When twins Callie and Lexi were kids, they wrote a list of all the boys they wished to kiss when they started high school. Flash forward a year later, Lexi packed her bags and moved with her father to Melbourne in the wake of their parents' umpteent...
I'm sorry this is so short, but at least there's an upload? Found a few hour tonight to write something.
I'm super busy right now but hoping to write a longer chapter on the weekend so long as I don't suddenly realise I have more work than expected.
Anyhoo... Thank you to the usual trio for comments and sticking around: jueka1, brightyeolie, and amiva0402.
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Sara wouldn't sit near me anymore when Callie wasn't around. But even when my sister was, the distance was still unmissable, and the cold shoulders almost made me shiver.
Whenever our gazes met, her eyes filled with a glisten and a depth of agony that slashed through my heart in painful cuts. But it was choose her or choose Callie...
And I'd pick Callie every time.
A part of me worried our breakup would somehow cause a rift between Callie and Sara, just like my sister had feared. Yet they were somehow still just holding on... even if Sara didn't smile anymore.
But what was more surprising than Sara's disdain for me was Callie and Ashton's sudden friendliness. He didn't sit with us at lunch, but he was certainly quick to stop for chat whenever they passed each other on the way to classes, and he couldn't stop glancing over his shoulder back at her. Nonetheless, Callie assured me they were just friends now, so I withheld my concern... mostly.
The moment the bell rang and I began to shrug my backpack on to head to Film, Sara disappeared in an instant, refusing to walk with me anymore. And once I had arrived at class and the teacher let us in the room, she purposefully sat on the other side of the room.
Which was warranted.
I broke her heart.
And promised Callie we'd be over.
I just hoped that one day, Sara would forgive me and Callie would forgive me... and everyone would be happy again.
On another front, Callie and I were still in unison on giving mum and dad the cold shoulder for their withholding of important information—namely that we were to become big sisters in six months.
"You can't just ignore me forever, Lex," mum groaned as I walked past her to bring a knife to the sink, refusing to even glance her way. The knife made a loud clatter in the sink before I turned back to head over to the stove once more.
Mum had prepared us all dinner, though Callie and I had busied ourselves just after mum called us out to eat, choosing to make our own meals as though mum and dad didn't even live here.
But while mum was pleading, dad was furious. "You two are being absurd," he snapped from the dinner table, still working his way through the food mum had prepared. Our own meals sat in our usual spots, quickly going cold cold.
"Lex?" Callie said, hand hovering mid-chop, the gentle thwop against the chopping board subsiding for a moment as she paused for dramatic effect.
"Yes?" I said, glancing over the boiling pot of pasta.
"I think I'm hearing something again," she mystified, still refusing to acknowledge dad's continued grumbles from the dining room.
"Hearing things? Oh no," I played along. "What does it sound like?"
"Like utter deceit," she said, accusation dripping from her tone.
From the corner of my eye, I watched mum retreat into herself, stirring a pang in my chest to know we had hurt her.
Don't get me wrong, I was still mad at both of them for keeping something so big from us. But a part of me wondered just how long we had to rub salt in their wounds that we were upset.
But when dad immediately jumped up from the table, footsteps thumping against the tile as he came storming over, all guilt exited my body. He lashed out with all sorts of comments about our maturity and what he thinks we should and shouldn't do, in addition to the consequences we would face for our behaviour—confiscated laptops and phones, no more seeing Sara, the like.
But no threat worked on us.
I had lost Sara.
Callie had lost the one person who had roused a smile one her face.
And while Sara and Callie were civil, at this point, I think all Sara could stand of us twins was the small interactions at school in the safety of our peers' scrutinising gazes
Callie and I did our best to ignore dad as he tried to get our attention.
We proceeded with cooking our honestly terrible spaghetti bolognese—apparently tomato sauce is not a key ingredient... who knew.
Then we plated up our meals, shoved the ones mum had prepared to the side in a rather unfair manner—rousing another flinch from her before she fled to her room—then continued to eat, ignoring dad shouting at us and demanding we acknowledge him when he was talking.
And while dad eventually gave up in the threats, storming to our rooms and returning some moments later with all of our tech, Callie and I continued our act, finishing our meals before cleaning up our messes and heading to our rooms for the night.
The house was quiet when my door creaked open, the sounds of squeaking metal telling me exactly who had entered my room.
She gently lifted herself from her chair after parking it by my bed, shimmying under my sheets and wrapping her arms around me.
We didn't say anything to each other that night. But we didn't need to.
We both knew how the other felt.
Guilty for what we had done to each other.
Anguishing for hurting our parents.
Yet hearts completely cracking at all the heartache and betrayal around us.
Arms encasing each other, we buried into each other, becoming the only stability and solace in our lives right now.
At the end of the day, even if nothing was right anymore, we both seemed to agree on one thing in that mutual hug: at least we had each other.
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I also assure you this sadness won't last forever. An upturn is coming... I just have to work my way through this plot first........... Somehow.
