Assassins By Birth

Julia Faye

Something about this feels awesome, but I am terrified. Things could go down the wrong way, it all comes down to what Ronnie's up to.

Today wasn't the best day of my life. Ronnie came a lot late than expected. I expected him to be half an hour behind, but he came an hour late. Loss of punctuality in a person really pisses me off. And he wouldn't even tell me why we are here. I know he loves to surprise me, but had he forgotten that I hate surprises? Every time he tried to treat me with a surprise, it took a huge toll on him.

"Well," he turned towards me, as we strolled past the kids skate boarding by the lake. this better be good. I thought, stopping in front of me. "So?" I asked trailing off, sipping on my café.

"I would like you to introduce you to someone, Julia." He said, motioning behind me, an innocent look pasted across his face. 

Before turning, my mind started running towards all the possibilities. Who? Girlfriend? Sister? His sister, that he can't stop talking about? WHO !?

As I turned, my  brain had already figured out an answer, my eyes believed it, but I didn't want to. I saw a male, about my age, holding two cups of cookies n' cream. my favorite flavor.

But that was not the problem. He was my spitting image, and that  was a big problem.

Before I could even utter a syllable, my male mirror image spoke up, and the words out of his mouth stung like venom and soothed like cream "Jewel."  he said, his voice resonated my dad's, his words harmonized with my mom's. Only she called me Jewel.

In the utter confusion of whether to be happy or angry, I ended up channelizing my complete day's anger and it all came out on Ronnie. "Are you crazy!? " I yelled, "I know you want to fix things between us, and I am open to it, but, bringing in a guy who had eyes and hair like me and asking him to call me 'Jewel' when he's got two cups of my favorite ice cream would not do it!"  I screamed to the top of my lungs and only stopped as I needed to breathe.

I almost resumed my 'are you out of your mind' speech when Ronnie spoke up, "Would you hear us out?" I always took Ronnie for the submissive kind. He had never raised his voice at me, but today he did. That kind of made me consider all the times I had screamed at him and he just heard the song, without saying anything, ever. "Julia, this is Dylan. He has been searching for you since three years. Why? Because he is your brother."

Like that wasn't obvious. I rolled my eyes.

"Okay, Dylan, what proof do you have that you are my brother?" I asked, turning towards him.

"Only your mom called you Jewel, your favorite ice cream flavor is cookies n' cream, and, you've been living with Caleb, since 2004, the year our parents died." my parents, I thought and he continued "you've been studying in Richmond High since that day, you had to obviously leave you boarding school, and you personally hate Caleb." he ended with a small smile.

"Well, anyone can jump up to that conclusion", I glanced towards Ronnie, who was staring towards the lake, lost in his train of thought. "So why would you approach him, and not me?" I asked.

"Because, Caleb was around. And that  isn't very safe." he replied, advancing a step closer to hand me the cup of ice cream, what if it was poisoned?  I accepted it anyway, but just held it in my hands, letting my warmth strike against the cold of the ice cream.

"Why was that? Plus, I am not still convinced on the brother thing. I need more proof, something that can't be built up, which is true, like, a photo of us together, maybe, our a family photo, of us together. As far as I remember, mom and dad, loved family photos." I replied, watching him gulp down his ice cream, bite at a time.

He took a minute to frame an answer, and that wasn't very convincing, "Well, yes, I do have a photo of us together with mom and dad, but you would have to come home first, I don't have it here." he must've observed that I didn't eat my ice cream "your ice cream isn't poisoned though, you can have mine if you don't believe me." he added, offering me his cup of half eaten ice cream.

"No, thanks. Nice play boys, now I am gonna go." I said, faking a big smile towards Dylan and chucking my cup in the trash. "I'll get you one day, Laws." I said, giving him the death stare, as I walked out on both of them.

That back there, was the limit of what a guy could do, to get a girl. I shook my head at the thought, bringing up a fake brother.

I glanced one last look at both of them, a possible boyfriend, and an almost brother, in hopes of seeing thunder struck faces, but I saw them both standing next to each other, looking at me with a smile across their faces, last what I could see was Dylan mouthing 'careful, there' .

Next I knew, blank darkness.