Perfect Twins

Chapter 2.

The twins would give anything to go back to the distant past; back when they thought their family was strong and happy. Back when their father would kiss their mother goodbye every morning when he left for work, and kiss her every night when he finished. This changed after a while. He stopped showing affection, he stopped caring, stopped talking, he slowly began to show up less and less. The twins had sleepless nights as their parents shouted and fought. Lucy would cry on her bed while Janet lay down beside her and covered Lucy's ears as she sacrificed herself to everything that was heart breaking to hear. At the end when the fight finally finished, Jamie would go sleep on the couch and Alice would go to bed and cry herself to sleep. Janet moved her hands away from Lucy's ears and hugged her sister tightly on the bed.
"Jenny." Lucy called in a low voice.

"Yes?" Janet answered in the same tone. She tried to look down into Lucy's eyes but it was too dark to see anything.

"Do you think true love, like in fairy tales, like in Cinderella or Snow White, exist?"

Janet bit her lip and lowered her eyes, "I don't know." She answered regrettably, "maybe they're in fairy tales for a reason."

Lucy shuffled under the duvet to make herself comfortable on the single bed they shared together for the night. Janet put her hand on Lucy's cheek softly and looked at her black, shadowed face, "I love you." She said passionately. Lucy smiled although her smile couldn't be seen. "I love you too."

Janet and Lucy dreaded school from the start. People never understood why they never socialised and why they never parted. Their hiding spot was the library. None of the bullies ever showed interest in entering the library unless a teacher made them. Even if they entered, it was too guarded for them to cause havoc. Normally the twins would sit in the back corner of the library where they weren't really noticed. It was often empty on their special wooden table with comfortable chairs. But this time, there was a boy sitting in their spot. The boy wasn't a bully. They could tell by the way he looked down at the wooden table with fear in his eyes. His hands shook over his lap and he gritted his teeth. His hair was disheveled and there were a few bruises on his face and stains on his clothes. Normally, the twins would find somewhere else to sit if their spot is occupied but this time the boy's condition was hard to ignore. They nervously glanced at each other but eventually agreed to go up to him.

He jumped in surprise of their approach but they sat down in front of him anyway while he gave them a perplexed look. Lucy kindly smiled at him and he lowered his head as he blushed.

"You don't normally come here." Janet started, her voice a little hesitant but she managed to speak clearly, "are you hiding from someone?"

The boy's bottom lip quivered, as his head was still low, tears began gathering in his eyes. Lucy gave Janet a look and sighed.

"It's okay." Lucy reassured, "if you're hiding from them, so are we."

The boy shot his head up in misbelief and looked at them with wide eyes like as if he saw angels for his rescue.

"I don't know what I've done wrong!" He said, his voice shaking, "suddenly, out of the blue, they started picking on me and started beating me and chasing me."

"What's your name?" Janet asked.

"Jason." He answered, "w-what about you?"

"I'm Janet and this is my twin sister, Lucy."

"I'm sorry you have to go through this." Said Lucy.

The boy shook his head and looked down and spoke with his lips quivering again, "I only came to this school about a week ago, I never managed to find any friends...and then these few boys came up to me and started being mean out of nowhere. What did I even do wrong?"

"You can't understand them." Janet said, "they do everything without reasoning. All you could do is hide from them and wish for the best."

"Are you two the twins everyone talks about?"

Janet and Lucy nodded.

Jason gave a thin smile and his cute dimples appeared, "people keep talking about you and say how you two are so terrible. But you're actually nice."

"Don't worry Jason." Lucy said happily, "if we stick together, there's nothing you could worry about."
Jason smiled beatifically as if Christmas came early.

"I think it's a bad idea." Janet said as they walked down the empty, small street towards home. A route that no one took so this way, they knew that they would get home safely without the bullies catching them, even though this way was long, it was safer.

"What is?" Lucy asked.

"Being friends with Jason."

"But he's like us. He knows what we go through."

"No he doesn't."

"How do you know?"

Janet stopped and looked back at Lucy. The sky was cloudy and grey as always and the leaves of autumn danced through the air, carried by the cold breeze. "Because he seemed surprised by getting hurt." Janet turned back around and continued to walk with her hands in her pink coat's pockets, which her dad had bought for her. Lucy stared at her for a moment and then ran to catch up.

"I'm tired of being alone Jenny." She whined, "if there's a chance for us to find friends then I'll take it."

"All I'm saying is that we might have to end up handling someone else's problems on top of our own."

Lucy lowered her head and frowned. She really liked Jason, the fact that they were in the same situation in school made her want to get really close to him and perhaps protect him since she knows what they're capable of.

"But he needs us." Lucy murmured.

Janet stopped, making Lucy halt and she faced Lucy again. "No one needs us." She said, "people hurt, Lucy, that is all they do. We need to protect our selves from them, no matter how innocent they may look Lucy, you can't trust anyone."

Lucy lowered her head deeper until her chin touched her chest.

"Lucy..." Janet said softly, "as long as we have each other, we are complete."