You Have a Twin?!

Malls and Memories

Ryan's POV
"So what happened to your favorite store Zanna?" I ask as my brother and I walk through the mall. Max and J.J are in a store at the moment, looking for shoes I think. "They replaced it with a Claire's, " my twin sighs. I laugh, "They replaced a Hot Topic with a Claire's?!" Nick gives me a sideways glance as he starts to walk away from me. "Hey! Wait for me!" I jog up to him but I run into his back which causes me to stumble back a little. "Nick? What was the brake-check for?!" I snap, but then I see my twin is staring at a stranger, a Hispanic man. His eyes are wide and I see fear in them. I grab his arm and pull him away, into an EarthBound. "Nicky, it's alright. That wasn't him." I say softly with any hands on my brother's shoulders. He blinks and shakes his head. "Sorry, I just thought I saw-" Nick starts. He doesn't finish his sentence. "I know, trust me." I say softly. He saw our father in that stranger, which doesn't surprise me. He did look a little similar to Father. "Let's go wait for the girls." My twin sighs, walking away from me. "Yea, ok." I sigh and follow him.
Nick and I sit on a bench outside a shoe store, which is where Max and J.J have been this whole time. I play on my phone and I glance at my twin. He's just sitting there, staring at his hands, which are clenched on his thighs. My mind goes to where his probably is, that night. Father was more drunk than usual and so he beat us harder, Nicky most of all. Nicky always took his pain and a lot of mine and Mom's pain. He's the strongest person I know, not just because he took all that pain, but because he never retaliated unless we were getting hurt really bad. That night, he snapped. He had only ever yelled at Father, but that night, he did what should have been done sooner than it happened, he killed him. It was self-defense. Father had just killed Mom and he was going to kill all of us. He almost killed Nick, he slashed his wrist open with the same broken beer bottle he killed Mom with. Nick has never been the same since. He's quieter, reserved, and paranoid. I'm actually surprised he has as many friends as he does, he doesn't make it easy for anyone to get close anymore. Even me. I sigh and lay me head on his shoulder. He jumps and scoots away. "Oh come on! I'm tired!" I huff. "I don't care Sidekick, that was weird." "We're twins! It's not like we like each other in a romantic way!" I huff again. "Nope." Nick says quickly. He stands and walks into the shoe store. I just look at him as he disappears. I stay where I am, I don't like shoes enough to hang out in a store full of them.

After about another 10 minutes, the girls are finally dragged out by Nick. "Come on Moody! We haven't even gotten to the heels yet!" J.J whines. "Max already has shoes for the wedding and so do you miss Maid of Honor." Nick huffs. "But what about our senior prom?! We have to start planning now!" J.J continues to whine. "Jennifer Joy, shut up already! You can come back for shoes later! I still need to get groceries for tonight!" J.J huffs but she stays quiet as my brother drags her and his girlfriend to the exit of the mall. I follow behind them, holding in laughter.

"Ok, we need..." my brother starts to list all the ingredients we need to get for the big dinner tonight, but I let my mind wander. I start to think about Jackson Lakes. I wonder why he's mean to Nicky. He probably has troubles at home and the only way he can handle them is to be a bully. Nick isn't like that, he never has been. Even when we were kids he was nice, he was only ever mean to people who were mean to us. One day we had bruises on our cheeks that couldn't have been caused by a fall so Mom had to put concealer on us. Nick's rubbed off a little and some bullies made fun of the fact that he was wearing make up. He got in trouble because he beat the bullies up, but only after they threw the first punch. That was the only good thing Father ever taught us, always be the one to end the fight, always be the winner. A hand grabs my shoulder, causing me to jump about 5 feet into the air. I turn and see my brother's face. It's giving off a 'you're weird' look. "Are you ok?" I quickly nod and say, "My mind wasn't wandering! I was paying attention!" Nick just looks at me and sighs, "Come on." I shrug and follow him. We grab all the stuff on our part of the list and go to meet up with the girls when someone rams into Nick, causing him to fall to the tiled floor of the grocery store. He stays silent as he just glares at the person who knocked him down. "You know Cortez, you would be great for the football team. You can be our punching back at practice!" The guy laughs. "Haha, good one Adam." A familiar voice laughs. I turn and see Jackson. His clothes look like a normal teenage guy, but his hair looks nice, like he was at something important. Jackson sees me and his eyes widen. "Get off of me." Nick finally growls. "Nah, you have to get me off on your own." The guy, Adam, smirks. "Alright." My twin says evilly then knees Adam where the sun don't shine. Nick pushes him off and Adam curls into a ball whimpering. "Hey! You're gonna pay for that Cortez!" Jackson snaps. "What, I'm gonna pay for saving the world from Adam's stupid offspring, well more of them. How many girls have you gotten pregnant again?" Nick scoffs. Jackson snaps and attacks Nick. They are actually fighting. It's been a long time since I last saw my twin fight. The managment starts to yell at them, but nobody tries to break them apart, they're scared of getting hit. "Fang!" Max yells when she and J.J finally get close to the fight. Max runs to the two fighting teens and she evades all of their swings as she pushes them apart. "Enough! Fang, walk away." She says calmly. Nick looks at her, breathing hard, then he turns away and walks to the exit of the store. "Yeah you better walk away freak!" Jackson shouts after him. "Jackson! Enough! Act like you're actually my cousin." Max snaps. My eyes widen, Jackson is Max's cousin?! "Ryan, come on. Let's get these groceries so we can leave." J.J says as she lays a hand on my shoulder. I just nod. It only took about 3 minutes to checkout, but knowing that Nicky was out in the parking lot, all alone and angry, it felt like an eternity. "Fang! It's alright baby." Max sighs as she runs up to my twin and throws her arms around his neck. He holds her tight and hides his face in the crook of her neck. "Come on Ry. Let's give them a little bit of privacy." J.J says, unlocking the trunk. I nod and help her load our haul in Nicky's car. After we're done I lean over and see my twin and future sister in law letting go of eachother. Max says something, but I can't hear what she said. It makes Nicky smile though and that's the only thing that matters. "Come on lovebirds! I wanna get out of here!" J.J groans. We all laugh and get in the car. I smile, thinking about the times when Father had gone on buisiness trips. Mom, Nicky, and I always had fun on those days. We laughed like this. We were all finally relaxed, enjoying our freedom. I don't know why we didn't just leave Father, I guess it was because he would find us at Abuela and Abuelo's and Nonna and Nonno didn't like Nicky. Oh well, we can't change the past no matter how hard we wish.