Rats, Roses And Paper Bones

Chapter 38: Now we're even

"Now we're even, Doyin." Victoria said.

I looked at her.

"Even?"

"Yeah, by the way, what exactly happened at your school?"
"You might be proud and self-absorbed, but I find it hard to believe that you could actually do something like that."

"Thank you for the kind words." I said sarcastically.
"I don't want to go into details, but what happened was just me being a victim of circumstance,"

"What do you mean?"

"Long story short, I got framed for stealing,"

"You were framed?"

"Yeah, and you don't have to believe me because it doesn't matter."

"I believe you,"

"You believe me?"

She sighed and looked away.

"I know what it feels like to be seen as something you're not."
"From a very young age, I've always been known as the bad and rebellious twin. Our parents, family members, and neighbours all accepted that fact and it -"

"Hold on, pause right there."  I said, cutting her off. I was just hearing that she was a twin for the first time.

"What's wrong?". She asked, looking confused.

"You're a twin?"

"Yeah, I thought everyone knew."

"So you have a twin sister or brother?"

"It's a twin sister, her name is Mercy."

"Oh, wow,"

"Yeah, she was the good twin, I was the bad twin. Everything she did made everyone proud, but everything I did messed every other thing up. She's  calm and obedient, but on the other hand, I am stubborn and rebellious. As expected, they soon started to compare us. Until now, they always tell me to try to be more like her. "

"Wait, why doesn't she come to this school?"

"That's because she's abroad, with my parents."

Yeah, Victoria had told me that. But she didn't mention that she had a twin whom they went with.

"You didn't go with them, why?"

She looked up at me with eyes that told me that I had already asked too many questions.
I looked away in reply.

"You don't have to tell me, don't worry."9th o

She sighed.

"What's the point? You already know basically everything about me. "

"You're right."

"If you had two notebooks but one got torn, what's the logical thing to do? Do you just carry it along to school like that?"

"Umm, no."

"You would fix it first, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so? Are you implying that you're the torn notebook?"

"Basically, yes, according to my parents. So they left me behind with my grandma so that she teaches me good manners, and hopefully, one day, I become good enough to join them over there. "

My mind quickly drifted to the one time my dad had gone off on me for not having a report card as flashy and as embroidered with A's as my brothers'. It was one of those times where I genuinely agreed that we were being compared together.

"With these results, you won't even enter a polytechnic!" He said.

He always reminded me at every slight chance he had of how insufficient I was.
Back then, I still felt extremely condemned whenever my Dad made comments like that. I would try my best, fighting to be that person who would finally be good enough to him.