Walk a Mile

"How do you live with this?" I shouted out, waiting for an answer to roll out of my sister's lips. I needed any advice she would give me to deal with those plastic monsters she called friends.

She gave a chuckle, not because she thought anything was funny but because even she didn't know how. "Oh, Riley," she sighed, tucking the strand of hair behind my ear. She wiped the tear from my face and let her own fall down her pale cheeks. "You zip up your dress, put on your lipstick, and give them the best fake smile you have. That way, no one can tear you down because no one knows you're suffering."

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Riley and Brooklyn Jacobs have been sheltered their entire life. While they look the same, Brooklyn defied her parents and actually had fun, but Riley stayed stuck inside their home while she slowly lost her parents. With her alcoholic father and depressed mother, which doesn't make a good match at all, all it takes is a gunshot to rearrange her entire life.

Riley and Brooklyn both finally have to face the world now and find out where they stand. Riley prefers to stay alone and wallow in her mother's death, but Brooklyn finds herself right in the popular crowd. After two years of regretting who they made themselves, the identical twins decide to switch places to see for themselves where exactly they belong.

After all, you can't judge a person until you put on their shoes and walk a mile.