Weeping Willow Holiday

Adrienne's Story

"Umm, Amber?" Adrienne asked as she knocked on the closed door.

There was no response and she hesitated a bit before knocking again.

"What up? What you want?" Amber asked as she swung open the door looking at her fingernails.

"I... I was hoping we could… you know… talk? We haven't done that for quite a while." Adrienne said hesitantly looking past her sister rather than at her.

"Uh… Yeah sure. Like whatevs." Amber said walking toward her bed leaving her door open for Adrienne to enter.

She sat down cross-legged and started painting her nails with another coat of polish. Adrienne followed her inside tentatively and sat down on the edge of Amber's bed.

"Whoa! Like hell no. Hold up." Amber said immediately. "There's a chair over there in the corner. You can sit on that."

She nodded her head off to one side to indicate which corner she was referring to. She still didn’t look up at Adrienne so she didn’t notice the pure shock and hurt that covered Adrienne’s face. Adrienne recovered fast, something she’s been able to do since she was a lot young. Lifting herself off the bed, she went in the direction of the door instead. Once again she forced her hurt and pain into pure anger. She stopped at the door and turned to Amber

."Well you're clearly too busy. Forget I said anything. Have fun. Bye." She spat out.

"Oh well." Amber shrugged. "You were the one who wanted to talk, but whatevs. Don’t waste my time in the future. Bye-bye now."

Amber didn’t even bother to wave her sister off and focused more on her nails. Adrienne left and made her way to the bottom of the staircase that led to the second floor. She and Amber hadn't been up there since the week before their first school day a few years back. That was just after their parents had died. She looked up to the second floor and sighed. Dust caked the steps and railing proving that no one had been up there in a very long time. Anyone would have assumed the house was abandoned if that was all they saw.

‘How long has it been now?’ She thought to herself. She stared up at the landing on the top. The floor that supported her old room.

"Daddy... Mommy... I miss you guys. I... I still find myself wishing you were here in person quite a lot." She said the last part slightly choking back a sob.

Adrienne turned to the front door and walked outside. It was times like this she wanted them more than ever. Times when her sister kept up the school act at home. She stopped on the porch and looked around for a few minutes. She was looking to see if Codey had come back yet. She then slowly made her way to the back of the house and into the garden where a very old willow tree stood all alone. It may have been an odd sight to most. A single, old willow tree surrounded by nothing except a large yard and a lake. In the willow tree was a tree-house. Incomplete and long since abandoned, it was still pretty sturdy and could hold Adrienne's full weight. She knew this because she spent days up there and sometimes fell asleep in it. If she couldn’t sleep at night that was where she could be found.

Adrienne sat cross-legged at the bottom of the tree not wanting to wear out the treehouse too much. She gave a shaky breath, leaned back against the trunk, and closed her eyes. As she sat there some of her much older memories flashed through her mind. After the accident, she found that her memory wasn't all there. She remembered the common things like the fact she had parents and the car they owned. It was harder for her to remember the small details. Like their faces and voices and the feel of their comforting touch. Her memories had been coming back to her and happened in sudden waves that sometimes overwhelmed her.

***~~Flashback~~***

A song played, loud in the background. It could faintly be heard from Adrienne’s room on the second floor. Their father’s music seeing as their mother enjoyed the more classical type of music. Adrienne and Amber had a shared taste in both their parents' music. Adrienne leaning more towards her father's, while Amber more enjoyed their mother's.

"Adrienne!! Come see!" A 7-year-old Amber shouted running up the stairs and through the passage. "It's so cool! Adri! You have to see this!"

"What is it, Amber? Show me. Please show me." Adrienne responded bursting out of her room.

"Come see what dad did." Amber grabbed Adrienne's hand and they ran off, back the way Amber had come from.

"Girls slow down." Their father chuckled when he saw them racing towards him. “You might hurt yourselves again. Then who’s going to take you to the hospital?” He asked in a joking manner.

"Dad show her. Show Adri, please. Pretty pretty, please. With cherries on top and everything." Amber panted too excited to take a moment to catch her breath.

"Pretty please," Adrienne repeated her sister's words with curiosity.

"Okay girls. I’ll do it one more time." He said kneeling in front of them. "Pay careful attention now."

***~~Flashback end~~***

Adrienne opened her eyes with a start. Something had hit her leg rather hard. She blinked a few times so her pupils could adjust to the sunlight. When her vision came into focus she found a very angry-looking Amber towering above her. Amber grunted quite unceremoniously and faked an attempt to pull Adrienne up. Faked in every sense of the word because she didn't even really attempt holding on to Adrienne's properly.

"What is wrong Amb?" Adrienne asked very bored as she stood up with her eyebrow raised.

"Everything is what!" Amber responded in a horrid screech. "You asked if we can talk. Then walk away like it was something stupid when clearly it wasn’t. Then I have to walk around that blasted house with my nails still basically wet looking for you. Now I'm going to have to redo them all ‘cause they're ruined. No thanks to you." She huffed and pouted like a child.

Adrienne wanted to slap her sister. The way Amber always over-dramatized everything really irritated her.

"Amb, I didn't ask you to come looking for me,” Adrienne said calmly and seemingly unfazed by Amber's outburst, “and you were clearly too worried about your nails to talk to me so I left."

She rolled her eyes at the thought of her sister's self-centered first-world worries. She really couldn't care about all the drama that came with Amber. Especially couldn't understand the big deal with dolling herself up. Adrienne knew full well no matter what she said Amber would make it about her.

"Agh, I don't care!! You're such a pain!” Amber stamped her foot down frustrated. “I need you to do my hair now anyway. That's why I was looking for you. Duh." Amber turned around to walk away. "Now come. Oh and ‘cause my nails are ruined now. You will need to fix them again.” When she saw Adrienne had not yet moved she yelled out irritated, “Pronto Adri! Chop Chop."

Adrienne sighed. 'If only she remembered that I am her twin, not her goddamn slave or servant.' She thought to herself and began to trail Amber slowly. She knew Amber would just carry on complaining until she got her way. She trailed close behind Amber until they got to her room. Inside Amber's room, Adrienne sat on the chair from earlier. She remembered not to go to the bed. She waited for Amber to get her stuff together not wanting to get in the way.

"Amb?" She questioned carefully, "Why don't you do your own hair for once?"

"’Cause, Adri, you and I both know that you do it better." Amber scoffed and handed her the curling iron. "I need to look fabulous at all times. Unlike you, I care about my status in life."

She flicked her hair back, rolled her eyes, and sat down in front of the mirror. She proceeded to pull out some things and placed them on the table. Adrienne stood up from where she was seated deciding not to respond or entertain Amber’s clear insult. She pulled in the iron and started with Amber's hair. For the first time in a long time, they had a civil conversation. They made silly jokes, because why not. They were both having fun, together this time, and talking about the stupidest little things. They didn't care much for old arguments and differences in opinion.

"Adri, I'm sorry we stopped doing stuff like this," Amber said with a gloomy look. "Why did we even stop?"

Adrienne finished the last part of Amber's hair. Adrienne looked at her sister’s face in the mirror, concealing the disappointment and growing anger she was feeling when Amber asked that question. Unlike what people always assume, the so-called 'twin bond' that exists between twins can only be felt when it is nurtured. Amber and I used to be able to feel each other's emotions, but that bond has long since disappeared. We hadn't nurtured it since the car accident. Even though they were twins they did not look identical. Amber had more of their mother's sleek, delicate features, while Adrienne had more of their father's structured, prominent features.

Adrienne smiled pointedly at her sister's reflection, "Well Amber." She said. "People always handle the same situations… differently from each other. I guess we just… I don’t know… drifted because of it. That doesn't mean that we can't still be sisters."

Adrienne had picked her mind for the ‘right’ words to use. She risked hugging her twin from the back. The action made Amber laugh and for a split second, Adrienne thought of being spiteful. She almost told Amber the real reason they drifted apart in the first place. The truth is they had drifted because Amber didn't deem her sister 'hot enough' to hang out or be seen with at school. As mentioned amber was all about status. Adrienne didn't care for that.

"Well we are sisters silly," Amber said first. "and because we are. We should have more days just like now. Where we hang out... ahh... You know, just the two of us. We can do all our favourite things. So little missy, that being said, you are getting a makeover." Amber jumped to her feet.

Adrienne's eyes shot open wide. Comically so, to the point where you would swear they were almost falling out of her head.

"What?!? No! No, no, no." Adriene said backing away.

"Yes! Come on. It'll be so much fun." She lunged to grab Adrienne laughing.

For the next hour and a half, the girls were running around chasing each other in Amber's room laughing. Eventually, Adrienne gave in and let Amber give her a makeover. When Amber was done they walked up to one of the long mirrors so Adrienne could see the amount of damage. At least that's what she labeled the makeover.

"Now we almost look like identical twins," Amber said.

"Yes. We almost do. Don't we?" Adrienne said softly. 'And we look just like mommy.' She thought to herself a little pained at the sight.

"If only mom and dad were here to see us now," Amber said flopping down on her bed.

Adrienne was definitely shocked. She didn't expect that, from Amber of all people nonetheless. From herself yes, but not from Amber. They hadn't spoken a word about their parents ever since they started their second year of school. Adrienne looked at her sister who looked as if she was about to cry. She wanted to reassure Amber with the nickname their mother called Amber. Her memories have been slowly returning after all, but she hadn’t wanted Amber to know yet. So instead of saying anything, she sighed. She didn’t want her sister to go into a jealous fit and start accusing her of nonsense. Amber was about to toss her pillow at Adrienne.

Adrienne tisked, "You wouldn't want to ruin your masterpiece now would you?"

Amber dropped the pillow and forced a laugh. “Don’t do that.”

Amber pouted because Adrienne had acted similar to her. The utterly childish action caused Adrienne to laugh at Amber.

*~*

The end-of-year holidays were almost over and the girls had hardly noticed it go by. They were actually having fun for once. In a house that they thought was oversized and most probably haunted. They had even almost forgotten about all of the bad that had happened between them. That was until they received a certain letter from a certain boarding school. It was a re-enrollment letter for the new school year. Of course, they didn't have to worry about it too much because Codey always took care of everything, but the letter sure did put a damper on the rest of the holidays for Adrienne. She knew that going back to school would cause Amber to start ignoring her again. Whatever Amber might have said about them being sisters was about to fly out the window. After this specific holiday, she hoped that things would go back to how they were before their parents died. Adrienne soon began to feel like this was the last holiday they would ever have like this. Even with Codey’s efforts in the past, this was, by far, the only enjoyable holiday she has had with Amber since the tragedy. The chances that there would be another one was pretty much little to none, if not completely nonexistent.

Fly On The Wall

Song By Thousand Foot Krutch

(2240 words)