I Won't Lie to You

“So where the hell are we gonna live?” I asked, venom seeping from the words I was speaking. Venomous and volatile as usual.

“You remember the band I was in?” My dad asked while he sat in front of us. I know he felt scrutinized by my glare, everyone did. Everyone but my twin who was standing beside me. The girl didn’t fear me whatsoever.

“Yeah…” Mina, my twin sister, said. Her arms were crossed at him. I knew she was angry that our father was just packing up and leaving us for some chick he met over the internet in Australia but she wouldn’t let it show. She wasn’t like that. But I was.

“The lead singer of that band said you two could live with him.”

“Why the fuck-” I started, but he cut me off.

“His wife lost her job so they’re moving up here.” He explained. I rolled my eyes. “You might want to start packing you two.” He told us.

I growled at him as I brushed angrily past him to head back to my room and throw all my clothes into my suitcase. Fine. It was fine with me. I wanted to be out of this fucking house as soon as possible. I threw the sloppily packed bag over my shoulder and headed back out into the living room.

“Let’s go.” I hissed at him.

“We’re leaving in a few hours, Zero. So just calm down.” He ordered. I threw the bag down and sat in the kitchen chair, crossing my arms over my chest.

“I’ll just wait here then.”

Which I did, until he gave in after half an hour of me just sitting there waiting for us to leave.

“Zero…” Mina cooed sympathetically to me while we were riding in the car. “Come on, it’s not that bad. They have a son named Nicolas! You need friends, you know.”

My sister was too nice sometimes, really. Too nice to me that was. I hated everyone, everyone but my family. Although my father was getting very close to crossing the line between tolerated and hated. I think that my twin would forever be on my tolerated list because no matter what Mina did, I never hated her, although at times I could get annoyed with her. I believe it had something to do with the fact that she was my twin, you know, a part of me and you can’t really get sick of yourself.

However, I was aware that she was a different person. She was bubbly, talkative, nice, and a real people-person. I was anti-social, spiteful, and my personality was sporadic.

“Like I want friends.” I growled at her, crossing my arms tightly over my chest.

“Right, right.” She sighed, giving in as the car halted to a stop.

The bar was lit up in fluorescent lights against the night sky. I took out a cigarette but then Dad swiped it from between my fingers.

“And I want you to stop smoking while you’re here, too.” He told me. I rolled my eyes. “The old you wouldn’t have done this in a million years, you know.” He shook the cigarette in front of my face before breaking it in half and throwing it in the snow.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, old man.” I snarled to him venomously. I’d just smoke later when they started playing and he was too distracted to notice.

I headed into the bar, groaning as I did so. Dad split away from Mina and I to go up to the stage with his guitar.

Mina tapped me and pointed forward to a boy about our age (even though he was exceedingly short).
She followed close behind me as I walked over to the kid and sized him up. “Damn, you’re short.” I told him from behind, causing him to turn around. His hair was messy and unkempt around his face, but his face itself held a strange feeling of innocence in it. One of his eyes were covered and the one that was showing was brown (at least I was pretty sure it was in the dimly lit bar).

“Nicolas, right?” I asked, though I didn’t really care too much as I held out a hand for him to shake.

He just ended up stumbling away from me. Must’ve scared him – I did give off an aura of ’don’t fuck with me’. Not only that, but I was thug-like and not to mention I was half a foot taller than him (or something like that).

“Man, don’t be such a wimp. It’s just a handshake.” I told him, rolling my eyes, causing him to bite his lip – probably in embarrassment.

Then Mina butted in to save the kid from the awkward and rather intimidating situation. “Shut up, Zero.” She was the only one who could get away with telling me that. “Not everyone’s as outgoing as you.” She told me. That was our inside joke. We both knew very well that I was antisocial.

Nicolas seemed surprised to see Mina appear from behind me. “I’m Mina and this is my brother, Zero. Don’t mind him, he’s a pest sometimes.”

He must have heard that we were twins because he looked anxiously back and forth between me and my twin, trying to seek out resemblances. I colored my hair black while Mina retained our shared natural blonde hair. But we shared the same hazel eyes as the other.

“Between you and me, he doesn’t really like much of anyone.” She said.

The kid looked like he wanted to say something about that, but I suppose the look on my face halted his speech from commencing.

“You say that as if I can’t hear you.” I told her before walking away from them, hearing the band start up. I needed some nicotine and now was my chance.

Once I was outside, I took out a cigarette and lit it up, taking a long drag off it, letting the smoke fill my lungs. I can’t remember why I started smoking, but I just did. I think it had something to do with my mother’s death.

Too bad I couldn’t remember what had happened whatsoever. No one would tell me either and no matter how much I dug around in my brain, I couldn’t find the memories of her. Nothing from before her death at all. It was like I was blocking her out completely. It wasn’t like I was trying to, I just couldn’t remember anything and I was sure that if Mina didn’t talk about her (although she stops talking about her when she realizes she is) then I wouldn’t even know I had a mother.

So all I knew for sure was that she had died. I couldn’t remember her face or voice or her personality. Hell, I couldn’t even remember how I was before she died.

Then I was jolted back to reality as I was hit by a small black-haired kid I could only describe as Nicolas. He fell backwards and landed on the snow-covered sidewalk. What was he doing out here?

Then I heard the amp squealing from inside the bar. Must have been hurting his ears.

“S… Sorry…” He apologized. Then he caught sight of my cigarette that was still lit in my hand and frowned.

“You got a problem with this?” I asked him with a harsh undertone. Then he must have realized that he was still on the ground because he stood up. He was excessively short, like, he only came up to my shoulder or chest. “Fuck, you’re tiny.” I let him know. It wasn’t just his shortness; it was also because he was incredibly slender too.

I took one last drag of the cigarette before throwing it to the ground and grinding it with my heel. “Guess you won’t have to worry about that. Promised my old man I’d stop while I’m here.”

He chattered and shivered in the cold as he spoke. “Th-that’s good. S-smoking’s a t-terrible ha-habit.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” I said, brushing past him, not wanting to be near that innocent aura he had. Not that innocence was bad or anything. I just didn’t want to fuck that up with my delinquent ways.

I sought out my sister, who was talking to a woman at the bar. Must have been Nicolas’s mother. I sat down next to Mina and shut my eyes, listening in on the conversation.

And having my eyes shut didn’t really alert me to Nicolas’s presence in with us at the bar.

“Lighten up, Zero.” I had no idea what Mina was talking about but then I realized, that to her, it must seem like I was sulking. “I’m sure you and Nicolas will be good friends.”

“Mmm…” I gave a half-hearted mumble to her.

I headed out to the van as I saw that the band was packing up. I helped transfer our belongings from our van to their SUV.

“You two be on your best behavior.” Dad told us. Mina was crying I guessed I would have been too if I wasn’t still pissed off that he was leaving us for some chick in Australia. We were his kids for God sakes!

“Yeah, fine.” I growled the answer for both of us.

Dad gave us each a kiss on our foreheads and a hug before getting into his van to leave us with a wave. I just followed Mina into the SUV.