The next morning, I had holed myself up in my room after shower and breakfast. I was waiting for Olivia. She had gone to? casually? extract information about Charlotte’s plans for? my? birthday.
She had been gone for too long and I was almost close to starting to chew off my skin when my nails were done so I moved on to play some video game on the laptop.
But after four rounds, I got bored of it too. So I searched up all of these rich people and learned a lot about them. I even googled Ethan because I was merely curious about him. Most of the articles were of his successful career and how he was a perfect dream man for every woman. Then there were many articles about his serious relationship with Heather with headlines as ridiculous as “Billionaire hunk changed the bad girl,” referring to Heather’s past controversial activities.
“Juliet,” Olivia said, opening the door and I jumped and quickly closed the tabs. I didn’t want her to know I was searching up Ethan and looking at his photos with and without Heather like a creep.
“W-what?” I asked, pushing the laptop away from me. She looked at me strangely before shaking her head.
“We are in deep crap.”
“I know and we have even more crap to deal with. What happened?”
“Juliet’s birthday is on May 27 and-”
“Wait, that day is my birthday.”
“Oh my God, I almost forgot your birth date.”
“Come again. Did you really say that Juliet’s birthday is on May 27?”
“Yes, I did.”
“How can it be possible? We were born on the same day? And we look almost similar. We’re both going to turn twenty on May 27.” Oh my God.
Olivia gasped. “Does that mean that you two are tw-”
“No! Don’t say anything. It can’t be possible. It might just be a coincidence,” I said, shaking my head to stop thinking about such a ridiculous possibility.
“Right,” Olivia snorted. “You two look like twins. You two share the same birth date. You both are going to turn twenty on the same day. She’s Juliet Katie and you’re Julie Kate. Just a coincidence.”
“Look, there’s a lot going on here right now. I don’t want to think about anything else. So please shut up.”
I ran a hand through my hair. It felt as if my head was going to burst from the amount of thinking I was doing.
“What else did Charlotte say?”
“She said that she’s planning on throwing a grand birthday party for you. She’ll be inviting every known personality and all of your? three hundred something friends. She has even placed an order for a two? ten-tier birthday cake because you’re turning twenty. She’s going to fly us all and the guests off to their private island.”
“Oh my God. There’s no way that Juliet wouldn’t know about me then.”
“Obviously.”
“What are we going to do?” I didn’t know I was panting by then.
“Calm down first, maybe? Uh, why are you breathing like that? Julie, are you okay?”
“I-I’m fine,” I waved her off but my laborious breathing suggested otherwise.
Olivia shushed me and made me sit down on my bed. “We’ll figure this out, okay? We’ll talk to Heather about this. She’ll surely help us. Till then, we’ll try to drop subtle hints at Charlotte that you’ll absolutely hate that.”
I nodded. “Okay. Why didn’t you at least tell Charlotte that it’ll be a bad idea?”
“I did. But she was adamant on her plans. She told me that a mother knows her daughter the best and she was sure you’d like her surprise. Little does she know that you aren’t her daughter at all.”
I told her about my call to Mrs. Odin and how our colleges would be starting soon.
“I don’t know what to do, Julie. Should we go back or should we stay?”
“We have to go back obviously. It’s not a choice.”
“I know. But would Heather allow us to leave?”
That left me speechless. Of course Heather wouldn’t want us to leave. At leat not till the real Juliet decided to come out of hiding. She wouldn’t care about our problems abs academics.
I rubbed my face with my hands. “She wouldn’t allow.”
Olivia shook her head sadly. “You’re right. We really have no choice but to stay.”
Olivia left for her room shortly afterwards because we weren’t able to come up with a good plan.
I opened the laptop and googled Juliet Jenson. Her pictures appeared first and I stared at her for a long time. I wasn’t trying to find the similarities between us, but rather the differences. There weren’t many.
I read the articles about her. She really was a bad, bad girl and how I was acting was nowhere near how she was. How could her parents believe my act?
The most recent articles were about the Jenson’s? activities and events and how they think that a mysterious lady who they suspect is their runaway daughter was reported to be hanging around them lately. Great. The people were alarmed of the smoke. I was sure it wouldn’t be long until they see the fire.
The possibility that Juliet and I might be related was another thing that was worrying me. Why did things always take a turn for the worst in the best way?
***
It was evening now. I was sat on the bench in the garden, just admiring nature and the silence.
The sun was on the verge of setting and the lights in the garden would turn on anytime now. A pretty orange hue adorned the evening sky with birds chirping and flying off to their nests. The blossom trees looked even more pretty than they did during the day.
I was so lost in thought that I didn’t even notice someone’s presence behind me until the person had sat beside me.
“God, Keith-” I stopped short when I noticed that it wasn’t Keith but someone who I wasn’t expecting to see. Ethan.
“Sorry, I’m not your little boyfriend, Keith,” he said.
“Keith is not my boyfriend.”
He didn’t say anything and neither did I. The silence between us was awkward and I knew this was the last place he wanted to be at, especially with me. So why was he here?
“Why are you here?” I asked, voicing my thoughts.
“I was forced by our best friends to be here.”
“Why?”
“They want me to be on talking terms with you because it’s your birthday in a few days.”
I was surprised. “And you agreed with them just like that?”
“I decided to be a bigger person and try to-” he paused, searching for the right word.
“Get to know the real me?” I suggested.
“Don’t flatter yourself but yeah, something along those lines.”
I turned my head away from him to hide the smile. I didn’t even want to smile.
I pressed my lips into a thin line and stared straight ahead. It was weird talking to him without any jibes or insults thrown at each other.
“Why are you here anyways? You rarely used to visit the garden before,” He said, relaxing his stiff shoulders and leaning back.
“It’s just peaceful here. It gives me a proper environment to think and get away from things. Sometimes I just simply love being here for no reason at all.”
He nodded. “Yeah, it isn’t that bad here.”
“Have you never visited this garden?” I asked curiously, looking at him from the corner of my eyes.
He shook his head. “I mostly don’t have time to.”
“Oh.”
I looked around, thinking of something more to say. “Don’t you ever get tired of doing so much work? The only time I see you not working is when you’re eating or sleeping.”
“Are you implying that you watch me sleep?”
I rolled my eyes. “In your dreams.”
“I didn’t know I had a peeping tom who watches me sleep,” he said, a slight smirk on the corner of his lips.
“Answer me.”
“Well, it sometimes gets overwhelming seeing the amount of work. Sometimes I just wish I could run away from all of this.” He sighed wistfully.
“Then why don’t you?”
“It’s not easy.”
I raised an eyebrow in question but he just shook his head. He shifted his gaze from the scenery to me and stared at me for longer than needed.
“What?” I asked.
“You know, I actually felt as if I wasn’t talking to you. It was as if I was talking to a different person.”
My breath caught in my throat.? Just then the lights in the garden switched on, dimly lighting it up. I hadn’t realized that it had gotten dark and that I should head inside.
“We should go,” I said, standing up and brushing the dirt off of my pants.
The entrance of the garden was a beautiful pebbled pathway lined with small lamps which lighted up the path. We walked back inside together to find Olivia and Tristan with shell shocked expressions on their faces.
I rolled my eyes at them.
“How? When? Damn it Juliet, you just lost me my imaginary Mercedes to Tristan.” Olivia tittered.
I shook my head and laughed at their ridiculous behavior. Maybe Ethan and I could try to be friends.