Music is a part of life, a part of who we are. You can go anywhere in the world and music will follow you. You can't escape it. Whenever you hear a song, it makes you wonder, is this song meant for me? Is this the song that represents who I am, shar...
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The closing of the door snaps me out of the staring contest Jason and I had been trapped in. I was mad. Very mad. He had no right to demand what was going on when he was the cause of it! Did he not understand that he'd hurt me? He was the only one that knew about my condition and it's like he threw it back in my face.
I turn my face away from him, trying to hold back the tears threatening to spill over. I could hear Ethan's barefoot footsteps coming closer, and then stop right in front of me. His hands lightly rub my shoulders, one of his hand cupping my cheek and turning my face to face him.
"What's wrong," he asks in a quiet voice, laced with concern. I could see the worry in his eyes when we made eye contact again. I wonder if he could see the hurt shimmering in mine under the unshed tears? "C'mon Jessica, tell me what's going on."
"It's like you didn't care," I choke out, the tears I'd tried so long to keep at bay finally spilling over.
It was like an instant reaction for Ethan. He pulled me into a tight hug, as if trying to squeeze all my troubles and worries away. "Hey hey hey, it's OK Jessica, just calm down. What didn't I care about? You need to tell me what I've done wrong."
I step away from his hold, wiping the tears from my face and walking a couple of steps backwards so my back hit the wall. Taking a few breaths to compose myself, I look Ethan in the eye. "I'm a mess. My life is a mess. Everything is a mess. I have no friends-"
"Had no friends," Ethan interrupts with a pointed look.
"Alright, I had no friends," I say with a small smile. "And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I'm working two jobs, I need to keep up my straight A grades, I've just joined a band, I have severe stage fright which I somehow overcame yesterday which terrifies me, I'm constantly stressed, I get no sleep and... and I'm scared," I finish, choking on the last words as the tears threaten to resurface. I look away, feeling ashamed of myself for reacting this way. "Maybe I overreacted a bit," I say with a sniffle.
"Well I can't disagree with you there," Ethan says with a small chuckle. "Good prank though. It was smart of you to get Kyle to help."
"He didn't seem to mind. I get the jokester vibe from him so I thought he'd be up for it."
"Yeah, Kyle's a laugh. Always playing pranks and joking around," Ethan laughs, as if remembering something funny. "But enough about Kyle. Why did this effect you so much?"
I sigh and look down at my feet, unsure of how to answer. It wasn't that I didn't want to answer him; I wanted nothing more than to confide in him and help him understand what I was going through, what I was feeling. I just couldn't find the right words to do that.
"You can talk to me, you know," Ethan says soothingly, pulling me in for another hug. "I'm not going to run away or shout at you for expressing how you feel."
At these words I felt warmth spread throughout me, a mixture of happiness and love for my brother. "Since when did you become to good with words?" I joke with him, a smile spreading across my face.
"I've always been good with words, doesn't mean I have to use them all the time," he replies with a laugh.
I laugh with him, pulling him tighter against me. "I love you Ethan, you know that right?"
His arms squeeze me slightly as I say those words. "I know you do," he says, kissing the top of my head. "I love you too."
We stand like that for a couple of minutes, just holding each other with a silent understanding passing through us. It didn't matter that we had pranked each other and we had both gotten mad from it, we would always be there for each other and that's all that mattered.
The opening and closing of a door and the voices that followed broke us out of our little bubble. We both pulled apart, turning to find a handful of Ethan's teammates laughing at Ethan's state.
"Dude, put on some clothes!" one of them hollered, the others around him laughing along.
"You know, he makes a good point. Can I have my clothes back now?" Ethan asks, turning to me with what he probably thought were pleading eyes, but were filled with amusement.
"Alright, I'll give you your clothes back-" I start, only to be cut of by Ethan shouting "great!" "-on one condition," I say to him, smirking at how quickly the smile was wiped off his face. "You have to let me post a picture of you on your feed and you can't delete it."
A look of horror came across Ethan's slowly paling face. "Isn't the video enough?" he asks as a last attempt to get me to change my mind.
"The video is for me. The picture, though... that's for everyone else," I say with a wink, holding up my phone so he could see I was serious. "Strike me a pose!"
He rolls his eyes at me, reluctantly putting one hand behind his head, the other on his hip and pouting as he sticks his hip out. I laugh along with the other guys watching, taking multiple shots of him.
"Alright you can have your clothes back now," I say as I shove my phone back in my pocket, chucking the bundle over to him.
"Finally!" He says relieved, catching the bundle and quickly making his way over to the changing room. Before he walks in, he turns back to face me, pointing a finger in my direction. "This conversation isn't over." With that said, he walks into the changing room, slamming the door behind him.
As soon as the door was closed, the group of footballers who had been watching our final encounter came over, congratulating me on such a good prank, high fiving me and patting me on the back. I just smiled back at them all, not knowing how to react to all the attention I was receiving.
When they had all left, I made my way back over to the gym and through to the bag area, picking up all my stuff and throwing my top back on. Ethan's words kept going through my head. I needed to tell him how I felt about everything. He may be my twin brother but he was also my best friend, as cheesy as that sounds. He deserved to know the truth about everything.
