The Wrong One

Hanging out with Zacky and his friends was not what Sian had expected. She thought she was going to go to a bar where she was going to sit with one or two guys and they’d drink and talk, and that would be the end of it.

She was wrong.

Not only did Zacky bring the blonde guy, but he’d introduced her to the two guys from the night before that had stared at her in the bar in Los Angeles, and another skinny guy with glasses. They were all covered in tattoos, they were loud, and they were every kind of drunk Sian hated. Still, she couldn’t lie about having fun. She was having a lot of fun, actually.

When she’d first walked in with Kyle, the guys had all stared at her. The two from the previous night had yelled at Zacky, saying they were telling the truth and he didn’t believe them. Then she introduced herself. They all looked at her as if she’d grown two heads. One of them, she found out his name was Jimmy, even poked her cheek. She asked him what he was doing and he said he didn't know she and Samantha were twins before and thought it was cool. She’d laughed at him.

By the time midnight rolled around, she was completely buzzed and laughing more than she had in a really long time. After a joke that Brian had said, she laughed loudly, and then quieted down. She realized she was almost drunk and didn’t know how it happened. The person she was acting like wasn’t who she really was.

She understood why Samantha always talked about the group of guys. She glanced over at Zacky who was looking at her, a beer bottle in his hand. She smiled slightly at him, and he lifted his glass in salute to her. She brought her Bud Light back to her lips and finished it off. The jukebox decided then to play a slow song. She reached for the unopened beer in front of her and took a sip as she opened it. Setting the glass down, she looked up to see Zacky standing in front of her, holding his hand out.

Standing up, she took his hand as he led her to the dance floor.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” he said by her ear as they twirled around.

“What are you talking about?”

“For jumping your shit, thinking you were Samantha. I’m also sorry I didn’t know you were twins; I know you were angry.”

“It’s okay; she probably doesn’t talk about me much.”

“She does talk about you, though. She talks about how smart you are and how she wishes she could be like you; responsible, smart, prioritized.”

“That doesn’t sound like Samantha,” Sian said, smiling shyly.

“She does talk about you, though. I know you’re at Cal-Tech to major in Physics. You want to work for NASA someday. You took care of her and Kyle when you were younger. You were also the first person she called when I asked her to marry me.”

“Yeah, she’s so excited about it,” Sian said, smiling. She didn’t know why hearing all that about her sister made her uncomfortable.

They were twins. Everyone expected them to be so close and do the same things and have the same interests, but that just wasn’t the way of it. Sian had always been jealous of Samantha because of her free spirit, but the way Zacky was talking it sounded as if Samantha was jealous of Sian. That made her even more uncomfortable.

Zacky shifted his weight and Sian looked at him. He was looking over her shoulder, and she could tell he was trying to think of something to say. It was funny because she didn’t really remember him from high school. She vaguely remembered some of the other guys, but just barely. Huntington Beach wasn’t a small city, but she knew they attended the same high school.

“I remember when Sam told me about you guys,” Sian started. Zacky’s eyes were brought back to hers. She almost got lost in the sea-green of his eyes until his eyebrow raised. “She was so excited. She made me listen to you guys a long time ago and then she met you and she couldn’t stop talking about how amazing and talented you were.”

“That sounds like Samantha,” he said and looked away, smiling.

“My turn!” they heard from beside them. They both looked and saw Brian standing beside them and they realized the song had stopped and a new one was playing.

Zacky reluctantly backed away and smiled at Sian. She shrugged at him and smiled at Brian, taking his hand. He twirled her around and she laughed, feeling more buzzed than she did before. She looked over Brian’s shoulder and saw Zacky watching her. She turned back to Brian as he spoke to her, but every once in a while she would steal glances at Zacky.

Two hours later Sian was completely drunk. She had lost Kyle sometime back and was sitting in between Zacky and Jimmy. She was going shot for shot with Matt who was sitting in front of her, and she was keeping up with him. The guys watched in amazement as she downed her fourth, fifth, and sixth shots, knowing she would soon be done. She proved them wrong by ordering two more.

Zacky had stopped drinking almost thirty minutes before and was quietly watching Sian. He’d seen Samantha drink before, but never this much. She’d told him a bit of their childhood and about their dad, but she hadn’t gone in detail. He knew their dad was a drunk and that’s why Samantha didn’t drink much.

He felt his phone vibrate and he looked down to his pocket to get it. At the same time, Sian reached across the table to grab at something Matt had and her shirt lifted up a bit. A jagged scar peeked out from underneath her skirt waist and disappeared up underneath her shirt. It was puckered pink and a bit lighter than her skin tone. Almost instinctively, he reached up and ran his fingers along the scar.

Sian jumped, and looking to her right side, she saw Zacky looking down. She realized her skin was showing and immediately reached to pull her shirt down.

“Sian…”

“No, Zacky. Let it go,” Sian said, and turned back to the guys.

The waitress had just stepped up to the table with more shots. Sian reached over Jimmy and took two of them, downing them both before the guys could say anything. She felt the liquid burn down her throat and coat her stomach. She was upset because Zacky wasn’t supposed to see the scar. No one had seen the scar, not even Samantha. No one knew. She could see Zacky staring at her out of her peripheral vision and she exhaled quickly.

Suddenly, she felt sick. Covering her mouth, she pushed Zacky out of the booth and ignoring the calls of the guys she ran to the bathroom. She fell to her knees in front of the dingy toilet and empty her stomach of all the alcohol she’d imbibed.

Once she was able to catch her breath, she pulled her shoes off her feet and slouched back against the wall. She heard the bathroom door open and then her stall opened. Through her tears she could see Zacky standing above her.

“Great, just who I wanted to see me like this,” she slurred.

Zacky barely understood her, but knew she was feeling like shit. Reaching out, he flushed the toilet and picked up her shoes. He reached underneath her and picked Sian up bridal style. She didn’t even try to fight him, and despite her being a few pounds heavier than Samantha, she still felt like she weighed nothing.

He carried her through the crowd and out of the bar. He set her down long enough to open the passenger door of his SUV and she climbed in. Setting her shoes down in the floor in front of her, he reached across her and snapped her seatbelt in place. Her eyes were closed and he could tell she was sleeping.

Zacky slowly made his way to her house, the whole time wondering what her story was. Samantha was such an open book and said everything she was thinking and Sian didn’t. It was damned frustrating not being able to find out more, especially after he saw that scar. There was something about Sian that intrigued him and he needed to find out what it was.