"Mom, do I have to go?" I whined. We moved to Virginia a few weeks ago which meant leaving my old life behind. It was currently my first day at a new school and I was dreading it. We've moved continuously for the last few years and yet I have no idea why. She claims she likes new environments but we both know that's bullshit.

"Ryan, just give it a chance; you never know." Mom sighed, raising both of her eyebrows suggestively. I raised an eyebrow questioning her but she just shrugged as she closed my lunch bag.

"School's boring, why can't I just stay home?" I continued whining, she rolled her hazel eyes.

"You are a fifteen year old whining, do you really expect me to take you seriously right now?" She gave me the look, I sighed and shook my head no and heard her snicker in response.

"Now come on kid, you're going to be late." She rushed me, stuffing the packed lunch in my hand and guiding me to the door.

"Mom, it's 10:30, of course we are going to be late." I rolled my eyes, she playfully shoved me and led me out the door with her signature smile; the smile I haven't seen in years. We pack into the car, talking and listening to music on the way.

"Be a good boy for Mommy okay?" She softly cooed, smothering my face with kisses. The red lipstick would surely leave a stain.

"Mom, stop." I complained, pushing her away. She chuckled, giving me a final kiss on the forehead and wrapped her arms around me. I hug her back for a few seconds before breaking away.

"I love you, buddy." She blows me a kiss.

"I love you too, Mommy." I blew her one back before getting out of the car and shutting the door. I stared at the ordinary looking school before taking a breath and striding towards the school.

I walk in, only to be welcomed by empty halls and a big ass sign labeled 'Main Office'. I walked in immediately greeted by an older looking woman. She looks up from her computer with a smile on her face.

"How may I help you?"

"Um- I'm new here, I need to get my schedule." I asked her, she kept a smile on her face.

"Name please?" She asked with a giant smile, showcasing her pearly whites.

"Ryan Co- Moore." I quickly cut myself off, she only raised an eyebrow and kept the same smile that hadn't left since we started the conversation. She rapidly typed on her keyboard, keeping her eyes on the screen. A noise next to her interrupted my train of thought as she grabbed the paper from the printer. She grinned and handed me the white paper.

I thanked her and looked down at my paper, not paying attention to my surroundings. I ran into a person, knocking them to the floor.

"Fuck, are you okay?" I looked up from my paper, I could only see the top of her head and math books sprawled out on the floor.

"Yeah, I'm good. You should be asking my math book that." She laughed as I joined in. The voice seemed familiar. Too familiar.

She lifted her head and that's when I noticed...

"Why the fuck do you look like me?" We both shouted at the same time, astonished by the discovery. The dark brown curly hair, the hazel eyes, the tan, brown skin. She looked like a carbon copy of me.

"I asked you first." We both shouted simultaneously again.

"Can you stop doing that?" We both glared at each other. That's when I looked down and noticed the ring, only the ring that she could have. Our eyes soften at the same time because of the realization. It felt like hours before we spoke again.

"Livvy?"

"Ollie?"

Hearing her say my nickname made tears spring to my eyes and so did hers. I didn't want to cry but my body betrayed my mind as tears leaked out from them. I ran the short distance and jumped into her arms as she laughed. She was always the stronger one out of the two of us; she would always tease me about it.

We just held each other, not caring about the audience that surrounded us.

She really needed to stop having reunions in hallways.

"What the fuck is going on?" We were rudely interrupted by a harsh voice. A tall boy stood next to us, crossing his arms and glaring at me.

"What does it mean to you?" I replied back. Not going to lie, I was a little intimidated by his voice but I didn't let it show.

"I'm her brother." He replied confidently. With those words, it felt like a knife was stabbed in my chest. I'm her one and only brother and that made me replace my fear with anger. I was about to respond but my twin beat me to it.

"Brother my ass, what kind of brother makes their sister walk in the cold to a place she's never been before? What kind of brother sells two of their sister's most valuable items to her as a joke? What kind of brother calls his sister anorexic at the dinner table? What kind of brother makes a snide comment or witty remark every time she passes by?" She glared, making the boy slightly cower.

"Huh? Jayden, huh? You don't get to pick and choose when you want to be my brother just when you see some competition. Come on, let's go, twin brother." She finished as she dragged me outside of the school. I watched Jayden's eyes widen at our resemblance while to people that looked just like him smacked him in the back of the head and dragged him away.

We walked for a few minutes before we ended up on a park bench.

"I'm sorry about that. He's my new stepbrother." I noticed how her jaw clenched at the last word. I didn't like the idea of someone trying to take my place but he didn't seem to be much competition compared to me.

"Don't worry, it's not your fault." I reassured her, she looked up and sent me a tight lipped smile. We stayed silent for a few minutes before I spoke up. "I really missed you, Liv." I smiled at her. She looked up and smiled back, fiddling with the ring on her finger.

"I missed you too, Ollie." Her answer didn't seem genuine though, I wanted to believe that she missed me too but something told me that wasn't the full truth.

"I can read you like an open book, Ray. Is it that you don't miss me?" I didn't know if I wanted to know the answer but I would like to think she missed me as much as I missed her. She immediately pooped up, continuously shaking her head.

"It's not that, I promise. It's just- you don't know?" She asked me. I furrowed my eyebrows, know what? She took my facial expression as her answer and sighed.

"I don't remember much of you." She admitted, I was surprised, usually she was really stubborn but she let the truth spill through for once. "I got in an accident." This caught my attention as I stared into her eyes, looking for a lie, but there was none. I checked her for any visible injuries but she quickly stopped me.

"Stop, I'm fine," She joked. "It was just selective amnesia." I looked at her wide eyes.

"Just? Rayland you could've died, why didn't Mom tell me?" I questioned myself as I put my head in my hands.

"Mom?" She questioned me, I sprung up. "She's alive?" She croaked out.

"Yeah, she dropped me off this morning." She sighed in relief and stared at the cars passing by.

"When can I see her?" She asks anxiously, jumping up and down on the bench. I laughed at her.

"I don't even know if she knows you're alive." I shrug, she just nods.

"Do you know why she took you, not me?" She asked, sadness swelling in her voice, I shook my head no as she looked down.

"She never told me why we left but I had an idea." I spoke up, she nodded again.

I asked the dreaded question. "What about Dad?" The stiffness in her body language doesn't go unnoticed.

"He's dead, dead as hell." She replied nonchalantly, it took everything in me not to burst out into fits of laughter.

"Wait, who takes care of you now?" I came to the realization. She told me Aunt Linda got married to Paul Brown. I always hated Linda, she never gave two fucks about either of us.

"How many stepbrothers do you have?"

"Seven." She responds.

"Damn, I feel bad for you." I joke, she playfully hits my arm as we fight until the sun goes down, reminiscing the old times.

"Ow, what the fuck was that for?" I rub my head, my triplets drag me to an empty classroom by my ears.

"No, what was that for?" Jaxon emphasized, I shrugged as he continued. "You just had to throw a whole fucking temper tantrum in front of a crowd. Do you know how much Dad is going to get on your ass about this?" He sighed, frustrated, Jaylen nodded agreeing.

"More than Rayland." I mumbled hoping they wouldn't hear me but to my disappointment, they did. They gave me an appointed look and I grumbled an apology.

"When are you going to realize that isn't her problem, it's yours? You seriously can't be that dense to believe this was her fault." Jaylen spoke up for the first time. Jaylen was never one to speak up when he disagreed with something. When we sold her jewelry, it was written all over his face how uncomfortable he was with the situation. Now Jaylen was standing up to me, like he never does. Rayland was turning my own brothers against me.

My silence spoke volumes as Jaylen scoffed and stormed out of the classroom, creating a loud bang as the door slammed shut. What was going on with him? He's turning against me over some little brat that walked into my family less than two months ago that we don't care about?

Lies.

I'm not lying, I don't care about her at all.

Lies.

She's just some ungrateful brat that can fuck off for all I care. Look, she's ruining my family, we're breaking apart and it's her fault.

Lies.

It's her fault.

Lies.

Lies.

Lies.

Lies.

Lies.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP." I screamed at the voice in my head, even though I knew it was right.

"Jayden, are you okay?" Jaxon asked worriedly, separating my fingernails that were digging into my palm.

"No, I'm fine." I tried to convince him but it sounded more like I was trying to convince myself.

"It's okay not to be okay, you know?" He asked me, I turned my head to the side.

"It makes me weak." I muttered pathetically.

"No it doesn't. One thing I know about you is that you, Jayden Emmanuel Brown, are not weak, you hear me?" He said sternly, I stayed silent. " I want you to say it. 'I'm not weak.' Say it." He told me.

"I'm not weak." I said quietly, he told me to say it louder and I did.

"Rayland isn't the problem, is she?" I asked him and he shook his head.

"I'm the one ruining my family."

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1853 Words

Not gonna lie, I kinda got lazy at the end of this chapter.

Anyways, I graduated eighth grade yesterday!

Any thoughts?