Lost And Found

prologue 2.

Disclaimer: This story is a sequel. Do not read without reading Tough Love first. I promise you will be confused if you don't. Thank you!

nor·mal
/ˈnôrməl/
adjective
1. conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.

Taylor Hall was normal.

She was just a bartender. That's what people knew her as and she's okay with it. It may be a boring job for some, but she really does enjoy seeing how numbers would tally up at the end of a working day; how some amount carried over or moved to another transaction creates a whole new set of variables; if not a transaction.

Business had been slow for a month now, but her regular clients and those that keep her under retainer keep her open and busy for the most part. At times she would remember telling herself that she would be something big. Sometimes she would remember being something big.

Whatever that was about.

Partying comes and goes, whenever she had the correct funding. Sometimes she wondered if she would ever get a raise of some sort, but who was she kidding. There's nothing special about making mediocre drinks for sweaty people at midnight.

In reality, she was just a thirty year old college student who hoped to make a new living for herself. Juggling between school, pop quizzes, finals, and work was never an easy process. But she managed.

Taylor was a quiet person, but that attracted the attention of others. She had a healthy group of friends, all polar opposites from each other. No two were alike, although two were related. She never felt like the odd one out, because everybody was odd.

Men that were too young, physically and mentally, always took an odd liking to her. She wasn't interested. She was already busy as it was, and no matter how much her friends would nag her about how lonely she was, she wouldn't budge.

Taylor Hall, formally identified as Aya Weathers, always had opinions on everything. Hollywood was mediocre to her. Celebrities were stuck up. Music sounded the same to her ears. Movies were all cliché. Television was rigged.

But she wouldn't voice these opinions.

They weren't relevant to her anyway. Just thoughts that came and went through the passing hours as she explored the busy streets of San Antonio, hearing murmurs from others around her, some bold enough to approach her, mentioning that she resembled a name that would not stick to her no matter how much she heard it. They would ask, "Hey, are you so and so? Is so and so your boyfriend? Where have you been?"

Her replies would be so innocently apologetic, as she simply told them no, mentioning that she had never heard of these people they continuously mentioned. Taylor has believed in things such as aliens, and the afterlife, although she wasn't religious. That being said, she wasn't the least surprised that people mistook her for someone else, Doppelgängers exist. And she just happened to be one of them.

Or so, she thought.

She never let the comparisons swarm her brain at night. She never cares enough to try to remember the name that was mentioned. Ara? Layla? Whoever it was. Her friends were Hollywood fanatics, yet not one of them ever bothered to repeat the name to her. Sometimes curiosity snuck it's way in, but it never wanted to stay for too long.

"Hey, guys. Do I look like somebody to you?" "Taylor" spoke up, looking away from the notebook she was using to take notes in for just a mere second. Their faces twisted up, eyes squinted, heads tilted as if they were all using some sort of telepathic energy to figure out who she resembled.

"Yeah, like some celebrity." Skylar shrugged and went back to her phone. Taylor just didn't understand how this girl's grades were so good. She never studies.

"Shit, what's the girl's name? Uh..." Jayda snapped her fingers together, staring up at the ceiling. She placed a hand on her forehead, really investing deep thought into this.

"She disappeared like a few years back..." Skylar shook her hands, trying to get a thought running.

"Wait, who did she date?" Jayda jumped up clapping her hands. They sat there trying to think, but it was clear they had no idea.

"You know what, never mind." Taylor excused them from their struggles with a giggle.

"You look like my cousin." Vanessa commented with a confident head nod. All three girls turned their heads to look at their friend, who tended to be the behind one in the the group.

"Vee, you have one cousin. And she's not famous. And she's white. With teeny, tiny lips." Taylor pinched her fingers together to accentuate the tiny part.

"Oh, right." Vanessa scratched her head.

Taylor Hall and Aya Weathers were two different people in the same body.

No matter how much more ordinary one may seem than the other, there was nothing normal about either of them.