The Twin Trap

ONE

     As I'm laying in bed, getting ready to fall asleep a follow request and direct message pop up on my Instagram. I click on the profile and it's like I'm looking in a mirror. The teenage girl looked just like me and it was a little scary.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I know that everyone has a secret twin out there somewhere but the resemblance was just uncanny. Her message was even more terrifying. She was talking about how I was her actual twin, not her look-a-like, but her legal blood twin sister.

This 'Brynn' girl was explaining some Parent Trap shit and I was not having it. My mother would never lie to me about having an unknown sibling, none the less a goddamn twin sister. Her message was saying how she found suspicious baby pictures in her fathers room and when she confronted him, he nervously denied it.

She even goes as far to say that she found a picture labeled 'the twin girls: Brynn and Bailee', now I didn't believe this for a second but I'm curious. I begin to type out a response to her message when someone knocks on my door. My mom walks in, making me wonder if she wasn't telling me about this girl.

"Mom, look at this girl I found" I tap on Brynn's page to see if she'll crack. "Don't we look strangely alike?" I question as she looks at the screen. At first her eyes just skim over the phone before they do a double take and widen.

"You need to report that page now, Bailee Ann! I've seen enough Catfish to know that someone is impersonating you!" She says as she holds my phone with wide eyes. "I mean, those pictures are actually you" She zooms in on one of the photos before handing it back to me.

"I will, good night" She bends down to kiss my forehead before walking to the door.

"Promise me you'll report that page, Bailee?" She questions with a slight frown, making me nod my head.

"I will, don't worry" She gives me one last look before walking out of the room. I hear her walk to her room and shut the door quickly.

I delete the message I had typed out for Brynn and begin a new one, telling her about the encounter I just had with my mom. It's funny how quick I'm believing a random stranger over my own birth giver. The more I read over Brynn's original message, the more I realize that I don't have a lot pictures of me as a baby, mom always told me she forgot to take pictures.

My phone vibrates with a message as I hear my mom and John begin to yell at each other. Something along the lines of how John wouldn't understand and how my mom needs to realize how this may affect other people. This was usual at night, my mom is an aggressive drunk and it really only takes her two glasses of wine to get there.

Brynn replied saying that she hasn't shown her dad me yet because she doesn't want to get in trouble, asking if I've ever seen my birth certificate and when my birthday is. We begin to text back and forth talking about ourselves when I realize just how alike we are.

Our personalities are miles apart but our birthdays are the same and our parents both kept our childhood secretive. Her dad casually dated, trying to find a girlfriend while I explained to her that my mom claims my dad was a druggie and left us at a young age. John was my step dad but the more we talked, the more this unbelievable situation was coming together.

We decided since it was getting late that we would look for our birth certificate tomorrow or we would have to do a paternity test. I couldn't live without knowing if this girl was my actual twin or just a freaky coincidence.

Sleep didn't come easy to me tonight, I had too much on my mind.

—/—

The next morning, I got ready for school like I always did and waited until my mom and John left the house to start my snooping. I called the school and pretended to be my mom to let them know that I had an appointment and would be late to school today. My search began in my moms room looking for pictures or anything that could mean something.

When I came up empty handed, I moved on to the photo albums in the living room. There was no pictures of me with another baby at all, like literally anywhere. One picture did have a weird writing on the back, it was a picture of me sleeping saying 'a nap without my second half'. I kept that before going to the office.

I searched the whole office which had absolutely nothing before looking at the only locked drawer in the entire house. I was trying to pick at the lock when I heard the front door open. My eyes locked on the long curtains hanging in front of the window. I tangled myself in them and held my breathe as I heard footsteps get closer to the room.

"You don't understand, Nathan. They can never know, alright I will burn down my whole house before she finds anything" My mom speaks on the phone in the hallway. "Well maybe if you weren't so idiotic and didn't keep things in a fucking shoe box then we wouldn't be dealing with this at all" She raises her voice slightly as she walks past the office.

I let out a small breathe as I hear her grab something and start walking towards the room again. She walks past the office once more, making her way towards the front door.

"You're so incompetent, get a safe, they're like fifty dollars" Her voice disappears as the door shuts and I get out of my hiding spot. My Bobby pin clanks around in the key hole before I feel a small pop and the drawer pulls open.

Inside is an absolute mess. At the top there is business papers as well as personal information. As I'm digging through things I see a Manila folder labeled 'girls' I pick it up and open it to see my infant self smiling next to a crying baby. A smile forms on my face at the picture and the next one is of my mom holding two baby girls in a hospital bed. I pick through a bunch of pictures of me as a kid with another young identical girl.

Finally, in the back of the folder is my birth certificate. I take a photo if it and write down my fathers name before putting everything back where it was. A message from Brynn comes through as I'm getting ready to finally leave the house for school. As I'm shutting the door I come face to face with my mother.

"I was wondering why you're car was still here"

Shit.

hi loves, welcome to the crazy shit show that is: my writing. thank you for reading and as always favorite and comment.

comment what you think of the graphics and how you liked the first chapter here  ————>

QUESTION OF THE CHAPTER:
What do you think Bailee's excuse to her mother will be?