Chance

Chapter 22

Andrew Ryder Jordan Armstrong Brown

I desperately fumbled through my bag to find my notice. I had to find the note that April had sent to me during math. It had all the important details for this massive crazy party I was invited to. Even though my twin brother Christopher adviced me against it, I had decided to go.

He knows about that kinda stuff because he's been to plenty of those parties. Now he doesn't get invited anymore after his incident. In his place, I do.

This was the first actually. Christopher told me that all those parties were only about booze, sex and drugs. All I wanted to be about was precisely that. But I obviously couldn't tell him that.

Maybe I should tell you my story from the beginning. I'm Ryder Armstrong. Well, that's the name I go by. My real name is Andrew Ryder Jordan Armstrong Brown. I have a fraternal twin brother named Christopher. He only has a name, a middle name and one last name like a normal person. His name is Christopher Dylan Brown. Then why do I have a family of names, you may ask? It's because my mother was crazy.

No, really. She went mad.

I started to live with my mother after she and my dad spilt up. Which was two weeks ago. Legally. They had spilt up about a year ago before that. My mother had inherited her mother's undecipherable wealth which automatically made her disgustingly rich after her mom died. Which was when she was seventeen. When she met dad.

Dad's side of the family is crazy too. Like any other family, you may wonder. But, no. Literally, crazy.

Dad's mom doesn't talk to him anymore. They haven't spoken in years. I've never met her and she, me. My mother hates her for some reason but my dad secretly keeps tabs on her. The crazy part? My maternal and paternal grandmothers were lovers once.

He's such a family man who doesn't show it. He loves his alcohol and his couch. He doesn't leave his filthy apartment that he shares with Christopher. My mother visits him sometimes (everyday). He's currently unemployed living off of my mother's money. My mother's more than happy to help him out, much to her annoyance.

My mother is a workaholic. She lives vicariously through her paperwork. She avoids all of her life's problems by going to work. She's never met my teachers. I live with her in her huge New York City house in the middle of nowhere. Kidding, it's a suburban paradise, actually. I mean, we have a pool.

I go to the same school as Christopher. We don't see each other as much but it's cool that we at least say hi to each other at school. Allen Poe Prep School is the most depressing high school ever, though. But girls like April go here, so it's not all that bad.

Oh, my name? Yes. My father's middle name is Andrew. So that's my first name. Ryder was my maternal great grandfather, the man who was my mother's father figure growing up. Jordan was my mother's first child's name who passed away in the womb and Armstrong ismy mother's maiden name, the name she went by throughout her marriage as well. Brown is my father's last name. I go by Ryder Armstrong because it's simpler. I don't want to be another Andy.

I had seen my parents together for most of my life. We heavily celebrated Christmas and Thanksgiving even though my father never prayed. We never have visited a Church because my father refuses to go. I went to a Church on my 15th birthday because I wanted to decide my own religion. (Not Christianity, by the way.) I never told my family this though.

My parents always kissed. They always held hands under the dinner table. They always slow danced in the living room after Christopher and I had gone to bed.

When my dad would make us breakfast (he did that sort of thing because he was the ultimate stay-at-home dad), mom would always hug him from the back and compliment his cooking. They were the perfect sappy couple. Until they broke up.