Four

Ava stood by the door, arms still crossed, and watched Eva saunter around the room, eyes judgy, obviously unimpressed by the decoration of the room.

“I swear to God, if you say one stupid thing, I'm kicking you out!” Ava warned coldly.

Eva turned to her, then grinned, “Why do you always assume the worst of me?”

“I don't know.” Ava raised her shoulders in an indifferent shrug. “Maybe because you're you.”

Eva frowned. “What the hell does that even mean?”

“You know what I mean.” Ava replied, “You're Eva. The phony girl. The socially manipulative girl who thinks she's better than everyone else.”

Eva smirked, “Oh, but I am better than everyone else… You are not an exception. You do realize that you come off as jealous, right?”

“I'm not jealous.”

“Oh, but you are,” Eva said, then turned to scrutinize the wallpaper. “You can stop lying to yourself Ava; you are jealous of me and everything I have and have accomplished. You know you are.”

Ava's jaw tightened, “Yeah. Maybe I am. Maybe I am jealous of you. You have absolutely no idea how it feels to always be compared to you every minute of my life, how it feels like to watch you get plenty of gifts on our birthdays and Christmases, how it feels like to watch Mom and Dad adore you and spoil you rotten! It's like I was born just to make you look and feel good, like that's my whole purpose of existing. So, yeah. Maybe I was jealous.”

Eva swung around, “Was?”

“Yeah. I am no longer jealous of you.” Ava responded, “I stopped being jealous of you long ago. I don't always need to feel pity for myself when you're around. I have learned to love and live with myself. I have realized that I am enough. Someone made me realize that. Why? Does it bruise your ego that I am no longer jealous of you?”

“What? No, no, not at all.” Eva's grin widened. “If anything, I am happy for you, sis. I'm happy for your self-growth. Now, shall we start our lesson on how to be the fabulous Eva Summers?”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did you change your mind about Devlin?” Ava enquired, “You've been crazily obsessed with him for ages, to the point that you even sent your minions to stalk him. So why are you changing your mind now?”

“Like you said, it's just a crazy obsession.” Eva responded, “Not love. I've gotten over him. Devlin’s old news.”

“Then why?!” Ava barked, taking aggressive steps towards Eva, riding her backwards, “Why can't you and your sick father just call the engagement off? Why do I have to play your rebound?”

“I don't know. Go ask Dad.” Eva answered. “I told him I was no longer interested, and that was it. You getting married to Devlin in my place is all his and mom's plan.”

“Filthy liar!” Ava spat.

Eva sidestepped her and walked away further from her before Ava grabbed her neck and hit her or something.

“I'm getting bored of this conversation.” She pouted, almost sarcastically, “This is not what I came here for. I'm here to teach you how to be me, not listen to your pity story or be interrogated. I have better things to do, and if you are not cooperative, I'm walking out that door and telling Dad. Now sit down.”

Ava stood still, glaring at her twin sister with deep-rooted hatred and repulse, her fist clenched so tight her knuckles turned white, lips pressed hard against the other they began to hurt.

“Well?”

Ava sighed helplessly, released her fist, and took a seat on the bed.

“Good. Now our first lesson on How to be Eva Summers is… wait, what is it again? Rosy!”

“Yes, ma'am!” Rosy, Eva's assistant, stormed into the room almost immediately, then handed Eva a tablet.

Eva studied the tablet, then glanced up at Ava, “Your first lesson is How to Walk like Eva. When I walk, I carry myself with grace, effortless elegance and charisma like I own the place, like I'm scared of nothing, like the entire world is at my feet.”

Ava rolled her eyes in disgust. I'd expect nothing less.

“When I walk, I tell the entire world to look at me. “Look, I'm Eva Summers, and I'm fabulous!” So, watch and learn.”

Eva elegantly sashayed to the end of the room, then sashayed back. She did it twice, effortlessly and gracefully.

“Now, I'd like to see you try.”

Ava already felt sick in the stomach. She wondered how much of all this she could take.

Heaving a deep breath, she strutted to the end of the room, trying to be graceful and elegant as she possibly could.

Eva snorted, “Ava, what is this? You call that walking like you own the place? Puh-lease! Anyone with eyes can see you were forcing it, and you were doing it badly.”

“Is how you walk, even necessary?”

“Definitely! Everyone knows how I walk! One look at you and they could tell that you're not me. Now, do it again.”

Ava spent the next hour learning how to sashay like Eva. She already knew it was going to be hard pretending to be Eva, but she never thought it would be this hard. No matter how hard she tried to walk like Eva, Eva always told her she was doing it wrong. She even felt like Eva was doing the whole thing on purpose.

She was already tired.

“Good. Good, sis.” Eva finally praised, “You're getting the hang of this. Nice.”

Ava heaved a sigh of relief.

Finally!

“Rosy, get the heels,” Eva ordered.

“Yes, ma'am.” Rosy rushed out of the room.

“Heels?”

“Yes. Heels.” Eva replied, “You know I wear nothing but heels. You've mastered how to strut like me, but now you are going to master how to strut like me in heels.”

Ava hates heels. Whenever she wore them, she always felt like she was going to fall off them. She never understood why women wear them when it feels like wearing skyscrapers on one's feet.

“Wait, how many of these lessons are there?” She asked.

“Oh, there are plenty of them.” Eva replied, glancing at the tablet in her hand, “After this, the next one is How to smile like me, then how to talk like me, how to dress like me, how to laugh like me, how to eat like me, how to…”

“That's enough!” Ava barked, startling Eva, who jumped out of her skin.

She wished for the ground to open and just swallow her whole.