CHAPTER TWO
The next morning, I woke up to Maia screaming profanities. I bolted out of bed and headed downstairs.
"You are a piece of shit! You're a bitch! You are a fucking homewrecker and you ruined my life! How could you? How dare you ruin our family! You are a worthless whore! You are a sad excuse for a person and when you die, you will burn...slowly and painfully for the rest of eternity!"
I approached the doorway and caught a glimpse of Mom standing in the corner of the kitchen. At first, I was bewildered because I thought Maia was yelling at our mother. When I actually walked into the kitchen, I found her shouting at Laura.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"I came to speak with your mother. However, your...sweet...little sister decided to make herself part of the conversation."
"Laura, why are you here?"
"Sweetheart, I just wanted to speak with my best friend. Isn't that right, Juliana?" Laura flashed a huge grin at my mom.
Mom stayed silent.
"Ava, this lady thinks she can apologize for stealing Dad," Maia explained to me. "She thinks she can actually be forgiven! She broke girl code. She broke the laws of being a decent human being."
Laura crouched down to make direct eye contact with Maia.
"And you, sweetheart, think that you know what being a decent human being is supposed to be like? For one, decent human beings don't shout out those awful things. I'm trying to be polite, and you're being very rude and I don't appreciate that. I think you owe me an apology."
Maia gave her a fake smile and then spit in her face. Laura stood straight up, wiping away the saliva.
"How's that for an apology?" Maia asked.
"You little brat—no wonder your father doesn't want to deal with you anymore," Laura hissed.
I crossed my arms and said, "And so the truth comes out."
"What do you mean?"
"Maia isn't a brat; she's just angry. You've known our family for years, and admit it, you love us. But you obviously loved my father more because you ruined a perfectly good friendship with my mother. You ruined the respect that Maia and I had for you. And you ruined my parents' marriage."
"You're seventeen, right?"
I nodded in response.
"So you must know a little something-something about romance. Well, I didn't ruin your parents' marriage. It was already going down the drain. If anything, I helped make it last longer than it should have. Your dad wanted to be with me, and he still wants to be with me. Sorry, pumpkin, but you're wrong about me. You and your sister and your mother destroyed this family all on your own. If anything, you should thank me for accepting your dad and giving him a place to stay and actually be happy."
"That's a lot of shit that just came out of her wrinkly old mouth," Maia growled.
"Maia, relax," I told her.
"Well, fuck you too, sis," she retorted. I rolled my eyes at her cattiness.
"What did you want?" Mom finally spoke up. She slowly walked closer to Laura.
"I wanted to give you a hug and see how you were doing," Laura answered and pulled Mom into a tight embrace.
Mom didn't hug back, but she didn't push her away either.
"What do you have to say to me?" Mom asked quietly.
"I was going to tell you that Derek needs more clothes. He needs to look presentable at work, and he will definitely need to keep that job. You know, for future child support fees."
"Come with me. You know where our bedroom is, I'm sure," Mom replied. "I'll pack some more of his things."
"Oh, and I had one more thing to tell all of you. It's wonderful news!" Laura gushed.
We all looked at her, awaiting an answer.
"Are you going to make us guess?" Maia asked. "Because that's stupid. What's wonderful to you will probably be hell for us."
"Well, you little brat, you're going to have a new half-sibling!"
"Wait, what?" I asked.
"I'm pregnant," she clarified.
"I told you so. Hell," Maia stated.
"Are you sure it's my father's baby?" I asked.
"Of course, silly. Your father's the only man I've been sleeping with," Laura answered.
"Somehow, I highly doubt that," Maia replied.
"Sweetie, do you even know where babies come from? You're like eight."
"I'm eleven, and yes, I do know where they come from. If my father, who was supposed to be loyal to my mother, decided to cheat, what makes you think that we'd believe that you weren't fucking some other person, too?"
"Well, your father has accepted this pregnancy wholeheartedly, and he's going to have a fresh start with a new family. I guess it doesn't matter if you believe me or not then, does it?"
Mom looked down at Laura's petite stomach.
"Derek's child is in there?" Mom asked, placing her hand on Laura's tummy.
"Yes, and I was hoping since you're my best friend, you'd help throw me a baby shower, and maybe be the godmother."
"How delusional, are you?!" Maia shouted.
"You hurt my mother and you think that she still wants to be friends with you?" I asked.
"You can't just throw all those years down the drain," Laura said. "You don't control who you fall for. Love just happens. And it happened between me and Derek."
"True, you don't choose who you fall in love with. But you can choose who you decide to sleep with," I stated. "My mother would never throw a—"
"We can have it in our house," Mom said.
"What?!" Maia and I exclaimed.
"Yes, the baby shower will be held here, and we'll think of the theme when the due date is closer."
"That is fantastic! You really are the best friend a girl could have," Laura laughed.
Mom nodded and gestured for Laura to follow her upstairs. I looked at Maia who had nothing but hatred in her eyes.
"I despise her. She's a nutcase, and so is Mom."
"Why would she agree to that?" I shook my head.
"Because ever since Dad left, Mom's become nothing but a freaking wall ornament half the time. She works and stuff, but it's like she doesn't feel anything anymore. Did you see how she was super silent?"
"And now she's being super nice to Laura and acting like everything is okay," I said.
"Because she's stupid now, and I hate it. I hate this family, if we even are a family anymore."
"Maia, you've got me," I assured her. "I'm always here for you."
"You're not going to bring Dad back and I think Mom has crossed over to Crazy Town. You're useless to me now, too."
"Maia, you know none of this has to do with us, right?"
"Maybe it does. Maybe if Mom was a better wife and we were better kids, Dad wouldn't have left. And maybe if Laura wasn't such a two-faced bitch, everything would be okay."
"We don't know why any of this had to happen to us, but it did. And we need to stick together."
"That is so cheesy. Stick together—yeah, right," Maia said. "I'll see you later. I'm taking the early bus to school."
I heard her slam the front door and I leaned against the kitchen counter, trying to process everything. Nothing seemed to be right anymore. Nobody was themselves. Our lives were falling apart and no one was "normal" anymore, whatever normal is. I wish there was a way to fix things, but the damage was done. How could we fix anything?
Later on, when I got to school, I met up with Torrie in the cafeteria. I found her sitting on top of one of the tables, downing a macchiato.
"Here, bestie, I brought you one." She held out a second coffee cup.
"For me? Oh, why, you shouldn't have," I smiled, accepting the caffeinated goodness.
I took a sip and then sat down on the bench of the table. We sat in silence for a moment.
"You're not okay. What's going on?" Torrie raised an eyebrow before slipping down off of the tabletop and onto the bench next to me.
"Laura came to the house this morning."
"And how did Juliana react?"
"I—you know, I still find it really weird that you're on a first name basis with my mother."
"Drop it; we've been over this before. Now, please, continue..."
"Okay, well, this morning, I woke up and heard Maia screaming and cursing and I thought she was verbally attacking our mother. But then I saw that it was Laura, and she came by to pick up stuff for my dad. And then she dropped a huge bombshell."
"Don't even say it," Torrie said, sighing. She knew what was coming.
I nodded. "Yeah, she's pregnant with my half-sibling."
"Fucking homewrecker," Torrie said, throwing up her hands.
"You sound just like Maia."
"Who wouldn't react that way to a woman who's willing to hurt another woman, let alone her best friend? Laura is crazy."
"I...it's a two-way street. Maia was telling me earlier how maybe if our family was better, then maybe he wouldn't have left us."
"You can't blame yourselves for what your father did."
I shrugged. "Torrie, I don't know. I just don't know. He's my dad, and I don't want to hate him."
"But you have a right to; his mistake, his loss. The three of you did nothing but love him."
"I guess it just wasn't enough for him."
"Obviously. And now, he's starting over, I guess. Laura and her child will have your father in their lives, while your family gets kicked to the curb. But Ava, just remember that you don't need him around in order to survive."
"We're doing fine on our own, financially anyway. It's the emotional part that's pissing me off and confusing me. None of us know how to react to anything anymore. Maia's become an extreme brat, my mother is a pushover, and me...well..."
"You are just worried for your family," Torrie said.
"Aw, trouble at home, chica?" Crissy approached. She adjusted her fake glasses, pushing them up her short nose bridge, and crossed her arms.
"What do you want, Crissy?" Torrie muttered.
"Ava, are your parents separated?"
"Who told you that?" I asked.
"One of my mother's friend's cousins was at our house the other day, and she is friends with a woman named Laura. And well, basically, she invited her and your dad to our house the other day. They were so lovey-dovey; it was very romantic. But when I realized that the man was your father, I was so confused because that wasn't your mom."
"It's personal matters, Crissy. I'd appreciate it if you just didn't bring it up again."
"I was just curious. So, are you going to confirm anything or not?"
I sighed. "My father is with Laura now; that's all you need to know."
"That sucks. Well, have fun adjusting to not having a father."
"Crissy, why are you being such a bitch?" Torrie spat.
"Language, Miss Brooks," Crissy smirked. "I just wanted to get my facts straight."
"If anything, you and Laura are a lot alike."
"Oh, Torrie, when are you going to get over it? West is my boyfriend, and he loves me."
"He loves the fact that you give in to his wishes. You dress the way he wants you to, and all you ever do is what he wants to do."
"Yeah, because I'm not too stubborn, unlike you. You were too headstrong for his taste."
"I challenged him; I showed him a different world outside of his typical boy brain dominated by cliché video games and pulling pranks on people. Those amazing pictures he's able to take; that was me, and his new appreciation for different music genres; that was me. His challenging ambitions—I helped him with that. He didn't even think that he'd be able to graduate until I convinced him to get tutoring."
"I can't believe you're taking credit for his talent and intelligence," Crissy scoffed and walked away.
"I'm sorry, Ava. She just pisses me off so much," Torrie said. "I'm over West, but still...I put so much effort into him."
"It's okay. You're allowed to be angry. Crissy's irritating personality doesn't help either," I assured her.
"Why does high school have to suck so much? Why does life, in general, have to suck so much?"
"You tell me. I have absolutely no clue."
"On the bright side, we're done this year."
"Finally, we get out of my personal Hell." She followed up with an evil cackle.
*
Later on, at the start of history, Mr. Williams inquired about our readings. He paced back and forth, shooting off random tidbits from Being Doubled.
"To say that it was an evil twin would be far too shallow. What does this imply?" he looked out at a sea of semi-confused faces. However, I'd be lying if I said nobody was intrigued to hear the answer. Everyone awaited an opinion.
Mr. Williams scrawled on the board in capital letters: DOPPELGANGERS: EVIL OR NOT?
"What do you all think?" he asked. "Sure, they are usually perceived as negative beings, the so-called opposites of ourselves, but are they really evil or are they simply showing us an alternative reality? If you think that these beings are evil, then you are in for one hell of a ride; emphasis on the hell."