girl who would wake up bright and shining in her queen sized bed every morning, used half an hour to do her everyday school makeup and run down her mansion stairs to greet her mother with a kiss and chow down on the delicious breakfast she made, was not one of them. Rather, she was a girl who if not for her brother basically prying her eyes open to force a smile out of her, would wake up wishing she never did in her queen sized bed, would do her makeup solely for the purpose of covering up the hard traces of life under her eyes,  and would slug down the glass stairs of the mansion to grab granola bar Alba would have laid out for her because God knows her mother couldn't cook.

She tried though, her mother. She wanted to try for her children.

 With the way in which Alaska failed to express any sort of evidence of how she was feeling, some would even say she was . . . a vampire? 

No, that's just what Lucrecia would say. 

Lu.

One of Alaska's best friends. It was always her, Lu, Marina, and Carla. Although for the past few years, Alaska had pulled away significantly, the other three girls although hurt gave her the necessary space she portrayed that she needed. 

As the blonde applied her usual coat of lipgloss to her lips after the chapstick, she picked up her black and red blazer and began to head out toward the grand hallway of her house. Right in front of her, the oak door to her brother's room stood, and she heard the slight jumping sounds coming from inside. 

She knew fully well he hadn't worked out yet. She was right.

Upon rolling her eyes in realisation and shutting the door behind her, she made her way right towards the grand staircase leading downstairs.

As much as the house hadn't felt like a home in a long time, she knew that it was still her house and always would be her house. 

At the foot of the stairs, she noticed the fast flash of blonde hair attempting to dress the dining table alongside Alba. She cracked a smile.

"Cariña!" her mother beamed as she approached the dining table, the tiny smile non-existent any longer.

"Mama, Alba," she nodded at the two of them, setting her bag on the her place overlooking the large windows to their backyard. 

"Are you excited for the first day back?" her mother smiled sitting next to her at the table, helping herself to the meal Alba clearly had prepared.

Alaska simply shrugged, not looking at the food and rather paying attention to her phone. Nothing special . . . Candy crush. Just then, her other half came barrelling down the stairs in his black and red uniform as well and an unruly grin on his face at the sight of the breakfast infant of him.

"Mama! Alba! Amores de mi vida!" he sighed with content, giving his mother a large kiss on her cheek and giving Alba a big one. Alaska rolled her eyes.

Alejandro sat in his place, immediately grabbing the waffles and stacking them onto his place, before deciding that he wanted to throw some eggs and bacon on his plate as well. 

"Some orange juice Ale?" Alba walked to him with the jug of orange juice in her hand. He nodded in excitement, anxiously waiting for Alba to fill his glass. He thanked her with a kiss on her cheek as well.

"Any for you Alaska?" 

"No, gracias." she responded, her eyes turning towards her phone again.

Mariposa Velasquez frowned. 

"Do you not want to eat anything, cariña?Alba and I put a lot of effort into it today." her smile reappeared.

"Not hungry." she replied curtly. 

The table became quiet momentarily up until her mother made conversation.

"So, is there anything interesting supposed to be happening today?" 

"No, nothing yet. But apparently we're getting new scholarship students today. There's supposed to be four of them."

At the thought of scholarship students, Alaska tensed, already predicting how the day was going to play out. It wasn't good. 

"New students? That's really interesting. You have to let me know if they're nice. What about you cariña? I know you must be over the moon with excitement to see Guzma-" 

At the mention of her boyfriend, Alaska no longer felt comfortable. 

"Don't mention Guzman into this, por favor." she cut. Her mother furrowed her eyebrows.

"But why? Are you two having any problems?"

"No. We are not having any problems that concern you. And don't pretend to care either, Mama." she said, abruptly standing up from the table and grabbing her bag.  "I'll wait in the car, Alejandro," walking off.

The familiar lump in Mariposa's throat returned when she felt on the edge of tears every time she felt neglected by her daughter. They would never move forward.

Alejandro stood up as well, wiping his lips with he napkin and grabbed the plate of food.

"Lo siento mucho, Mama. She still shouldn't be talking to you like this. I'll finish this in the car." he said with frustration lacing his voice.

"It's okay mijo.  I understand." she smiled sadly, standing up to receive the kiss Alejandro was bending down to give her.

"Have an amazing day. Please watch over your sister." she smiled sadly.

"I will. Have a great day at work also."

Alejandro picked up his bag, stomping slightly as he made his way to the garage, ready to scold his sister for her rude behaviour. Their mother was trying.

"You know, if you tried being nice to her, you wouldn't fucking die Alaska."  Alaska suddenly heard as the car door of the swift BMW opened and then slammed. She turned her head to face her heated brother. 

"I'll apologise later." she simply stated, and turned back to face forward. 

"You better fucking apologise. That was uncalled for." Ale went on.

"I understand, Ale," she shut her eyes, counting to ten like she had learnt in A.M. She didn't want to pick a fight. Especially at this time, and especially not with the only person who constantly supported her. She didn't want to pick a fight.

Alejandro noticed the unusual calmness in her voice and looked in her direction to see her restraining. He understood. He didn't want to pick a fight either.

"Forget all that", he pressed the button to start the car and set the plate on Alaska's lap. "Alimentarme, por favor." he said, as he rolled out of the garage.

"You're out of your mind aren't you? You're crazy?" his sister looked at him, trying not to smile. 

"Feed me, or I crash the car. Simple." he concluded irrationally. 

Alaska knew he was joking. 

She liked that he joked like this.

"On a serious note, how actually are things with you and Guzman? I know you haven't talked to him since that argument you both had." he said quietly as he chewed his food.

Alaska frowned.

"We're fine . . . it's just that . . .nothing. We're fine. It's sorted."  She looked down. 

It was fine. They'd sorted it out, they really had. But it wasn't fine. So not fine that she dreaded walking into school today to see him. 

"Are you sure? I know I'm not that close to him anymore but if you ask me to, I'll talk to him for you Ala." 

"It's fine Ale, enserio. Thank you though."

She dreaded it.

A/N:

Hey. 1st chapter. How do we like it? I'm gonna try to update this once or twice a week, because I don't want to rush it. There's big plans for this book man I can feel it!!!!

-xxxx