Natalia’s P. O. V

Fifteen stores and about a hundred outfits later, Hail finally decided she was tired enough for a break. The boys and I practically crawled to a nearby food joint. Who knew shopping could be so tiring?

Hail headed to the counter as we collapsed into the chairs around a free table, sighing with relief. She’d been a tornado of movement, moving from one outfit to another then swiftly abandoning the shop for another when she’d seen enough. I’d tried on each and every piece of clothing that she deemed even slightly fitting for my personality only to watch in dismay as she shook her head disapprovingly and move on to the next candidate.

In the space of three hours, I’d tried roughly a hundred clothes; I lost count at forty-two. In that time, I’d found out that I apparently wasn’t perky, quirky, emo, gothic, innocent, serious, fun, rebellious, uptight, princess-y, bitchy, coy, or slutty. As a result of the constant rejection of clothes, I’d bought nothing.

Keily, on the other hand, had bought five pairs of six inch heels, a very short dress that barely reached her thighs, twelve skirts and shorts of the same short length, seventeen tops (all either with a very low neckline or a very short length), five handbags and probably a lot more things.

Needless to say, she would have fit right in with the slut squad.

Candy chuckled tiredly, bored and exhausted.

‘I hope we find something soon.’

She made a sound of agreement.

After devouring our food, Hail suggested we try one more store before heading out and we reluctantly agreed. As we were walking, a black leather jacket on a mannequin caught my eye. It had flames trailing along the bottom of the sleeves, frozen in a complex dance of destructive, fiery power. It was completely and utterly badass.

It was completely and utterly me. I loved it.

I walked into the shop with my slightly confused companions trailing behind me.

“Found something?” Hail asked.

I ignored her as I spoke to the clerk who got the jacket for me. I paid for it and walked out of the shop, feeling accomplished.

I turned to Hail, holding the bag with the jacket up, “Definitely.”

After that, I was on a roll. I bought black jeans, blue jeans, red jeans, ripped jeans, jeans with thin chains around the belt loops, faded jeans, flare jeans; I bought dozens. I bought three camo pants, seven sweatpants, two khaki pants, five jeggings, six leggings, a black and red checkered skirt and a few black and blue jean shorts and skirts. I got five black, grey, red and dark blue hoodies and a variety of coloured shirts except yellow; I hated that colour with a passion. I got some ankle and knee length boots, combat boots, chunky boots, a few pairs of converse shoes, five sandals, three pairs of slippers and two pairs of trainers. No heels. I didn’t do heels.

The only thing that I now owned and hadn’t wanted to buy was the black and red polka dotted bikini that Hail had insisted on, saying: “It’s summer gurl. That means the beach. You are getting that bikini.”

Then she proceeded to walk off, leaving no room for argument.

Most of the shops were closed when I finally became conscious of the time. The Geranomy brothers were leaning against each other, asleep. Miraculously, the shopping bags still hung from their arms.

Hail followed my line of sight and chuckled, “They’ve been doing this since we were seven especially when we go shopping. They have it down to an art now.”

I smiled and peered at Keily. She was texting furiously with someone, smiling every now and then at her screen.

Hail and I woke the boys up then walked back to the car. Hail and Keily got in and waited as the boys and I put our bags in the trunk. I made sure to separate Keily’s and my bags – there was no way I was gonna take any of the strips of cloth she called clothing by accident.

We got into the car, Greg in the driver’s seat this time, and drove off – headed to my house first.

On the way, Keily raised her head up from her phone, smiling slightly, “Greg, drop me off at Dan’s house. Now.” She demanded then went back to typing.

Hail, who had been half asleep, raised her head off the window to peer curiously at her twin, “Dan’s house? But it’s so late. What could he possibly want at this hour?”

I checked my watch; it was way past midnight, almost one – definitely late.

Keily flipped her hair, smacking me in the face with it, “Yeah, Dan’s house. He said he has something special for me and besides, we’ve been out later before – not that it’s any of your business, Hailey.” She replied challengingly.

“I’m only worried about you. Dan isn’t the best character. I just don’t want you getting hurt.”

“What you think of Dan isn’t important. I can take care of myself.” She flipped her hair, smacking me in the face, again.

‘Three strikes and she’s out.’ Candy growled. I couldn’t have agreed more.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“I’m worried about you. The best way to take care of yourself is to not get into bad situations in the first place. Besides, you’re not the best fighter.” Hail murmured quietly, sounding hurt and defeated.

“Yeah, well, Dan isn’t a bad situation – he’s a hunk that adores me. You’re just jealous ‘cause you can’t get a man.” She flipped her hair again. Strike three.

I caught her wrist before she could lower it and turned to her, eyes narrowed, “One: don’t ever flip your damn hair in my face again. Two: what your sister thinks of your dating choices should matter if she’s got a good reason not to like your ‘hunk that adores you’. Three: She isn’t jealous of you, she’s worried for you and if you’re too blind to see that then you seriously need to set your priorities straight. And four: you’re identical twins – if you can, by some miracle, get a man, she can too, she just doesn’t feel the need to dress like a hoe to do so.” I ground out.

Everyone went silent with surprise while I sat back and closed my eyes.

I peeked out of one eye, “Greg, can you please lower the hood?”

I heard the sound of the hood going down, “Thanks.” I closed the eye and enjoyed the night air of New York.

The radio played through the blissful silence until it was interrupted, yet again, by the sound of Keily’s voice, “This isn’t the way to Dan’s. Greg, I told you to drop me off at Dan’s immediately.” She hissed.

I could hear the mischievous grin in his voice, “No can do, Kei-Kei. I need to get Ari back to her place first then drop Trev off at Gram’s and finally get Hail back to your house before I can drop you off at mysterious man Dan’s place.”

I peeked at Keily who looked like she was about to explode. “I need to get to Dan’s place, now. You can drop them off after you take me there.”

Greg shook his head, “Nope. It shouldn’t be a problem anyway – you did say that you’ve been out later, correct?”

She opened her mouth, “Yeah, bu-”

He cut her off, “And I’m pretty sure we’re all beat.”

She opened her mouth again, “But I nee-”

He cut her off again, “So tell me, Keily, why must we lose sleep just because you want to go get down and dirty with mysterious man Dan?”

She kept her mouth shut and huffed then went back to texting with a scowl that made her look even more like Kylie. I exhaled and my eyelids dropped. The world around me muffled and blurred and I fell asleep.

**********

“Hey. Ari. We’re at your place.”

I woke up to Hail shaking me. I jolted awake and habitually took note of my surroundings. I was still in the car and Hail’s door was open. Through it, I could see my house. I got out and walked to the trunk, picking most of my bags and went to unlock my door.

I placed the bags on the couch and turned to see Hail doing the same. Turned to face me and smiled gratefully, “Thanks for, you know, helping me put Keily in her place back there.”

“It’s no problem. Why do you let her walk all over you? You’re twins.” I asked.

She shrugged, “She’s older by a minute and twelve seconds.”

I shook my head, “So she has a minute and twelve seconds’ worth of experience more – that’s nothing. If anything, you’re more mature, anyone could see that. You don’t need to be older than her for you to have more common sense. Besides, I get the feeling that she wouldn’t listen to you even if you were older.”

Her head hung with shame and I understood. She felt the same way I’d felt when I was with the Lightwood pack – helpless to do anything but accept reality and silently wish for a change. She didn’t know that she had the ability to make that change.

I held her shoulders and her eyes rose to meet mine, “You need to make her understand that you only warn her because you have her back. You never know if your warnings might one day save her life but they can’t do that if you don’t get them through to her. If you don’t try harder, you’ll never forgive yourself if something happens to her.”

Tears glistened in her eyes and she nodded, averting her gaze. Not before I saw regret and sorrow in her eyes.

I walked her to the door in silence. Trevor waved and walked into his house once he spotted us. I watched Keily carefully as she glared at her sister who got into the car. Greg started the car and drove off. I watched until I could no longer see them and went back into my house.

After getting ready to sleep, I sat cross legged on my bed with my back against the headrest. I felt Candy stir in my consciousness.

'We need a bigger house.' she stated with a yawn.

I chuckled, 'Maybe tomorrow. We're supposed to go see Mrs Burton in three days. Actually two days since it's past midnight. Let's go house hunting today so that we can move in tomorrow and get settled by the day after - after our appointment.'

'Okay then.' she agreed.

I laid down and drifted off to sleep.

Keily's P. O. V

I glared at Hailey as she walked down our driveway after waving goodbye. I couldn't believe this! That bitch Ari was the reason I was late for my meeting with Dan. She just couldn't stay out of my business and everyone had jumped to her side. Even Greg.

I hated her.

She had it all; the looks, the money, the charisma that make everyone want to talk to her and stand by her. After fifteen years of knowing Greg and Trev, I could barely get either of them to glance my way but she'd only just met them and they were already joking like they'd been friends forever. Even Hailey liked her more than me.

I stormed out of the car once we stopped at Dan's.

"Will you be okay? I can come pick you up if you want." Greg offered before I could get inside.

"Don't bother." I spat then opened the ever unlocked door of my boyfriend's house.

The lights were off, as usual. I walked to the living room, avoiding the bottles sprawled out on the floor. The place had an ever present stench of booze and weed, with Dan draped on his favourite couch and a bottle of liquor in his hand.

He took a lazy swig, "You're late." he observed his watch with a scowl.

I shrugged and sauntered to him, "Sorry, babe. We took this new girl shopping and the bitch made Greg drop her off first."

He sat up and I placed myself on his lap, straddling him. I ran my hands through his shaggy red hair as he fed me liquor from the bottle in his hand. When I finished the bottle's little contents, I rested against his chest. He didn't bother to hold me.

"What was it you wanted to meet me for?" I asked after minutes of silence.

"I need a favour. I'm looking for a green eyed girl with brown hair and tan skin. She should be roughly five foot three or four and pretty skinny. She should have arrived at New York not over five days ago."

He fished something out of his back pocket. In the darkness, I could see it was a picture of someone. The person in the picture looked broken and defeated. That person was the same person that had joked and laughed with my friends and ruined my day.

That person was Ari.