The ENTOURAGE

4. h o n e y m o o n c a f é

Despite my very first impression of her being the most approachable, Peggy had completely done a one-eighty in my mind's eye, from the approachable, kind, and definitely most normal-seeming one of the lot, she had become a chameleon - one that didn't like me - and that was dangerous. I could feel my time with them was in her hands.

I wanted to tell Edith, what I was doing and who I was with, but it seemed so unimpressive written down, and maybe I was just tired and reading into Peggy's behaviour too much.

"why tf r u still up," I opened the snapchat notification to Edith's frowing face, a flash-in-the-dark reply to my brilliant shot from under my chin, captioned "mom im going out".

I zoomed in on my face, "wHy tF r U sTiLL uP", I replied.

"Who's that?" Orpheus grinned over my shoulder as I screen-shotted Edith's dramatised incredulous-face reply.

"That's Edie, my sister."

"Whoa. You two look so similar," Orpheus said, eyes searching mine for more. "Edie..."

"We get that a lot," I chuckled, looking down at my feet as we walked. "We're twins."

"You also look, like, super familiar," he mused. "Both of you do, and like. I can't put my finger on it. But it's not like we've met before, have we?"

I wondered how long I'd get to step around the topic. I also wondered how many times a minute he said the word 'like'. "I don't believe we have."

"Vance said you were famous."

I chuckled nervously, looking in his direction, "Did he?" Vance and Peggy were bickering quietly back and forth.

"And when you were late for that first class, people talked about you longer than was necessary for someone walking in late. Some people knew who you were," Orpheus pressed. "If only I actually talked to those people..."

Sensing my discomfort, he added, "Famous or not, we don't know who you really are. So I guess we'll find out."

I grinned, relieved at his willingness to ignore my background. I couldn't tell if he was actually pretending to not know just to get answers, or if he genuinely didn't know.

But Orpheus was cool. He seemed to understand people, their moods and thoughts. Even if maybe he was a bit snobby and other things sometimes went over his head - maybe it was due to his genius being related to the physics of people.

All of them were cool, actually, yet I could see what Morgan had meant. Vance, Peggy, Orpheus and Charlize were clearly smart individuals, and they did seem to be on another level, not like the rest of the student body - there was an ease to the way they floated about campus, a casualness and banter-filled bond with each other like they were lifelong friends.

The five of us were strolling along at two in the morning to place a little way off campus called Honeymoon Café for "elevenses" as Charlize called it. If my father knew I was dressed like this in public, he'd have an absolute field day.

Edith's next shot was dark, so I knew she was heading to sleep. "I have so many questions"

I replied with another under-chin shot, "same. i met cool ppl, am currently w the cool ppl, going to cafe".

I walked next to Orpheus, pretending to not be watching Peggy's mutterings to both Vance and Charlize. It made me nervous, not knowing what she was saying, but having the feeling that she was talking about me in what could only be in a negative light given the way she went about it: the close whispering, her closed body language, catching phrases like "...he's not even... could be another psycho...doesn't know..." and the occasional side glance I tried to ignore, even if it was burning holes into the skin on my face. I was just glad that we were all in our pyjamas, even if they all looked like pyjama models in theirs.