Chapter 4

Eleanor

As expected, Elvis, who I now realized was supposed to be my elder brother, wasn't the only person who sent questioning glances my way. 

Brianna, Thea's little sister and my mum also sent questioning looks my way but I decided to just smile awkwardly and play it all off. It wasn't after my "mum" complained about me not having breakfast and gave me a bag of toast and eggs to eat in the car that we left. 

Apparently, Brianna was still in highschool while Elvis and I were in the same college. 

Okay. I think I'm starting to get a hang of this family thing. The only problem was I didn't hear anyone talk about my father or rather the man that was supposed to be my father. Was he dead? Did he abandon them a long time ago? 

Whatever it was, I had already decided I wasn't going to talk about him or mention him until someone did. 

I sat in the back seat busy with my hair and makeup and biting off my toast while Brianna sat in the front passenger seat mindlessly using her phone as Elvis drove the car. 

I wasn't completely sure but Brianna seemed like a girl with a bubbly personality. Unlike me, she had dark straight hair and blue eyes and so did Elvis. Apparently I was the only one with blonde hair and green eyes. 

It was obvious that "Thea" had taken after her mum and I was guessing their dad also had dark hair and blue eyes. Out of all the children, Thea just had to be the one with the glasses. 

Great.

Letting out a small sigh I shifted my gaze to the compact mirror in my hand before applying my mascara. I had also discovered that the eye defect Thea had was myopia so I could still see without my glasses…I just needed to bring stuff close to my face when I wasn't wearing them. 

"Since when did you apply makeup?" I raised my head to find Elvis staring at me through the rear view mirror. 

"It's mascara." My brows dipped, flicking between the rear view mirror and the one in my hand. 

"The only thing you apply on your face is lipgloss…" Brianna said with a loud gasp before turning fully to face me. "Do you like have a boyfriend now?" She batted her lashes playfully with a huge grin. 

I opened my mouth to say no but wasn't sure if I really had a boyfriend or not. However it didn't matter because everyone kept this type of thing from their family right? "No." I finally said. 

"Argh! You hesitated." She squealed, pointing at me. "Thea has a boyfriend. It's Jake right?" She whispered, leaning closer. 

"What?" Elvis stuttered, his eyes darting between the rear view mirror and the road. 

"Who's Jake?" I lifted a brow. 

"Playing dumb is not gonna help you out of this one, sissy." She clicked her tongue. "By the way…this look is great on you." She said, reaching for my hair. 

I wasn't sure exactly what she was talking about, maybe it was the shiny hair…I did put a bit too much oil on it and considering the fact that I have never had wavy hair in my life, it wasn't my fault. 

"You have a boyfriend?" Elvis' tone dropped fifty degrees. 

Damn.

I guess this was the over protective brother thing people always talked about. "No. I don't have a boyfriend." I continued applying my mascara. 

"Then why are you putting effort into your look today?" I could sense the displeasure in his tone. 

"Can't a girl just put on mascara without her siblings questioning her about it?" I slammed the mirror shut before glaring at his reflection in the rear view mirror. 

I could tell from the look on their faces that none of them expected that. 

Ugh! Pretending to be someone else was such a pain. 

"I just saw some videos on my phone and decided to try a new look." I said, adding a cheery tone in my voice hoping it would fix whatever was going on here. 

Thankfully Elvis fixed his eyes back on the road but Brianna didn't. "You've been acting weird since this morning, PMSing?" She asked turning to put on her seatbelt that she took off earlier. 

I parted my lips to answer when Elvis cut in. "How many times have I told you girls not to talk about things like this when I'm around?" He let out a groan. 

"It's just Premenstrual syndrome." Brianna said, eyeing him with disapproval before turning to her phone. "You won't be acting this way if you actually got yourself a girlfriend." Her voice dropped to a low murmur but it was loud enough for us all to hear. 

"Brianna!" 

"What? You know it's true." She smiled rolling her eyes and I couldn't help but smile along with her and wonder why some people hated their siblings so much. It was fun to have someone to talk and banter with once in a while. 

I finished off with my lipgloss and in a few minutes after dropping Brianna off at her High School, we arrived. The building loomed ahead, a mix of modern glass and brick, with students streaming in through the front doors. To be honest, I felt like an imposter walking into someone else's life but there was nothing I could do about it at the moment than just live with it. 

"See you later then?" I raised my brows at Elvis as I got out of the car watching him slam his door shut. His brows then furrowed before he muttered a quick "yeah" and walked the other way. 

I then clutched onto the straps of my backpack like a lifeline before turning to the building again, thankfully the backpack was already packed when I picked it up from the corner so I didn't need to stress about it. 

The moment I stepped inside the school, the cacophony of voices, laughter and slamming lockers seeped into my ears. I froze, unsure where to go or what to do. 

"Hey Dori!" A voice snapped me out of my daze and I turned to see a girl waving at me, jogging over with a bright smile. 

It was obvious it was me she was talking to but for some reason I couldn't gather the right words. 

Wait. I paused, recalling the name she used to address me. 

So my name was Dori now? 

God. I really have to find time to go through this phone. 

"What's up?" 

"I'm good. You?" I grinned at her, hoping I was acting like how Thea would.

"I'm fine. It's just that I wasn't able to get enough sleep last night." She said and I followed her as we walked down the hallway. 

"Why didn't you get enough sleep?" I quirked a brow. 

"Because I was reading for the quiz? Weren't you?" And there was the look again. The look everyone had been giving me since this morning. I've really gotta stop asking these questions. 

"Oh." My eyes widened. "The quiz." 

"Don't tell me you forgot about the chemistry quiz today," she said, sizing me up with a small smile. 

I blinked, my mouth opening and closing. "Uh…right. Of course, I didn't forget," I managed to say, my voice a little too high-pitched. 

The girl gave me a funny look but decided to shrug it off. "Well, let's go. Mr. Harris will kill us if we're late again." 

I let myself be dragged along as my thoughts remained a chaotic mess. 

Ok…it was obvious that this girl was supposed to be a friend of mine but unfortunately I didn't know what her name was and I would be worrying about that…if she hadn't mentioned the chemistry test we were supposed to be having. 

I couldn't even remember the last time I saw a chemistry textbook let alone read one. 

I let out a small breath willing myself to relax as the girl in front of me kept yapping on and on about the things she had read last night. 

Well…amongst all the things that had happened today, they were a few good things. Like how of all the courses I had to write a test on today, it happened to be one I was really good at back then in college. I mean that was something to be glad about right? 

All I needed to do now was… 

My thoughts screeched to an abrupt halt when I bumped into a hard surface hitting my head. "Ow…." I winced, pressing my palm against my head. 

Adjusting my glasses, I lifted my head to see what I had bumped into only to realize that it wasn't a 'thing' and it was actually a person. 

Crap. 

I stared up at the guy who was towering over me with a look of disdain on his face. "Watch where you're going." He rumbled. 

"Watch where I'm going?" I blinked a bit taken aback by his response. "Excuse you but we bumped into each other…" I felt the girl from earlier tug on my arm but I just ignored her. 

God I hated people like this. I didn't even need anyone to tell me to know he was one of those dumb guys that thought they ruled the world or something just because they were blessed with height and looks. I mean look at the way he was staring at me….like I was some lint on his jacket. 

"No. You bumped into me." He narrowed his eyes into thin slits. 

"Which you could have easily avoided if you were also watching, but you weren't so I'm not the only one at fault here." 

"Dori…what's gotten into you?" The girl whispered beside me before pulling me away. She then mouthed a soft sorry before dragging me off with her. 

"Why did you apologize?" 

"Why did you butt heads with him?" She snapped, eyeing me with suspicion. "You're acting strange today, normally you'd just walk past if something like that happened." 

"Well let's just say I'm not in a good mood today." I let out a huff before frowning. If only this girl just let me, I would have punched him in the face, how dare he look at me like that? 

"Well that's odd." She scrunched her brows as we walked into a huge lecture hall. "Just don't provoke Liam again. He's not exactly the type of person you would want to anger." 

I was about rolling my eyes when something about that name stopped me.

Liam.

The name tugged at the corners of my memory, stirring a faint uneasy feeling in my chest. My frown deepened as I tried to focus on it but it was like grasping at smoke. 

Where had I heard that name before?