Miael

Entering the school building I flipped my hair avoiding the wind that was being arrogant and moving in the opposite direction. Back in New York, I hadn't felt sick even once but here it felt I was going be outnumbered by all the diseases that happened due to cold.

I parked my car, unlocked the door and slowly stepped out minding Mimin's heels. I hadn't brought many clothes or shoes, so whatever it was, Mimin was still my twin and I still looked like her 98% of the time.

The sound of my feet alerted every person in the corner of the parking lot, most of them mistook me for my twin. Side effects of overdressing!

I wore a woolen cap, Mimin's golden jacket and my furry scarf yet people were confused. How long have they known the two of us? I was late, the recess was over and Martin uncle usually left right after the recess, so I rushed in towards his cabin balancing myself on the slippery tiles.

"May I come in?" I asked after standing at the door for 15 minutes and gathering up some courage.

"Come in." A reply came.

I stepped in slowly, my eyes fixed to the floor while my heartbeat fluctuated continuously. I was finally in the lion's den.

"Good morning," I mumbled, "Uncle."

"Good morning dear," he greeted back, "how can I help you?"

I lifted up my face with a jerk to look at him. He was busy staring in some files. "I...I..."

"What's wrong, Mimin?" He turned a few pages and all my courage just ran out of the room.

I cursed my fate and forcing myself to speak, blurted, "I'm not Mimin"

He looked up shockingly forgetting about the papers. "Oh, it's you. How can I help you, Mrs. Martin?"

My stomping heart made a thud sound in my chest as the blood in my veins dried out. I had faced my father before, but facing the man whose reputation I had ruined was a bigger challenge anyway.

"I...I..wanted to apologize."

He dropped his pen on the papers almost throwing it and fixed his rectangular glasses, "You wanted to apologize? For what?"

"For leaving your son at the altar," I said looking at my feet.

He simply picked up the pen again and began to write, "You may leave. Someone has already paid the price for your deeds."

My eyes tossed as my head bounced back in disbelief. If what he was saying was true, it meant someone else had suffered for what I had done. And that was the last thing I was willing to accept. "Wh-who?" I shuttered.

"Who else than my ignorant son? I don't get it what is wrong with him!" He banged his pen on the desk again.

"No-Noah?"

He hummed in anger, holding his forehead between his palm. His eyes all these while refused to meet mine.

"But why...?" A few tears began to cloud up.

Martin uncle furiously got up from his seat pushing the chair behind. "Why do you think? He is paying the price for what he did to you in childhood! Why do you think he proposed the marriage? Why do you think he allowed you to run away? Why do you think he saved you countless times?" His voice deepened, "it's all because of that bloody fire!"

My feet felt so numb I could hardly balance my self. My hand covered my mouth controlling myself from screaming as the truth slowly crawled up my mind. And here I had been thinking it was all just to fulfill a promise.

Clearly I was in the wrong, I had managed to unknowingly bring back the deeds of past and punish the one who was never at fault. "I have to go!"

I rushed out of his cabin, wiping the few drops of reality that had escaped my hazel eyes. My cheeks were much redder than they were when I had entered his office while my nose was busy giving up the mixed feelings of being sick and crying for hours.

I had watered the plant of reality so well that the leaves of my past were at the highest branch. I never wanted to reach back up there and I couldn't even if I wanted, but Noah could. He seemed to have built a treehouse at the same branch. The fire had caused me all that I had. A lot of my memories, a lot of my scared nights and a lot of my decisions were a result of it.

I didn't realize when and how exactly did I end up reaching the cafeteria until Liam finally broke the chain of the troubling past.

"Mimin?" He asked, fixing his hair.

Riri looked up ignoring her food. "Look closely, she's not Mimin." She slapped his head playfully.

I controlled my tears, hiding them behind the partial smile that I had picked up on the way, pretending everything's fine. Isn't that what we all do? To keep our loved ones happy?

But how long was I going to hide the truth, how long was I going to run away from it, when it itself was calling out for me.

Noah was with them, sitting busy on his laptop. So Martin Uncle had used electronics to punish him.

"Miael!" Riri called out, "come sit with us!"

I walked slowly, counting my steps as I fixed my scarf and pulled down my jacket to make myself look presentable. 

"Wow, you resemble Mimin a lot!" A hot girl with no brains commented.

I forced a smile keeping my handbag on the table as I took a seat beside Liam. Noah was still sitting a little farther from them and he hated being disturbed.

I slowly leaned a little on the table, tilted Liam away and glared at the stupid girl's face, "I'm Mimin's twin. People actually expect me to look exactly like her."

She blinked a few times before smiling again, "I'm Venicia."

I ignored her, my head was already swirling a little too much to pay attention to these fangirl details.

"What she meant to say was," Patricia appeared creating suspense, as usual, "She's Venicia Summers."

Was it really such a bad decision coming to Linkton High today? Two shocks back to back?

"Venicia..." I stuttered gasping loudly. "Summers?"

I stood up from my seat on recalling the name, the surname.

What wrong had I done to get this all backfire out of nowhere?

Patricia grabbed me by arm supporting me from falling down. "It's not something I'm proud of, but she is my cousin too." She said emphasizing on too.

I turned to face Noah, his eyes still glued to the laptop screen. I had really ruined his life.

"What's wrong?" Venicia asked, "Why are you so shocked?"

What am I supposed to tell her now, that I snatched her sister's boyfriend? Why was this story getting more complicated? It was like the next line would be Venicia's sister picking her up from Linkton High.

"Venny?"

Why didn't I ask for the story to end here itself?

There she was, standing at the door of the cafeteria. Her shiny black hair kissed her eyelids as she bounced her curves walking towards us.

"Time to go home." She added.

"Chrizel Summers," Patricia smirked, "come and get what's yours."

She walked in with her head held high as my hope sank down to her knee level.

"Noah!" She called out with a vibrant smile, "Long time."

I turned to look at Noah who had already been staring at her, my eyes just kept on searching for one emotion on his face. Anything! The thought of me ruining his life was killing me, it was driving me crazy.

And before I expect this day to get any crazier, my breaths decided to give up for the time being and I zoned out completely to some other world, fainting once and for all.

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