• 02 •

 EVA

My heart beat wildly in my chest, thumping around with so much force I thought it was going to beat right out and land at their pretty feet. 

Feet that were clad in unnecessarily big fluffy slippers.

Two purple, two black.

I knew this, because my eyes were currently glued to them. There must be something so captivating about them, I wasn't quite sure what, but I was positive I would find that out within the next five minutes of my one-sided stare down. There was a possibility that the bodies might be just as interesting, even more so, but my eyes hadn't seemed to find the courage to make the rest of the journey. 

All through the car ride, I'd been itching to know what they looked like. Dying to. Now, here I was, standing in front of them, with nothing stopping me but my stupid self. I had to be pushing a new level of stupidity with my delay. 

Say something so I can look at you. 

Talk to me so I can stare at you. 

They didn't however. But that didn't stop my eyes from feeding their curiosity. 

My eyes trailed up the legs wearing the purple coloured slippers, passed thick thighs hidden by a beautiful flowery gown, a surprisingly cinched waist and at last they came to rest on the face. 

A face that belonged to Mrs Lawson. 

She was the exact replica of her mother. The same softly curved face, same friendly eyes —although friendly wasn't the word I'd use to describe them right now, same straight nose and full lips. She and her mom could definitely pass off as twins. I even felt the same easy connection I'd felt with her mom.

In fact, the frown she was directing at me looked out of place on her face. 

She was beautiful and had an aura that made me want to befriend her even though the chances of that happening were less than zero. 

The other twin, though, gave me pause. 

I knew a lot of pretty girls, had met even prettier girls, but never had I seen a face like the one in front of me. 

She wasn't merely beautiful, she was devastating to look at. Heartbreakingly so. She had the same nose and eyes as her sister, with full down-turned lips that gave her an unimpressed look.

I chose to believe that was her usual look and not just a reaction to my presence, because hell, there was only so much I could handle. 

I could easily see boys falling at her feet, irresistible to her beauty. I was straight, yet even I was finding it hard to stop gawking. I was pretty sure she could see the awe written all over my face —my gaping mouth was a dead giveaway. Anytime now, I'd pick my jaw up off the ground before flies swamped my mouth.

Anytime now. 

Two pairs of brown eyes bored into me, threatening to incinerate me with the scorching heat in their gazes. My eyes dropped automatically, not interested in fighting a battle it would woefully loose, and instead, decided to have a conversation with their newly found friends; the fluffy slippers. 

Three minutes passed. Five. They still hadn't said anything. 

I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. It was seventy-five degrees and I wasn't sure how long I could pretend that it didn't bother me. Really. How long did it take to size me up? I wasn't that tall or interesting to look at. Whatever they were doing, they had to do it fast. 

"Your eyes are pretty. " a soft voice broke the silence.

I froze, glancing up at the speaker, whom I was very shocked to find out was the goddess. I hadn't expected her to be the one to break the silence, neither had I expected such a delicate topic. She'd pointed out the physical feature I was most sensitive about; if her aim had been to make me feel out of my element, she'd succeeded. 

Heterochromia was a pretty easily seen condition in a lot of countries —just not in Nigeria. I had different coloured eyes, one green, one blue and as if two colours weren't enough, I was told they changed colours from different angles. It was quite amazing and a whole lot freaky —in people's words. They'd always been a problem for me growing up since all they ever did was bring attention to my person. The bad kind. 

I'd learnt to hide myself behind hoodies and ball caps, my skin too uncomfortable to live in, but long gone was the time when my eyes made me feel ashamed. All I ever felt anymore was self conscious and even self-consciousness could go to hell right now. If there were a set of people I'd grown to hate in this life, they were bullies. A long time ago, those words she'd said, would do serious damage, now though, the taunts simply bounced off me. And if my new sister had decided she was going to be one, then she could knock herself out. 

But as I assesed her, a sudden realization hit me that she might have actually meant it. There was absolutely no expression on her face to let me in on what she was thinking which meant trying to read her was a lost cause. 

"Let's go in. " the second twin announced, effectively changing the topic, before turning on her heel and in sure strides, closed the distance between her and the door leading to the house, I assumed, and pulled it open. 

Saved from the possible conversation that might have ensued between me and the goddess, that would have been without a doubt, terribly crippling, I hurried after the safer twin, not wanting to be left alone in the presence of said goddess for even a second. She followed after me and I instantly regretted my decision to walk in front of her, which placed her behind me and which meant I was a gazillion times more self-conscious than I was before. I tried to walk slowly, careful to mask my excitement at having to see the inside of the house. 

Cool, artificial air welcomed me as I took my first step inside and, oh, how good it felt to be free from the suffocating afternoon sun. I heard the faint sound of the door closing behind me as my eyes took in the living room in one long sweep. Humongous TV, plain white walls, black leather couches with throw pillows discarded carelessly on them, a tiny table at the centre that looked too small to have any use asides decoration really, and a beautiful spiral staircase. 

I saw the beginnings of something just behind the staircase, although I couldn't see clearly what it was. From my angle just behind the staircase, I'd never be able to tell, but if I moved to the left just a little....

"That's the dining area. "

The velvety voice drew me out of my thoughts, reminding me that I wasn't alone. The voice belonged to the friendly twin and apparently, I'd been caught staring. I might even have taken an actual step in that direction, who knew? 

"You can go see it if you want to. " she added and I shook my head. I didn't want to take up too much of their time unnecessarily and after all, that was where they had their meals. So I would be seeing it sooner or later. 

She shrugged, climbing up the stairs as we resumed the 'tour'. The other twin followed closely behind me and her soundless feet hitting the tiled floors made me hyper aware that she was there, even if she didn't say a word. Was she scrutinizing me right now? Did she mean what she'd said earlier? What did she think of me?

I could keep asking myself these questions but I wouldn't get the answers because I was asking the wrong person. 

Rows and rows of brown mahogany doors occupied the walls of the wide hallway on the second floor. 

"All the rooms are on this floor. " the friendly twin explained, leaning on the railing, "The only rooms on the next floor are dad's home office and the library. "

"Just two? " I asked too quickly, almost cutting her short.

She nodded. "Well, yeah. The library's pretty big so it takes up a lot of space. "

She continued up the stairs, heading to the first floor, but she paused when I spoke up.

"Please can you tell me which one of you is Abi and which is Zoe? " I asked because, hell, I was getting tired of referring to them as the friendly twin and the goddess. 

She pursed her lips as though she hadn't expected such a question. Well, they hadn't expected me to figure that out myself, had they? I mean, it's not like they had stamps on their foreheads with their names written on. In my opinion, that was a pretty valid question I'd asked.

"I'm Abi. " she answered eventually, tilting her chin to the person standing behind me, "She's Zoe. "

I was going to ask who's older but then I decided against it. Pushing one's luck was never a good idea. Also, let's not forget first impressions. 

The two doors on the top floor were locked with no keys in sight. 

"The room on the right is the library and on the left is dad's office, " she started, "We all have keys to the library but no one ever really uses it other than Zoe and, well, dad. " my eyes flickered to the former, who had her shoulder against the wall, with her hands tucked into the pockets of her shorts, before returning to Abi.

I was an inch taller than the twins, and while I was sure I could pull of sharing clothes with Zoe, Abi, on the other hand, not so much. My shorts would rip at the seams if she forced them on, that I was certain of.

They weren't very identical if you asked me. The only features they shared were their skin colour, nose and eyes, and even the eyes were debatable. Abi's were easier to meet, but Zoe had overly intense eyes that made the browns somehow black. That was why maintaining eye contact with her was such a chore. 

"So, you've seen it all. Let's go back down so I can show you your room. "

As I turned to leave, my eyes fell on a bend to the right at the extreme of the hallway. It was so far off that one wouldn't see it easily which was why I hadn't seen it when I came on. That bend definitely had to be leading somewhere. Hadn't she said there were just two rooms up here? 

"I thought you said there are only two rooms up here. "

"I did. " she answered smoothly, one leg already in front of the other, prepared to go back down.

"Then what's down there? " I pointed with my one free hand. 

She glanced in the direction and her mouth formed a small O, and just as quickly, she recovered, giving a small humourless laugh. "That's not a room. "

What did she mean?

And with that, she made her way down the stairs and seeing as I had no choice, I followed, and of course, the silent Zoe followed behind me. 

We stopped when we reached the fourth room in the hallway. Abi twisted the set of keys that hung from the keyhole and pushed the door slightly open, but she didn't make any move to go in. 

"This room is yours. That room, " she pointed at a room which had to be the biggest since it took up the whole span of the wall facing us, "is dad and mum's room. Those two, " she pointed at two door facing each other, "are mine and Zoe's. "

"Who has the one opposite mine? " I wondered out loud. 

"It's a guest room. " 

"Oh. " 

She took a step back, going to stand beside Zoe, who had been watching the both of us with absent eyes. She would have been a whole lot scarier if she weren't wearing colours that had life. 

"So, I'll leave you to pack. " Abi sent a questioning glance at my bag, and I knew she was just being polite because the contents of this bag wouldn't take twenty minutes to sort through. "You can meet me and Zoe if you need anything. "

"But you wouldn't need to because you'd have everything. " Zoe added, finally gracing us with her voice, a low, soft, raspy thing. 

Was it just me or had there been a note of aggression in there?

With the sharpness in her gaze, I'd put my money on the latter, but one couldn't judge her based on her eyes because they hadn't changed since I'd met her. 

"Okay, well... " I mumbled, at a loss for words. 

I wanted them to leave already so I could safely hide behind the walls of the room. Granted, I would be seeing them in no time, there was no way I could live with them and not, I just needed to get my bearings. I'd barely spent an hour with them and I felt out of sorts already. 

I thought I caught a flash of pity in Abi's face, but then I wasn't so sure because it was gone in an instant. She pulled at her sister's hand, walking backwards. 

"We'll leave you to it. " they bundled down the stairs, disappearing out of sight.

I stared at the blank spot they'd just been in for a while, before pushing the door wide open and entering the room. 

The room —my room, was painted a plain purple, complete with a comfy-looking four poster bed, a bed bench, bed rug, a dresser, side table and a couch off to the side. A door was situated on the side wall and I knew it had to lead to a bathroom.

My own personal room and bathroom. Who would've thought? 

Back at the orphanage, we weren't as privileged. The population in there grew almost everyday as the supplies remained stagnant and with time, we'd had to resort to pairing. A room housed about six beds in it and each bed had two occupants. More times than one, people found themselves on the ground, with no memory of how they got there and some, flat out opted to sleep on the floor. I couldn't fault them when I knew one person could barely fit into the beds, much less two people. 

I, on the other hand, was one of the lucky people who got to share their beds with the younger orphans. My bed partner had been a three-year-old girl, Fatima, incredibly smart and just as special. She had trouble sleeping, the sole reason every other person refused to pair with her. Sometimes, she'd wake up at night and stare into the dark. It had been creepy witnessing it at first, but with time, I got used to it and devised a coping mechanism for the both of us. 

I read. For her and for me. Talking about false scenarios and how happy we were going to be even if all I fed her were lies. Lord knew they were better than our reality. 

Constantly witnessing children like Fatima arriving at the orphanage, took me to a bad place. Hearing the pain in their cries, the sorrow on their tear-streaked faces, how impossibly small and vulnerable they were. It reminded me of myself. That had been me once upon a time. 

Now that I wasn't there for her anymore, I hoped she was okay.

I didn't know from what age a person retained childhood memories and I didn't know if it was possible to have a memory before reaching the age of five, but I remembered tibdits of that night. It played behind my eyelids like a footage when they slid closed. 

I'd been chilled to my bones, sitting on the floor, my weak arms by my side, helpless to defend themselves against the unforgiving night wind. My desperate cries had rent the air as I screamed for help. Pity. Forgiveness. Anything really.

And the only thing I'd been granted, was silence. 

I could still remember how confused I'd felt, my poor brain struggling to find the word it needed. When I did, I screamed, 'MAMA'. She'd paused as shock registered on her face, and in that short moment, I'd felt hope. My hope dashed when she turned around and made the rest of the journey. Without me. One lesson that night taught me, was that words were never enough. 

Deep in my gut, I knew my parents were alive. I just didn't know where they were. And I wasn't a hundred percent sure I wanted to. 

I blinked, bringing myself back to the present. My hand had a death grip on the door-knob as I stood at the entrance of the bathroom. A little bit more pressure and it would have snapped. How nice would it be causing damage on my first day here? The girls would absolutely love it. My ass would be sent back to the orphanage and they'd have their house all to themselves once again. Peace.

If only. 

I might be downplaying my excitement just a little —okay, a lot. The house was beautiful, both inside and out. The furnitures and design were top notch and I would've been alarmed if I didn't know the kind of money my foster parents had. 

My room was absolutely stunning. Not too girly and not boyish either. It fit perfectly in the middle. Exactly what I would have wanted. Living here wouldn't be hard, rather it was the people I would be living with that bothered me. 

My foster parents weren't that much of an issue, but the twins... 

Abi seemed to tolerate me at least. She didn't like me, that very much was obvious and it would be unrealistic to assume she would since she'd only just met me. Zoe, on the other hand, confused the hell out of me. I'd never met a person as complicated as her. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she didn't want me here. At all.

What would it be like actually getting to know them without this new relationship hanging over our heads? Would they have let me in? 

I dropped down on the bed, placing my bag beside me, feeling drained all of a sudden. Running a hand through my unmade hair, I stared absently at a spot on the wall. 

In another time, another place, under different circumstances, I could have been friends with them. Maybe even good ones. But that was just a thought and it didn't really matter anyway. Because they'd decided to make me an enemy. 

Even before I became a stranger.