Perfectly Imperfect

Chapter 1

Author's Notes: Hey, guys! It's Jeana, baaack with a new story. This one is a high school AU, but also a very dark, angst-filled story. It will deal with mature themes like mental illness and drug abuse. Reader discretion is advised. Also reuploading this because I made the mistake of giving it an R rating the first time and can't find a way to change that. x(

    Clothing was ripped from the closets and flung out of drawers. Books, magazines, and sports memorabilia littered the floor, coating every inch of the creaky wooden floorboards. Posters were torn from the walls and the bed was unmade -- the sheets pooling around a single suitcase resting in the middle of the mattress, completely empty. David Moss stared at the destruction as though it was someone else's mess -- someone else's life being thrown upside down and in disarray.

    This was his childhood home. He had grown up here. And now he and his mother were leaving it behind -- abandoning the memories of his father and brother that had been kept preserved by these walls, all because she had moved on. All because she fell in love with someone else. Marriages fell apart, yeah. He understood that. But what he didn't understand was why the marriage falling apart had driven a wedge between him and his fraternal twin brother. Why had they been sent to separate houses?

    David stepped forward, carefully lifting one of his videogames from the shelf -- the only items that hadn't been completely upended and thrown around in frustration. A light tap on the glass of his large bedroom window pulled his attention away, and he saw his brother Matt hovering outside -- clad in his black hoodie and torn jeans. They didn't look alike the way you would expect with twins, but the resemblance was enough to make it known they were brothers -- the same hair color, the same dark eyes, and the same lack of sun in their complexion.

    "Open the window, dickhead," Matt pulled his hood a bit further over his face, glancing over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't spotted.

    David stepped over his belongings, unlocking the window and yanking it up so Matt could come in off the roof's ledge, "You shouldn't be here. Mom made it pretty clear she didn't want you around the last time she caught you..."

    It was true. Matt took a risk every time he showed up. Their mother always got irrationally upset when she caught David and Matt together -- and David always got the brunt of it. He honestly wished he could be more like Matt, sneaking in without a care and leaving much the same way. Even now, after David's warning -- Matt merely shrugged with his natural indifference, cleared a space on the bed and sank onto it.

    "I don't care what she thinks. You shouldn't either. You know the only reason she's moving out is so she can keep us apart. When are you gonna tell her to fuck off already?" Matt paused, reaching in his pocket and pulling out his pack of cigarettes. He offered one to David.

    For a moment, David contemplated it -- smoking in their mom's house and not packing like he said he would, would be the ultimate act of defiance. But he was too much of a coward to defy her, too much under control to do anything to upset the balance any more than Matt already had, so he waved his hand to decline the smoke before he came to settle beside Matt.

    "I don't think it's the only reason. I think she genuinely loves the guy we're moving in with. I mean, she is marrying him in three days. But keeping us apart is probably a strong incentive. She keeps saying 'David, we need to live a normal life. Living with Kenichi will give us that normal life.'"

    Matt put the cigarette between his lips and lit it up, "It's bullshit. It's an excuse. She doesn't even look at me when I'm here. She hates me. She gave birth to me AND you! Why are you the only one she can look in the eye? I'll tell you why. Because you're a bitch."