Somewhere in the Middle

“Wake up.” Poke. “Wake up.” Poke. “Wake up.” Poke. “Wake-.”

“I’m up!” I yelled, pushing whoever kept poking my forehead away from me. I opened my eyes to see my dad grinning down at me. I smiled back.

“Are you awake?!” Someone yelled, jumping on me. I gasped for air.

“Geft oft mf,” I gasped out.

“What?” The person on top of me asked.

“Brian, you’re crushing one of my daughters!” Dad yelled, playfully pushing him off. I laughed when Brian hit the ground with a thud. Dad held out his hand and helped me out of bed.

“Where’s everyone else?” I asked.

“Waking up Hayley,” Dad answered. A couple seconds later we heard a scream, and Johnny shout, “Run!”

“Get back here you Dick Wads!” Hayley screamed. I heard pounding footsteps heading this way and saw Matt, Zacky, and Johnny fly past the door and Hayley a couple seconds behind them.

“I wanna watch this!” I yelled, running after them. I ran into the living room, and burst out laughing. Hayley was on Matt’s back, hitting him repeatedly in the head with a fly swatter.

“You ever do that again, and I’ll personally make sure you have no kids!” She yelled.

“Okay, okay! I’m sorry!” He yelled, putting his hands up over his head. I heard laughter behind me to see everyone standing there. Dad was laughing the loudest.

“Breakfast is ready!” Leana called from the kitchen. My head snapped around and I felt my mouth water. Oh. My. God.

“FOOD!” Hayley and I screamed at the same time and ran for the kitchen. We skidded to a stop and sat down next to each other. I grabbed a plate and started stuffing as much food as I could on it. I looked over to see Hayley doing the same. We looked at each other, grinned, and started stuffing our faces.

“I’ve never seen two teenage girls eat that much,” Zacky commented. Without looking up from our plates, Hayley and I lifted one hand and flipped him off.

When we were done, I leaned back and patted my flat stomach. “Ugh, I’m so full, I think I just gained twenty pounds,” I said. Hayley laughed.

“Right there with ya, twin,” she said. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see mom smiling down at Hayley and I.

“How would you two like to have a girl’s day?” She asked.

“We would love to,” Hayley and I said in unison.

“Do you two do that a lot?” Johnny asked.

“What?” We asked together.

“That.”

“Oh. Yeah,” we said in unison again.

“Well, then, little ladies, get your asses moving and go get dressed,” Gena said, slapping our butts playfully. Hayley and I laughed and ran up the steps and into our rooms. I went into my bathroom and took a quick shower. When I was done, I dried off and got dressed. I left my hair down, and slipped on my shoes. I grabbed my phone and slid it into my back pocket. I placed my Aviators on top of the hat I was wearing and headed out of the room only to see Hayley step out of her room too.

“We really need to stop doing this,” Hayley laughed when we saw our outfits. I laughed.

“I agree, but it’s so much fun,” I said. She nodded her agreement. We headed down the steps to see everyone ready.

“Do you two want your hair done?” Mom asked.

“Really?” Hayley asked. Mom nodded.

“Awesome!” We yelled.

“You two ready?” Val asked. We nodded. We both ran to dad and wrapped out arms around his waist, which was pretty much the only place we could reach. He bent down slightly and wrapped his long, tattooed arms around us.

“Be careful, alright?” He asked, looking down at us. We grinned up at him.

“Aye, aye, SIR!” We both said, saluting him. He rolled his eyes, and pushed us towards the girls.

“Have fun!” He shouted, throwing mom his credit card. I noticed that Brian was handed Michelle his, Zacky was handing his to Gena, Matt was giving his to Val, and Johnny handed his to Lacey. We walked out to a large SUV and Hayley and I climbed in the back.

“So, where do you two want to head to first?” Michelle asked, looking back at us.

“Hot Topic!” Hayley shouted. I nodded in agreement.

“Hot Topic it is,” Val laughed. On the ride there, we spent the entire time talking, until mom asked the question I’d been dreading.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what happened to your parents?” Mom asked. Hayley and I looked at each other and sighed.

“Well, we were driving back home from, I think, school. Was it school?” I asked, looking over at Hayley. She shrugged.

“How the fuck should I know? It was four years ago,” she stated. I sighed.

“Anyway, Hayley and I were talking and all of the sudden we felt glass start raining down on us and we heard metal hitting metal and then we blacked out.”

“We woke up in a hospital and the police told us our parents were killed in the accident. The next thing we know, we’re getting shipped off to the nearest orphanage. We spent four years watching kids younger than us get adopted or put in the orphanage. We’ve even seen some kids get put back into the orphanage because their adoptive parents didn’t want them anymore. Anyway, ours isn’t the saddest story ever heard about orphans.” Hayley said.

“Trust us,” we said in unison. They kept telling us how sorry they were, and we just waved it off. We’ve already heard all of this shit before.

We pulled up to the mall and we all walked inside. Hayley and I spun around in a full circle once or twice before we realized that we were nowhere near Hot Topic.

“Where the fuck is Hot Topic?!” Hayley shouted at no one in particular. I noticed a group of guys looking over at us, and whistled.

“Yo, look the fuck away!” I shouted.

“We’re lesbians!” Hayley shouted and slapped my ass. I winked at her, and we linked hands, walking back towards the girls, who looked like they were about to piss themselves.

We finally made it to Hot Topic, the girls kept laughing about how funny those guy’s faces looked when Hayley slapped my ass. Hayley and I just grinned. We do it all the time to make guys we don’t like leave us alone. After we were done, and spent a shit load of money, mom took Hayley and I to get our hair done. I decided I wanted to have the purple stripped out of my hair, and blue to be on the top layer, and blue random streaks throughout my hair. Hayley decided to get the red stripped out, and pink put in instead.

When we were done, I looked at my reflection and grinned. I glanced at Hayley and I loved both of our new looks. We shopped for a little bit longer, and when every single one of us had about six bags each, we decided to head home.

When we got home, all of us tried to drag all of our bags up the steps. The guys finally stepped in and grabbed a bag each. “Thanks, Uncle Bri,” I breathed when he took the heaviest bag from me.

“No problem, Smurfette,” he smirked.

“What?”

“You’re Smurfette, and Hayley’s Pinky.” I laughed, and rolled my eyes. He sat the three bags he was carrying down on my bed, and smiled at me before walking out. I sighed, and plopped down on the bed. I closed my eyes and was about to drift off to sleep, but someone knocking on my door stopped me.

“Riles, you wanna go to the beach?” Hayley asked. I sat up, and smiled.

“Yeah. Who else is going?” I asked.

“Just us. I though we could have some alone time. Twin to twin,” she said. I nodded.

“Alright, just let me get dressed.” She nodded, and shut my door. A couple seconds later, I heard her’s shut. I got up and quickly changed. I put my hair in a side braid and slipped on my boots. I opened up the door and walked down the steps to see Hayley bending down into the fridge. “Can you get me a monster?” I asked.

“Sure.” She stood up straight, two monsters in hand. She handed the purple one to me, and I opened it, taking a large gulp. We walked out into the living room, and saw everyone sitting there, talking.

“Would it be alright if we went down to the beach?” I asked. Dad and mom looked up at us, and then at each other.

“I don’t know, sweethearts, it’s getting kind of late,” mom said.

“We’ll call if we run into any trouble,” Hayley said. We both widened our eyes slightly, and pouted. That was one of the awesome things about having pretty dark green eyes. The puppy dog look worked extra well. Dad sighed.

“Alright, but I want you in an hour. Got it?” He asked, raising an eyebrow, half serious, half playful.

“Yes, sir, Mr. Daddy sir,” we said in unison, and kissed his cheek. We kissed mom’s cheeks too, and said bye to the guys and walked down to the beach. When we were still in view of the house, we sat down in the sand and talked.

“I love it here, Hayls,” I said. Hayley scooted closer to me and leaned her head on my shoulder.

“Me too,” she said. We sat there in silence after that. “Fuck a duck!” She yelled.

“What?” I asked, startled.

“We have two minutes!” She shouted, standing up. I gasped and jumped up.

“Run for you life!!” I shouted and we both bolted for the house. We ran as fast as we could, and actually made it in time. We burst through the door, making dad scream like a little girl. Mom looked over at us.

“Why do you two look like you just ran a mile?” She asked.

“Probably because we just did,” Hayley gasped out.

“We almost didn’t make it in time,” I breathed. Mom and dad both stood up, and hugged us.

“Go to bed, you two look tired,” dad said. We both nodded.

“Night dad,” I whispered, kissing his cheek. “Night mom.” I kissed her cheek as well. I saw Hayley do the same, and they both smiled at us.

“Night,” they both said at the same time. Hayley and I walked into our rooms, and I got changed into my Pjs. I walked out of my room to tell Hayley good night. We both stood in the door way, and smiled.

“They haven’t kicked us out yet. I’ll take that as a good sign,” I laughed. Hayley laughed with me.

“I agree. Night Skittlez,” she said.

“Night Monster.” I closed my door, and collapsed on my bed, instantly falling asleep.