A Change of Heart

3.

I don't know when I fell asleep but the next time when I woke up, it was 5:08 AM according to my clock. I checked my phone that was on the bedside table and I was overwhelmed by the number of notifications I got. Some were Snapchat notifications but most of them were text messages or missed calls from a bunch of people I think I should know and asked if I was okay. There were a few emails from my professors asking if I was okay and that they would push all my deadlines back. Was I a university student?

I checked the date and it was October 15, 20xx. If I calculated it correctly, I would be a third-year university student. I wanted to open all these notifications but my phone was locked, so I go over to the shelf above my desk to look for the journal with all my passwords that mom had mentioned. The journals were all numbered on the spine with gold numbers and chronologically ordered. I take the left most journal off the shelf that's not surprisingly ordered as the first journal. A piece of paper fell out as I opened the journal and I crouch down to retrieve the paper. Sure enough, on the piece of paper was all the passwords I have and the first one was my phone password. I plug the password into my phone with one hand, with the password paper and journal in my other hand, and walked downstairs to the kitchen to grab something to eat. Sleeping through dinner was a bad idea. Mindlessly, I stuck two pieces of bread in the toaster and sat down at the dinner table to go through all the notifications on my phone.

Turns out, I am a university student in the interior design program. I guess I was the artsy one between the twins. Stanley's professors also emailed me as well, asking if I was okay. I learn from the emails that Stanley was also a university student at the same university but he was studying for aerospace engineering. When my toast was done, I spread some butter on one side of each slice and I started nibbling on one toast, savouring the taste of butter on my tongue.

It then hit me. The taste of melted butter in my mouth triggered something and I started crying. I closed my eyes but the tears keep on coming and my head feels like it is going to burst.

I must have been loud since I heard footsteps running into the kitchen. Whoever ran in must be surprised to see me clutching onto my head, bawling, and curled up in a ball in my chair.

"Violet, what's wrong?" Stanley's voice comes up from beside me. It was filled with worry and I wanted to respond but I felt myself moving further away from the kitchen and his voice sounded like he was on the other side of a tunnel. "Violet? Vi? Viooleeeet?" The voice of my brother turns into a girl's voice. Not only the girl's voice was moving closer to me, her voice was soothing and it made me feel like I was home and full of happiness.

"Vi, come on bring me the butter now or else it won't melt if the toast cools!" I was in an unfamiliar kitchen but I felt just at home. It was a small open kitchen that was very modern that led off into a small living area where there is a black leather couch and flat screen television that hung on the wall. Floor to ceiling windows lined the walls and a door in the middle led to a terrace and a breathtaking view of a city's skyline. To the right of the kitchen were the main door and a hallway that led to my room and Carol's room. Carol.

I looked at the girl that just spoke and her dazzling beauty just made me melt. I knew immediately that she was Carol. How exactly I knew, I'm not sure. She looked familiar to me, blonde, beautiful, and had effortless grace. She had bright blue eyes that crinkle when she smiles and her eyes reminded me of the bluffs we always went to. We had always joked that she was Stanley and I's long lost triplet sister. I started having flashbacks of all the adventures we go on. Roof-topping in the downtown area, splashing each other at the beach, skating at the open ice rinks, road trips to who knows where. I felt the tears pouring out of my eyes. Something compelled me to run over to where she was and wrap her in a tight hug but someone else got to her first. Someone that looked exactly like me.

"Jeez Carlo, if the toast gets cold we can always warm them up again! But here ya go, da butta." A healthier and happier version of me spreads the butter all over the toasts she handed me. Carlo must be a nickname I had for Carol...

"Ahem." Carol clears her throat and taps her fork against her orange juice filled mug. "Attention please."

Other me suppresses a smirk but a corner of my mouth is evidently turned up. Carol seems unfazed as she puts her fork down.

Carol doesn't speak until I completely kill the smirk off my face. "We both have finally moved into the city closer to our university and we can say goodbye to the horrendous long commute journeys just for education! Although it's expensive and we're working our asses off balancing school and part time jobs, it will be so worth it even if we die. Because we will die happy!"

"Amen to that." I hold up my toast waiting for Carol to do the same.

"And to buttered toast traditions!" She holds her toast out. Something that we've done since we were little to mock the adults with their wine glasses/beer bottles whenever they do celebratory speeches.

"To buttered toast traditions!" Carol and the other me clinked their toasts together and ate it while admiring the morning city skyline in the condo that they shared.