The Rise of Alex

Elias POV

The first day of middle school was supposed to be exciting.

That’s what everyone said, anyway. New beginnings. Clean slates. A chance to become someone new. I held onto that idea the way someone clings to a fragile lie carefully, desperately, afraid that one wrong move would shatter it.

I remember standing at the iron gates that morning, my backpack stiff and identical to Alex’s, my uniform pressed so neatly it almost felt uncomfortable. The air buzzed with voices and laughter and the sharp scent of anticipation. My heart beat fast, not with excitement, but with hope,quiet, trembling hope.

Maybe here, nobody would know.

Maybe among strangers, I could finally just be… Elias.

Not the unwanted one.

Not the second twin.

Not the shadow.

Just me.

I stayed close enough to Alex that no one would question why we arrived together, but far enough that I could pretend just for a moment that we were separate people. That my life wasn’t permanently tethered to his.

The illusion lasted less than a minute.

“He’s here,” someone whispered behind me, voice sharp with awe. “The pretty omega.”

“I heard he’s even prettier in real life.”

“Which one is him?”

I felt it before I saw it the shift. The subtle pull of attention, like gravity changing direction. Bodies turned. Voices hushed and then rose again, excited, reverent. I watched heads tilt and eyes search until they landed on Alex.

And just like that, it was over.

They moved toward him in a wave. Students crowded around before the bell even rang, smiling too brightly, standing too close. Someone laughed nervously. Someone else pushed forward, eager to be seen.

I stood barely a few steps away.

It felt like watching through thick glass ,close enough to see everything clearly, far enough that none of it could touch me. I saw the way their eyes lit up when they recognized him, how smiles bloomed without effort, how their bodies leaned toward him instinctively, like flowers turning toward the sun.

A girl rushed past me, shoulder slamming into mine hard enough to make me stumble.

“Sorry,” she said automatically but she didn’t look at my face. Her attention had already snapped back to Alex.

I didn’t matter.

No one even noticed I’d been hit.

Alex smiled, a little awkwardly at first, then more confidently as the attention settled on him like something familiar. Like something he had always belonged to. He laughed when someone complimented him. He blushed when an alpha leaned in too close

I wondered what that felt like.

To be wanted without trying.

The bell rang, sharp and shrill, cutting through the noise. Teachers herded us into lines, barking instructions. The crowd thinned, but the hierarchy had already been established.

In class, it only became clearer.

Alex sat near the front, surrounded by curious glances and whispered conversations. Teachers looked at him differently softened, like their edges had been dulled just for him. When he answered a question, their smiles were warm and genuine.

“Excellent, Alex.”

“Very good insight.”

“You’re quite impressive for your age.”

They spoke his name like it mattered.

I raised my hand once. Then twice.

My arm grew tired.

The teacher’s eyes skimmed over me, lingering on Alex instead.

“Anyone else?” she asked.

I lowered my hand slowly, heat crawling up my neck. The answer I’d prepared carefully dissolved on my tongue. It didn’t matter if I knew it. It never did.

By midday, I understood my place.

At lunch, I sat at the edge of the table Alex was surrounded by. Not invited, not chased away just tolerated. Conversations flowed around me like water around a stone. People laughed at Alex’s jokes, even the ones that barely made sense. Alphas hovered, eager to impress, their voices deeper, their postures straighter. Betas watched him with open admiration, envy sharp in their eyes.

No one spoke to me directly.

I picked at my food, appetite gone, listening.

Someone pointed at me with their fork.

“Hey,” they asked casually, “who’s that?”

For a heartbeat, hope flared. Maybe,just maybe someone would say my name.

“Oh,” another voice replied, dismissive. “That’s just Alex’s brother.”

Just.

Alex’s.

Brother.

The words hit harder than I expected. They hollowed something out inside me, scooping away whatever fragile sense of self I’d been clinging to.

Not Elias.

Not a person.

I stopped trying to speak after that.

What was the point? Even if I opened my mouth, my voice would disappear beneath Alex’s existence. So I watched instead. Watched him shine effortlessly. Watched the world choose him again and again, as if there had never been any other option.

With every smile thrown his way, something in my chest cracked a little more.

It hurt.

A deep, persistent ache that pressed against my ribs and made breathing feel like work. But I swallowed it down, the way I’d learned to swallow everything else.

Because what else could I do?

By the end of the week, everyone knew him.

Teachers. Students. Even people from other classes found excuses to pass by, to catch a glimpse. His name traveled faster than he did. I heard it whispered in hallways, scribbled in notebooks, spoken with awe.

Alex adjusted easily. He learned how to smile at the right moments, how to deflect unwanted attention politely, how to exist in the spotlight without burning.

I learned how to disappear better.

I memorized the quiet corners of the school. The places where no one lingered. I walked a step behind him, a step to the side, always careful not to be mistaken for something important.

Sometimes, someone would look at me twice.

Confusion would flicker across their face.

“Wait… are you...?”

“No,” I would say softly, before they could finish. “I’m not him.”

And just like that, they lost interest.

At night, I lay awake replaying the day in my head. Every ignored hand. Every passing glance. Every time my name went unspoken. I wondered if this was how it would always be if my life would forever exist in the margins of someone else’s story.

I was tired.

Tired of hoping.

Tired of hurting.

Tired of pretending it didn’t matter.

So I made a decision ,quiet, unspoken, but firm.

If the world had already chosen Alex, then I would stop trying to compete. I would stop reaching for things that were never meant for me. I would learn to survive in the background, where expectations couldn’t crush me.

I would become small.

Unnoticeable.

Safe.

And as Alex’s star continued to rise, I let myself fade convinced that this was the only way not to break completely.

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