Perfect Little Lies

3. Twins

Arriving home the same evening, as I turned the corner on my dad's street, I didn't fail to notice the car parked in the driveway. With several scratches and dents, it was quite beaten up. There was no denying it was a woman's car, from the make and model itself to the fact there were literally car eyelashes on the headlights. Seriously? Car eyelashes.

Despite knowing this moment had to arrive eventually, I was anxious as I approached the house. There was a time when I thought I would never meet my dad's girlfriend. This was when our family was constantly arguing with him, and he stopped coming to visit us. Of course, internally I blamed this on her. She was the only factor that changed. Nancy kept my dad from me.

For months, I'd wondered what she was like. We'd never spoken on the phone. The only way I'd come to gather a picture of her in my mind was online. I found her profile through my dad's and spent hours looking through everything. She was an assistant manager at a store in California. She was twelve years older than me and beautiful. Her profile seemed perfect. I wondered what had made her fall for my dad. He didn't have money, and he wasn't the best looking man alive. I just didn't understand her.

I still remember when my mom had found out about her on the phone. Jasper and I were in the lounge watching America's Next Top Model. He pretended he hated it, but secretly he enjoyed it as much as I did. We were halfway through an episode when the shouting started.

"That is disgusting, Peter! She's not much older than your son," mom's voice echoed in the kitchen.

Glancing at me, Jasper turned the volume up on the TV. One of the girls was crying because of her new haircut. Stupid, I'd thought. Why are you crying over that? Her hair didn't even look that bad.

Jasper passed me the popcorn, and I happily accepted. The crunching made the other sounds disappear. I could faintly hear my mom talking still, but the voices from the TV were successfully drowning out the words. I didn't want to hear it. Both of us were staring at the TV, but not really watching.

"So, is this why you haven't been seeing our children? Because you've been spending time with that child of a woman?" mom had exclaimed, louder this time. "You haven't seen them in five months, Peter. Do you want Claudia to forget what her dad looks like?"

This was dramatic. I was fourteen, perfectly able to remember my own father. Exchanging a glance, Jasper and I found ourselves laughing for some reason. Nothing was particularly funny but laughing helped. The model on TV was still upset about her haircut, sobbing ferociously in her interview, but Jasper and I were laughing at our parents' argument. It would seem ridiculous to anyone else, but we understood. We got each other like that.

I wondered what we would say to each other now. Probably not a lot.

Only when I reached the front door did I realise I didn't have a key yet. Dad said he was going to get one cut for me today. For a second, I stood outside quietly, listening for any sound inside the house. I knew she was there, but I don't know what I was expecting to hear. A voice, maybe. I'd never heard her voice. I wondered if she had a young, pretty voice, or an old, hoarse voice like my mother had from years of smoking.

Raising my hand, I knocked three times on the door. Several seconds passed. There was no movement inside. Perhaps nobody had heard me knock, and I would be stuck outside for a while. I was secretly glad.

However, I heard voices inside shortly. The door opened to reveal my dad, and Nancy standing behind him timidly. I just stared at her. She smiled at me, giving a little wave in greeting, but I stared for longer.

"Coming inside, sweetheart?" dad promoted me. This wasn't a question, but just a sentence to wake me up.

I stepped inside and removed my shoes. I hadn't done that yesterday, but I felt like this was Nancy's house for some reason. I supposed the house belonged to both of them. They were engaged, after all.