"This is what she had become."
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Cleopatra Banks' last week in the small town of New Chelsea is nothing like she would have imagined it, but nothing could have prepared her for the stinging betrayal she's faced with and suddenly the prospect of...
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I wake up to the sound of my mother banging on my door threatening to kick it down if I don't go outside this very instant.
"Cleopatra Emilia-Rose Banks!" she yells for what's probably the twentieth time right now...literally. "I'll open a hole through the roof if I have to, get out of your room this very instant!"
I cover my ears with my hands, trying to block out all her noise. I don't care what she does right now I honestly couldn't be bothered as long as she just leaves me alone. It feels as though a million little people are slamming the inside of my skull with hammers.
"Cleopatra! I have tolerated this behavior of yours for far too long, come out here this very instant!" she shouts, slamming something against my bedroom door. My eyes flutter open, the light from outside burning them.
I squint my eyes and bury my head into one of my pillows. I can't get past how my sheets and this very pillow smell. If beautiful dreams had a scent, they'd smell like this.
Suddenly everything that happened prior to this moment comes rushing back and it hits me with the force of a tempest.
"Cleo!" she screams. "Go away mom!" I lift my head up from the pillow for a brief second so I can scream back at her.
"Cleopatra we'll miss the appointment if you don't come out now!"
"I have the right to say no. Go away!" I scream back, nearly blurting out that I know she's been keeping very important things from me but all she cares about is getting her hair done.
"I'll force the lock open!" she threatens.
"I have the right to privacy!"
"Oh, privacy? When I was your age I had to share a room with three of my sisters, don't talk to me about privacy young lady you don't pay the bills around here!"
"Then I'll run away from home and never come back!"
"Go ahead!"
"Urgh! I wish I had never been born, I hate you!"
It goes awfully quiet.
My chest rapidly rises and falls as I try to steady my breathing, wondering if all of that could have gone better. I have a strong feeling that it could have been far worse.
I hear the sound of Ruby's feet pitter pattering along the floor as she runs around the house and not too long after, doors begin to slam and heels click against the floor.
A while later I hear a car pulling out of our driveway, screeching once before finally driving off.
I bury my head in my pillow and begin sobbing into it, the pleasant smell doing nothing to quell my raging emotions.
Why did she and dad have to keep this away from me? Who told them it was okay to do that?
Isabella was my sister, I had every right to know. It makes sense now why everyone at school would think she and I are the same person. We were identical twins and now she's actually dead.
