Lunangelique (The Lunangelique Series) (2 page)

“Oh, really,” I whisper back. “Thanks for the info. I’ll remember that next time I want him to take me to the movies.” I playfully shove him back forward toward Hope as we walk in twos. Ollie is next to me behind the others.

“Where’s
your
boyfriend?” Ollie asks, looking forward at Nathaniel’s head. Obviously embarrassed to ask the question but unable to blurt it out.

“I don’t have one,” I inform him with a smile. He looks shocked at such an answer. His face actually blanches before he quickly composes himself.

“That seems odd. Your brother and friends are all together…don’t you hate, you know, always being the extra wheel. I thought girls hated that.” He stops, but before I can answer he quickly says, “I’m sorry, is that too presumptuous? Am I being too forward? I don’t know how to talk to American girls. The Italians always speak their mind…”

I cut him off. “You’re fine. I always speak my mind too. I don’t embarrass easily. Trust me. And no, I never feel like the extra wheel. I love my friends. They always include me. I’ve never even thought about being the third wheel or fifth wheel.” I shrug my shoulders. “When we go to dances, I dance with everyone. When we go to movies I sit between the girls. When we eat I sit across from them so I can talk to everyone. It’s just always worked out.” I shrug my shoulders again. I guess it can seem weird, but really, I’ve never had a problem with it. I’ve always felt like the free one. The lucky one. I don’t know how to explain it.

Ollie nods his head. “I’ve never seen it that way. I always feel like I’m missing something. No one to depend on. No one to dance with. No one to hold hands with at the movies. No one to share fries with me.”

“Awe…You make it sound so sad,” I tease. “I’ll share my fries with you.” I laugh with him. “Maybe I would feel that way if I didn’t have Alex. Alex and I share everything, being twins. Except for clothes.” I laugh. “I guess it works out because of that reason. Kaitlyn is my best friend and his girlfriend, we share her.” I laugh again. “That sounds really bad.”

Ollie laughs with me as we walk into the store. “Yeah, I guess I get it. You guys go to the movies and share popcorn amongst the three of you. I noticed that all of you bought lunch together. You really are lucky.”

“Yeah that’s the second time I heard that today. I guess I need to accept it and move on with my life.” I start looking through a rack of clothes. Ollie continues to shadow me, not really looking at anything. I notice Hope and Kaitlyn whispering to each other and looking at us from a couple of racks down. I know exactly what they are whispering. Alex and Nathaniel are on the other side of the store, in the men’s department.

“Who else told you that?” Ollie asks.

“Alex,” I answer not really paying much attention to Ollie anymore while in the pursuit of a cute denim skirt.

“Why would he need to remind you?” I look into Ollie’s face. It has taken on a strained quality that I don’t understand.

I stop looking through the racks, put down the two skirts in my hand and walk over to him. I don’t know why but I feel like I need to tell him what I have been up to. “I don’t know if Hope and Nathaniel told you but Alex and I are adopted. I have been researching archives to find anything I can on our parents. I contacted the adoption agency but they can’t help me. I searched through the adoption papers my parents have on us but there is nothing. It’s like we fell out of the sky or something. I hate feeling like we were dumpster babies or left in a field to die.” I take a deep breath. “Alex convinced me this morning to give up and accept how lucky we are to have parents that actually chose us.”

“I have to agree with Alex.” He looks down and whispers, “At least you still have parents.”

“I’m sorry Ollie. Here I am looking for a second set of parents and you…,” my face fills with shame.

“It’s fine Lexi. I lost my parents when I was two,” he tells me. “I’m going to look for some clothes. I’ll catch up with you at the movies?” he raises his eyebrows at me as he awaits a reply.

“Yeah, sure,” I say with a sad smile. “I’ll share my popcorn with you.”

I watch as his face lights up, which makes mine light up too. He is so gorgeous and his sad little past is making me want to make his future happy. Which is exactly what Kaitlyn and Hope have been whispering about. And as soon as Ollie is out of view, they come running over, expressing their hopes of seeing us as a couple. Of course, I have to admit many times how incredibly hot he is. And we all agree he is showing interest. He falls into the category of being someone new and I have to allow that I am almost in college, so it’s close enough to waiting for college. I mean, this is senior year. I
would
like an actual date to the prom and Homecoming.

We, the girls, go off on our own for the next hour before the movie starts and we have to meet back up with the guys in front of the theaters. We put our umpteen bags in Kaitlyn’s car since Alex and Nathaniel have the keys to the other cars before we set off for the movie. 

Mom and Dad bought me and Alex a car to share. Most kids would hate that, but Alex and I are always together. And when Alex and Kaitlyn take off on a date night alone, they just use her car. Everything works out fine.

We meet the guys in front of the concession stand to buy some popcorn and soda. I instinctually go towards Alex to get my ticket and order my drink but am pulled back by the top of my dress by Ollie. Alex stifles a laugh, which sets off my twin telepathy, telling me he has set me up with Ollie. I really don’t mind but I don’t like being puppeteered.

“Sorry, but I kind of have your ticket. I figured if you were going to share your popcorn with me the least I could do was buy the tickets,” he gives me an award-winning smile.

I try to calm down from being put in this predicament.
Why am I getting upset? He’s gorgeous. He’s sweet. He’s new, foreign.
I try to hide a deep breath by breathing in slow.

“Thank you, Ollie. I guess old habits
are
hard to kill,” I say referring to Alex always buying my ticket. Well, technically it’s not Alex buying; it’s both of our money, our parent’s money. Our parents don’t want us to get jobs because Alex has a 4.9 GPA, is the student body council president, President of the Astronomy club, Physics club, Latin club, FBLA (even though he doesn’t even care for business, he’s an astronomy and physics geek), founder of the community service initiative, plays the cello like a professional and will most likely receive a full academic scholarship.

I do not have a 4.9 GPA but its close at 4.5, because Alex tutors me, a lot. I’m in the Latin club with Alex, the history club, I help with the community service, I try to attend all the astronomy meetings, I play the piano, paint, but I am focusing on getting my scholarship towards swimming and volleyball. That’s where I excel. I would rather save our college savings for an epic summer vacation before school starts next year, like touring Europe! I think Alex agrees.

I stand next to Ollie as we wait our turn at the concession stand. When we get up to order Ollie doesn’t let me pay for my diet coke or our popcorn. I have to take another deep breath and shoot the gang a dirty look as they all snicker at the predicament of me being on a quasi-group date for the first time. Ollie acts oblivious to their snickers.
Gratefully.
I’m sure the guys have filled him in on my independence and lack of dating. It’s not like I don’t date. I do. I just date on the premise that it’s as friends.

We all go into the movies and sit near the top and center of the theater seats. I sit next to Kaitlyn and surprise, Ollie sits on my other side and next to Nathaniel. Hope gives me a ‘sorry’ smile as she sits on the other side of Nathaniel. We start to tell Ollie about the school and discuss the differences between schools in America and schools in Italy. I love listening to Ollie talk, he has a little Italian accent but overall he speaks English very well.

“How did you learn to speak English so well?” I ask him

“Oh, well, growing up I just learnt it. I can speak many languages. I guess the answer to your question is because of my brother, travelling so much and needing to learn different languages, he took advantage of it and taught me. He raised me speaking in different languages, so I’ve always known.” He shrugs his shoulders like it’s no big deal.

“What other languages do you speak?” Kaitlyn asks.

“Name some,” he answers.

“Really?”  I inquire. “French?” He nods his head. “German,” I add.

“Ja.”

“Spanish,” Hope adds.

“Si,” Ollie says. “Spanish is similar to Italian, that one is easy for me. I also speak Chinese, Greek, Japanese, Russian, Arabic and a few others.”

“That’s really impressive. We’ll need you next summer when we tour Europe,” I exclaim, enraptured with this marvelous creature.

“If we get scholarships,” Alex says deflating my hopeful mood.

I’m about to scold him for ruining my dreams but the lights start to dim and the movie comes to life. I’ve been looking forward to this movie for a long time. I read the books and loved them. The imagination of the author is amazing.

About halfway through the movie I fold my legs under me and lean towards the side to make myself more comfortable. I want to sit cross legged but can’t do that in a short dress. If I knew we were going to see a movie I would have worn pants and brought a sweater. I hate being cold in the movies. Ollie shifts his body to accommodate for the nearness I presented upon him. I guess I forgot who I was sitting near.

I run my hands up and down my bare arms to cause friction to warm them up. Ollie notices. “Are you cold,” he whispers.

“A little,” I admit.

He reaches down into his bag and comes up with a sweater he must have bought. “Here, you can put this on.”

“Thank you,” I whisper to him as I slip the sweater on. It is way too big for me. I let the sleeves hang way past down my hands and settle back to finish the movie. One of the sleeves drape over the arm of the chair between us and I notice out of the corner of my eye that Ollie moves his hand over it. I don’t know but I think he might have thought it had been my hand, but if he’s surprised, it doesn’t show since he keeps his hand there.

Chapter 2

When Alex and I get home, we go into the living room to show our parents everything we got. Our mom swoons and coos at all our clothes while dad nods his head in approval. My mom has taught us how not to be tasteless. I learned at a young age the limits of how high skirts should go and how low the shirts should sit. I mean, who wants to dress like a sleaze? I see the girls whose boyfriends go too far, groping in public, because “hello” their dress tells the boys that it’s okay. And with me, it’s not okay. It’s my body not yours, grope your own.

Mom asks us, “Who did you go shopping with, just Kaitlyn?” Mom gives us a knowing smile and Alex shakes his head at her.

“No, Mom. Kaitlyn isn’t the only one in our lives,” he smiles and plays along with her game. “Hope, Nathaniel and a new kid, Ollie, were with us. We went to the see ‘The Hunger Games’ afterwards. It was a good time. Grabbed some lunch and told Ollie all about our school. He’s from Rome so things are a lot different here.”

Mom’s eyes widen in surprise, “Oh, I wonder if he is the kid that moved across the street.”

“No, Ollie lives a couple of neighborhoods over, in Nathaniel’s neighborhood,” I inform her. “I wonder who moved in across the street.”

“I haven’t been over there yet to introduce the family into the neighborhood. I thought I would give them a week to settle in. Haven’t seen any parents. Just the movers and a kid that looks about your age. Why don’t you guys go over there and invite him swimming tomorrow? Invite the gang over.”

“Alex you’re a guy, why don’t you do it?” I instruct him.

“What? You have your hands full with one new guy already?” he teases me.

“Mom! Do you know what this jerk of a brother put me through today?” I blast at my mother.

“Lexi, don’t call your brother a jerk,” dad warns me.

“I’m sorry Dad but if you knew that your son was trying to play matchmaker here and embarrass me by putting me on the spot, you would think he was one too,” I stomp my foot childishly.

“What happened?” he asks with a raised eyebrow. Uh oh. I just incited his psychiatric side. My parents are so cute and lovable. My mom is a divorce lawyer and met my dad through
several
of the same clientele. After my dad was able to patch up many, many marriages, which provoked my mother to find out just who was causing her to lose clients, she stormed into his office and immediately fell victim to his “couch”. After countless “sessions,” they married. Then, a few years later and no pregnancy scares they found out my mom couldn’t have children. That’s when me and Alex came into their lives. We were only two months old.

“Lexi is exaggerating of course. She told Ollie she would share popcorn with him so he bought her a movie ticket,” he shrugs his shoulders like it was that simple and he played no part in it.

“That is NOT how it happened,” I pronounce every word singularly. “He set me up. I know the guys discussed it while I was shopping with the girls. They threw us together and it was embarrassing because I didn’t ask for it. He kept laughing at me, which made it worse.” I start pouting.

“Who laughed? The boy?” dad asks.

“No,” I whine out. “Alex.”

Everybody starts laughing at me. “This is so not funny.”

“Lexi, sweetie. I’m sure everyone was having fun. It’s not nice to tease but did you have a good time otherwise?” Mom asks.

I fold my arms defensively over my chest. “That’s not the point.”

Mom sighs, about to say something else but then the doorbell rings.

“I’ll get it,” Alex says, wanting to escape my cold eyes blaming him for interfering with my love life.

Mom turns back to me and reaches for some of the shopping bags. “Let’s get these upstairs.” She tells me and then raises her voice to address Alex, “Alex, I’m putting your bags in your room.”

“Okay,” he says, still talking to whoever is at the door.