~~My twin sister Amaya yells at me as I am trying to adjust the camera on the rotten oak desk that is in the room that we share. "Hurry up, Allyira! I have to get to cheerleading." She is primping in the mirror while I am trying to get the camera to the right angle so that we can do this thing. Finally, getting the camera straight, I call her over and she comes running towards the camera; smiling. We bought the camera with our money from working various jobs around the neighborhood and some shitty fast food joints. It was nothing special but it works. "Is it on?" Amaya asks picking up the instruction manual to see how to do so. Allyira simply mashes a pink button on the left side of the camera; it beeps indicating that it is ready to record, she also made sure to get her side of the room, since it is the cleanest. "Okay." I finally say and we step back.
        We start jumping up and down, bouncing everywhere, laughing and giggling, playfully hitting and hugging each other. "Hi, I am Allyira Ebrielle Ghea De’Rose, I am 16 years old and in the 10th grade." Her black out contact eyes slide over to her twin sister. "I am Amaya Leeya Rozee De’Rose, I am 16 years old, and in the 10th grade as well." Together they say, "And we are THE DE’ROSE TWINS!!!" They burst out laughing and giggling. I am the one with the nose ring that our mother hates so much. "I got a new edition." I lift up the right side of my shirt, revealing the new Medium sized tattoo of a blue dragon puffing out smoke from his nostrils while she is laying on the grass looking up at the clouds. Amaya points to the ink art, "She cried all the way through." I drop my shirt and playfully shoves Amaya smiling, "NO...she lies!!" We giggle again. "GIRLS!!!" Our father calls trying to sound demanding. We both make an 'o' face with our lips and turn to the camera, Amaya says, "Ohh, we have to go now. Our father is either angry or has diarrhea.” They giggle again. “BYE BISHES!” They wave and turn the camera off.  

That is our brother Pax Kent. He is the product of an affair our father had with his mother, I think her name was...Umm...Kiva Lee or something of that nature. She died giving birth to Pax and had Pax signed over to our father, so that he could be with me and my sister. We didn't like the idea of Father cheating on Mother and it took me and Amaya 2 and a half years just to start back talking to Father. However, we never took that hatred out on Pax. Wait...I lie. Amaya did. She won't tell me what she did, but she did. Pax Deverell Furlo Kent. He is 15 years old. Very bright boy, if someone were to ask me.
Going down the stairs of an old off white Victorian was no joke, you had to constantly watch your step because the stairs could cave in at any minute also there were nails sticking out from the walls and banister that you could nag your arm or elbow on. As I have done a few times, I sorely wished father would fix up the place, but it seems as though he was going through something. I and Amaya didn’t know what, but we were going to soon find out, one day. Making it downstairs without any harm done to us, we turn the corner and see our father and younger brother; Pax who is 15 years old standing at the front door with their rain coats on. Amaya looks around the room, “Where is mother?” She asks, “She is supposed to be taking me to Cheerleading.” With the way my twin looks, no one would have pegged her to be a cheerleader, yet co-captain of the cheerleading squad. Our father speaks up as Pax looks out the window at the rain savagely beating down on the ground and everything else. It seems as though something was bothering Pax as well, he is always talking and running his mouth about something that one of his best friend’s did or this girl he has a crush did. But, this time, he was very silent. I couldn’t understand what was going on today, were I and Amaya were the only ones that were being ourselves? Our father answers snapping me out of my own thoughts, “She had a meeting with a parent today and told me to take you.” Amaya groans as she grabs her floor length black leather jacket off the arm of the brown sofa and puts it on; still whining a little. Her whine made me want to slit her throat sometimes. Amaya walks over in front of father, ready to go. Father turns to me. “Are you going to be okay here by yourself?” He asks me. I nod, “Yes, I will.” He smiles and opens the door. The smell of rain and wet rain slithers through the house, Amaya waves to me as she, father, and Pax exit the door; closing it behind them.
I flop on the brown sofa, grabs the remote, and turns on the television. It’s been a long time since I have had the house to myself. Ever since I got depressed 2 years ago and slit my wrist. The reason being is our cousin was murdered by her husband, she and I were really close. I took it extremely hard. One day…actually a few weeks after we buried her and her husband turned himself in, I slit my wrist and father found me lying on the garage floor; bleeding. I woke up a week later in the hospital with leather restraints around my wrists chained to the bed. Ever since then, both mother and father have been very leery about leaving me alone at home. But, I have convinced them that I was no longer suicidal. Which is the truth. After flipping through the channels and finding nothing to watch, I settle on the newest anime called Star Hikaru that everyone is raving about. The doorbell rings just as I was getting into it, groaning not wanting to get up, I slide dramatically off the sofa and onto the floor. Getting up, I look through the window to see my best friend standing in the rain without an umbrella or a raincoat. He has always been weird like that. I open the door and he enters taking off his rain boots and leaving them at the door. I tread off into the laundry room which is through the kitchen and come back with a huge body towel; I am the only one that uses those towels. I hand it to him; he smells like wet grass and dog. When he wipes his face, his eyeliner comes off; then reveals a black eye. I gasps and grab his face, “Jiri, what the happened to your eye?” I move his hair out of his attractive face and he starts to rock from side to side something he does when he is angry and starts puffing out his cheeks to calm his breathing. He then answers me, “My stepdad trying to toughen me up and I wasn’t having that. Then my mom tried to jump in and help me she….” I blink and look at Jiri. Jiri and I have been friends for a long time and in that time I have developed a crush on him, a serious crush on him. But, I know its cliché; he has no clue. So, it’s hard to see him date other girls, but I have to be the supportive best friend and such. I still give him great advice. “My mom has been in the hospital since 6am this morning. I tried to call you at 6:50am.” I didn’t even hear my phone ring, much less where it was. Unlike everyone else, my phone isn’t surgically attached to my face or hip. Once I put it down, I forget where it is because I have other things on my mind than who is texting me or the latest update on a social network. Like when my best friend gets beat up by his stepdad whom is a total tool. I guide Jiri to the sofa and he sits down shaking his head while I go into our lovely kitchen which father had finally finished remodeling after a few years of procrastinating. Filling a zip-lock bag up with ice and water, I hear Jiri say, “I don’t know how much lo0nger I can take staying with him. I mean…what fool hits a female.” That made me think about the last relationship my sister was in with some fool name Fisk, who beat her whenever he felt she was doing something wrong and almost isolated her from me and her friends. But, best believe I set him straight for 4 months. He was scared and paranoid, always looking over his shoulder. I can’t really tell you guys what I did, because then you guys might rat me out to the police. Anyway, he moved to a totally different state half way across the US. Served him right, though. Bringing the bag to him, I zip it up to make sure it doesn’t waste out onto the floor or sofa, mother is a neat freak, so any type of stain or even just the smallest grain of salt could drive her crazy. He takes the pack and gently places it over the blackened eye with a light groan to the cold. “What are you going to do? You can’t leave your mom here by herself.” I wanted to say you can’t leave me. But I did not. I started feeling a little dizzy so I lay my head on his shoulder and he slips his arm around me. “I don’t know. I could go to my Grandma’s house that way I can still go to school and at least finish it up.” He sighs, his breath smelling like watermelon jolly ranchers. I shift a little and sigh.
After a while, I had slipped into a deep sleep and was being woken up by Jiri. In a haze, I wake up to see mother, father, Amaya, and Pax in the kitchen making dinner. Yawning and stretching, I get up. Jiri turns around to mother, “Hello, Mrs. De’Rose.” He greets with a smile. She smiles back as she turns to cut some vegetables. “Hello, Jiri. How is everything?” Jiri nods, “It’s going well.” “That’s wonderful. Are you staying for dinner?” Jiri looks at me and I nod standing up. He looks to mother, “Yes, I am.” She nods and turns to scrap the vegetables from the cutting board into a pot that smelled of boiling chicken broth. Amaya dries her hands on the dish towel and walks over to me. She leans into my face so only I can hear her. “Did you tell him?” She asks me, referring to the crush. “No, I did not.” The way we were standing would make people think that we were getting ready to kiss each other. “When are you going to tell him?” I knit my eyebrows kind of aggravated and lashes back silently, “When you tell Yarkon Tava, you actually love him.” Amaya gasps taking a step back, I could do nothing but smile. Then frown when I see Pax and Jiri staring at us oddly. Pax then tells Jiri, “Don’t worry. They are weird like that. Always have been.” Pax walks down another pair of stairs that leads to the basement and his room, which is above the basement. She has been dating Yarkon Tava; since her 9th grade year of high school, he has told her that he love her but she hasn’t told him.
I arch my eyebrow, something that Amaya can’t do as she stomps her foot and goes back into the kitchen with mother and father. I sit down on the sofa and wait with Jiri for dinner to be ready. I am elated when he puts his arm around my shoulders. Dinner in the De’Rose household is something that gives us time to actually be a normal family for once and discuss the wakes of life and school. However, the family dinner has been dispersing into groups. Amaya takes her food and goes into our room. Pax takes his food and goes to his room. Mother and father stay at the table and I got into the living room and eat in front of the television. Which is what we all did. Jiri sat beside me while we watch the anime. I knew that Jiri had probably seen it all considering that his father is one of the animators to help draw the anime. Jiri was pointing and telling me that he helped think of the main character Star which is this super hero female that battles crime and the issues of friends and her own family that is broken.
A little after 9:39pm, I walk Jiri to his house which is two neighborhoods over from mine. We walk in silence and take in the lovely scenery that is the country. Trees, some people riding horses along the side of the road, cows mooing in the distance. We actually have roosters that do that noise when it’s dawn in the morning, I personally use them as my own alarm clock. Passing the first neighborhood entrance, Jiri speaks up to break the silence of the wind gently blowing, “Allyira?” He is looking straight ahead then he turns to me. I look at him. “Hey, your eyes are glowing in the dark.” He smiles. I chuckle, “Really?” then pull a straight face, this gets him laughing hard. I never understood why he loved the fact that I could do that in a heartbeat. “Totally. Check it out.” He pulls a pocket mirror from his pocket and hands it to me. I flip it open and low and behold, they are glowing in the dark. “They actually work!” I say in excitement, handing his mirror back to him. He pockets it. “I wanted to see if you were doing anything this weekend.” My heart starts beating against my chest in hysterical excitement. “I am not doing anything. Why do you ask?” I get my heart under control. “Well, you know, the fair is in town and I wanted to know if you would be my date…it’s a double date because my little sister; Allyira is going with some kid from her class and my parents won’t let her go alone. So, I was wondering who to ask.” My mind is spiraling with all kinds of thoughts why didn’t he ask his girlfriend to go with them? I had to ask, “What about your girlfriend?” Jiri blinks and looks ahead, then stops walking half way to his neighborhood. He kicks at a weed growing from the sidewalk, putting his hands in his pockets. Looking at him and waiting for him to say something, he looks up at the starry night, and another good thing about being in the country. There were always stars in the sky to light up your way. He sighs, “She cheated on me with some kid in our science class.”
I had nothing to say, well I didn’t know what to say about the information Jiri had just given me. I didn’t want to tell him that I already knew that she was cheating on him with a lot of guys because I knew that would destroy his trust in me. But at the same time I didn’t want to hurt his feeling more than they already were. I grab him and hug him, he hugs me back. “I just can’t believe that she would do that to me. I mean…I tried everything to help her.” He buries his face in my neck and my heart is beating harder than ever. I didn’t want him to feel the excitement his embrace was giving me, so I backed away. “I...I am sorry for that.” He shakes his head and links our arms together. “It’s okay. I should have known it was going to happen sooner or later. She still calls me every once in a while. Telling me that she is sorry and wants to give it another try.” I giggle as we continue walking and enter the neighborhood. There are some kids sitting on an energy box or whatever those things are and smoking what smells like weed; the cheap kind. “Hey, it’s Jiri.” One of them say. I couldn’t see which one because it was dark also because he was wearing darker than black clothes. One of them kick the street lamp that hung high above them, the lamp flickers and stays on. Obviously, they somehow rigged the street lamp for their own dark pleasure. Seeing that it’s people from a few classes that I and Jiri take, I smile and shake their hands. One of them passes the blunt to Jiri, but he politely declines. “I have a drug test tomorrow and I do not want to get caught with that.” The girl with blonde hair, purple highlights and black tips nod and takes a drag then passes it to another girl. “So, what’s up with you two?” The blonde girl asks. Her name is Adorabelle Indoril, she told me one time that she tried to get her name changed to something else but when her parents found out about it from her older ‘perfect’ brother, and they grounded her for a year. I thought that was stupid, it is her own right to change her name and she also had the money for it. So, I didn’t get what the issue was. However, groundings don’t do much for Adorabelle because she is always doing what she wants anyway. Jiri shrugs at her question and answers, “Allyira is walking me home.” A boy all black hair and a few golden tips along with very pale skin asks without filter, “Have you asked her out yet?” His name is Bexal Shiva; very good at drawing depressing shit like dying trees and someone draining in a sea of their own pain and misery. At 12 years old, his parents actually put him in a syk ward to see if he needed any types of medication for his behavior. When they found out he was just fine, his parents have been spending most of their money either trying to make him happy or having him go from doctor to doctor to find out what is really wrong with him. He is one of those emos that don’t cut, but expresses his pain through his drawings. He takes a drag from the blunt and passes it to another girl. Jiri’s face is red with either surprise or embarrassment, “N-no…I haven’t.” Bexal shouts, “Then what the fuck are you waiting for man?? Before she gets away again.” He is looking at me with his blue eyes. I am instantly confused. I have not been in a relationship since 5 years ago, with one guy named Ervine Calvary, he was sweet and all but he was also a doormat. Until, one day he got crazy and stalked me because I broke up with him. We were together all of 4 months and he was acting like a jealous ex, especially when Jiri came around. Even when he and I were dating, Jiri was always an issue with Ervine. But that was 5 years ago, so I have no clue what they are talking about. Turning to Jiri, “What is he talking about?” “Nothing.” Was all Jiri said before pushing Bexal off the energy box, Bexal falls with a thump, “Ow…” he groans and Jiri takes my hand and pulls me in the direction of his house.
I am still confused as to what Bexal was talking about ‘before she gets away again’. I didn’t really get the concept. We stop at a one level house in a cul-de-sac, the only one level house in the neighborhood really with a blue SUV parked in the driveway. Jiri stands there, “Sorry about Bexal, he can be very…odd sometimes.” He gives off a nervous chuckle as she rocks back and forth. I tilt my head to the left and stare at Jiri, “What did he mean by ‘before she gets away again’?” The smile is replaced with a small frown and he sighs as he sits on the steel bench on the porch in front of a window of his house. He places his face in his hands and sigh, “Uhh, he was talking about you and I.” His voice was shaking as amble to where he is and stood there in front of him. He is taking forever to explain but I know that he wanted to do this in person but I had to be home soon. “Well, you know Bexal is my other best friend…2nd best really and I tell him a lot about my feelings and I have let slip that I have feelings for you over a few drinks at his party last month.” He is staring in the distance. “I told him that I would ask you out by the end of the month, but at that time I was still with my current girlfriend so I don’t know how that would have worked out. I went through sleepless nights trying to figure out how to ask you out or even remotely tell you how much I care about you. I have a lot of notebooks and journals full of ‘what if’s’, ‘how tos’, ‘why’s’, and other things.” Abruptly, he gets up and enters his house, leaving me outside in the dark. When he open the door, I could hear his sister yelling, “Is Ally outside, Jiri?! IS SHE?!” Jiri must have been ignoring her because I didn’t hear him answer her. Jiri’s sister absolutely adores me for whatever reason. Jiri then comes back with a few worn notebooks and hands them to me. “I know it’s a lot, but it’s kind of everything I thought about with you. I also know that it maybe creepy to read some of them but I want you to read them anyway.” He rubs his nape. “I know it’s late and you have to get home, so my mom is going to let me drive the car and drop you off.” My brain is trying to still process the fact that he has had feelings for me for so long and never said anything for whatever reason. Is this the time that I tell him I have the same feelings? When I was about to he pulls the keys from his front pocket and unlocks the car with a click of the key. I close my mouth, he opens the front passenger door for me to get in and I do along with the notebooks that I am still holding on it. They smell like rain and his room; which is always a peachy smell. He gets into the driver side and cranks the car up, backs up, and speeds out of the neighborhood. Within 2 minutes we arrive at my house and it appears that all the lights are on but dad’s car is no longer in the driveway. I look at Jiri and he is drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, trying not to look at me. I smile and gives him a small peck on the cheek, making him look at me. I rub my hand gently against his face. “See you tomorrow.” He smiles and nuzzles my hand; nods. I get out of the SUV and enter my house. Peeking through the blinds, I watch him back out of our driveway and speed off down the road; head banging seriously.