For a good portion of our lives, Shannon and I socialized with separate groups of friends. That was just how it turned out ever since we attended different classes during Kindergarten.

As a result, we spent most of our free time with our friends rather than with each other, and before we knew it, our personalities had drastically diverged in order to conform to our respective surroundings.

Shannon became a jock while I became more of a nerd. Unsurprisingly, our contrasting personalities oftentimes put us at odds with one another.

That's not to say we were prone to heated arguments, however. Those only happened when our dad was involved.

No matter whatever differences in opinion we might've had, we never took it to a point where one of us could confidently say they despised the other.

I guess it was thanks in large part to our unbreakable connection as twins—although that connection didn't stop us from maintaining separate social lives.

Anyhow, a social gathering mandated by our dad ended up bringing me and Shannon together for one whole Saturday.

The social gathering, in question, was the wedding of two cousins—the children of dad's twin sister—who were several years older than us and happened to fall in love with another pair of twins. And because there were two couples getting married, a record-breaking number of people were in attendance.

Nevertheless, Shannon and I weren't familiar with anyone outside of our immediate family. Once it was time for the wedding reception, neither Shannon nor I had anyone to talk to but ourselves—not even friends since our phones could not find a signal anywhere in the building.

Except I didn't even want to talk to my friends... and Jen.

"Being forced to attend this boring wedding might be a blessing in disguise," I said, leaning on a balcony overlooking the Atlantic. "I get to eat so many delicious foods after all." Meanwhile, I was poking at an Irish creme chocolate trifle with a silver fork. "Ah... But I'm supposed to be on a diet..."

I ate a bite from the trifle anyways—my weight be damned.

"Don't worry. No matter how much you eat, you'll always look like a stick."

I felt a blood vessel pop out.

"So what if I look like a stick? It's not like you look any different. All that exercise, and you barely have anything to show for it."

"That's because it's my turn to be a girl today!"

"Always with the excuses, Shannon."

I jokingly shook my head, much to her chagrin as she corrected me in regards to her name.

"Tomorrow! I'll show you how pronounced my muscles are on my male body!" she declared, pointing at me like a JoJo reference. If she was actually a guy today, there would've been no doubt in my mind that she could've pulled off a convincing Jotaro Kujo impression. However, with Shannon dressed all formally in a simple black dress that only exposed a somewhat delicate figure, it was hard to take her too seriously.

I let out a small laugh to continue spiting her, "Alright, alright. Whatever you say."

"Man, why do you have to be such a dick?"

"You're the one who started it!"

"All I said was the truth!"

"That doesn't make it any less of a dick thing to say! And what makes you think I was referring to anything but my overall health?" I lied.

Personally, I was content with myself as long as I simply didn't look like a fat-ass. That was why my routine often involved me working out for barely an hour a week and compensating for my insufficient exercise by dieting, so I could spend as much of my free time on reading and playing games. I know, my lifestyle was hardly a healthy one.

Shannon could see through my lie though, which she expressed in a disheartening eye roll—she knew me too well to fall for such an obvious falsehood.

"Nothing gets past you when it comes to the only subjects you're good at, health and physical education." I sighed. "I guess it also doesn't help you know our bodies inside and out."

"Well..." Shannon hesitated. "I have to be better than you at something. Otherwise, how am I supposed to legitimize my existence if my twin is superior in every imaginable way?"

I hesitated.

Did Shannon indicate that she had an inferiority complex? She looked noticeably uncomfortable... I refused to acknowledge that this was the case.

"Umm..." I said as my eyes wandered back towards the Atlantic. "Look. There's a full moon tonight."

I had to dodge the question.

I simply wasn't prepared for it.

Shannon seemed to have noticed my own unease because she soon made a rare apology.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to make things awkward, especially since you were looking so spirited after looking so miserable earlier."

"Ah. Don't misunderstand. It's not your fault..." I countered in a hurry to deny her of self-inflicted guilt—but that didn't make me feel any better.

"Haha... How typical of you to shoulder all the weight—"

It wasn't right.

"That's it, I'm tired of feeling sorry for myself."

"Huh?" she said, giving me a perplexed look. "What spurred you on to say something so out of the blue?"

"And what spurred you on to wear something as tacky as black two-strap sandals? If it were me, I'd wear a pair of black ankle-strap heels to compliment that dress you're wearing."

Shannon became flustered.

"Wh-what are you talking about?! You should know that I don't like wearing high heels! They're uncomfortable to walk in!"

"I knew you'd say that. You're just so unrefined. No wonder you prefer being a boy so much."

"So what if I like being a guy? Being a girl comes with the expectation that I should be 'cute' or 'beautiful' when I couldn't give a rat's ass about such bothersome things. If I could wear a simple suit like yours and call it a day without getting chastised for my fashion sense, I'd put a lot more consideration into being a woman for the rest of my life!"

Shannon genuinely seemed proud with the delivery of her spiel.

Perhaps I could respect her commitment to defying gender norms.

"Actually now that you made your case, I guess I can appreciate your tomboyish attitude."

"Thank you."

If only I wasn't about to end this girl's whole career—as lame as that sounded.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"I mean, if you were to put on heels, you'd end up taller than me. That'd be pretty embarrassing for a guy. Wouldn't you agree?"

Shannon looked like she was about to explode. After all, I was treating her with complete and utter disrespect by not taking our talk seriously.

"Pff..." I soon burst into a laughter. "Gahaha..."

"..."

"Phew... Apologies. I needed to get that out of my system."

I could not help but get my fill from teasing Shannon.

As I took a deep breath to calm myself, Shannon took that time to cool off and swap her anger with pure confusion before giving me a face one would normally give to an insane person.

"Alright, lesson learned. You're definitely better than me when it comes to bringing cheer to an awkward situation—you can't possibly do any worse than what I just did. I'm sure of it. At the end of the day, you're the extrovert whereas I'm the introvert, so this outcome is to be expected."

"Right..." Shannon said before covering her mouth while looking away to avoid eye contact. "So what's gotten into you all of a sudden?"

"A lot of things... Something Jen said yesterday has been putting me down."

"Huh? Did you guys fight or something?"

What I said apparently piqued her curiosity.

"We didn't fight. I simply overheard something. It wasn't anything bad per se—I just don't know how I should feel about it."

"And that motivated you to..." She paused for a brief moment. "... act so strange just now?"

"Sure... Let's go with that." Like Shannon, I also took a pause. "I need someone to talk to because I can't keep this frustration bottled up anymore."

Despite not being my original intention, my odd behavior made for a great excuse to raise the issue.

"And out of all the problems that have been troubling me for the past couple of days, this is the only one that I feel comfortable talking about. I mean, I figured you can offer me some advice."

After all, I reasoned that Shannon was most likely the only sensible option for an unbiased take on the issue since she hardly involved herself in my social life but still had enough of an understanding of it.

Meanwhile, Shannon was deep in thought, considering my plea for help.

"Hmm... I suppose I could offer my opinion—especially if your problem is something as trivial as love."

I was surprised to say the least.

Did she just deduce the subject matter of my issue? And how was love supposed to be trivial!

"How did you know it's about love?" I asked simply.

"Is it not?" Shannon said in wonderment. "From what you've said, there doesn't seem to be a serious dispute between you two, so I can only guess that it's about love."

She then claimed her conclusion made sense because Jen and I got along so well that the two of us would make a great couple—putting me in a panic.

A part of me was reevaluating the decision of letting Shannon in on the issue since her comment about love suggested that she was going to use it to mock me.

On the other hand, I could not bring myself to run away.

"Don't worry. They don't call me the Love Guru for nothing."

"I find that hard to believe... and who're 'they'?"

"My clients of course. For whatever reason, the people at our school trust me to solve their relationship problems, and somehow, my solutions always manage to sort everything out in the end without fail."

"This is the first I've heard anything about it."

I was only aware of Shannon's reputation as an athlete that came close to getting held back several times.

"Actually, the funny thing is that I have no idea how all of this started. I only learned about my title just last week. I guess my friends started spreading the word around after I helped them out with their problems, but I honestly don't remember doing any such thing."

"Maybe they began looking up to you after you scored a relationship—"

"Nah," Shannon quickly refuted my assumption. "I've never dated anyone before in my life. Like I said earlier, love is trivial. I have no intention of wasting my time to pursue a romantic interest just for the sake of having a romantic interest that'll last no more than a month like most high-school relationships."

"I see..."

I was hung up on the fact that the so-called Love Guru continued to call the concept of love trivial when she never experienced it for herself.

"But never mind all that. What did Jen say that got you depressed?"

"He..." I sighed. Despite my reluctance, I couldn't beat around the bush forever. I had to push myself forward. "He said that he loves me."

"And what? He wants to marry you in the future too?"

I nodded meekly, confirming her assumption.

"And you're not happy about this?"

"I want to feel happy, but deep down, I just want the same—"

"The same life you've had for seventeen years."

I nodded once more.

"You really are hopeless," Shannon said bluntly. "Well, I don't know what to say because this sounds like our decision all over again."

It didn't help that our decision was also playing a part in my frustration.

"So what are you going to do once Jen confesses his feelings to you?"

"He won't. He said that he won't. Even if he has to suffer for it, Jen can't confess his love to me because he understands me."

Shannon furrowed her brow before making a remark about the absurdity of the situation. Then, she shook her head in disappointment. "So he'll have to wait for you and hope—all Jen can do is hope for something that is hopeless."

"Unfortunately, everything is up to me..."

"And all you can do is feel the guilt from your indecision."

"I want to do right by Jen and reciprocate my own feelings, but at the same time, I can't bring myself to do so out of my own fear for what might happen."

"Chicken," Shannon ridiculed.

"I know."

"Chicken," Shannon repeated.

"I know already."

"Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken. Chicken..." and Shannon kept going on and on until she ran out of breath.

She began to cough violently, and I could only look at her in shame before she recovered.

"Sam, I don't wanna sound like some lame motivational speaker, but all I can say is that you should have nothing to be afraid of—including a breakup—and just ask Jen out before it's too late."

"And what makes you say that?"

"Trust me on this... as the Love Guru if you have to."

"I don't find that to be a convincing reason."

"Fine. Sometimes you gotta take risks like me. For example, the other day, I joined my friends and took part in the most intense triathlon I've ever finished."

This time, it was my curiosity being piqued.

"What made it so intense?" I asked.

Shannon began detailing the triathlon, "The first segment was a marathon on the school track."

"One whole marathon right off the bat?!" I interrupted Shannon. "How am I supposed to believe that you and your friends had any energy by the end of that run to complete the biking and swimming portions of the triathlon?"

However, she disregarded my comment.

Wait. Were they attempting an Ironman triathlon?

"We then switched onto our bikes and pedaled about two miles to the Chattahoochee River."

"Only two miles of biking?!" I interrupted Shannon once more. "I knew you guys ran out of energy as soon as you finished the run. You might as well take the biking out of the equation and simply boast about the marathon. I mean, not even the easiest of triathlons have such a short biking segment."

I was unexpectedly disappointed after being severely mislead.

And again, Shannon ignored me.

"Afterwards, we jumped off a bridge."

"Huh?" I interrupted Shannon one last time. "Are you insane? Were you guys committing suicide? Why the hell would anyone sign up to do this?"

Shockingly, I wasn't as alarmed as I should've been. It must've been too unreal to seem believable in any way. There had to be no way Shannon would've done something so idiotic, reckless, and dangerous and come out unscathed.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem like she was joking because this time, it looked like she paid attention and took offense to my comment.

"What do you mean? You think my friends and I are ones to have a death wish? Jumping off a bridge into a shallow river like the Chattahoochee and swimming several more miles to Lake Lanier isn't deadly at all—as long as you do it during a storm, so it raises the water level."

"That's even worse!" I shrieked—just as I realized that we got sidetracked.

We were getting nowhere. The only point Shannon convinced me of was that she only had brawn and no brain. Was my situation really hopeless?

"Come on, do it."

"I can't."

"Come on, do it. Just do it. Stop wasting everyone's time and confess already."

"I said I can't."

"Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it—"

"Can you stop!" I snapped. "No matter how hard I try..."

I couldn't finish my sentence.

Shannon was giving me a look of pity causing a sudden heaviness to descend upon me.

I could only regret opening up to her about my problems at that moment. It wasn't her fault that I was so inept at accepting change. So why did I take my frustration out on her?

...

All I wanted was happiness.

"Heh... I made it awkward again..."

"Sam..."

"..."

"You hold your current life in such high esteem. But, are you really happy?"

"No..."

"And it doesn't look like you'll be any happier if you leave your problem unresolved."

"..."

"From my experience, nobody stays the same—that includes you. Your feelings for Jen are proof. There's no way you can deny that."

"And so what if I have these feelings? What's the purpose of these feelings if all they do is cause pain and suffering?"

"They're telling you to live a new, happier life."

"What?"

"Just look around you. Our cousins are getting married, and all their friends and family came all the way here to celebrate the occasion with them. Don't they look like they're having the time of their lives?"

"..."

Shannon took a step back away from the balcony and turned to the party behind us.

Then something happened that I didn't think was going to happen.

For a moment, I saw.

Casting away her tough exterior, Shannon showed me a soft smile—a smile that had been lost for what seemed like forever.

And without waiting for me, she began walking towards the building to join in on the happiness.

"Tell me. Do you really want to miss out on what could've been the life you truly wanted? Do you really want a life where you continue living with this pain and suffering?"

"Of course not..."

"And why is that?"

"Because..." Before I could say another word, my head cleared. My heart tightened. And tears welled up. "Because I love Jen."