DOPPELGANGER

Doppelganger: Chapter Two

       

CHAPTER TWO

            The next morning, I woke up to Maia screaming profanities. I bolted out of bed and headed downstairs.

            "You are a piece of shit! You're a bitch! You are a fucking homewrecker and you ruined my life! How could you? How dare you ruin our family! You are a worthless whore! You are a sad excuse for a person and when you die, you will burn...slowly and painfully for the rest of eternity!"

            I approached the doorway and caught a glimpse of Mom standing in the corner of the kitchen. At first, I was bewildered because I thought Maia was yelling at our mother. When I actually walked into the kitchen, I found her shouting at Laura.

            "What's going on?" I asked.

            "I came to speak with your mother. However, your...sweet...little sister decided to make herself part of the conversation."

            "Laura, why are you here?"

            "Sweetheart, I just wanted to speak with my best friend. Isn't that right, Juliana?" Laura flashed a huge grin at my mom.

            Mom stayed silent.

            "Ava, this lady thinks she can apologize for stealing Dad," Maia explained to me. "She thinks she can actually be forgiven! She broke girl code. She broke the laws of being a decent human being."

            Laura crouched down to make direct eye contact with Maia.

            "And you, sweetheart, think that you know what being a decent human being is supposed to be like? For one, decent human beings don't shout out those awful things. I'm trying to be polite, and you're being very rude and I don't appreciate that. I think you owe me an apology."

            Maia gave her a fake smile and then spit in her face. Laura stood straight up, wiping away the saliva.

            "How's that for an apology?" Maia asked.

            "You little brat—no wonder your father doesn't want to deal with you anymore," Laura hissed.

            I crossed my arms and said, "And so the truth comes out."

            "What do you mean?"

            "Maia isn't a brat; she's just angry. You've known our family for years, and admit it, you love us. But you obviously loved my father more because you ruined a perfectly good friendship with my mother. You ruined the respect that Maia and I had for you. And you ruined my parents' marriage."

            "You're seventeen, right?"

I nodded in response.

"So you must know a little something-something about romance. Well, I didn't ruin your parents' marriage. It was already going down the drain. If anything, I helped make it last longer than it should have. Your dad wanted to be with me, and he still wants to be with me. Sorry, pumpkin, but you're wrong about me. You and your sister and your mother destroyed this family all on your own. If anything, you should thank me for accepting your dad and giving him a place to stay and actually be happy."

            "That's a lot of shit that just came out of her wrinkly old mouth," Maia growled.

            "Maia, relax," I told her.

            "Well, fuck you too, sis," she retorted. I rolled my eyes at her cattiness.

            "What did you want?" Mom finally spoke up. She slowly walked closer to Laura.