Cookie

1

"Wake up, Nat! You're going to be late to classes."

My mom's soft voice wakes me up and as soon as I open my eyes her beautiful face appears in front of me. My mom, Emily Peck ex Humphrey, is 43, but she still looks like 20 years old. She has beautiful blond hair that reaches her shoulders framing her face perfectly, making her emerald eyes pop. Everyone is captivated by her unnatural green eyes as soon as they met her. My father always says that he was bewitched by her eyes since the first moment he saw her 25 years ago. But if you will ask me I would dare to say her soft white skin, her plump lips and her perfectly shaped body helped draw his attention too.

"I'm up!" I say faking a smile like every morning for the past year and a half.

My mom leans in to kiss my forehead and I lift my head so I could kiss her warm cheek, inhaling her familiar vanilla scent. She gets up from my bed and heads out of the room letting me know breakfast will be ready in 10 and I'll better be ready by then too or I will be late. It's never a good idea to be late for college. 

I am about to start my second year in college and yes, I am still living with my parents, might seem strange, but everyone I know still lives with their families. Our small town, Nearon, doesn't have a mall, a theater, or a public pool, but it has its own college, Saint Helena University. Yeah, don't get me wrong, is no Harvard or anything like that, it's small and not one of the bests, but it does the trick. All of the students are living in Nearon or very close by, we know each other since kindergarten and it feels more like high school reloaded, but I get the chance to be close to my family and not have to leave. 

"I'll be down in a second, mom."

I get up and see my reflection in the wardrobe's mirror and it feels like I see Criss staring back at me again as I could simply reach my hand and touch her. Same curly blond hair that reaches the middle of my back, same big green eyes that always made us looks so innocent, same small nose, same thin lips we always hated, same gestures, same height, same weight, same everything. Criss was my twin sister, but also my best friend, we never fought, we never spent a day in our life without talking to each other. She always was there for me and I was always there for her, so naturally, on the night of the accident, we were together.

It happened one year and a half ago, we were just finishing high school, happy we got accepted to our hometown college we went to a club after our last exam with Luke, her boyfriend... Luke was quite a nice guy, he was two years older than us, handsome and he loved my sister. He would do all these little things for her showing how much he loved her, he always had a sweater for her, brought her chocolate all the time because she was crazy about it, or giving her flowers just to remind her she's special. Luke was popular like any other football player is in college and naturally, his reputation with girls was not the best. So, you can imagine I didn't like the guy. Actually, I quite hated him and did all I could to make my sister realize he was an idiot. My stupid attempts to pull them apart were what cost them their lives in the end...

The party was nice, Criss and I danced all night while Luke was sitting at a table drinking and watching us, he only came from time to time to make out with Criss making me actually feeling sick. No one wants to see her sister's ass and boobs being touched in public, believe me. So at some point I got mad and wanted to go home, Luke wanted to stay, but considering Criss always had my back, she decided to go.

We got in Luke's car, but even if I wanted to drive, he didn't let me saying he had only one beer so he can drive and as the stupid person that I am, I let him do it, but didn't miss the chance to pick up a fight with him to prove Criss he's not good for her. I don't talk about what happened with us, I don't talk about how we crashed or why did we crash too ashamed of myself. We were three people in that car, but only I survived and I wasn't the one who deserved to live. I might not talk about it, but I know it was my fault... They died because I screwed up!