The many loves of Vita, my mother.

Summer '93

Ever since we were little we always said that we would go to London for my 16th birthday. I am the youngest in my group of friends and Will is the oldest by a year and a half. This makes him think a lot of himself. My birthday is at the very end of summer so we've spent months planning our trip. But with the date of my birthday looming things started turning sour.

If you didn't know by now, I am a twin. Most people know the story as I live in a small close-knit town. In the middle of summer my twin Leo killed himself. There is only one high building in our town and that is the observation deck. Their isn't much to observe but we all used to go their every night during the summer. Not a lot of people knew about it and that's why it took the police ages to find him. I would've told them about it but I didn't want to believe that he actually done it. No one knows why, and we never will know why. I felt an ache and emptiness in every part of my body. We were very close. By the end of the summer I was feeling slightly better but with our birthday coming I was beginning to go back into the shell I created for myself when it happened. Will decided that we should still go out to London. To take our mind off it and to honour him. So it was settled we would get the train to London two days before my birthday.

Everyone stays at my house the night before as we have to get up really early the next day. Sophia and Elena take the bed, Riley takes his favourite fuzzy bean bag chair and Will and I take the double mattress my mum laid out on the floor. That may seem odd that we sleep in the same bed but we've known each other for ages. Like forever.