I've been here with Julia for twenty whole minutes and I'm still not used to her face.
After Savvy had convinced me to press the button, we soon found out that you hold it down and the apartment owner talks to you through the intercom.
"I'll be right down.", said a voice that was similar to my mother's, but minus the slight southern accent she had acquired from living in Georgia for so long.
So we waited a while. Talking about what we thought she might look like and how she might be.
Finally, she came down and I did a double take. My mother was standing in front of me, except she had blue hair. Not dark blue, kind of like a teal. She had on red lipstick and she was the poster-child for a nice body. My mother is the exact opposite. She has blonde hair and she would NEVER dye it. Especially not blue. She had lost her figure. She blames it on the pregnancy, but we all know it it is due to her constant eating and laziness.
          "Excuse me, do I know you?", she asked us. I think I have the same question.
"Uh, chances are you don't, but apparently I'm your niece."
She didn't respond for a while. She just looked at me. She and mom had the same bright green eyes, except Julia's sparkled with confidence and purpose while mom's had grown vague over the years. I have those eyes as well, but they are constantly filled with paranoia and pain. Little Ria had them also, hers only showed wonder and discovery. Finally, she said,
"Um, okay, come in."
We followed her into the building and made our way through the lobby into the elevator. We headed up to the sixth floor. The hall was long, but luckily, Julia's apartment is the third from the elevator. She used her key to unlock the door and held it for us. I pushed Savannah in and looked around. It's a very nice place. The decor is and modern and bright. Just like Julia.
          So back to the present. Here we are sitting on the couch in the living room with cups of tea discussing stuff and things.
Julia had lived here in New York her whole life. She and mom grew up in Brooklyn. They had a hard childhood and swore to their parents to make something out of themselves, and Julia certainly had. She's the CEO of a company called Your Place. Clients hire them to find local, vacant spots to  start up their own businesses. This is where Savvy just had to interject.
          "So basically real estate?", she asked Julia.
          "Basically, but in a much more personal form.", Julia answered.
          "Okay. That's cool," Savannah replied, "But what is the purpose of your company in the age of the Internet. Google could easily take your place. For free."
          "Do you know how unreliable the Internet is? And do you understand how much of a hassle it is to do that kind of stuff through Google?", Julia responded a bit defensively, but still keeping her cool.
          "But the internet is SO much more efficient.", Savannah said, looking Julia dead in the eye. I began to worry that this would get serious. Julia smiled.
          "I couldn't agree more. That is why our company is almost completely online via our website.", she said, still smiling. Savannah kept quiet, knowing that Julia had won that one.
          Julia and mom are twins. Obviously. They were the only children on grew up constantly competing.
          "Diane would always find a way to  one-up me. If I got straight As, she got straight A pluses.", Julia explained.
            Then one day there was a boy. The boy was visiting New York from way down south. Diane met him while walking to work at Dino's Pizza. He and  Diane fell in love.
           "Jack Thomas was his name. I'm guessing you are the fruit of his loins.", Julia said.
          So Diane and Jack were lovers, but there was one issue. Jack was a "Holy Roller" as Julia put it. And Diane's family were Atheists.
"They didn't want Diane to be with someone who was so diluted as to think there was a God.", Julia told us.
So Diane's family forbid her to see him. Diane became horribly depressed. Her sister Julia could see this and felt really bad. Julia's parents had always drilled into her head that religion was for weak idiots who don't know how to face the real world, so they lay all their problems on a nonexistent, all knowing, all seeing, all controlling being. But Julia thought differently. No, Julia did not believe in a God, but she didn't think that people who did were idiots or weak. She actually found them to be quite strong. Strong enough to keep the faith when it seems like all is lost. Strong enough to hold on to hope that based solely upon something you've never even seen.
One day Julia woke up in the wee hours in the morning due to her screaming bladder. She sat up and noticed that her sister was not there next to her in the bed they shared.
She tiptoed to the bathroom down the hall only to find it locked. She knocked, no answer. Julia giggled a bit, wondering if her sister had fallen asleep on the toilet.
"Diane. Wake up.", she called into the bathroom. Nothing. Julia giggled some more. Diane could be such a heavy sleeper.
Julia walked back to there room and found a bobby pin. She went back to the bathroom and worked on the lock. Finally, she popped it a walked in.
She was surprised to find her sister on the floor. She had her knees drawn up to her chest and bottles of their parents' cholesterol medicine in front of her.
"There were pills in her hand," Julia said to us, "And she was just staring at them. Her eyes were so blank and lifeless. I was really scared."
Julia immediately dropped next to her sister. And looked at the pills in her hand.
"W-what are you gonna do with those? And why didn't you answer when I asked you to wake up.", little, clueless Julia asked.
"I'm gonna make sure I never wake up again.", Diane said. Her voice was flat and her face was straight.
"Dee. Your scaring me."
"Remember that play we were reading in English class? The one by Shakespeare about the lovers who couldn't be together?", Diane asked without looking up at her sister.
"Romeo and Juliet, you mean?"
"Yeah," Diane answered, "Well I was doing my report on it and the whole time I just kept thinking: What if the ending was actually a happy ending?"
"No," Julia replied, That was not a happy ending, Diane. They died."
"I know, Julie, but they didn't have to live without each other. And I don't want to live without Jack."
"She started to lift the pills to her mouth, and I remember just having a flash of all the memories of my sister. And I remember thinking that my twin sister was going to die. At the time I didn't know that a few cholesterol pills weren't going to kill her, and I was so scared.", Julia told us,"But then I had an idea."
Julia reached her hand out and grabbed Diane's wrist, stopping her from downing the pills.
"Wait, Dee, what if you don't have to? What if there was another way?"
"What are you talking about?", Diane asked, still staring at the pills.
"You don't have to die, Dee. When is Jack leaving for the south?"
"Today. At noon.", Diane answered, looking away from the pills and up at her sister.
"Well, do you recall the plan that Romeo and Juliet had BEFORE the whole killing themselves thing? They were gonna run away."
          "So I should drink a sleeping potion?", Diane asked looking inquisitively at her sister, "I don't think that would help much....."
          "No, you dunce! You should run away to the south and be with him!"
          "Really? Cause I hear that it's pretty bad in the south. I hear that people hate other people just cause they have different skin. I don't know if I want to live in a place like that, Julie."
          "That sounds absolutely ridiculous, Dee! Rumors are just rumors.", Julia laughed at the thought of someone hating someone for that stupid of a reason."
          "You're right, Julie."
         "So we sat on that bathroom floor and plotted Diane's escape. She packed her bags and we left to where Jack was staying. Jack was so happy to see her. The hugged and kissed and I stood to the side feeling grossed out because that's just the kind of teenager I was. Jack told Diane that they could leave right then instead of waiting till noon. And of course Diane agreed whole-heartedly.", Julia said.
          So the three of them walked down to the train station. Jack bought two tickets to Atlanta and they would ride the bus from there.
         They waited a while and then the train came.
          "Thank you so much, Julie. I love you. And I'm gonna miss you."
          "I love you too, Dee.", Julia hugged her twin and cried, "Have fun, southern girl."
          "See you around, Yankee.", Diane replied with a smile.
           "I remember regretting helping her run away the moment she stepped on that train. I felt so empty with out her. She was my best friend.", Julia has started to cry, "And that was the last time I ever saw her."