That night, after the coffee shop had closed and my parents were in their room reading like they normally did, I decided to go out by myself. It really wasn't smart, but I needed to find my brother and figure out everything that was going on. The streets were still busy, considering it was nine on a Tuesday. People wandered around, peeking into various shops and talking to each other about the latest release on television, which I found absolutely pointless. But I ignored them and continued to go along the cobblestone sidewalk past the market. It wasn't open, and the Milinoir Fair was closed down until the weekend, leaving me with work to occupy my time. I worked for a publishing company, filtering emails from writers and handling the printing details or whatever, and then I would make about four dollars a night at home with the coffee shop. My parents paid me so that I could buy my own clothes, unless I donated it back to them so that they could pay off our electricity and heat instead of continuously piling up debt.
The night life went on. Street lamps shone bright orange light onto the streets and reflected off of the few cars that sped past. Less people were out walking. The shops were beginning to close. And since I had no form of transportation except my legs, it took me more than forty-five minutes to reach the South Side. My hopes of locating my brother's house were low, but I couldn't give up at this point. Even if I didn't know his name.
God, the thought of having a brother was just mind-blowing! And a TWIN! But I was more confused than excited... I had the feeling that my parents and his new parents conspired to keep us apart somehow and tried to maintain that for some reason. They were scared. They were worried. But they were at a disadvantage; Now that we knew of our other sibling, nobody could really stop us from seeing each other and figuring this all out.
When the clock struck ten, I became concerned. My parents had probably noticed that I'd left by this point, and I didn't want them looking for me, much less worried about my whereabouts.
That's when he appeared.
We both stopped in the street and looked at each other, unsure of the other person. But once I realized that he was wearing the same shirt and had the same hair, I rushed towards him, trying to stay in the shadows. "I guess you had the same idea as me!" I said excitedly, putting my hands in my pockets.
He nodded. "Your parents told you...?"
"You mean our biological. Yes, they did, and they told me something else..."
"I know already. Mine told me the same thing. But we're both sort of rebellious from what I can see, being that we're out here at night without anyone else."
"They didn't even tell me your name. And they forbid me from going past the market, which meant no Milinoir Fair... But I can't accept that. I basically live in town centre."
He looked at the ground and shuffled his feet nervously. "I've never been allowed out of the house. And since it's pretty much a castle, I didn't need to go anywhere, and I never thought that I'd be here today..."
I nodded in agreement. "Isla."
He took out his hand, shaking mine gently. "Jayden."
We both stood there for a moment, looking at each other to see if any resemblance came into appearance, but I only saw a similarity in eyes. We both had shiny green specks and a blue iris. Other than that, he had blond hair and I had brown with gold tips, mine long and wavy while his was short and Italian-cut and completely straight. My skin was dark and his was light. If anything, I looked more Italian. He looked like he was royalty from Britain or something.
"And there's one more thing you should know, although I'm not sure if you do already..." he said, subsiding to a feeling of stress rather than excitement. "Did you hear anything about us coming from a certain place?"
I cocked my head. "That was very clear. I totally understood. Now if you could make it less vague..."
"No." He shook his head. "No, because I still don't know what they were talking about, but they wouldn't inform me of anything."
I blinked. "Well, that's disappointing. I thought I would be able to figure everything out tonight."
"Listen, we can try to search for clues in what they're protecting us from or what they haven't already told us in each other's houses, then we can deal with the main problem at hand."
"Which is..."
"That we're not allowed to live with each other. But in order to win our rights with that, we need information. I'll meet you tomorrow at the market around noon."
And that was it. Nothing else. He walked away, slinking into the shadows of night, leaving me alone on a deserted street. I had to get home, first of all, and second of all, I needed to know what was going on.
I hated two things.
Suspense.
And the absence of basic knowledge or comprehension of particular subjects.
In this case, I didn't know what was wrong with my family history, and that left me in suspense and the situation of not knowing or understanding.