=Chapter Seventeen=Close Call=

“Mom, Dad?” I asked as I stepped into my parents’ house.  I shut the door behind me and began to walk through the house. “Emmy, Hayden, where are you guys?” I walked into the kitchen and stopped dead in my tracks.

I saw my parents, Hayden, Emmy and Kenzie standing in the kitchen.  They were all staring at me.  My eyes instantly went to Kenzie.  She was out of rehab.  She could finally take over her job.  I would finally be relieved of all of this madness.

“Kenzie,” I practically yelled and ran over toward her.  I threw my arms around her.  I could hear my family laughing at me but I didn’t care.  I was so overjoyed that I would be able to go back to having a normal life.  I would be able to go back to school and finish my degree.  I would be able to be me again. “You look fantastic.  And your hair, you cut it.  It looks cute.”

“Thank you.  You look good too.  How have things been?” Kenzie asked.  I held her out at arms length and looked her up and down.  She did look good.  She looked much better than she did before she left for rehab.  She looked like her old self again.  The Kenzie that I knew.  The one that Hollywood had fallen in love with.

“Things are going good,” I answered.  I didn’t really feel like going into the details at the moment.  I knew Kenzie would pester me until I told her every minor detail. “So when are you going to take back over?”

“Well…” Kenzie started to say but stopped.  She chewed on her lower lip and glanced over at our mother.  I stared at Kenzie then looked over at Mom.

The moment that Kenzie looked over at our mother I knew.  She wasn’t going to be coming back for a while.  Mom probably wanted her to take a few more months off and get adjusted to being in the real world.  She wanted to make sure that Kenzie was going to be all right without being supervised.  But at the same time she wanted to keep an eye on Kenzie.

“You’re not coming back are you?” I asked as I looked back at Kenzie.  She looked down at the ground then back up at me.

“I will but…not just yet.  Just a few more months as me.  That’s all,” Kenzie explained.  The tone in her voice sounded like she was scared that I was going to tell her no.  Which of course I wasn’t going to do.  If Kenzie wanted me to do this for her a little while longer then I would.  It would give me more time to break it off with Justin.  Even though I knew every second I kept this up the harder it would be to end it.

“All right,” I said with a sigh, “but I will not pretend to be you for the rest of my life.  You will have to take it back over.  Since it is your life.  Not mine.” Kenzie nodded.

=

“What do you mean you’re in love with him?  Lola, you can’t be,” Kenzie said as she stared at me.  I fidgeted with the hem of my tank top.  Kenzie were sitting in the living room of our apartment talking.  We had been for the last two hours.  She wanted to know everything that had happened since she had left.

“Apparently I can be.”

“Have you two slept together?” Kenzie asked.  I chewed on my lower lip and nodded.  Kenzie sighed. “How many times?”

“I’m not telling you that.  You’re getting really nosey,” I answered as I folded my arms over my chest.

“Well, what the hell do you expect me to do, Lola?  I have to take this all over and I have to know every damn detail.  So I have to know how many times you’ve slept together,” Kenzie explained.  I shook my head.

“You don’t have to worry about it.  I’ll have broken up with him before you come back,” I said as I looked down at the ground.  I hated the fact that I had to break up with Justin.  But I knew it had to be done.  There was no way that I could get around it.  Well except of course telling him what was going on but I seriously doubt that he would keep me around after I told him.  I knew he’d feel betrayed.

“What do you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean.  We’ll be long over with before you come back.  I’m breaking up with him soon.  I’m calling it all off.  That’s the only way that all of this will work out.”

“You could always tell him what is going on.” I looked up at Kenzie and gave her a confused look.

“Did they brainwash you there in rehab?  Do you really think that he’ll want to stay with me after hearing that the person that he loves is not really who she says she is.  She’s actually her twin sister.  She’s actually the shy one.  She actually wants nothing to do with the limelight.  She’s just a med student.  You really think he’ll want to stay with me after hearing what I have to say?  Kenzie, I’ve been lying to him for the last six months.  I seriously doubt that he’ll be all open arms around this whole situation,” I said annoyed.

She was really starting to frustrate me.  She had this everything is going to all right kind of attitude.  When in reality everything wasn’t going to be all right.  Everything was falling apart in front of me.  And I had no way of getting it back together.

“You never know,” Kenzie responded.  I rolled my eyes and stood up.  I started toward the kitchen.  I needed something sweet.  I needed something that I really shouldn’t be having.  I reached the fridge and opened up the freezer.  Ice-cream.  That would work.  Ice cream always worked.  I grabbed the half gallon container and took off the lid.  I threw it on the counter.  I grabbed a spoon out of the drawer and began eating the ice cream out of the container.  I walked back over to the chair and flopped back down as I continued to devour the ice cream. “Lola, are you listening to me?  Maybe his love for you could change all of this.  Maybe…”

“Damn it, Kenzie, you’re making all of this sound like some damn fairytale.  Maybe love will conquer all.  You know what, fuck love.  Fuck it all,” I yelled as I shoved the spoon into the ice cream.  I had suddenly lost my appetite for ice cream.  I tossed the container onto the coffee table.  It tumbled to the floor.  I sat there staring at the ice cream as a little bit of it hit the carpeted floor.  Kenzie jumped up and scooped up the ice cream.

“What the hell is your problem, Lola?  I’m just trying to help.  I figured you’d be happy to hear my advice but I was surely mistaken.  I’m going to bed,” Kenzie said as she carried the ice cream to the freezer.  She placed the spoon in the sink and set the lid back on.  Then placed the ice cream back in the freezer.  I watched Kenzie walk up the stairs and heard the door to her room shut.  I sighed and ran my hand through my hair.

=

I walked up the pathway to Kenzie’s apartment.  The apartment that she supposedly shared with her sister.  The sister that I had never met.  Or even seen a picture of for that matter.  I was beginning to wonder if she even existed.  Lord knows I show off pictures of my brothers all the time.  I can’t even remember what she said her sister’s name was.  It started with an “L” I think.  I’m not even sure.

I finally reached the door and straightened my jacket before I knocked.  I heard movement behind the door.  I figured I had startled Kenzie somehow.  She was always so jumpy.  She never used to be.  It was only until recently that she was.  To be honest, she’d changed a bit in the last month.  She always seemed to be more on the edge.  I wasn’t sure what that was about.  I mean, I could guess and I’d actually probably be right.  What with how the media was talking about us all the time.  And our little pregnancy scare we’d had not two weeks ago.  I guess I could understand why she’d be a little edgy.  I was too to a certain point but I wasn’t going to let if affect everything I did like Kenzie did.

After a few long moments the door opened just slightly.  Kenzie poked her head around the door.  She had a bewildered look on her face.  She didn’t open the door any farther.  I stood there waiting for her to do so but she didn’t.

“What’s wrong, baby?” I asked as I reached out toward her.  She moved just out of my reach.  I tilted my head to the side and stared at her.  Something was going on.  I wasn’t sure what it was.  Something wasn’t right.  This was not the Kenzie that I knew.  She was acting strange. “Kenzie, what is going on?”

“N-nothing,” she answered softly.  She continued to stare at me not moving an inch.  Not offering to let me in.  Not smiling.  Just staring at me with a scared look on her face.  Then she quickly turned her head away from me and stared in the other direction.  Her face changed again.  This time she looked even more scared.

“McKenzie, what is going on?” I demanded.  I was starting to get frustrated with her.  She wasn’t doing anything.  She was hiding something from me.  She nodded slightly and then looked back at me.  This time her face had changed all together.  She now had an inviting look on her face.  She smiled.  What was going on?  It was like I was standing in front of two completely different people.

“What are you doing here so soon?” She asked as she opened the door up the rest of the way.  I continued to stare at her.  Her voice…it was different.  It seemed slightly deeper.  Not by much but just enough for me to notice.  I studied her face and her appearance.

She had her hair pulled back into a ponytail.  Which was odd for her.  She hardly ever wore it all the way up.  Usually it was only when she was working out.  Which didn’t happen much.  It also looked shorter somehow.  Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was pulled up.  Her eyes were more green than blue.  A strange thing.  I know her eyes change colors when she’s in different moods but this was different.  They had a more greenish tint to them.

“Justin,” Kenzie said with a small giggle.  That voice.  It wasn’t the same.  It wasn’t my Kenzie.  Maybe there’s a logical explanation for all of this.  Maybe she was sick and she didn’t want me to get sick.  That would explain her voice sounding different.  But it wasn’t just that.

Maybe I was just being paranoid.  I’d become fairly paranoid lately and I hated it.  It was driving me crazy.  I never used to find myself looking over my shoulder all the time but here lately I’d begun to do that.  Now with the way that Kenzie was acting it just about threw me over the edge.

“Are you okay, Justin?” Kenzie asked as she leaned on the doorframe.  I studied her more carefully.  She looked pretty much the same.  Nothing drastically different just minor things.  Maybe she was just in a weird mood today.  That was always possible.

“Yeah, are you all right?  You seem a little different today,” I finally answered.  She stared at me for a moment then shrugged her shoulders.

“I’m fine.”

“All right, why aren’t you ready to go?  We have to leave in like fifteen minutes,” I said as I shook my head.  She always waited until the last minute to do things.  It was a wonder that she ever got anything done.

“Ready for what?”

“You’re kidding me right.  The charity dinner, McKenzie,” I answered.  I knew she hated it when I used her full name but this was a moment when I felt the need to use it.  To get her riled up.  She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“That’s tonight?” She asked as she stepped away from the doorframe and glanced up the stairs. “Well then I’d better hurry up and get ready.  I’ll be down in a few minutes.” She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.  She jogged up the stairs and disappeared into one of the rooms.

I stood there staring up at the stairs.  I wondered if I should follow after her but I restrained myself.  This was weird.  Something was going on and I was going to find out what it was one way or another.