TWIN IN LOVE

THE_SECRET_KISS

CHAPTER 2

They called it “the game.” A stolen glance across the classroom. A brush of fingers during lunch. A kiss hidden behind the old water tank during the break. No one suspected, not even their parents, that the twins were living a double life: siblings by day, lovers by dusk. Jane would change into her school uniform in the bathroom, Jaden was waiting outside, pretending to check his math homework. One afternoon, she slipped a button popped off her blouse. Without thinking, he reached out, fingers grazing her collarbone. “Don’t move,” he breathed. “Let me fix it.” His hands trembled. Hers did too. At night, they’d lie side by side in their shared bedroom, twin beds pushed together, whispering secrets into the dark. “What if we tell Mama?” Jane asked.

“She’ll think we’re cursed,” Jaden replied. “Like those twins in the village who were buried apart because the elders said their love would bring drought.”

“But we’re not evil,” Jane insisted. “We’re perfect.”

He’d kiss her forehead. “Then we’ll be perfect in secret. Until the world catches up.” Donna didn’t give up. He bought her sambusa, wrote poems on pink paper, waited for her after class. Jaden watched and observed, until one afternoon, he cornered Donna near the bicycle shed.

“You think you can have her?” Jaden growled. “She’s mine.”

“Since when?” Donna snapped. “She’s a person, not your property.”

Jaden punched him not hard, but enough to draw blood and a crowd. The principal called their parents. Amina and their father, Mr. Mwangi, sat them down and were disappointed.

“This is not how twins behave,” their father said, voice low. “You’re siblings. Act like it.”

Jane stared at her hands. Jaden stared at the floor. Neither dared speak the truth. That night, Jane slipped into Jaden’s bed shivering, not from cold, but from fear. What if they were caught? What if their parents disowned them? What if this was all they’d ever have? Jaden held her close. “I’ll protect you,” he whispered. “Always. Even from myself.”