Never Too Late

Chapter Seven

"Rachel, are you serious? Do you really have a twin brother?" Laura, a tall girl about the same age as her asked. Nodding Rachel smiled as she told her how she'd met her brother and how he was now attending school with them.

"When I first saw Johan, I thought he was Luke because they look so much alike!" Rachel beamed with recollection.

"Wow, that's so cool!" Hannah, the other girl who tagged along with them remarked. "I'd love to have a cool older brother!"

Smiling, Rachel considered herself lucky, and as much as she tried to hide her excitement, she was ecstatic that Johan decided not to leave.

"So Rachel," Laura asked, pulling her from her thoughts. "If I ran into him how would I know who's who? I mean even you had them mixed up."

"For one, Johan is taller, I think by an inch, but I guess it would be hard to notice at first glance." Rachel began. "However, you'll immediately know when you see him because his hair is longer than Luke's. When we first met, he was wearing his hoodie up so I hadn't seen his hair."

"Oh, that's cool," her friends remarked in delight, but just as they were about to make a turn for the cafeteria, Rachel saw Johan walking inside the library before disappearing from view. Excusing herself from the company of her friends she went in and looked for him until she found him sitting at a desk at the back.

"Johan, what are you doing it's lunchtime!?" Rachel questioned as she watched him open a book he had before him. "Have you even eaten yet? Remember mom said you have to take care of your health."

"I've been catching up on some reading," Johan responded nonchalantly while flipping a page.

"I see; well, how have your classes been so far?" She said taking a seat across from him as she studied his features. He looked so absorbed in what he was doing that she wondered if he had even heard her question.

"They were exhaustingly basic." He said after a moment and opened another book.

"Well, that doesn't sound too bad." She mumbled before resting her elbows on the table and cupping her cheeks in her palms. "Have you made any friends yet?"

"No," He said pausing to take notes. "I didn't have time to."

"In that case let's eat lunch together!" Rachel said getting up and extending a hand to him. "I'll introduce you to my friends and Luke can introduce you to his."

Sighing, Johan reluctantly rose from his seat and stacked the books he was reading together. "Alright, but can you show me how I can borrow these books?"

"Of course, no problem!" Rachel told him as she guided him to the librarian's station. "You can put them in your locker until after school," Rachel said when he was finished checking out. "Then I'll show you the cafeteria."

***

Luke sat at a table in the cafeteria looking around anxiously as his friends chatted away. Their words didn't reach him as he scanned the faces entering and exiting the room but he knew it was only a matter of time before his brother would show up.

He had barely been able to think during classes and he considered it a miracle that no one had asked him about his brother yet. He couldn't understand why Johan decided to change his mind about attending school and why his parents decided to send him to the same school he was attending.

All day, he had tried telling his friends about his brother, but he couldn't find the words because he was worried the worst would happen.

They might find it weird and make him a laughingstock!

"Yo, Luke?" His friend Adrian, a short teen with wild brown hair, called, and he realized that he was waving a hand in front of his face. "You've been spacing out this whole time."

"Yeah, just a lot going on," Luke answered begrudgingly.

"Maybe he's got girl problems." Elliot, the slender, built teen next to Adrian, chimed in while scarfing down a handful of chips while the others at the table laughed.

Luke remained silent, just as he expected his friends to be as unserious as ever, which was all the more reason he was reluctant to tell them about his brother.

"Bro, why were you missing from school so long?" Max, another of his friends asked. "Practice has been garbage without you."

Sighing, he turned away when he saw someone approach from the corner of his vision.

"Hey Luke, what the hell man!" Luke heard a voice call angrily. Looking up, he saw that it was his childhood friend Noel, and he was uncharacteristically upset. "Why were you acting like you didn't know me this morning?"

Pausing, Luke looked at him confused until it dawned on him that he must've run into his brother.

"Look, man, I know this is going to sound crazy, but that wasn't me." Luke defended even though he knew he sounded ridiculous.

"Are you calling me stupid? Do you think I wouldn't recognize my best friend after all these years!? Noel asked getting even more upset before pausing. "Wait, did you cut your hair?"

Burying his face into his palms, Luke gave a sigh of resignation. "No, I'll explain everything." He said finally finding the courage to say what he was hiding. As he told Noel about how his brother had reentered his life, he saw looks of disbelief and shock from everyone at the table, and by the time he was done talking, he felt exhausted.

"So you're saying you have a twin brother?" Noel murmured confused as the whole table slowly burst into laughter.

Annoyed, Luke thought he had broken the news as seriously as he could but he could tell that none of his friends were buying it.

"Hey, did you hit your head while you were away?" Elliot asked while another of his friends jeered him and slapped the table in laughter.

"I'm telling the truth!" Luke finally burst out after being unable to keep his cool any longer.

"Wait," Adrian said between fits of laughter. "You're really expecting us to believe the old 'it wasn't me, it was my twin' story? What is this a soap opera!?" He said cackling and slapping the table.

"How is it that I've never heard of or met him before?" Noel asked skeptical of his best friend. "Bro, if you're going through something, you can let me know."

Feeling pissed, Luke was about to snap at them when he glimpsed his sister walking into the cafeteria.

"Luke, there you are!" She said running up to him, "Johan and I are just coming from the library. I was able to introduce him to my friends on the way here and thought you'd want to do the same."

Looking over, he saw that his brother was not far behind, and when he approached him and his friends, all the laughter died, and a blanket of silence fell over the table except for Noel, who got up and walked over.

"What the hell!?" He said, circling Johan, who looked visibly uncomfortable with all the attention he was receiving.

Luke's other friends followed suit and got up and looked between both brothers in shock.

As gasps and whispers ensued from the group the only thing Luke could do was wish for the earth to open up and swallow him whole.