I woke up with sunlight pouring out onto my face. Harmony pulled opened the curtains letting in a huge beam of light. The sun was finally sticking out through the clouds and the rain had stopped somewhere early in the morning when everyone was still asleep.

I sat up and stared out of the window, the damage from the storm was prominent. Car’s windshields were cracked, a small tree had toppled over, and I saw one or two windows of the houses across the street damaged. There were puddles everywhere, too.

“Morning, Mel,” sang Harmony happily.

“Morning,” I muttered tiredly. The events of last night were vague and hard to remember. All I know is that I was terrified and last night may or may not have been the worst night of my entire life.

I got out of bed and my sister followed me as I went downstairs. My mom was in the kitchen making breakfast like she did every single morning. My sister and I sat across the table from each other and started to fill our plates with the ham and eggs that were already sitting on the table.

“Excited for today, Harmony?” ask my mom. I was puzzled.

“Yup,” Harmony replied.

“What’s today?” I asked.

“Your sister’s concert,” mom smiled. I rolled my eyes as my mom began talking excitedly about it. On and on and on... when will it ever end...? I thought to myself.

I quickly finished my breakfast so I wouldn’t have to hear it anymore. It’s too bad she’s so much better than me; I thought we were finally starting to get along. 

“Mom I'm going for a walk,” I stated as I grabbed my phone from off the counter and headed for the door. I don’t think she heard me at all. Harmony saw me leaving and waved, at least someone noticed.

I shut the door hard, hoping that would have given mom the clue that I had left. I quickly stuffed my phone in my pocket as my eyes went over to the place that we had found the dead cat. There were still dark stains in the grass from the blood that the poor cat had shed.

I walked passed it quickly, trying to shake the memory from my head. It wasn’t a happy memory to say the least.

I looked around the street. It was fairly empty, like always. Not many people walked this way really, let alone drive this way. This is a quiet street, with middle class houses and dead grass in every yard. Not much of a view I must say.

As I turned a corner I noticed someone familiar down the road. She saw me and started walking closer, waving and smiling.

“Hey Mel,” she grinned.

“Hey,” I said giving a small wave.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“Just going to the park,” I replied, “how about you?”

“Same,” she said.

“Let’s walk together,” I offered.

“Okay!” she said excitedly.

“Awesome,” I laughed.

It didn’t take long before we reached the park and found a bench to sit on. The sun was hot on my face and I was thankful that it wasn’t raining outside like it had been for the past few days. It was nice out, and that’s all that mattered right now.

“So when are you going back to Kentucky?” I asked curiously.

“Probably very soon... maybe next week even,” she replied.

            “Oh, how long have you been here for, then?”

            “Maybe about a week or two... not too long from what I remember.”

“That’s pretty cool. I’ve never been there before,” I said, “is it nice?”

“About the same as here actually,” she thought, “it’s been really rainy there recently. Well, it was before we left, anyways.”

I sat there and thought about it for a moment. It would be kind of cool to visit there one day. Maybe just for a few weeks, just to see what it’s like. I’ve never really been outside of this state unfortunately. My sister has, she’s been out of state with past boyfriends several times. She’s been to California and Florida a few times each as well.

“Have you ever been out of the country before?”She asked.

“Not really,” I said with a sad smile, “I’ve never really gotten the chance.”

“That’s too bad,” she stated, “you should come visit sometime.”

“Yeah, I think so, too.”

“Yeah, too bad I have to leave soon,” she frowned, “it was so nice to make a friend here.”

“I agree...” I smiled, “I don’t have very many friends.”

“Really, how come?” she said furrowing her brows.

“I don’t know... it’s always been my sister who makes all the friends. She is the popular one after all.”

“So you don’t have any?”

“Well, I do. Just not friends that I can connect with, that I belong with, you know?”

She nodded, “I understand. I'm not much of a friend maker either.”

“Really, I figured you were. I mean, you do seem really friendly and stuff.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s just you that brings out that social side of me.”

“I suppose so,” I laughed.

“I think we should go lay down in the grass over there. Maybe we’ll tan if we’re here long enough,” she smiled, pointing over to the open field on the other side of the park.

I nodded in an agreement. That sounded like a great idea, in fact, it’s been the best idea I’ve heard all day. I haven’t tanned in a while. I guess that’s because it’s a lot more fun to go tanning when you’re with friends, which is something I don’t really have a lot of if you think about it.

We walked over to the field slowly. We weren’t in much of a rush really. We had all the time in the world. Well, at least until seven o’clock, when my sister’s violin concert starts.

“You’re going to the concert, right?” I asked, pretending not to be mad about being forced to go.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world!” she exclaimed.

“I would...” I mumbled under my breath.

“Did you say something?”

“Nope,” I said rather quickly.

“Oh okay...”

We lay down in the grass, basking in the warm sun. If this managed to make me tan I would be the happiest person in the world.

“So, do you have a boyfriend?” she asked curiously, turning onto her side to face me.

“Not at the moment,” I blushed.

“What about a crush,” she smiled, already knowing the answer to the question.

I blushed madly. Thoughts of Matt flashed through my head and my face grew hot. Now that I think about it, I haven’t thought about him too much recently. Maybe with all of the weird stuff that’s been happening to me lately at my house has just been getting to me and pushing away other thoughts. I shuttered at the thought of that nasty girl in my dream and in my bathroom mirror.

“That’s cute,” Veronica smiled. Just when I thought my blush went away it came back with vengeance. She laughed again, obviously finding amusement in my frustration.

“What’s his name?” She winked.

“Not saying,” I shook my head.

“Oh c’mon, you can tell me.”

“No way!” I laughed.

“Please and thank you?”

“Nope,” I refused.

 “I know you want to tell me. I can see it in your eyes,” she winked.

“Okay, you just made that up,” I frowned, amused by her persistence.

“No way, you’re itching to tell me,” she laughed.

“Oh, shut up. Who do you like, then?”

“Hey, I asked first!” she laughed, tickling my sides.

Suddenly I could feel my pocket vibrate. I sat up and dug around my pocket and finally found my phone, vibrating like no tomorrow.  I flipped it open and blushed a deep, vibrant shade of red when I saw who the text message was from.

Before I could even say a word, Veronica had already snuck a peak at the screen and let out a shrill squeal.

“His name is Matthew, huh?” she said, wiggling her eye brows. My face grew hotter.

“Maybe,” I muttered, “but you have to answer my question now.”

“I don’t like anyone, trust me,” she let out a laugh. I sighed, out of frustration and checked the message on my phone. It said- Are you still going to your sister’s concert?

I frowned, that’s not exactly how I would want my crush to start off a conversation.

Yes, I typed. Half a minute later my phone vibrated.

Have you bought tickets yet? That was when I realized that I hadn’t yet bought any; which means I wouldn’t be able to go unless I bought some now.

No...I sent.  

Well I have an extra ticket; you want to come with me? I got chills down my spine. That just made my life, I mean, I knew we’d probably go together because he already mentioned it on the bus that we should go together, but butterflies were still dancing in my stomach.

Veronica must have noticed the smile slipping onto my face because she strained her neck to see the screen.

Ok =-) I wrote back excitedly.  

Awesome, I’ll see you later then, he finally texted back after I waited a few minutes. My smile grew bigger, knowing that I would soon be able to go to a concert with the boy that I'm completely crazy about, even if the feelings aren’t exactly mutual.

Veronica stared at me and laughed as I turned red again. I have this huge issue with turning red whenever I'm thinking about the boy I like or even whenever I'm really embarrassed about something.

“What did he say?” she enquired, waiting for me to spill the beans about the texts that were making me blush wildly.

“Oh nothing...” I said, rolling my eyes. The smile still dancing on my face obviously gave my little lie away.

“Seriously, tell me, now,” she pouted.

“Fine, he just asked me if I wanted to go to Harmony’s concert with him,” I sighed.

“Wow, seriously?” she asked in awe, “that’s awesome!”

I nodded in agreement. This was just one of those things that put me in a mood where nothing could ruin or spoil it.

I lay back down next to Veronica, letting the sun’s rays wash over my face again.

“So what are you going to wear?” she wondered out loud. I thought about it for a second. That was a pretty good question. In fact, I didn’t even know the answer to it.

“Hmm, I have no clue...” I muttered.

“Well that sucks. You’ll have to find something soon, then,” she replied.

“Yeah... you want to come over and help me find something?” I asked pleasantly.

“Sure!” she exclaimed happily.

“Wait-” I interjected as she was about to sit up.

“Let’s wait another hour so we can tan some more,” I smiled.

“Alright,” she laughed.

***

We both woke up around the same time.

“Did we fall asleep?” I asked, confused.

“I guess so,” she muttered, scratching her head.

We both stood up at the same time and looked at each other. She burst out laughing. I stared at her for a bit.

“What?” I asked.

“You got sunburnt,” she continued laughing. My eyes widened and I felt my face. It stung as my fingertips brushed against it. I flinched.

“Why aren’t you burnt?” I asked, studying her face but seeing no ounce of flaw.

“Oh, just because,” she sang, “I’ll probably be tan by tomorrow.”

“So you just stay white until the next day?” I asked with surprise.

“Yeah, basically,” she said.

I looked at my cell phone to check the time. It was five o’clock.

“Oh snap... we need to get to my house to choose my outfit,” I explained. The look on her face was quite alarmed when she realized the time.

“Yeah we need to get moving,” she agreed. We began to power walk towards my house, which unfortunately is about three blocks away.

            I looked at my phone again, just to make sure I hadn’t read the time wrong. I probably hadn’t gotten it wrong, considering I had gotten sunburnt in the amount of time I had been outside.

I couldn’t wait until I got home so I could check the severity of the sunburn in the mirror. That would probably ease my troubled mind quite a bit, especially if it wasn’t that bad, considering I was going to see Matt soon.

Then it hit me, I had gotten sunburnt right before I was going out with Matt. Could you imagine the look on his face when he realizes that he has to go out in public with a huge tomato? I can imagine it wouldn’t be a very good reaction if anything.

I wiped the thought clear from my mind. I could just borrow some cover up from my sister or something. I'm sure that would cover up any imperfections before I went out tonight.

We finally reached the house after we decided to finally just book it back inside of just walking. Even power walking took too long for us to get there.

“My parents aren’t expecting you over so we’re going to have to sneak in,” I told her.

She nodded and we tip toed through the house until we got to my room upstairs. After we passed the bathroom I got chills running down my spine. The thought of last night’s occurrence was now fresh in my mind and probably always would be for the rest of my life.

We shut the door behind us and started to rummage through my closet. Looking through all of my blouses, skirts, dresses, and dress pants, skipping all of the jeans and t-shirts that were piled on the floor of my closet.

“How about this?” she asked, holding up a bright blue blouse with a little black bow at the waste, “this is cute.”

I shook my head, “I was thinking more along the lines of black or red, maybe even a dark purple.”

Veronica looked doubtful but hung the blouse back up on its original hanger anyways. She started to look through the clothing again, picking out all of the ones that she thought might suit my tastes.

I, unfortunately, didn’t find any that I liked. However, Veronica had an entire pile to choose from. We began to search through the clothing that she had picked out.

“How about this one?” she asked again.

I shook my head once again, “no, that one is too small for me now.”

Her shoulders slumped and she let out a restless sigh, signalling her frustration towards my picky behaviour.

We searched for a few minutes, not finding a single thing until she let out a huge exciting gasp that had startled me.

“What about this?” she asked excitedly. I pointed to the bottom of the light pink sweater where a chocolate stain resided. She stared at me with a frustrated look. She didn’t seem too happy with my wardrobe.

“But we’ve gone through your whole closet already!” she exasperated.

“Yeah I know, I need to go shopping...” I mumbled. 

“We could borrow something from your sister,” she said, walking through the door in search of my sister’s room. I followed after her trying to grab her writ to pull her back.

“My sister is going to be so mad,” I exclaimed.

“She’ll never notice,” she sighed.

“Veronica! Yes, she will notice, it is her concert after all,” I explained.

“Then just avoid her,” she told me.

I sighed. Veronica is so stubborn, just like me and my sister. We are the most stubborn twins you could ever wish to meet.

She opened the door to my sister’s room and walked over to the dresser. She pulled it open swiftly and grabbed the first thing she saw.

“Perfect...” I heard her whisper to herself.

She held up a beautiful black dress with a firm belt covered in sequins wrapped around the waist.

“I don’t think she’ll want me to wear that,” I explained, “it looks so expensive...”

“No way, I always share my clothes with my sister,” she stated, “I'm sure since you’re twins she’ll let you wear this.”

She took another look at the dress; she looked quite pleased with herself. After all, it was her brilliant plan that had found this dress in the first place.

Suddenly, I felt another vibration in my pocket. I stuffed my hand down my pockets, attempting to reach the cell phone. Looking at the screen, I realized that it was Matt again. I grinned as I opened the message.

Would you want to be picked up? It read.

Of course! =-) I texted back, smiling like an idiot the whole time.

“Was that Matt again?” asked Veronica.

“Yeah,” I blushed.

Suddenly I felt another vibration, Okay, I’ll be there in like twenty minutes then.

My heart sank after I read the message. Twenty minutes? That doesn’t leave me enough time to eat, shower and get dressed before then!

Veronica shoved the dress into my arms.

“He’ll be here soon,” she said, “get dressed.”

I was about to head to the bathroom but suddenly the memories of last night flooded back into my mind. I stopped dead in my tracks.

“Hey Veronica, is it okay if I change in here?” I asked unsettled. She looked dumbfounded by my question for a moment.

“Sure,” she finally agreed. Now having her permission, I stripped down and flung the dress over my head. Veronica helped me zip it up in the back when I realized that I wouldn’t be able to do it by myself. We closed the belt on the waste, which was a little bit tight, but fitting, and finally made it look all put together.

“There,” she muttered. I looked into the reflection of the full length mirror against Harmony’s wall next to her bed.

I gasped from what I saw. The dress surprising looked amazing on me. It flowed up to my knees and the top didn’t show very much skin at all; just my style. It was modest, yet sophisticated at the same time.

Veronica looked me up and down, like she was trying to figure something out.

“We need to do your hair,” she stated. She grabbed a brush and began to comb through my hair, frantically brushing out the knots and the tangled hair.

 She grabbed a few pins and a bunch of elastics. Within ten minutes she managed to finish readying my hair and making it look at least half decent.

I raced downstairs to grab a quick bite before Matt were to drive up to the drive way. I quickly checked each of the rooms I passed to see whether or not my parents were home. They weren’t.

Veronica came downstairs after me. “I have to go,” she said as she put her shoes on.

“Why?” I enquired, rummaging through the fridge. I had managed to find a plate of freshly made and newly cut sandwiches.

“Oh, I had promised my mom I’d go with her,” she explained, “Hopefully I’ll see you there.”

I nodded and waved to her, unable to say anything because of the sandwich I had just shoved in my mouth.

She closed the door quickly and with that she was gone. 

Not even a minute after she left there was a knock at the door. I quickly opened it, not wanting Matt to wait too long for him to be allowed inside.

He stared at me for a moment.

“You look nice today,” he complimented. I smiled shyly. All hopes of him liking me back were gone. I know that sounds weird, but you get different feelings from when your friend tells you that you look good or when your boyfriend tells you that you look good. When he just said that I looked good, it sounded like he was being friendlier about it rather than romantic about it. Trust me, there’s a big difference between the two.

“Alright let’s go,” he smiled.

“Okay,” I grinned. Even though I know he doesn’t like me, he still gives me butterflies in my stomach whenever he smiles like that.

We climbed into his car. It was small, but comfortable. It’s not like we needed a big car right now anyways.

It was quiet as he pulled out of the driveway. Neither of us dared to say anything, or at least I didn’t.

“Hey, so, do you want to get ice-cream right now?” he said, breaking the silence. I was surprise. To be honest, it was more surprising than anything that I’ve ever been surprised about in my entire life.

“Yeah, sure,” I smiled happily.

“Awesome,” he said checking the time on his cell phone. “We have some time to waste anyways.”

A few blocks later I realized that I didn’t have any money because I had left my bag at home.  

“Um... I don’t exactly have any money on me right now,” I confessed.

“Don’t worry,” he laughed, “I got it.”

He climbed out and headed for the ice-cream stand.

“Chocolate!” I called after him, hoping that he had heard my order. He held out a thumbs up, signalling that he had heard me.

I smiled with my head in my hands. This was the first time we had really ever hung out outside of school...and I was loving it.