Twins With the Queen Bee

Chapter 9: What if?

You know that poem was about you right?... Here we are, you and me on a cold autumn night on a bench in a park. I feel closer to you.

I wake up. It all feels like a dream, it has to be. But it feels too realistic. My hand quickly goes up to my lips. I'm smiling. Why am I smiling? Why do I feel so happy? Why do the butterflies in my stomach feel so happy? Why do I feel like I'm floating on cloud nine and how can anyone breathe so easily like this? I don't know. Here we are, you and me... His poem is etched into my brain. It's so beautiful, filled with hopes and dreams of him and his future wife. But that couldn't be me... could it?

The sun comes in from the window. It shines on the neatly placed and perfect lined pencils that I wanted to move earlier. My wish comes true. The first thing I do when I get up is move them slightly in different angles. That's when I smell the scent of pancakes coming from the kitchen. I hope they're as delicious as the eggs I had the other day. With my mouth watering, I dash out of the room.

"Hey Ryder!" I yell as I walk through the hallway. "I hope your pancakes are as good as your eggs cause man am I starv—" I stop when I see that he's not in the kitchen. All there is is a plate with two chocolate chip pancakes and a bottle of syrup on the counter with a pan in the sink. A knife and fork sit on each side of the plate, lined up perfectly like the pencils on his desk. I walk back over to get a glimpse of the bathroom. The light is off and the door is open. The only other doors are a closet and a laundry room which he is not in either. "Ryder!" I call but it's no use.

Shrugging my shoulders, I go and sit down at the small dining table after grabbing the plate of pancakes, syrup and utensils. They are as good as the eggs, maybe even better! Man they are so heavenly I could just bury my face in them. I don't though, I manage to hold myself back.

After breakfast I plan to watch TV but as I go to get my bag out of Ryder's room, I see the note I only glimpsed at before. It's from Jay telling me to meet him at the cafe. My heart pounds slightly harder at his writing. Here we are... I rip the note off the wall and stuff it into my pocket. Instead of watching TV, I decide to get dressed to meet him at the cafe.

The way from Ryder's place to the cafe is starting to get easier to figure out. They're only around ten minutes apart. Every building on that route is starting to make their way into my memories. Like the Salvation Army, a bridal shop called Ma Belle, a family bakery called Smith's Buns and a father and son tailor shop. The family businesses make me think of a different dimension where my family wasn't rich and my father actually did open the gadget shop he's always secretly wanted. I know I definitely wouldn't be in this situation now. I know Bethany wouldn't have tortured me constantly for eight years. I might even be emotionally stable and believe easier that I could be loved. But sadly he went with my mom's dream to be the most successful lawyer in North America. Look where that got us.

The cafe is coming up in my vision. It's very close, enough that I can see a wonderful, outgoing, dark skinned boy leaning against the side of the cafe on his phone. I'm closer, he looks up, sees me and smiles. "Hey beautiful." I almost pass him when he leans off the wall, grabs me and brings my mouth to his. "How was your morning?" He asks with a heartwarming smile and the sun shining out of his Mars-like brown eyes.

"Good?" I try not to make that sound like a question but it does. It's taking me a little bit of time to process a few things. "Uh Ryder wasn't at the apartment, do you know where he is?"

"Not in the cafe. Don't worry about it, he usually goes off when him and Chase are fighting."

"Ryder and Chase are fighting? What about?" I ask before we start walking into the cafe.