Kendall & Me [discontinued]

01 | The Poltergeist

Talk about creepy.

“Isabel, please inform Eli here that he’s a scaredy cat that needs to grow a pair,” Diana drawled, her eyes flicking toward me.

I laughed, bringing a hand through my hair before eating some more of my spaghetti.  I smiled between my friends before saying, “Eli, Diana thinks you’re a scaredy cat that needs to grow a pair,” I drew out lightly.  “I think you’re fine the way you are, but whatever.”

“See, Isabel likes me just the way I am!” Elijah shot a triumphant look in Diana’s direction.  “So ha.”

Diana suddenly lost all interest in making fun of Elijah because she turned to me, her eyes expectant.  “Hey, are we still good on me coming over after school today?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow.

I looked away from Elijah, who was making faces at Diana while she wasn’t looking.  I resisted the urge to snort before turning my attention back to my other friend.  “Yeah,” I said, grinning.  “We actually have to get homework done this time or else my mom won’t let me have you over on school nights anymore.”

Diana scoffed, flicking a hand through her hair.  “Puh-lease,” she drawled, winking at me.  “I am the most studious human being to have ever graced this earth.”

It was Elijah’s turn to snort now.  “If you’re the most studious, the rest of the world is screwed.”

Diana slapped his arm and he winced in pain.  “But yet, dear Isabel, I will make sure to get some homework done.”  She smirked.  “But even if I don’t we both know that I’ll be allowed back.  Your parents love me.”

And they did.  Diana was like a second child to them.  I sometimes wondered if they were mentally replacing Kendall with her, subconsciously making it so that they still had two children instead of one.  It was a ridiculous thought of course.  They accepted Kendall’s death a long time ago, too.

“That’s true,” I admitted.  “Though I’m sure that will change the day you make me fail a test.”

As Diana laughed, Elijah snorted.  We all knew how much my parents prided in having a smart girl who never did anything wrong.  I was the good girl, the one who managed to get straight A’s in all my classes—even the honors ones.  It wasn’t that spectacular, and everyone here knew it, but to my parents this was God’s gift.  So if failed, you could only guess what an impact that would have.

“Hey, how come I never get to come over?” Elijah demanded, a playful frown on his face.  He didn’t really care about coming to my house after school.  He actually tried very hard in school, and didn’t want Diana to distract him from that. 

“Because,” Diana told him, “you’re not cool enough.  Besides, you have to get home to Mr. Teddy don’t you?”

The frown stopped being playful as he regarded Diana across from him.  “You’re annoying,” he concluded after giving her an once-over.  “Like really, really annoying.”

“And you’re not?”

I decided not to interfere with their new argument, my eyes glazing over as I left the world and entered my mind.  I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t miss Kendall every single day.  We were like best friends before she died.  She wasn’t even ten when she died.  Maybe that was the worst part.  Losing someone so close to you when you were only six years old.  And to lose your twin so early?  It had felt like an actual chunk of me had been ripped out.  Part of me wished that I was never put on meds.  If I hadn’t been, maybe I could have at least enjoyed my time with Kendall longer.

But of course that was a stupid thought.  Kendall was dead.  And my parents had been right to put me on medication because if they hadn’t, what would have become of me?  I probably would have become insane.

Yeah, probably.

I blinked, and my thoughts fell away.  There was no point in thinking about Kendall’s death.  It happened ten years ago.  It was behind me now, and I’d moved on.

Yeah, I had.  Most definitely.  Of course.  Duh.

∞

“One of us really needs to learn how to drive,” Diana said as I closed the front door behind me and locked it.  She shot me an exhausted look.  “Like, seriously.  I cannot keep walking to your house in heels.”

“You say that every time.”  I laughed at her, moving into the house.  It opened up straight into the living room, a wide open space with pale yellow walls and pictures of the family hanging all around.  We had a three-piece green couch sitting against the wall at the far end of the room, the light gray rug complimenting the color well.  In front of the couch was coffee table which was littered with my mom’s Home Style magazines.  The flat-screen television hung off the opposite wall, glinting in the sunlight that came from the windows. 

“That’s because it remains true every time,” Diana pointed out.  She huffed, falling back on the couch and pulling off her heels.  Her toenails were painted a bright red today.  “Ugh, and now I actually have to do homework.  Gross.”

I snickered at her.  “You know, you’d be in a lot less pain if you didn’t wear heels to school,” I suggested. 

“Where’s the fun in that?”  Diana winked.  “Now, are we going to do this Algebra II or what?  I for one don’t remember a thing we learned in class.”

“Sure.”  I smiled.  “I’ll be right back I just have to go get my math book from my room.”

With that, I twisted around and exited the living room, hurrying toward the set of stairs that separated the living room from the dining room.  Pictures of our family lined the walls as I clambered up them.  These were the only photos with Kendall in them.  They were our baby pictures, ones that my mom couldn’t bring herself to take down after Kendall died.  The others that had been in the living room had long been removed from the walls, placed in boxes that were forever banished to the garage. 

I trotted down the hall, ignoring my parents’ bedroom as I passed by.  Their room was adjacent to mine, while the bathroom was at the opposite end of the hall.  Kendall’s room was adjacent to the bathroom, but no one ever went in there anymore. 

I opened up my bedroom door and stepped inside.  I froze, my eyes widening as I clutched the door handle tightly in my hand.  My room looked as it always had with its poster covered walls and my sunbed at the side of the room that sat right in front of my window.  My room was cluttered with clothes and other stuff that I felt no need to pick up because I hardly ever came in here.  You could barely see the carpet, but I didn’t care.  My walk-in closet remained closed at the far end of the room.  But there was something different about my room, something completely and utterly changed.

And what was that change, you ask?

Well, it could have been the fact that Kendall was standing smack in the middle of it, her hands on her hips as she stared at the posters on my walls.

Maybe.  Just maybe.