Twinfestation

Coming to Ash's house unannounced can be enjoyable for everyone. He always gets a giant smile on his face when he answers the door and his sister, Anita, always gives her signature cool-looking head nod. Then they laugh at their mother trying to actually act like one and their dad trying to walk straight.

But, sometimes, it can be a bad idea.

Driving in front of the house, we found Ash yelling up to the second story window. Out of it hung a black haired woman, who's skin looked bagged and gray, even though she was only thirty three.

"You ungrateful shit!" Ash's mom, Cindy, yelled out to him. "I gave you a home to live in food on the table and you treat me like this!?"

"You didn't give me shit, you twat!" Ash shook as he yelled it at her. "You spent all your money on wine and crack! And this run down hobble isn't fit to be called a home! It's your roach infested whore house!"

"We don't even have roaches, you demon!"

"I was talking about you and Will!" He yelled, referring to his father.

Walking out of the house then was Anita. She held one bag in her hand and another on her back. Just like Ash, Ani was insanely tall. Standing at five eleven, short black hair, baby blue eyes, and a aura that radiated cool, she looked highly unapproachable and unrealistically cool. Which she was of course. With the way she carried herself, she could probably pass for eighteen at the mere age of fourteen. A eighteen-year-old guy, that is. Ani may be pretty but she was a pretty boy; Tall, broad shoulders, and scarily charming.

"Hey Silvester." She said with her nod. "Salem."

I was glad to see her back to normal, not looking broken like she had the other day. That was the first I've seen her look even slightly out of place, distressed. Seeing her like this put me at ease in more ways than one.

"Hey.....Ani." I drew out as we watched the scene unfold. "What, uh, happened?"

She looked back at Ash and her mom, as if she hadn't noticed, and shrugged. "Cindy being Cindy. Ashton being Ashton. You don't mind giving us a ride, Say, right?"

"Uh, sure." Though Say had no intention of saying no, he took awhile to answer anyway. "Where are you guys going?"

"I don't know." Ani pulled her phone out of her pocket and started texting. "Ash'll figure something out."

"For some reason, that doesn't reassure me."

Ani looked up and raised an eyebrow. "Why do you care? You don't like him."

Say shrugged and shifted a little uncomfortably. "Yeah, but you're fourteen. Not that Ash doesn't look out for you or anything, but still."

Sliding her phone back into her pocket, she opened the back door and threw the bags in. "Worst case scenario, we come back, grab some money, and get a shitty motel room." She shrugged, not admitting that that was the second to worse case scenario in her head.

"You've guys done that before!?" I panicked instantly. The only motels around here were crack central, not safe even if you were Chuck Norris walking through in a suite of armor. "You should have just stayed if you had to do that!"

God, if I'd known Ash was hiding in a motel I would have helped him. He could have stayed at our house for all that, he didn't have to resort to that. Why wouldn't he tell me? I'm his friend, if he needed help....

Sighing, Say rubbed his eyes and looked back at Anita. "Just come over to our house, it's cool. Get Britshit and lets go."

Ani turned to Ash, who was still fighting with his mom. It hadn't settled any, If anything, they'd gotten louder. All the fight succeeded in doing was, once again, proving what a terrible mother Cindy is and how much anger management Ash was in need of.

"I spent twelve hours in labor with you!" Cindy shouted.

"I was a sea section!"

Disregarding Ash's motherly ego blowing response, she turned to Anita who had walked a few feet towards her brother, staring up with her hands in her pockets. "You too! Do you know how painful labor is!?"

Holding up her hand with a little wave and nod, Ani said. "I was a sea section too, Cindy."

"Ungrateful bitch! You're just leaving with him!? Stupid, ugly, worthless twat!"

Ani didn't say anything back, just kept the same uninterested half smile on her face. But her frozen stillness almost said the same as any reaction would. I froze too, just thinking of what she might have been. Yeah, Cindy may say things like this too her all the time, but that never stopped it from hurting, it never made it hurt any less. What happened last time proved that.

Ash looked at Ani for a second, wondering if she'd say anything. When she didn't he turned towards Cindy, a look on his face like he was ready to rip her a new one.

"You know what?" Anita thawed out and shrugged, thrusting her hands back into her pocket, spinning around on her heals all cool-like, and said "You're not worth it." Then hopped into the back seat of the jeep.

That night was tiring. Trying to do my work, Say, Ash, and sempi tried to make me do the opposite. Ultimately failing and getting exactly the opposite of what we all wanted done. But we did all end up getting over our lack in progress when mom came back home, five bags of chines food, John, and Mykayla in tow. Well, all except for Johna who had ran off somewhere with Ani after, uh, coming out.

Which, though I feel guilty about it, I felt grateful for. Johna's actions had only made me feel bad about not being able to tell my mom, even after I already made a date. Having them both in the same room would have only been worse. Still, even without Johna there, the looks Salem was giving me made me feel guilty enough. Though I don't think that was his intentions. Luckily, Ash was smart enough to keep quiet about it.

But, in payment for his secretiveness, Ash slept in my bed again. Though I was grateful for the warm body next to me, as always, and how fast it put me to sleep, Ash was still a giant and had that habit of sprawling out. Halfway though the night I crawled out of my bed and woke Say up, asking if I could sleep with him. He moved over against the wall, leaving plenty of pleasantly warm space for me. I felt bad for making him huddle against the wall, but soon I was asleep and all thoughts were out of my head.



"Ash, you can stop following me now." Turning around, I glared up at my best friend who was scanning the yard, looking for a semi-familiar face. "I don't need a body guard."

"Yes you do." He told me matter-of-factly, looking the part with arms crossed over his chest and eyes squinted against the cool sun. "You're cute and puny. What would make you think you didn't?"

"....Well we're in school, David wouldn't try anything with this many people around, he's not stupid."

"What's his GPA?"

"Four point......nine?"

Ash looked down at me with a raised eyebrow. "You do realize to get that GPA he'd have to be in all AP classes and have a high A in every single one, right?"

I shrugged. "I like the smart ones."

Ash hesitated for a second before he unfolded his arms and scratched the back of his neck, looking almost pained. "Yeah, I was worried about that. Okay, I guess I'll see you later Silver. Don't get raped."

Hugging him quick, I gave him a small smile, hopeful to get that look off of his face. "Wasn't planing on in."

"They never are." He mumbled as he walked away.

I looked after him for a moment before that strange urge you get sometimes to look to the side crept up on me. Like a ghost of a hand gently nudging your head, telling you there's something there.

The ghost pulled my head over until I met eyes with a vaguely familiar face. This time, his hair was combed neatly and curved out of his eyes, smile big, and gray button up unwrinkled and soft looking. As he drew nearer, I was once again faced with the familiar shock of height.

"Hi." His voice almost made me swoon, as did his looks. It was so deep I could feel it in my chest, through my feet.

"Oh, hi!" I said, my shock making it a bit louder than I meant to. His smile widened as my face warmed and I looked down.

"You're cuter in person."

My face only heated more, as if the sun was beginning to cut through the fall breeze along with my skin, boiling my blood. If this moment had happened a few years ago, I would have never doubted my sexuality and would have never had to have that highly embarrassing talk with Salem.

"Thanks." I mumbled into my collar.

I could feel him laugh as he took my hand. "Come on, lets get out of the middle of the parking lot."

Nodding like an idiot, I walked close by, unconsciously squeezing his hand and blushing. He led us to a pretty beat up, black, old school Cadillac, bench seats and all. He even opened the door for me, though that may have just been because the handle was somewhat broken and I already proved myself in being a bit ditsy.

"Sorry." He said as he closed his door, still smiling at me. "My car's a little outdated. It used to be my dad's. It used to be his dad's, too."

"Oh no, it's fine." I smiled at him, not realizing the ridiculous sentence about to spew out of my mouth. "I don't even have a license, so it's just, like, awesome to me."

When he laughed I did the impossible and blushed deeper, looking any where but his face. In five minutes I've already managed to make myself look retarded, obnoxious, and hopeless. Normally, this would have made me feel as if I'd somehow lost already, but the way he smiled as me made me think that I'd somehow done something right.

"So." He said, still smiling. "who was that guy following you?"

"Oh." Looking anywhere but him, I tried to come up with a bettor story than the truth to explain my best friend. Silently, I cursed him when I couldn't. Of course Ash would make it look bad, that's what he's there for, isn't it? But, when I think about it, It probably didn't look anything like that. It probably looked like Ash was stalking me and David was just watching out for me.

"That was my friend, Ash." I answered. "He's just overprotective and skeptical of...all gay boys that come within ten feet of me."

"Ah. Like a brother."

"No, no." I corrected him , shaking my head. "I had to run from my brother so he wouldn't follow me."

"Am I safe or should I hide from him? I was kind of looking forward to meeting your so called twin. Hayden talks about him a lot."

I thought about this for a moment. What would happen if Say met him? I've met guys he was dating, but for some reason this seemed different. Not that I was dating David, but I had a feeling Say might see it that way.

"No I don't think- wait." I interrupted myself. "So-called twin?"

David held his hands up in defense. "I'm just saying, you guys look nothing alike."

"That doesn't mean I'm lying, you pooper!" Quick, as to cut off the comment that was sure to accompany the smile to my word choice, I asked "How do you know what he looks like?"

"Hayden." He said it like it was a vaguely well known fact, or obvious that that was the source. "I think that's all he talks about. 'Look what Salem got me.' 'I'm hanging out with Salem tonight.' 'Last nigh Salem got on top of me a-"

"Pleas no." I said with a raised hand and eye squeezed shut. "I get it, I get it. Please no talk of nichan's sex life."

"Nichan? I thought his name was Salem. Boy was I off."

"It is, nichan is Japanese for brother and I'm a inter at a publishing company in the translations department. Not that I learned Japanese specifically for the job, I knew it since I was.....uh, um, a long time ago. But it turns out not a lot of kids know two languages so I was automatically put in that department, the guy who looked at my paper even said he'd look forward to seeing me around when he saw that and....uhm, yeah... Japanese."

Realizing the smile on his face was the effect of my rambling, I clamped shut my lips and looked down. My nerves were getting the best of me.

"So you're a translator?" The fact that he was listening made me smile even more. "What kind of things do you work on?"

"Oh, all kinds! I've done books, articles, columns, journals, manga, everything. How about you? Do you do anything?" Once I said it, I realized that it may have not been such a good idea.

"I'm a bus boy as that diner off of Jersey."

"That really big one that takes up half the street?"

"Yeah, that one."

"How do you do that!?" I shouted in amazement. "That place is huge! Don't they only have like five of you guys working at once? That's impossible!"

"They only have three of us working at once. But it's more money with less people and not too too hard."

"Money?" For a moment, I forgot that most people got paid for limited hours of working while I didn't, even though it took up half my life.

"Yeah. You know, paper green stuff." Shifting, he pulled his wallet out of his pocked and from that, a smoothly crumpled One. "It kinda looks like this. You exchange it to get things. Like candy from a vending machine."

"Candy?" My head shot up at the word. Though I think I ate enough candy this morning -mom tells me it's good to eat sugar with my pills- I could always go for more.

David laughed, sliding it into his pocket and opening his door. "Come one, I'll buy you something from the vending machine."

Crawling across the seat instead of opening my own door, I would have landed face first on the concert it David hadn't caught a shoulder. Picking me up, he set me steady before taking my hand and leading us towards the school. I stayed just as close as last time.

"Hey, what's your GPA?"

He smiled. "Four point one. I'm a geek."

"Perfect." I ignored the confused look on his face, inwardly thanking Hayden.