Twin Souls: The Story Behind The Broken Roses

Chapter Three: June 25, 2014

Emma Walsh

Emma was only 50% sure that Penny was avoiding her, but it was turning out to be higher than that every time she looked for her more... They were supposed to meet up after lunch to head to Arts and Crafts -or, as she liked to call it 'lets see if giving these troubled kids scissors is a good idea or a future horror movie'.  Either way, she wanted to walk with her because she'd said that she would.   But she was stopped in her tracks by something; Tegan.  Crying alone in a corner...

She walked over, clearing her throat.  Tegan glanced up at her and rolled her eyes with a sigh, looking away from her.  Jesus... Was she okay?  Had something happened to her?

"What are you doing over here?" She asked, and Tegan scoffed, shaking her head as she drew her knees to her chest, turning away from her.  Okay... Well, that wasn't very informative, was it?  How was she supposed to help if she had no idea what had happened to make her cry?  Was she trying to make it difficult to be kind?

"Why do you care?" Emma sighed, settling down beside her.  She reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, but thought better of it... She didn't know if Tegan liked being touched or not, and she didn't want to cross a boundary that was possibly unspoken for her.  She just wanted to help, the girls she was with weren't so bad, so why not be nice to them?  It'd make the time at camp a lot easier... She and Penny were getting closer, at least.

Every time she smiled it made her heart race, but Emma was choosing to desperately ignore that.

"Because you look upset and I'm a human being trying to offer comfort to another human being, is that so bad?" She asked, and Tegan a sighed and unwrapped her arms from her legs before wiping her eyes and turning to her... Oh.  She'd been crying a lot...  It made Emma feel a little sad just to see it, she was very expressive.

"My little sister's birthday is today.  She's turning three." Tegan sighed.  Oh.  Yeah, that'd be enough to bring anyone down, Emma supposed... She wouldn't know.  She didn't have any siblings, her parents had only wanted one.  That was why she was sad, right?  That was a good assumption to make.

"Oh.  Are you sad that you're missing it?" She asked, already knowing the answer to her own question. Tegan nodded, her lips still turned down a bit as she picked at the hem of her shorts.  Emma fought the urge to tell her not to do it or to move her hands for her.  It wasn't her place, but it was practically hammered into her from boarding school - they watched how people treated their uniforms so closely.

"Yeah.  Sad doesn't really sum all of it up, but it scratches the surface." Tegan groaned, leaning over to bury her face in Emma's shoulder. Oh. Okay. She didn't know that they were friendly enough for that, but she'd take it. She extended her arm around Tegan carefully, not knowing where to put her hand. "I'm a terrible big sister, if I'd cared about them at all I never would've done the shit I did to get sent here." What did that mean? Tegan doing something to get herself sent here had nothing to do with how much she loved her family.

Who was telling her that?

"... I'm sorry." It was a genuine apology, but it was clear from Tegan's reaction that it wasn't taken as one... Which was fair, maybe it didn't seem genuine because of who she was, but either way.  She'd meant it.

"Whatever." Tegan sighed, brushing her hair out of her face. "I don't know why I'm telling you this." Uh... Who else was she going to tell, right?

"Because I'm here and you obviously need someone to talk to." Emma reminded her, and Tegan let out a watery laugh, shaking her head as she did. Well, at least she was laughing, Emma would gladly take that as a win... She also liked Tegan's laugh, it was sweet sounding, a little louder than she expected it to be.