Bulletproof Love

The twins step out of their car, an old blue Chevy. The oldest, by 2 minutes is Fiona. She is taller by a couple of inches and lacks the feminine curves her sister has. Fiona’s dark auburn hair is pulled back in a tight braid, her jeans and polo fitting loosely. Her sister, Zoe, lets her hair hang in long loose curls, her jeans and t-shirt tighter than her sister’s. The girls are impossible to tell apart when separate but when they stand side by side you can tell small differences. Zoe chews her nails and is shorter and curvier. Fiona always wears her hair in a tight french brain and avoids eye contact when you speak to her. Zoe pulls a schedule out of her bag and looks at her sister, “I have English first, Calculus second, American History third, Choir fourth, Chemistry fifth and French sixth. What do you have?”
Fiona rattles off her classes, “Statistics, Spanish, Art, American Lit, Civics, and Biology.”
Zoe’s brow wrinkled “What lunch do you have?”
Fiona looked over her schedule “Second, in the annex. What about you?”
Zoe frowned, most schools had given her and her sister classes together, at least lunch. She wasn’t sure how she would deal with not having Fiona around her, they had been together since birth and even before.
“I have first lunch in the main building. I guess I’ll see you after school. Meet back here?” Zoe asked lightly.
Before her sister got a chance to answer, Zoe’s attention was captured by two boys walking and talking animatedly. One was pale and shorter with black hair that hung in waves around his face. The taller, darker complected boy tossed his head back laughing at something the shorter boy had said, his long golden brown hair danced around his face and neck, touching his shoulders. Both the boys were wearing dark sunglasses. The shorter one had a hat on backwards and the taller one had a beanie on. The moment Zoe snapped her jaw closed the shorter boy looked up at Zoe and his smile warmed her heart.
Zoe stepped closer to her twin and said in barely a whisper, “Fee, did you know California made boys so….sexy?” and giggled.
Fiona turned around and caught another smile from the shorter boy, the apples of her cheeks promptly turned an attractive shade of pink as she turned back to her sister, “Oh my God. I think I might like this school, after all.”
Both girls giggled and walked off in the opposite direction of the boys. They didn’t know the boys, about 15 paces behind them were talking about the new girls as they walked ahead of them.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Zoe settled herself into a desk and busied herself getting out paper, pencils, and her English book. When the bell rang, her teacher instructed the class to quiet down and announced the arrival of their new student, pointing to her, “Class this is Zoe Anderson. Welcome her. Zoe, why don’t you come up here and tell us all something about yourself.”
Zoe, being as friendly and outgoing as she was gladly stood up and walked to the front of the class and beamed at her class, “Well, I’m Zoe. I’m a twin, the short twin, actually” at this the class looked at her with interest “my dad is in the military so we move alot. But I think we’ll be here until senior year,” she smiled and continued “my favorite color is green and I’m really excited to be in California. That’s…” she trailed off.
Bright blue-green piercing eyes had caught hers. Sitting behind her desk, legs propped up on the desk, chair leaned back on two legs was the shorter pale boy of the two she’d seen in the parking lot. She fumbled for words as his eyes sparkled and a smile twitched at the corner of his lips. Zoe licked her suddenly dry lips, “yeah, that’s about it.” she looked at her teacher.
“You may sit Zoe, thank you and Welcome to Bakersfield Central High School.” He looked up at the desk Zoe had been sitting in then barked “Mr. Quinn! All four on the floor. Must I tell you EVERY day?” the exasperation in his voice clear.
“Sorry, Mr. Keen. I forget.” he laughed lightly as Zoe took her seat.
He leaned forward “Green huh? I would have pegged you for a pink girl.” his breathe was warm on Zoe’s neck. Goosebumps rose on her flesh as she turned in her seat and told him, "there's a lot about me that would surprise you. If you hang around, I might let you know more." She heard him lean back in his chair and perch his feet back up on the desk.
“KELLIN! Put all six feet on the floor! The four of the chair and your two, please.” he snapped.
So, his name was Kellin. Kellin Quinn. What a beautiful name, it fit him. He was beautiful with his black hair, pale skin and eyes like glass the color of the ocean.
Then something snapped her attention to her sister. Something was wrong. She stood up “May I be excused to the restroom please, Mr. Keen?” she asked politely.
He agreed and Zoe rushed from the room, fishing her cell phone from her pocket she punched out a text and hit send.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Fiona is absorbed in watching the taller boy. She now knows his name is Vic she heard some people call that name and we walked over to them. His eyes dance and shimmer, brown with golden flecks in them. His long brown hair glints gold in the sunlight streaming through the window. His smile is beautiful and draws her to him, even if they hadn’t been sitting next to each other and she hadn’t seen him in the parking lot, he was impossible to not notice.
“Hey.” He said. She hadn’t noticed he’d seen her looking at him.
Her eyes quickly darted away, finding something very interesting on the wall. “Hi” her voice was barely above a whisper. Fiona looked around, she was getting dirty looks from the other girls in her class. She wondered why, what was so wrong about talking to Vic? But either way it made her even more shy.
“You’re new. Where are you from?” He asked, seeming genuinely interested in her answer.
“Uh..w-well, my dad, he’s in the Army so we’ve moved around a lot. But we just moved here f-from Florida.” Her voice was very quiet, Vic had to strain to hear it.
“That’s awesome. I’ve lived in B-Ville my whole life. I saw you earlier, with another girl. You two look a lot a like.” He observed.
She snorted then quickly clasped her hands over her face, both in embarrassment and to hide the shade of red she could feel her face and ears turning. “Well, we should. We’re identical twins.” She said through her fingers.
He reached over and pulled her hands down, “don’t be embarrassed, I snort when I laugh too.” he said honestly, his big brown eyes looking straight into her own green ones.
A girl walked into the class, Fiona looked at the clock. She was almost 20 minutes late! And the teacher said nothing. Then she thought, of course she didn’t, she’s not even teaching the class.
The girl with blonde hair down to the end of her rib cage walked over and stood right in front of Fiona, one hand on her hip, “You’re in my seat, new girl.” she snapped. Vic started to say something, the girl leveled him with a single glace. “Well, what the hell are you waiting for? Get up freak show. And weren’t you JUST wearing something different?”
Fiona scrambled picking up her books and stuttered “t-that was my s-sister.”
“They’re twins, Anna!” Vic said excited. The girl named Anna turned on her heel to stare at the beautiful boy. “How charming, Vic. Now shut up. You’re better when you aren’t speaking.”
This girl is cruel Fiona thought. She made a mental note to never give Anna a reason to dislike her. She stood up, and scanned the room for an empty desk. She found one on the opposite side of the room. Before Anna let her pass she leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Vic is mine, new girl. I saw how you looked at him. If I see you speak to him again, I will make your life in this school a living hell. Do you understand me?”
Fiona nodded as she walked away and slammed herself down into the empty chair. She was suddenly very interested in her textbook, making sure not to look over at Vic and Anna. Her stomach dropped when she heard Anna say “Vic is mine.” But why? She had no chance with him. She didn’t even know his last name.
Just then her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was a text from her sister.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Fiona's expression changed from boredom to one of complete shock when she saw Zoe walk out of the main building, with the shorter boy. She was looking up smiling at him as he spoke to her. Then there was trouble, Anna and Vic. The group of four was walking straight toward the battered old Chevy. Fiona threw her bag in the back and plopped down in the driver's seat. She knew Zoe had wanted to drive but knowing her sister she would want to stand there with the boy and talk and Fiona wanted to get out of there, and fast. Zoe pulled open the door, "get out Fee, you know I drive us home." she demanded as she turned away to listen to what Kellin was saying. Fiona protested "but I wan-" her sister cut her off midsentence, already knowing what she was going to say.
"I said OUT Fee, I know you want to go home but I'm talking to Kellin right now." she turned to the boy who was fixing his hat "Kellin, this is my sister, Fiona." Kellin dipped down to see her better and waved. "Hi!" he said, a beaming smile spreading across his lips. Fiona looked away but not before a short wave in his direction.
"I'm sorry sometimes she forgets to have manners because she's too busy being shy." Zoe smiled in Kellin's direction then turned back to her sister and squatted down between the open door and frame of the car, lowering her voice to a gentle tone she spoke to her sister. "Fee, please get out. I would like you to meet Kellin, his best friend Vic and Vic's girlfriend, Anna. Not to mention, I'M driving us home."
Fiona moved to step out and leaned into her sister's ear to say "I already met Anna and Vic. Now can we PLEASE just go?"
Zoe moved out of her sisters way and turned back to Kellin, "I guess I have to go." reaching into her bag she pulled out a pen and grabbed Kellin's hand and scrawled her phone number on his palm and smiled before she plopped herself into the drivers seat, slammed the door while she turned the key in the ignition. After she buckled her seatbelt she winked at Kellin right before threw the car into gear and sped out of the parking lot, leaving the group of three in a swirling cloud of dust kicked up by the back tires. The smile that crossed Kellin's face was unmistakable. Vic moved to stand next to him, "I've seen that look before. You like the new girl, don't you?"
Kellin turned to the friend he considered a brother and grinned. "She interests me. I like her style."
"Well, the one who drove is okay. I don't like her sister though. She's weird." Anna added to the conversation.
Vic turned to look at his girlfriend. "No, Anna. She's really sweet. Just because someone isn't the same as you doesn't make them weird. Look around, how many girls look like you? Not very many." He saw the stunned look and new he was digging himself into a hole but he couldn't manage to make himself stop. "You shouldn't have said what you did to her. You know I'm loyal to you and only you. It was her first fucking day and you ruined it. Why are you such a cold hearted bitch sometimes?"
Anna's jaw was hanging open. "And close your mouth, you'll catch flies." He finished.
The look she gave him was one of pure anger, one that he knew was coming, right along with her vicious verbal attack, "And why are you with none of those other girls, those "sweet" girls? Because I am the best. I am prettier, thinner, and can give you nicer things. You however are replaceable. Don't let your looks get to your head because we both know that's all you have going for you. You and your poor, pathetic little family. Even your "brother" here who you at one time wanted to fuck, you are all replaceable to me and to this world. Don't push your luck. You are mine, and it's going to stay that way."
If Anna had looked shocked, then Vic looked absolutely traumatized. His head swung from Anna to Kellin who was staring stone faced at Anna. He took a step toward Anna and spoke firmly, "Who the hell do you think you are? His family is MY family. I won't hit a girl, but that doesn't mean I won't find a girl to do it for me." Vic snapped to reality and put his hand on Kellin's arm who quickly snatched it away.
"You should go." Vic announced looking at Anna. "I'll text you later and we'll talk but you need to go before Kellin loses his temper."
With that, Anna gathered the straps on her bag over her shoulder and walked off, not looking back as she sped out of the parking lot in her Dad's black Lexus.