Double Trouble

The next morning I found Lina sitting at the table with a cup of coffee looking like she was about to fall over. I sighed and joined her with my own cup, and we sat just staring at our mugs in silence.

“You want to talk about it?” I asked her. She shook her head no. “Do you want me to beat him up?” She just gave me a harsh look.

“No. I just don’t want to think about it.” I nodded.

“When you do end up thinking about it and need someone to talk to, I’m right here.” I said to her before finishing the contents of my cup and getting up to go to my room to get ready.

“Hey Ave, how did you know?” She asked me. I gave her a small smile.

“Mattie isn’t the only one who knows. I was there. I’m also your twin.” I told her quietly before turning back to my room. I finished getting ready and grabbed my bag. I found Lina exactly where I left her. I walked up and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

“You’re heading out?” She asked. I nodded.

“Yep. I’m just going to go in for some recreational skating time. You’re welcome to join me.” She nodded and got up to get ready. She emerged from her room in a simple pair of sweatpants and a shirt, with a written note and stuck it to the fridge.

“Just in case the boys wake up and freak out.” She said. I nodded in agreement and we walked to the car. We arrived at the skating rink and laced up our skates, no equipment, no pucks, no guys, no crowd. Just us and the ice. We skated quietly, humming along to the music we had playing.

“Do you think I can still do a triple axel?” I asked her. She shrugged.

“Go for it. You don’t have hockey equipment weighing you down.” I nodded and began picking up my pace. Once I got enough speed I jumped, spinning three times, before landing shakely on the ice.

“So close!” I groaned letting myself skate backwards. Lina grinned and skated up to me.

“A bit uneasy on that landing. Someone needs more practice.” She taunted, speeding away. I chased after her, lightly bumping my hip into hers. She laughed and chased after me as I skated away. She grabbed my hand and sped forward, only for us to end up on the ice in a jumbled mess due to laughing so hard.

“I miss this.” I said to her with a sigh, still on the ice. She sat up and looked at me.
“I do too.” We slowly got up and skated back to the benches, and removed our skates. We packed up all our stuff and walked towards the car.

“So, you hungry?”

"Is that even a question?" Lina stated.

I just shrugged. "Hey, I'm just saying."

"Haven't you noticed that we always eat and that we always have food, it doesn't matter what but still?" She mused.

I thought about it. "It's true," I smiled. "Well I mean that's what happens when you have a family made up of men who have a black hole for a stomachs. It's something we inherited."

She nodded. "True, true." We drove back home in a comfortable silence with the radio as background noise. We trudged up the stairs and opened the door to find four crazed men.

“Uhh. You guys ok?” I asked them. Kaner ran up and hugged me like I was going to disappear.

“Where were you guys? We were worried sick!” Mikey said. Lina and I looked at everyone like they were crazy.

“Where did you guys go?” Jonathan asked us, wrapping an arm around Lina.

“Where’s dad?” Lina asked.

“He’s in the living room calmly watching TV.” Mattie replied. We nodded and I pushed Patrick off me. We walked to the living room to find him looking through a box of movies.

“Hi Daddy.” We said in unision.

“Hi girls. How was skating?” He asked, not even glancing in our direction.

“Wait, skating?” Patrick asked.

“Yep. Skating. We left a note on the fridge for you boneheads. I guess Daddy was the only one that saw it.” Lina said. The boys stood there slightly embarrassed for missing a note stuck in a place they would easily see.

“Wow. You guys really need to stop being so oblivious.” I said to them, just as Sharpie emerged from the hallway.

“Oh hi girls. When did you get back?” He asked us.

“A few minutes ago.” Lina replied.

“Oh that’s cool. Did you have fun?”

“Yup. It was nice.” I said.

“Yeah, we haven’t skated just for fun in a long time. And with the All Star games coming up, we probably won’t have much time to just skate.” Alina replied from besides me.

“Oh yeah, the All Stars are coming up.” Sharp said, “I hope I get picked.” I laughed.

“I want to get picked just so I can play pranks on the guys from the other teams.” I said nonchalantly.

“Oh god.” Lina groaned. “You’re going to get us mauled by many angry hockey players.”

“So? We have Mattie, Mikey, Daddy, Sharpie, Jonny, and Patty-Cakes to save us. And I hope you know that you just subconsciously agreed to help me. Freudian slips for the win.” I told her, pointing out her usage of ‘us’. She groaned and glared at me.

“I hate you.”

“I love you too.”