CHAPTER 3 — Borrowed Name
1038 Words
When I got home, the house was too quiet, not empty quiet, carefully quiet.
The kind of quiet that always meant my parents were waiting to hear something. I dropped my bag near the door and slipped off my shoes slowly, buying myself time.
“ Aurora?” My mother’s voice floated in from the dining room.
There it was, i walked in to find both my parents already seated at the table. My mother had tea in front of her. My father had his glasses low on his nose, pretending to read something he clearly wasn’t reading.
They both looked up the second I entered. “How was your first day?” my mother asked too quickly.
I hesitated. What was I supposed to say? That no one saw me? That everyone saw me? “That was fine,” I said.
My father smiled with visible relief. “See? Nothing to worry about.”
Nothing to worry about. I almost laughed.
My mother patted the seat beside her. “Sit, sweetheart. Tell us everything.”
Everything. Such a dangerous word. I sat down slowly. “The school was loud.”
My father chuckled. “That means normal.”
“There were a lot of people.”
“That also means normal,” he said again.
I looked at them both. Neither asked how I felt. Neither asked if I was nervous. Neither asked if anyone was kind.
They only wanted proof that sending me out into the world hadn’t break me.
“Did anyone bother you?” my mother asked. There it was. Not Did you make friends? Not Did you enjoy it? Did anyone bother you?
“No.” That answer satisfied her more than it should have.
Lorena entered then, phone in hand, bag hanging off one shoulder like she’d just stepped out of a photoshoot. She barely glanced at me. “How was prison?” she asked.
“Lorena,” my mother warned.
“What? I mean school.”
I rolled my eyes. Then paused. Something had been bothering me all afternoon. I turned to her.
“How did everyone know I was coming?”
She froze for half a second, too quick for anyone else to notice, too obvious for me to miss.
“What do you mean?” She asked.
“At school.” I kept my voice calm.
“People kept saying, That’s Lorena’s sister. Before I even spoke.”
My father looked up from his paper. My mother’s lips tightened.
Lorena shrugged and reached for an apple. “It’s a small school.”
“That’s not an answer.”
She bit into the apple casually. “I mentioned it.”
“How much?”
“A little.”
“To who?”
“Friends.”
“How many friends?”
She sighed dramatically. “Why are you acting like I leaked state secrets?”
“Because people knew me before I got there.”
She dropped the playful tone then. “I was excited for you.”
I stared at her. Excited. That word sounded polished. Convenient.
“I wanted people to be nice when you came.”
“By introducing me as your sister?”
Her jaw tightened. “You are my sister.”
“No,” I said quietly. “I was your shadow.” The room went still.
My mother stood immediately. “Aurora.”
But I was already looking at Lorena. “You told them so you’d look better standing next to me.”
Her eyes flashed. “That’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it?”
“You think everything is about looks.” Lorena said.
I laughed once, sharp and humorless. “Easy for you to say.”
“You have no idea what it’s like being compared to someone all the time either.” I added
She stood so suddenly her chair scraped the floor.
“You are clueless “.
I blinked. The room tilted strangely.
Before I could respond , she grabbed her phone and stormed upstairs.
My mother rounded on me.
“Why would you say that?”
“Because it’s true.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No,” I said. “Apparently I don’t know anything.”
I left before they could answer.
***
I was in my room for nearly an hour before there was a knock. Then another.
“Go away.” I said. The door opened anyway.
Lorena stepped in. Of course. She stood awkwardly near the desk, arms folded. For once, she had nothing clever to say.
“I didn’t tell people to be cruel,” she said finally. I kept staring out the window.
“I told a few people because… I thought if they knew you were my twin first, it would make it easier.”
“For who?” I asked. She didn’t answer. That was answer enough.
Then she sighed. “ I’m sorry.” She said. I turned slowly. She looked sincere. Which made it harder.
“I’m sorry too,” I muttered.
“For what?”
“For assuming the worst.”
“You usually do.”
I almost smiled. She sat on the edge of my bed.
“They really do gossip too much,” she said. “One person hears something and suddenly the whole school knows.”
“That explains a lot.”
She glanced at me sideways. “Was it that bad?”
I thought about the stares. The whispers. The way no one said my name. Then, unexpectedly
I thought about one person who had looked at me differently.
“No,” I said softly. “Not all of it.”
Lorena narrowed her eyes. “What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“That sounded like something.”
“It wasn’t.”
She grinned slowly. “Oh my God. Was it a boy?”
“Get out.”
She laughed all the way to the door. When she left, the room felt lighter. But only slightly, because tomorrow I still had to go back.
Back to the whispers. Back to the stares. Back to being known before being understood.
And maybe… back to the boy who looked at me like I wasn’t a rumor.
- Writer
