Hutch or Peck?

-Back in 2007-

“Sam! Sammy! Come down here, quick!” I exclaimed to my twin sister.

With her hair flowing down to the middle of her back, Samantha walked down the stairs of our mini-mansion and into the living where I sat in front of the TV watching the series finale of Drake and Josh.

“They’re ending Drake and Josh!” I exclaimed, my dark brown eyes nearly bulging out of my sockets as I stared incredulously at Sam whom looked at me and shook her head.

“Seriously, Mel, you knew that for at least five months now. Didn’t Josh tell you?” she asked her identical eyes rolling from the “news”.

“Yeah, but I didn’t expect it to be this tear-jerking,” I teased causing her to slap me lightly on the back of my head with a pillow.

“Ow!” I exclaimed overdramatically.

“Get up. It’s after 8 at night and you still haven’t even talked to him today. You know how mom is about you two,” Sam said in a knowing tone.

“Alright. We’re just friends though, really,” I mumbled knowing my sister had hit a soft part of me.

Before anything continues further, let me explain; Sam or Sammy is my barely older sister also known as Samantha Parker. She’s a singer and acts occasionally as well, but she’s known for her outspoken and open attitude about things that occur in her life like our father’s death when we were kids or the breakup she went through with a co-star she filmed a movie with. The guy cheated on her for a long time, but Sam didn’t know until she knew they hadn’t spent any time together since we moved to L.A. To this day, though, I feel as though Sam was in the right although the guy did deserve the attention from the media for being a slime ball.

As for the Josh she’s referring to, yes, she’s talking about my best guy friend named Josh Peck. We met last year at the TCA’s since I tagged along with my sister during the event and got along for a while. I even got an acting gig on the show a couple of times before it ended, but now that Sam mentions it, Josh and I hadn’t really talked at all since the last episode aired today and it was beginning to make me worry. Did I mention that I have a small crush on him? Yeah….

But where are my manners? I’m Melanie Parker, born on November 1, 1990, precisely a minute after our mom had Sam so one could say Sam and I get along beautifully.

I stared at her with a look in my eyes and instantly Sam sat next to me. Her eyes drifted back upstairs before they went back to mine.

“What’s wrong?” she asked in a low tone.

“Is Mom up?” I asked. Sam shook her head.

“She passed out a while ago from drinking. She was upset about the songs I wrote about jackass, but I don’t care,” she answered with a hint of anger.

Our mom didn’t like anything Sam did as long as it pertained to getting negative attention from the media. But her songs weren’t what mom didn’t like; it was how emotionally invested she had gotten into the guy and how their professional relationship was ruined because of his mistake. Did I mention that the guy was her first boyfriend? I don’t blame my sister, honestly. But anyways, our mom has been sticking up for Sam reluctantly and although Sam’s in the right, she hasn’t liked one bit of it. She usually drinks at night whenever the media bombards them with questions about the bombed relationship.

“OK. The thing is I may have-a-small-crush-on-Josh,” I said rambling the last six words causing Sam to get confused.

“Wait-what? Did you just say you might have a crush on Josh? As in Josh Peck, your best friend?” she teased with a hint of sarcasm.

“You knew?” I asked in shock.

“Of course I knew! There’s one problem, Melanie; you’re four years younger than the dude. He wouldn’t take you seriously,” she said blatantly.

That was a problem we had with one another. We were always harsh and said the cold-hard truth as though it were natural. Sometimes we had problems doing that to other people which is why Sam doesn’t have too many friends because the ones that want to be friends either are fake or in too deep with drugs and stuff so it was usually the two of us, but we weren’t attached to the hip. I was used to her going out without me and vice versa.

“I know,” I groaned picking up a pillow and putting it on my face, “what do I do?” I got out, it sounding muffled.

“Tell him,” Sam answered simply with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Uhhh I can’t do that,” I replied staring incredulously at her.

“Yes you can!” she retorted just as my phone rung.

The name Josh flashed on my phone’s screen and I squeaked out of shock causing my twin to stare at me as though she were weirded out.

“Well, answer it!” she said picking it up off of the table, swiftly hitting the button before tossing it to me.

“H-Hello?” I stammered, glaring Sam before she got up and walked out of the room.

I put on my slippers just as Josh’s voice went through my ears.

“Hey, Mel!” he said with a laugh.

“Hey, Josh! How are you holding up?” I asked scratching my head.

“I’ve been better. Did you like the finale?” he asked causing me to laugh.

“Like it? I loved it even though it was bittersweet,” I admitted.

“I understand. It was hard for my friends to accept it, too. Are you doing anything tonight?” he asked causing my heartbeat to increase.

“Uh, no I’m not doing anything,” I answered snapped my fingers just as Sam made it to the staircase, but stopped at the sound as well as my response.

“Well, we’re having a party at my place. Did you wanna come? You can bring Sam, too if you want.”

“Uhhhhh… Let me ask Sam first,” I replied putting Josh on mute. She rushed over to me, grabbed my phone and unmuted him speaking to him since I was too shocked to speak further.

“I’m absolutely not busy and neither is Mel. We’ll be there in half an hour. OK. Dress up? Alright, sure. See you soon. Bye,” she concluded, hanging up the phone before tossing it back to me.

She grabbed me by the hand and led me upstairs to our rooms, but went to mine first.

“So, why are we getting dressed up again?” she asked causing me to come back to my senses.

“He and I’m assuming his friends and cast mates are having a party to celebrate the ending of the show,” I got out staring at her.

Sam and I were not identical twins. She had beautiful, tanned skin like mine, but our faces were entirely different; I had a beauty mark on the right side of my top lip while Sam didn’t have any. Our curves were exactly the same, the main difference was our hair; Sam’s was extremely long while mine is only to my shoulders. But the only similarities we had were our smiles, eyes, skin, and hair texture; sometimes our facial expressions are identical as well.

She rolled her eyes before sighing as she searched my walk-in closet. Unfortunately, she didn’t find anything. She looked at my matching blue walls compared to her before dragging me to her room. I sat on her bed and stared as I heard the rummaging she went into her walk-in closet and pulled out an outfit for me and one for herself.

She left her hair in a ponytail and we packed our clutches each with gum, lip balm, a compact mirror, our keys, and phones and we stepped over the threshold.