Chapter 1
May 20th was the day my world changed. The day I lost my Superman and almost lost my Batman. That was the day my dad died and my brother ended up in the hospital again.
Ohh, I should probably let you know who I am first. My name is Alexandria Cobalt, I am 19 years old living in Sydney, Australia. I am originally from Pennsylvania but moved here because of my dad’s job 11 years ago. But now my twin brother Dean and I moved in with my older sister, Melody, in Melbourne because he is gone now. My mother died when I was 7 and my dad believed moving would give us a nice start. Also I have an older brother Roman who has had cancer since he was 19 and I was 16. It has been a hard life, but we all make the most of it, except for now.
“Dean, come on. Roman wants to see you. Come on, let’s go together.” Dean hasn’t been himself since we lost dad. It hit him harder than I thought, he always seemed so strong, but deep down I knew he was a little bit lost. But now, I feel like it is harder to find him every day. It has been 3 weeks since the accident, and 2 weeks since we moved here. Roman got moved out to Melbourne’s hospital the week we moved in with Melody, but we really haven’t been to see him much.
“You can go without me, can’t you?” Dean asked. He was lying in bed looking out his window. He did that every day and I just want to get him outside.
“He really wants to see you, please come with me. I will buy you food if you come?” I asked pleadingly. Dean looked up at me, and with one look I knew he would come. Food always wins him over. “Fine, but I am not going to training today.”
“Fine with me.”
Dean was a MMA fighter, he hadn’t been to training in a week though. Roman got him into wrestling when he was 6. As he got older he got into karate, and more mixed martial arts things. (I lost track of it all.) Eventually he started MMA fighting, and he became the best in the area. Then my dad died and he stopped going. I got him to go to the gym in Melbourne a couple times but otherwise he didn’t even think about it.
I was in my bedroom when I heard a knock on my door. “I am ready when you are.” Dean said, he didn’t seem like he wanted to go see Roman, but I knew he would feel better when he did. He was in basketball shorts and his old gym shirt. Dean had always been taller than me by at least 6 inches, he had short dark brown hair, with big brown eyes. He was muscular and had abs and all that stuff. He was the guy every girl was pretty much looking for. “Okay, I will be down stairs in 5 minutes.” I said with a smile. I walked over to my closet to get out my clothes, but midway I stopped, I was looking at myself in the mirror on my closet door. With my long brown curly hair down to around my stomach, big brown eyes, pink lips, with a button nose, you could tell Dean and I were twins, we looked a lot alike, well kind of. My body was toned because I worked out with my brother a lot but not like Dean’s, yeah I was pretty I guess, but beautiful? I don’t think so. There are so many other girls out there that are prettier than I am.
I finally opened my closet and got out a pair of leggings and an old track t-shirt from high school. I threw on my UGGS as I was walking out of my room. When I came down stairs I saw Dean wasn’t there. He must be in the car. As I opened the side door to the drive way, I was scared out of my right mind when I heard music blaring from my car. I was clenching the door handle still when I looked over to see Dean laughing so hard he almost fell out the car. “You lose, you dance. You know the deal.” He yelled as I got back up. Dean and I had a game going since the day we both got are licenses. If we came out of the house and was able to scare the other person by playing loud music, they must dance to the rest of the song before getting in the car. He was playing One Direction ‘Live While We’re Young’ and I loved that song, so I was happy to dance. I was jumping around and having a good time, until I saw them. I don’t know how long they have been sitting there but I am guessing they were there from when I got scared out of my mind until now because I saw them laughing. Usually I don’t care what people think about me, but it was 5 guys there, and very attractive guys if I say so myself. I bit my lip not knowing what to do, but the next thing I knew I was being lifted into the air and swung around. “Hey! You lost, you must dance!” I totally forgot that I was supposed to be dancing, then I looked over again and I saw they were staring, and then I realized, I don’t care. It’s not like they really matter anyways. So I started jumping around again as I heard the chorus of the song. Dean was dancing with me by then also. We always danced together, even if we were against each other in the game. We jumped around and acted like idiots. Laughing, smiling, being ourselves for the first time in a long time.
It was nice to see Dean dance with me and smile and laugh, but I don’t know if he did it for himself, or if he felt like he had to do it for me. Either way, I am glad he did it.
When the song ended, we just stood there laughing, breathless, and sad, knowing that it might only be us for a while. Melody always worked being one of Melbourne’s best attorneys and such. We were pretty much alone, and that was one of the worst feelings ever. Being alone in a world full of people.
“We should get going.” I finally said. I just wanted to go see Roman, then come home and go to bed, and I knew Dean wanted to do the same thing.
Dean nodded his head. We got into the car. As I was backing out I saw the same guys looking at us, not laughing or smiling or anything, they were just staring at us with sympathetic looks on their faces. I don’t know why, but it bothered me. These people didn’t know us, so why should they feel bad. It just bothered me.
