Revenge In Disguise

CHAPTER TWO

It had been a bright day just like every other one and I'd still been unable to swallow and live with the news of Kaylin's condition as diagnosed by our family doctor and like any normal and grieving human would've done, I had put on an outfit and headed to my best friend's house. We'd been in the beginning weeks of the previous semester which was the last one in our penultimate year and we'd been fired up for the grueling ride and subsequent elation of leaving high school.

I'd used my bicycle because our houses weren't far from each other, a few electric polls separated us and that amounted in frequent visits and sneaking ins at odd hours. Her mother had let me in with her usual warm smile and I could hear loud laughter and music as I ascended the stairs. Surprised, I'd hastened my steps so by the time I'd reached her door, I'd been began to perspire.

A rap on the door had been all I could do to act patient but when muffled voices and chuckling filtered into my ears, I had flung the door open. A shill had run down my spine and a few more minutes went by before I could move any part of my body again but when I had felt any relief, I had moved my tongue first.

“What's this…” For a moment I had forgotten my best friend's name of 5 years. I had shaken my head vigorously to steady myself and my gaze before continuing to speak, “You… You're playing and talking to her? Did you forget she'd bullied Kaylin and I for several years starting from elementary school? I'd made everyone know I have alopecia and spread rumours about Kaylin too?” My tone had been weak not condescending or manipulative because I had no strength in me to fight or demand answers, I had just wanted her to see reasons.

Valli had clapped loudly like we'd do in a concert but the grimace on her face told volumes. “Why is it always about you or that your cancer patient of a sister?” She had arched her brow, a nasty smirk forming on her babyish face. “Oh, Kaylin was diagnosed with cancer and has few years to be with us, how would I live with that?” She'd mimicked my voice and with a scathing stare on her face, she'd snapped, “live with it! You have alopecia and your twin has cancer. You both can decide to die together since the world will be better off without two dependent, ugly twins!” She'd ended with a snort but had staggered back when my left hand had kissed her cheek.

Her gasp and the look of horror on her face had lulled the grieving nerves in my brain for a bit, enough for me to speak without stuttering as was the case whenever I was angry.

With a ferocious look in my eyes, I had reached out and grabbed a large chunk of her hair in a tight grasp. “Listen, you both. You can be friends for all I care but don't you ever!” I had paused, swallowing my words to prevent a stutter. “Don't you ever in your miserable, trauma bonding lives insult my sister! She's a cancer patient and that's honourable but will it be the same for two girls who'd visited an asylum in previous years? Huh?”

I had shaken her violently and she'd complied by shaking her head in the negative. “Good! You better stay out of our lives or kiss your status and career goodbye when everybody learns about your little past and current addictions…” My eyes had darkened in a twisted glee. “Or will I say alliance? Talk about crazy girls coming together to smoke pot and bully others. Sad, sad life and bad, worse press.” I had freed her roughly, shoving her away from me and wiping out my hands with a napkin then, I'd pointed at the both of them, “Stay away from us, horny bitches.”

I had bolted away from the house and cycled away as fast as I could. At that moment, I had began to feel the emotions I'd blocked away in her room. My heart had squeezed tightly against my chest like it had done at the doctor's office after the diagnosis and I had screamed off my lungs and wailed loudly in tears as I cycled farther and farther away from my neighbourhood, mourning the loss of my beautiful friendship.

Thankfully, it had been a weekend and I had stayed in bed all through mainly because mum was out-of-state on a business trip and Kaylin had a serious football match she'd been grilling herself for. I had finally dragged myself out of the bed on Sunday evening and went on a date I'd rescheduled with a random guy at school and had spent the two hours before my curfew in a restaurant with a nervous looking guy who had been frantically trying to comfort and hush me while I bawled loudly like a baby.

School hadn't been the same again. Valli had gotten back with the bullies that we both had hated throughout middle school and I still hated especially Joy, the biggest bully, her elder cousin by four months and the girl I had met in her room. Even though I had missed Valli and still do, I had never tried to talk to her again even when she'd deliberately waylay me and start talking down to me, I hadn't uttered a word in my defence and the littlest reaction she'd get from me was a shove out of my way whenever she mentioned Kaylin.

I couldn't convince her otherwise and I had left her a promise to announce her secrets to the entire town if she tried to publicly embarrass or bully myself or my twin. But I knew who I had been dealing with. Valli, a renowned rule breaker and boundary pusher. She loved to dare people and push their limits in the wrongest ways. It gave her a certain kind of glee when she wrote the script and they inadvertently went along with it.

So, I had prepared when Valli had thrown a birthday out of the blues for her bully of a cousin and got my name into the card as a special guest. Everything in me has wanted to stay back but I knew it had been what she'd presumed enough to desperately drag me there by putting my name on the card. As a social media star, singer and flexible dancer, I had been slotted to entertain the ground of high schoolers and college students in my enemy's party.

At my arrival, I had been given a seat close to the huge projector even though Valli was aware of my reaction to light and upclose sounds. The party had gone great, hurray! I'd love to end it this way but I'm sorry.

After my performance and as I had been majestically walking down the podium and basking in the euphoria from the maddened cheers of the students, forgetting for a moment that I had to focus and be alert. A step on the podium wobbled when I'd stepped on it causing my ankle to be twisted and a subsequent dramatic fall onto the ground. Since I hadn't been prepared for the fall but my dance and acrobatics, my wig flew off my head and the audience went silent in shock.

Frantically, I had scampered out of the spotlight as pictures of my hair loss journey which I'd graciously shared with Valli played out in a slow video and at the end, it wrote “some celebrities aren't as perfect as they seemed.”

I'd picked up my flowing gown and scuttled out of her house not wi

thout missing Valli smug smile.