Page 22 of Lilies from Hell

I get out of bed feeling sore all over. I don’t bother washing my face or fixing my hair before going down to the kitchen. A piece of lemon cake is waiting for me on the counter, and, attending to my stomach’s needs, I eat it while I make myself a strong coffee. I turn my head when I hear a gasp behind me.

“Are you getting your Halloween costume ready?” I glance at my brother’s wrinkled T-shirt and the pillow marks on his left cheek.

“You are not much better yourself,” I say.

“I’m not trying to compete with you.” I suppress a laugh by pressing my lips together.

“Romina’s sleeping over tonight, so behave yourself, okay?” I say. I still remember the times he showed up at my sleepovers, scaring my friends with costumes that still give me nightmares to this day. Or the times he tried to impersonate me with that squeaky voice that isn’t mine.

“Can I join the girls’ night? If I shave a little and put on a wig, we’d be identical. We’re twins after all,” he scoffs.

“Don’t even think about it.”

“Or what?” he asks with gives a crooked smile.

“It’s too early. Go fuck yourself somewhere else.”

He’s about to speak again when my mother appears at the door with that disgusted face she gives me every time I do or say something she disagrees with.

“Lena, go get changed. How many times have I told you not to come downstairs like that in the morning? We don’t live alone,” she nags, referring to the butler and the other workers who lived with us. Including the two bodyguards and the cleaning ladies.

“That’s exactly what I was saying. You’re embarrassing this family’s reputation,” Jason scoffs with a smile. I flip him off before walking out the door and going up to my room.

I lounge by the pool as I scroll through my Pinterest's boards. Jason pulls his head out of the pool and sits down next to me, shaking his hair like a dog.

“Did you say something?” I grimace as a few drops of water fall on my face.

“You’re getting me wet. Stop doing that!” I yell as more drops of water fall on me because of him.

He’s doing it on purpose to annoy me; he always does it when my hair is straight. Damn it. I spent a lot of time straightening it this morning. I give him a whack on the back of the head as soon as he sits next to me. The butler’s hoarse voice saves him from getting another one.

“Miss Romina is asking for you.” I check the time on my smartwatch and see that it’s almost eight. I’m late.

“Thanks. Tell her I’ll be right there.” As soon as I say the words, I put on a towel and run to the main room, where Romina is waiting for me.

The dark circles under her eyes and the puffiness are noticeable from afar. We melt into an embrace that lasts longer than expected. I’m getting used to this side of her.

“I could be much better.” I look at the medium-sized black bag she is holding in one of her hands.

“I’ll take it upstairs.”

“Are we going to sleep together?” She asks with genuine surprise when I open the door.

“Yes. If that’s okay with you, of course.”

“That’s perfect,” she murmurs with a cute smile.

I go down to the kitchen, leaving Romina alone in my bedroom. It doesn’t take me long to find some snacks, all low in calories because of the overly healthy diet my mother makes us follow. I barely carry everything to the room without dropping anything. Everything is about to fall on the floor when I open the door and find Jason hugging Romina. She has her back to him, which prevents her from seeing Jason’s victorious smile. He gives me a thumbs-up when he sees me and his smile widens.

I go to the drawer in my desk where I keep some of her clothes and take out a gray T-shirt stained with coffee. The hurried beating of my heart calms down a little when the scent of vanilla clouds the rest of my senses. My lungs expand, welcoming her scent. I hate knowing that I would have to settle for her clothes and the false sensations my head sends me about her when I think she is here with me. When I try to touch her, she vanishes between my fingers as if she had never been there. It reminds me of the nights I had spent shedding tears of blood for her.

I sit on the edge of the bed, staring at my phone screen while holding the T-shirt in my other hand. She’s not in her room, so I have to search through the forty-two cameras until I find her by the pool. My eyes go straight to every bit of skin I can find, paying special attention to her legs. My balls press painfully against the fabric of my gray sweatpants, but far from bothering me, the pain makes me harder. If she knew what went through my twisted mind every time I caught her watching me from afar, she probably wouldn’t want to get so close. But eventually I will catch her again, and this time nothing will be the same.

She asks her brother something about her nails as I follow every movement of her lips. The hair straightener has eliminated her natural waves. She has been using it more than usual. I hate it when she does that to her hair. I ignore the knocks on the door as I zoom in on the screen. Faced with the insistent knocking, I end up opening the door.

“We have a guest,” Denis says from the other side, looking at the T-shirt I’m still holding and ignoring my desire to reduce him to ashes.

I slam the door in his face, not listening to whatever he has to say, and put the T-shirt back in its place. Not caring about the bulge in my pants. This is my fucking house. When I open the door again, I find him there again, this time with a grin from ear to ear.