Separated

“Really mom?” Hale asked and rolled his eyes. Then she nodded. I really did want to hug him. He is cute, even if he looks exactly like me… “Come here.” He said as he sighed. I was shocked a little, but got up and walked over to him. Then I wrapped my arms around his waist and put my head on his shoulder. I’ve always wanted a brother. I felt something…new in this hug. It was like there was a wildfire wherever he touched. I heard him stifle a gasp; he must feel it too. But we had to pretend there was nothing there, because we can’t fall in love. We’re brothers! And I just met him!

So, when he pulled away I kept a nonchalant look on my face. He seemed to copy me. Then without a word I walked back to my chair and sat down.

“See that wasn’t that bad was it?” His mom asked.

“No, not at all.” We said at the same time. Which was a little creepy. I looked over at him the same moment he looked at me as if to say ‘what the fuck?’. Then there was a knock on the door.

“That must be your stuff, Raine!” She said excitedly and ran to the door. I chuckled to myself. She reminds me of one of my friends from my old high school, Lilia.

“D-did you…feel anything when we hugged?” Hale said quietly once his mom was out of hearing range.

“Yes.” I said equally as quietly.

“Then why did you look so…uninterested?”

“We’re brothers.” I muttered. “We can’t feel anything else other than brotherly love.”

“But we don’t feel like brothers.” He looked up at me, and I just now noticed his brilliant green eyes. To be honest they shouldn’t have caught me so off guard; I have them too, but his seemed…more amazing than mine. “We haven’t been around each other since we were born-almost sixteen years ago-and now we are ‘reunited’? It still doesn’t feel like I have a brother.”

“I know what you mean.” I sighed and looked down. “But we need to learn more about each other! Then we can be like real brothers!” I tried to be happy.

“Okay.” He said with determination.

“Boys!” His mom called. “Can you help me unload all of Raine’s stuff?” We agree and began unloading all my crap.



I moved into the bedroom next to Hale’s. It was huge! It had a balcony, and it’s own bathroom! It was amazing! It only took me about two hours to unpack. It was mostly just clothes, stuffed animals (I’m not afraid to admit I have them) and little mementos. When they put you in foster care, they don’t let you take your furniture, just you blankets and clothes and stuff. When I was finished Hale walked in.

“Hi.” He said awkwardly, as he took in my room.

“Hi.” I said back.

“So what do brothers do?” He asked suddenly.

“I don’t know…Watch TV?” I offered.

“How about a movie… The cartoons aren’t as good as they were when I was little.”

“I know right!” I agreed. “What movie do you have in mind?”

“I don’t know… Maybe one of the Saw movies?” He shrugged nonchalantly. How do you do that? Scary movies are scary! You can’t just be nonchalant.

“I don’t like scary movies.” I muttered and hugged my different colored patched teddy bear.

“Oh it’ll be fine. I’ll defend you from all the monsters.” He said sarcastically.

“I guess it won’t be that bad…” I trailed off as he walked out of my room, and then back in only moments later. He popped the disk into the flat screen (it had a built in DVD player! Cool, right?) and then plopped down on the bed beside me.

At first I was okay with the movie, but as it progressed I got more and more scared. A quarter of the way through I was already cowering into Hale’s chest. At first he was all tense, but after a while he relaxed and stroked my back trying to calm me down.

Every time there was a loud sound I would jump and whimper. I don’t know how he could watch this! He was all calm and nonchalant while I was cowering in fear the whole time.

“I brought popcorn.” His mom said suddenly right beside us and I shrieked. Like a blood curdling shriek I’m not even kidding. Then I broke into tears and snuggled even closer to Hale.

“Mom!” He scolded. “You should have warned him before you were standing right next to us.”

“I’m sorry, you’re usually so calm during scary movies, I guess I thought he would be too!” I felt the bed shift beside me. “I’m sorry Raine! I really didn’t mean to startle you. It’ll be okay I promise, honey.” She started rubbing my back at the same time Hale did. Even though I knew it was her, I couldn’t stop crying for some reason.

After five minutes my cries died down to just sniffles and that’s when Hale’s mom decided to leave. She set the popcorn in front of us and walked out the door. I began nibbling on popcorn, and Hale laughed.

“What?” I asked defensively.

“Nothing.” He chuckled some more. Then there was another scary noise and I jumped and snuggled even closer to him. Only, I forgot the popcorn was there so I hit it and it exploded allover us.

I started laughing uncontrollably. Hale just looked at me funny.

“I’m such a klutz!” I chuckled. Then there was yet another scary noise and I jumped back over to Hale.

”Mood swing, much?” He laughed. I just whimpered. I don’t like this movie, it’s to scary.

“We can stop watching it.” He offered. I shook my head in his chest. Even though I didn’t like the movie I liked being able to snuggle with him. He was so comfy.

By the time the movie ended it was really late, and really dark. Hale got up, grabbed the movie and started to move towards the door.

“Good night, Raine.” He said.

“Night, Hale.” I said weakly. Then he walked out the door.

I tried to fall a sleep, for like an hour, and that didn’t work. I was afraid something was going to kill me in my sleep. So I tried hiding under the covers… But if they did come and kill me I wouldn’t see them before they saw me and killed me. So I poke my eyes out from under the covers. It was so dark! I whimpered.

Then without thinking I grabbed my teddy and walked into Hale’s room on the edge of tears.

“Hale?” I called softly, trying not to wake him if he was asleep.

“Hmm?” He called groggily back and sat up. When his eyes adjusted and landed on me, he looked worried; probably because tears were cascading down my cheeks.

“I…um…can’t sleep.” I looked down, embarrassed that I had to admit that. I hugged my teddy tighter.

“Are you scared?” He still sounded a bit groggy.

”Mmhmm.” I mumbled.

“Come here.” He lifted up the covers on the other side of the bed. If you haven’t guessed yet, all the bedrooms had king sized beds. I hurried over to the bed and hopped under the covers. I snuggled to his chest and fell asleep listening to his heartbeat. It was the perfect way to fall asleep.



I woke up to someone’s arm around my waist. It felt nice. I looked up and found that Hale was still asleep. He looked so peaceful. It suited him. I carefully removed my self from his arms, as not to wake him, and replaced myself with my teddy. Then I walked into his bathroom, removed my pajamas and started taking a shower. I don’t lock the door, I probably should have said that earlier, but the people at the orphanage would yell at you and beat you if you locked the door. I’m not sure why though…

I heard the door creak open while I was apply my, well technically Hale’s conditioner. I wasn’t sure what was going on so I ignored it. I just focused on lathering my hair. That is until the shower door opened and someone got in.

“What are you doing?” I screamed and tried to cover myself. I turned around and found Hale trying to use the shampoo. He turned around groggily.

“Oh my god!” He shouted as he realized I was in here and rushed to cover himself as well. “How long have you been in here?”

“The entire time!” I screamed back.

“Why didn’t you lock the door?” He yelled.

”How did you not realize the shower was on and someone was in it?” I answered his question with a question.

“I was tired! I just woke up! I didn’t know what was going on!”

“Why are you still in here?” I shouted. It was a good question! I mean if you realize someone is already in the shower wouldn’t you get out?

“I don’t know!” He said and hopped out immediately.

“I’m almost done.” I said, not yelling this time. “It’ll take like 2 more minutes.”

“Okay.” He said awkwardly. I heard the door open then close, signaling that he left. I finished washing the conditioner out of my hair and turned the water off. Only to realize that I didn’t grab a towel.

I jumped out of the shower and started looking through all the cabinets. How could the towels not be in the bathroom? Isn’t that where you would put them? The door opened and he started to walk in and I screamed. He echoed my scream and slapped his hands over his eyes.

“Why are you still naked?” He started shouting again.

“I forgot a towel… And I can’t find them!” I said defensively.

“That’s because they’re in the cabinet beside the door in my room!” He still had his hands over his eyes.

“Could you grab me one?” I asked in a very embarrassed fashion.

“Sure.” He turned and left then a towel came flying through the door. I quickly wrapped it around my waist, grabbed my clothes and sprinted into my own room. Where I locked the door and put on my black skinny jeans on with my white Neverhshoutnever t-shirt. All the while trying to calm down my breathing and rid my self of this massive blush.

“Breakfast!” I heard Hale’s mom call from down stairs. I walked down stairs and sat at the table.

“Hale could you set the table?” She asked after she looked at me.

“I’m Raine.” I said quietly.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m not used to there being two kids in the house… Let alone them looking the same. But could you set the table.” She apologized, then asked.

“Uh, yeah sure.”

“Plates are in the left cabinet and silverware is in the drawer below that.” She explained without looking. I grabbed three of everything and set it on the table. Then I sat down and waited for whatever was going to happen next. Hale was down a few minutes later. He sat down across from me and I looked down at my plate and blushed.

“We match.” He pointed out, trying to keep his mind off of what just happened. I looked at our clothes. He was wearing white skinny jeans and a black Nevershoutnever t-shirt. I wonder how that happened…

“And here, is the best breakfast pizza you will have eat.” His mom set it down in the middle of the table. I love breakfast pizza it’s the best!

“Thanks….” I trailed off not knowing what to call her.

“You can call me mom, too. Seeing as I am your real mom.” She smiled. I nodded and grabbed a big slice of breakfast pizza.

“So I heard a lot of screaming this morning…” She paused to take a bite. “What was that all about.”

“Um…” I said at the same time that Hale said “Well…”

Then I had to explain my half of the story and Hale explained his. It was really awkward seeing as we were telling his our mom.

“That’s hilarious!” She laughed. I just looked at Hale and he looked back at me. We were both a little confused. “But how did you end up in Hale’s bed and why did he wake up snuggling a teddy bear?”

”Well… last night I couldn’t sleep because of that movie. And so I asked if I could sleep with him. And I obviously brought my teddy.” I explained.

“Ask isn’t actually what you did. I woke up because you said my name and you were standing there crying and I let you crawl into my bed.”

“Yeah.” I agreed.

“Ah, brotherly love, you’ve got to love it.” She laughed and for the rest of the meal we sat in silence. More or less because we were shoving all the food we could fit into our mouths. It was really delicious food. His, our mom was the best cook ever!