Crossroads

At Long, Long Last

-11:30-

No matter how hard he tried, Jai could not shake the situation he'd been in with Beau from his mind.

Where have I seen him before? He kept wondering to himself, even though there were many more interesting things happening around him at the party.

"Fuck, sorry," Jai realized he had accidentally ignored a question that one of Dylan's friends asked him. He was too busy craning his neck so he could see around both Dylan and his friend, hoping he would catch another glimpse of Beau from where they were standing on the patio outside.

"It's all good man," Dylan's friend, Will, told him with a laugh. He was just as relaxed and nice as Dylan was, if not more. "We all get a little bit faded from time to time."

Jai smiled back with a nod, even though it wasn't the alcohol that was impairing his ability to communicate with the others. He figured he'd just use that excuse to blame his absentmindedness on, rather than tell the only two people he knew at the party that he had a random guy he'd spoken to for less than a minute nagging at his every thought.

"Did you guys have a lot of clients today?" Will asked while whipping out a cigarette and a lighter to go with it.

"Nope," Dylan shrugged, "Was pretty quiet today."

"That's dope," Will answered, "at least you're getting paid to sit around, and you're not sitting in a lecture hall all day," he continued.

"Amen," Dylan laughed. "Jai and I are living the dream."

He heard his name mentioned, but once again Jai had lost every hope of paying attention to the conversation in front of him unfold as he continued to scan the surrounding area. He was so sure that he'd be able to place Beau's face if he saw him just one more time. Another fifteen minutes went by before he finally gave his mind a rest.

"I'm going to head inside and look for a bathroom," Jai told the other two, frustrated. He had no explanation as to why it was bothering him so much; it was almost like a strange instinct deep down inside him was triggered when Beau bumped into him earlier. He set his cup down on the patio table nearby and slipped out of the small circle they had formed.

He found a bathroom in the middle of the long first floor hallway, after having used all of the energy he had in him to push through the masses in the living room. After washing his hands he looked at the reflection in the mirror, and a tipsier version of him looked right back. He splashed some water on his face and left the bathroom, but instead of walking back out to Dylan and Will, he went the opposite direction. He walked towards another large room at the other end of the hallway, where he found a showroom of sorts. It was filled with even more paintings and random sculptures than the rest of the house altogether.

As he had given up on his search for Beau, he now had time to actually look at the pieces laid out in the room—the reasons Dylan was allowed to call it a 'weird art party' earlier. When Jai was busy looking at a strange, orange sculpture he heard a familiar, accent-laced voice.

"Oy! That hurt, you fuck!" it shouted. Sure enough, it was Beau, screwing around with his friend, Skip, on the other side of the room.

Standing in a group was Beau, Skip and two more. One was tall and lanky, with dark hair and a peculiar studded cheek piercing. The other had his back to Jai. Jai hid behind the orange sculpture, not wanting to risk getting caught very clearly watching them from a distance. Beau and Skip had spent the past two minutes flicking and hitting each other, while the other two stood out of the line of fire and talked. In one word, it was entertaining to look at.

After a few minutes, Jai felt weird standing there. He had been wrong before, he had his chance to look at Beau again and still couldn't figure out why he thought the green-eyed Aussie looked so familiar. With that, he gave up once more and decided it was probably a good idea to find Dylan again; he'd been gone for a while. In order to get out, though, he had to pass by Beau and his group of friends.

As he started to sneak past them all, the one boy standing with Beau whose back was originally facing Jai was now turned to the side so that his face was in plain view.

For the average person, looking at that kid would be a normal experience.

For Jai, it was like a shit ton of bricks had just been individually thrown at his stomach; he suddenly had no air left in his lungs to breathe. The balance he had worked towards for over ten years and had finally achieved recently was now being thrown completely off.

For him, looking at the boy was like looking at a reflection of himself.

The worst part was, Jai knew exactly what the guy's name was, all thanks to a drunk and confused Beau.

That boy was Luke.

And Luke was now looking right back at Jai.

Jai froze, unsure of what to do. Luke seemed to be in the same state of shock; clearly he was able to see what Jai had just seen—they were the same person.

Although it still felt like gravity was crushing his entire existence under its weight, Jai was somehow able to make a run for it. He rushed past all of the boys, leaving Luke behind.

He walked as fast as he could out of the room towards the front door, before remembering he had left his friend on the back patio earlier. In a moment of panic, he chose to ignore Dylan's presence and continued out of the house.

Not only was he currently questioning everything he knew about his life before now, but he had also figured out why his run-in with Beau had been bothering him all night long.

Beau looked exactly like Jai's father—green eyes and all.

For not one second in his mind did he doubt that he had just met his twin and older brother;

Two brothers he did not know about until three minutes ago.

A/N: Sooo what did we think? See y'all next update :)

xx, Sarah