Separated

The next morning I woke up and realized what we had just done. I lost my v-card to my twin brother. Amazingly, this didn't frighten me or arouse any negative feelings. I was all warm and fuzzy inside, for the first time in my life.

I heard Hale groan to my left. "Turn the stupid alarm off!"

"We have to get up, silly." I laughed and shook him a little.

"No we don't you're lying." He groaned and covered his face with a pillow.

"No!" I yelled at him. "You have to get up! We have school!"

"Just tell them you're still depressed so we don't have to go." He groaned yet again, but it was muffled by the pillow.

"But that would be lying and, besides, it wouldn't give you the right to stay home if I was depressed.Now. Get. Up."I started pulling on his arm and me moved much easier than I though so we ended up flying off the side of the bed and he landed on me. The covers came with us. I laughed uncontrollably and Hale just snuggled into my chest.

"Night." He said. But my mind was already screaming that something wrong. My stomach growled and an intense stab of pain shot through my stomach. We hadn't eaten dinner, which means his mom never woke us up. Which means she probably walked in and saw something very inappropriate and decided not to wake us.

"Oh, God." Hale said his eyes were really wide.

"What?" I asked, did he read my mind or something.

"What you just said." He looked at me funny.

"Wait you mean I said all of that out loud!?" I gasped, this means I could have said anything.

"Yes, but that's the only time you've ever done it, so don't freak, now go take a shower I need to ask my mom what she saw." He instructed. He started to get up and walk out of the room.

"Only if you put some clothes on..." I retorted. He looked down and blushed. Then he quickly pulled some clothes out of the door and tugged them on. I grabbed the most flamboyant pair of clothes I could find (which consisted of my bright pink oversized hoodie that covered my hands, a normal white undershirt, and my purple skinny jeans) and headed to the bathroom for my deliciously refreshing shower.



Once I was dressed and felt my was as good as I could make it, I walked downstairs and headed into the kitchen where I was joined by Hale and his mom. One thing I never understood is why she always got up so early to make us food. I just shrugged it off and took my normal seat next to Hale.

"So..." I said awkwardly.

"So..." Hale said, just as awkwardly. I looked over and saw Hale in a dark purple hoodie (it wasn't oversized, thought he seemed to like form fitting clothes, and pink skinny jeans, we were inverted colors again! I seriously have no idea how this happens every single day. I mean we don't plan it or anything!)

"Dig in I suppose you guys are hungry since you missed dinner." She smiled genuinely at us, I just eyed her cautiously and took a heaping portion of whatever was there.

"Why did we miss dinner anyway?" Hale asked. "Why didn't you wake us up?"

"Well, I got a call from the principle, telling me what Raine went through today, then, when I got home and saw you two napping together, I decided just to leave you." She seemed truthful enough.

"Is that the truth, and only the truth?" Hale questioned.

"I did notice you weren't wearing shirts." She said. "But I could see why; button up shirts would be hard to sleep in..." Either she was an amazing liar or she was telling the truth so I just shrugged and dug into the corn beef hash and eggs on my plate. It was amazingly good, yet again. Right as I shoveled the last portion of my food into my mouth Hale's phone went off.

"It's Hillary." He said angrily and sent her to voice-mail. Then proceeded to play that voice-mail on speaker so we could all hear it.

"Hail, I'm so sorry, I am stupid and an idiot. I should have just believed you and not questioned you. Tell your brother-Raine, right?- that I feel really bad. I'm just not trusting, and you know why, but I was trying to take advantage of you, I shouldn't have. You do enough for me already, and I barely do anything in return. I'm really sorry. Now, if you'd pick up the phone, I'd like to say it to you, while you're talking to me,because you obviously sent me to voice-mail." Hale didn't even move to pick up the phone. There was a sigh. "Fine, just please don't avoid me at school, you're the only person I have,and you know it's true. Again, I'm, like, really sor-" The voice-mail stopped her because she took to long.

"She's bluffing." Hale said.

"How do you know that." His mom replied.

"When is the last time Hillary said 'sorry' and didn't end up doing whatever it was again." His mom opened and closed her mouth a lot and then settled on shaking her head.

"She really means it, honey." She said gently. "She needs you and you know it. You're just holding a grudge."

"So, when is the last time I was actually completely pissed at Hillary?" He paused for effect. "The answer is never, I play the slave between the two of us. I always do as she asked, no matter how embarrassing and I always do it for nothing in return and I'm tired of it." He raised his voice a little at the end and then heaved out a large sigh. I grabbed his hand that had been lying on his leg and squeezed it.

"On a better note, Zeke will be back today." His mom changed the subject.

"But-" I said, trying to explain that the same thing would happen (even though I wouldn't mind a repeat of the last part) all over again.

"I told him about Raine after I heard about Hillary. So, don't worry." She smiled. Then told us to be on our way and that the driver was already up front. But we wouldn't need him in 2 days!



When we got to school I clutched Hale's arm to my chest for dear life. Everyone was staring at me, and by everyone, I mean everyone. As we walked down the hall I felt their eyes on me, wondering if I would break down again, and eager to see it happen.

"Hey homo!" One football player called, obviously to me. "Gonna run away again? Like the trash you are." I felt Hale stiffen beside me, probably thinking that, that comment would send me spiraling into depression. But I was in a good mood today, and I know exactly why, if you catch my drift. Hale, was a bit more of a sour mood, but that was just because he bottomed, he even had to take some pills this morning. I feel really bad now, I'm not even sure how I got the top! It must just because he loves me and didn't want me to be hurting for school. He's so nice. Oh, wait, reality, I have something to say there.

"Running isn't really my style I said smoothly. "At least not when some homophobic retards calls me out."

"What did you just call me?" He accused. Hale got even more stiff I dropped his hand and turned to the bully.

"A homophobic retard, I mean, really, I thought you'd understand that. I also thought you'd understand that you aren't living my life, so why should you even care what sex I prefer to date." I said just as smooth and monotonously as before.

"Oh, you're gonna get it." He growled.

"Try me." I quirked an eyebrow. Besides it was better if he came at me because then it was only self defense. He rushed at me and I easily jumped to the side and let him plow right passed me. He looked back at me and growled again.

"Ole." I teased. He came barreling at me again, this time I decided to something fancy; I did a back handspring and a flip. He stood there in awe.

"Is that the best you got?" I teased. There was a giant crowd forming around us, however, this time I didn't mind the eyes. It was weird; whenever I was doing gymnastics, I finally felt like I could do something, and I was completely confident.

"You little-!" He yelled and came at me. This time I ran at him as well. He seemed surprised, but didn't stop. When he was in range I jumped and did a flip; gracefully landing on his shoulders. I put my hands over his eyes.

"Guess who-o!" I held out the 'o', and everyone in the crowd laughed. He raged and started clawing at his face; desperate to remove me from his back. He backed toward the wall, with perfect aim, even though his eyes were covered. I stood up carefully on his shoulders, keeping my balance and hoping he wasn't intelligent enough to pull me off by my ankles. He wasn't. He grunted under my weight and I easily dismounted perfectly off his shoulders, even though he was moving. And right before I stuck the landing my fist 'accidentally' managed to connect with his cheek bone. He grunted and held his face where I had hit and started to charge at me yet again! I could see the rage in his eyes; it was even more prominent than before. Just than the principle walked by and started to break us up. Finally, I thought one of the staff members show up. The crowd quickly dissipated, well, other than the few lingering students, and of course, Hale.

"Now let's see how bad he got you." The principle started coming towards me and then stopped. "Not a scratch?" Then he turned to the jock and saw him holding his face. "You...What?" He asked.

"That homo," He spat."Hit me for nothing."

"Bull!" Hale yelled."You called him a homo and asked if he was going to run away again."

"No he came at me." The jock yelled back.

"Ha, you suck at lying." I laughed humorlessly. "You did exactly what Hale said, and I specifically waited for you to come at me, which you did by the way, so that, that." I gestured to his face. "Counted as self-defense."

"You're a rotten liar." He growled.

"Boys, boys." The principle said. "We'll just look at the security cameras, see there one right there." He pointed right above our heads to a security camera that had a perfect view of everything. The jocks face paled, I grinned evilly at him.

So Hale, the jock, and I followed the principle into the room where the footage was recorded, and played back the footage. Watching myself perform those kind of moves without pads was amazing to me. I looked so much more graceful than I was in real life. Also if I landed wrong I could have broken my neck.

"How did you do that?" The principle asked. Finally Hale spoke up.

"You remember that kid that made it into the Olympics, but had to forfeit due to an injury a week before the games?" Kyle asked.

"Raine Holloway." The principle said and nodded, waiting for what any of that meant. The you could see him put it together. "Wait, Raine?" He gasped.

"Guilty as charged." I shrugged, still coming off the adrenaline high.

"Wow, just so you know, we are really honored to have you here." He smiled and shook my hand. The jock just looked at me in awe.

"No really it's fine, it's ancient history... Kids at my school weren't as proud of me as I'd thought they'd be and started teasing me and that's about when my clinical depression started." I smiled. "Can I go to class now or...?" I trailed off.

"Well it's really obvious that you were using self defense and that he," He jerked a thumb at the jock. "Was the rotten liar. I'll work out his punishment and speak with him right now, yoiu two can go to class."

"Thank you, very much." I smiled and started dragging Hale to class. When he jerked me to a stop in the middle of the hallway.

"You worried me there, Raine." He said seriously.

"I know." I muttered. "I should have just walked away." I looked down at my feet. He grabbed my face and pulled it up to look at him.

"No," He said firmly. "You did the right thing,and taught him a lesson, I just need to remember you're not as fragile as you look. But still I was worried." He pulled me into a hug.

"Hale, people will see." I whimpered and fidgeted0.

"Let them." Was all he said, and I stopped squirming and hugged him tight. Then I pulled away and started dragging him down the hallway.

"We have to find this Zeke kid! I want to meet him!" I looked back at him and then ran into someone. "I am so sorry!" I apologized, quickly, then looked up. I had no idea who it was.

"No problem, Raine." He emphasized my name.

"Um, Do I know you?" I the adrenaline was wearing off and I was starting to resort back to my shy nature.

"Zeke!" Hale smiled and gave the guy a high five. "How's it going?"

"Good, good." He patted Hale on the back, in the buddy-buddy sort of way. "I heard you were in a fight with Hillary. There's a first for everything, am I right?"

"She totally deserved it." Hale growled I grabbed his arm and clutched it to my chest to try and hold him back, even though he wasn't really a threat. Zeke just chuckled.

"So, what about you, Raine." Zeke turned to me. "Tell me about yourself."

"Um...?" I had no idea where to start.

"What about those moves? I saw the whole thing; it was amazing." He offered. I made a face. I really hated talking about this. Hale seemed to notice my hesitation.

"He doesn't like talking about it." Hale spoke up for me.

"Can he not talk?" He eyed me curiously. "He was very verbal earlier."

"I'm always a l-little m-more talkative when I'm d-doing gymnastics." I smiled. "I really loved doing it."

"Then why did you stop?" He had a glint of interest in his eyes.

"They all teased him, even though he made the-" Hale shut his mouth abruptly.

"The Olympics." Zeke finished. "You didn't think I wouldn't recognize the face that's been everywhere did you?"

"No one else did." I muttered. "And Hale didn't even realize we looked the same." I scoffed.

"Hey I was young and stupid!" He joked.

"It was three years ago, bro." I teased him.

"Pfft, it was totally, like ten years ago." He rolled his eyes and threw his arm around my shoulders. Zeke looked back and forth between us.

"Is there something I should know about you to." He waved his finger between us. I looked at Hale for help.

"After school." Was all he said.



After school meant that Zeke came over to our house. I didn't approve, our house was our safe haven to cuddle and kiss. We ended up in the living room, three armfuls of snacks sat on the coffee table, and we were-kinda-watching TV. By kinda I mean Hale and I were cuddling on one of the couches and Zeke's scrutinizing glance was going back and forth between us.

"Well..." Hale started. "Um.." He looked at me.

"We...?" I trailed off and decide to go on a different route. "You don't hate me right?" I asked.

"No, you seem really cool." He shrugged.

"What about Hale?"

"He's been my best friend since, forever." He smiled as he thought back on the memories. "We were literally raised together, as an infant I would come over every day for a play date."

"Okay...so..." I tried to broach the topic again and it got stuck in my throat. I looked to Hale for help, and he just leaned over and kissed me. I was startled at first, but got over it after a few seconds and started to kiss back, then the world around me faded to black, and I didn't care if anyone saw us. Right before we could get anymore into it Hale pulled away and looked at Zeke. When I remembered he saw that I looked down at my lap and blushed. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that Hale had his chin up high and then he pulled me closer to him.

"Oh." Zeke said.

"You don't hate me, right?" I muttered.

"Hate you?" He asked and sounded astounded. "No, I'm actually really happy for you." He smiled genuinely at us. "Twincest always turned me on." He let out a playful little growl.

"For cereals?" I asked. Hale and Zeke started laughing at me. "What?" I asked defensively.

"Cereals?" They chuckled. Then Hale learned over and kissed me. I jumped a little at the display of affection in front of a person.I wasn't used to it, but I'm glad Zeke didn't pull a I-grew-up-with-you-and-loved-you-now-you're-dating-someone-else-and-I'm-angry's. He seemed like a really good person.

"You can sure pick 'em." I said and leaned into Hale.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked, not at all threatening.

"You're mom, Zeke, they love us." I looked up to him and smiled.

"That's true. But I wonder what Hillary will think after I'm done being mad at her..." he mused.

"That's one I can't even predict." Zeke joked.

"Well you don't have to." Said a female voice from upstairs, I looked up and saw Hillary looking down through the railing.

Hale froze. "How long have you been there?" He asked tentatively.

"The whole time, I saw everything." She looked at me; some sort of negative emotion in her eyes. "I'm sort of jealous of you." Well someone had to pull a... you know what I"m not going to say it again just look back a few paragraphs.... It starts with I and ends with angry's.

"Why? I'm really just useless." Depression take 2. Hillary must make me depressed.

"Raine you're not useless." Hale said and hugged me close. "Just think of last night, that was definitely not useless." He whispered. I thought of last night and smiled at him. I felt a blush creep into my cheeks.

"Awe, how cute." She scoffed. "To bad everyone will find out." She pulled out her phone and showed us a picture of us kissing.

"Hillary what are you doing?" Hale gasped.

"Oh, Raine you'll never get it, will you?"

"Um, hi." I waved. "I'm Raine. He's Hale."

"Raine and Hale, for real? You mom named you after storms. How stupid."

"Hillary what do you want." Hale said, without emotion.

"I think it's adorable." Zeke said at the same time.

"I want to be your friend again." She pouted.

"And you think this is helping?" Hale and I scoffed at the same time. She ignored us.

"I'll give you a proposition; you dump Raine back into foster care and we go back to the way we were-you being my helpless little slave-and I will delete this photo."

"I'll do it." I said and looked at Hale. His face was hard as stone.

"We'll talk it over in the bathroom, where you can't hear us." He said and glared at Hillary."Zeke you can come with us." Then we all walked into the bathroom.

"Don't do it." Zeke said instantly. "I've only just met you, Raine and I really want to see you more often, you're pretty amazing." He smiled at me. Hale slung his arm around my shoulders.

"Don't you be stealing my man!" He said in an accent. We laughed.

"Raine switch me clothes. Then she'll think you're me, and I'll have time to call mom and tell her to wipe Hillary's phone's hard drive with our satellite."

"You have a satellite!" I gasped.

"Yeah, doesn't everyone?" He shrugged.

"No!" Zeke and I shouted. Then we started striping. I didn't want to leave, but if I needed to; I would. I would do anything for Hale.