CROSSED PATHS

The fascinating smell of lavender suddenly made me jerk awake from my bed, accommodating me into the beautiful brightness of the morning.

I let out a slight cough as I was on the edge of my bed, my nose, resting on the top of the lavender shrubs on my bedside table.

I stood up from my bed and laid it properly, I hated leaving my room untidy. I was a strict clean freak, unlike my twin sister, Ellen Greene. She was so grubby.

We were not identical in any way. She was tall, 5 feet 10 inches. I was 5 feet 6 inches. I was kind of fat. She was slim. Facially, physically, it didn't tell that we were twins but we still loved each other, enough evidence for being twins. Well, that didn't matter. We were the perfect twins.

I got into a pair of slip-on that was neatly placed on a wooden bedside table. I left for the bathroom, had a nice bath and did my normal routine.

I wore a comfortable baggy gown and got into a new pair of slip-on that totally matched my gown. I brushed my wavy blonde hair, similar to Ellen's hair. That was the only physical thing we had alike. I applied makeup on my face.

I left my room and the magnificent smell of Ellen's cookies suddenly filled my nose.

I went into the kitchen and noticed its conspicuous dirtiness. I would have been in a self delusion if I was expecting it to be gloriously neat.

I heaved a sigh. Her back faced me, so I quietly nudged Ellen in an attempt to scare her. She couldn't help but flinched.

"Hey Rana." She said when she noticed it was me, and rubbed the batter for the cookie on my face. It was eally stupid but it was also her usual act so I didn't bother to complain and with every thing in me, I ignored it.

I was about to sit on the counter but refrained from that idea, considering the stain the flour would give to my nightgown.

"I know. You can't sit on that because it's too dirty." She said, and rolled her eyes, waving a spoon on her hand.

I sighed and placed my hand on my forehead.

"Well you're still a kid." I teased her in order to stop the expected argument that was about to occur because she was really combative. She could do anything to win an argument but I felt that arguments were an absurd waste of time in a human's life.

"Duh. We're both children." She stuck her tongue out like a child, irritatingly and went to the oven when the timer made a clinky sound that indicated that the cookies were done.

"Oh! Great!" I squeaked in excitement, clapped my hands for an immensely short while.

"See. You're a child." She said, rolled her eyes and wore a glove, she opened the oven, brought out the cookies.

She placed the cookies on a tray, and went to serve it on the dining table, while I cleaned the kitchen for her since it wasn't going to be equivalent to perfection to me if she did it herself.

***

"Hey." Ellen tapped me continuously in an inconvenient manner, earning a loud groan of absolute dissatisfaction from me. I tried to roll on the bed and used a pillow to cover my ear but she didn't stop and even intensified her taping.

"What?!" I answered her with a grumble at her disturbing touch, not moving from the position I was in.

"I'm off to school." She shouted in order to frustrate me awake.

"Okay. Bye." I groaned and opened one eye then immediately closed it so she wouldn't notice. If she did, she wouldn't let me sleep again.

My phone rang which woke me up fully. I knitted my brows in engagement, opened my eyes and reached for my phone. Excitement lit in me when I noticed the caller's ID. It was Traven Spade, my boyfriend.

"Hello baby." Traven's hot and blissful voice suddenly sent butterflies running down my stomach.

Ellen left the room. In only a few seconds, I heard a loud bang and I could sense that she was looking for something from her frustrated bang.

I looked at the door for a while, mentally deciding to expect her to walk in any moment from now on.

"Hello." Traven's voice reminded me that I was still on a phone call and I needed to regard his call by acknowledging him with all due attention over the phone.

"Hello baby." I said and could feel my face was filled with color, precisely red.

"What's with the noise?" He asked, probably concerned or not. He didn't even sound concerned.

"Oh. It's nothing important." I saved by not explaining the unimportant ruckus that Ellen was performing at the very moment, placed my elbows on the bed, my stomach on the bed, my legs lifted up in the air.

"Okay. How have you been? It's been a long time since I last saw you." He said so softly but really cool and charming enough to burst my internal organs..

"Yeah. Miss you a lot honey." I grinned.

"Hey. Rana." Ellen called. I turned my face to look at her with a disapproving frown, she was resting on the door frame, looking hilariously furious with her arms folded across her chest. I couldn't help the chuckle at her supposed act of infuriation. act.

"It's not funny." She furrowed her brows at me, expressing her clear exasperation.

"Hey, baby? You sure nothing's wrong?" Traven said over the phone.

"Cut the call." Ellen said hoarsely but threatening and scary. Ellen was always so scary when she was angry. You couldn't dare annoy her when she was angry. You would be dead meat. She staggered into the room and sat on the bed.

"Bye Traven. Got to go now." I said and cut the call, following Ellen's order that u was expecting a sensible result from. I thought Traven was trying to say something, unluckily, I didn't hear it. So sad.

"Now. What the hell was that for?" I furrowed my brows at Ellen, sat on the bed and folded my arms across my chest.

"I can't find my Maths textbook." She also folded her arms across her chest with a questioning raise of one of her eyebrows.

I knew where it was going. She was going to blame me because I always made everything tidy, including her room but I didn't see her maths textbook this time.

"And?" I raised my eyebrows to confirm her obvious accusation on me.

"And some clean freak made my room neat. Now I can't find it." She said and rolled her eyes uninterestedly.

"Okay. I cleaned your room but I didn't take it." I let out a frustrated groan, crossed one of my legs over the other, "you probably left it in school or gave it to someone." I suggested its possible whereabouts.

"Then. We'll go in search of it." She moued. It was her habit, a bad one. She did that when she was angry.

"What?!" I yelled in obvious disapproval.

Ellen and I went to a different high school because we felt the need to not be associated with the same companions. I skipped a grade in middle school because I had very good grades.

Ellen is now in the 12th grade while I already graduated last year. I sweetly decided to wait for Ellen so we would go to the same college, at the same time. How childish, right?

"Duh. You'll have to follow me to school. Or, are you too old to enter into a high school building?" She smirked.

"Ellen!" I frowned, rolled my eyes at her dumb mentality.

"You're a dumb numskull, bitch." She smirked. Ellen said that, knowing fully well that it meant separation, hatred or disapproval to me. It was weird to mention but I hated that word 'bitch'.

"Ellen?!" I hollered and stood up from the bed. "Get out now!" I pointed to the door for her to leave, knowing fully well that she knew where the door was located.

"Oh! You're kicking me out?" Ellen furrowed her brows at me. "You're a jerk. You better make sure my Maths textbook is ready when I get home." She said and left my room.

"You're a...a..." I tried to cuss but I was terrible at it so I gave up on trying.

I heard the living room door open then close. I totally guessed that she was gone.

I sighed then lay on the bed, ready to succumb to another round of a beautiful sleep...

My phone buzzed, bugged me from sleeping again. I wanted to yell but got excited when I realised that it was Traven. I immediately swiped up on my phone's screen to answer the call.