Two

The day had started like any other day. Hope’s godawful alarm started it’s rude beeping sound at 5:45 just as it had every day before, the red light flashing the pitch black room with its annoying wake up call. A hand had suddenly smacked down on the black box, making a loud slap, as tired fingers fumbled around for the snooze button prior to slithering back to the warmth of the brown blanket it had come from. This went on for four more times before the lump of brown sighed and slowly rose up from it’s laying position.

Pushing the covers off of her head, Hope practically fell out of her bed as she wandered sleepily to the corner of her room and picked up a towel that was laying there. Yawning, and wiping her finger over her eyes and pushing up her bed horrid hair, the girl shuffled out of the black of her room and out into the round hallway in front of her room, the dark hardwood floor freezing her feet and making the hair on her arms stand up. She fumbled around with the lightswitch that was placed between her bedroom and the bathroom before finally finding it and flipping it up, causing her to squint until her eyes adjusted to the bright yellow light.

Stumbling forward, Hope tripped over a stray bra that had made its way out of the bathroom causing the girl to stumble into the built in bookshelf that held various books and porcelain decorations on its shelves and behind glass doors, making them rattle as she held herself up. Annoyed by the piece of garment that obviously had it out to get her, Hope kicked the bra into the open bathroom and then stepped onto the cold linoleum floor of the kitchen. She flipped the switch up and wandered over to her counter and opened the cabinet above her white coffee maker. She pulled down a small container and popped the lid off, pulling out a plastic wrapped package of coffee filters to tug loose before plopping it back in the container and shoving it into the cabinet most likely not where she found it.

Hope popped open the brewing basket and placed the filter where it belonged as she reached back up into the cabinet and pulled down her pre grinded coffee grounds. Deciding to be extra lazy this morning, as per usual, they skipped the measuring aspect and just scooped what looked about right out of the container and dumped them into the filter. She then filled her water up to what looked right and put everything it belonged and pushed the on button, leaving the coffee to brew while she walked back into the rounded hallway and crossed over to the bathroom between her room and the guest room.

She crammed herself into the tiny bathroom, cramped even smaller by the excessive amount of dirty clothes on the floor and any open space stacked to the brim with old and new shampoo bottles and makeup. She opened her orange shower curtains and turned the water on, it automatically going to shower mode from her never having the time to take any baths, and then closed it as she waited for the water to heat up. As she turned around, she was immediately met with a sink cluttered in makeup, soaps, toothpaste, and a toothbrush as well as her tired morning face.

She uncapped her tube of toothpaste and spread it onto her well used, in need of new bristles, toothbrush and started scrubbing her teeth as she sat on her closed toilet and waited for the water to heat up. By the time she had finished brushing her teeth and lazily threw the contents back onto the sink the water had heated up to the perfect temperature and Hope had stripped out of her shirt from the day before and a pair of striped white and pink pajama pants so that she could step in and rid the residue of yesterday down the drain.

After a quick lather up and scrub of the hair and body, Hope turned the water off and stepped out of the warm tub. She immediately wrapped the fluffy towel around her bump covered body as she stepped into the cold air of her bathroom and dried off, quickly scampering into her room during the process. She quickly threw on undergarments, a baggy t-shirt, and a pair of black skinny jeans before running out of her room and into the kitchen to take care of her forgotten coffee.

She pulled a mug out of the dishwasher and set it on the counter before walking across the kitchen to her fridge to grab some creamer, picking up a spoon from a nearby drawer on her way back. She added what she needed to make her coffee taste nice and sweet and checked the time on her phone as she walked out of the kitchen, yet again into the rounded hallway, and over to a door that led up to the second floor. Hope jaggedly circled her way up the stairs, the staircase being more of an up a few steps and then a flat part that turns to another few steps to the floor, and admired the works of art hanging up on her walls.

Some of the pieces were hers that she liked or had won awards and some where paintings that she had bought and felt looked nice, keeping the bland white walls from taking over this exciting house. The energy it seemed to possess did not find the bland interior that Hope had been introduced to, and she was quick to fix that.

At the top of her stairs was a mid-way section between two rooms. On the left was a rather long room that she had turned into yet another guest room and on the right was the room to her study, or as she liked to call it; her creative space.  One the ceiling where a light would normally have been placed there was a pull down door with a strand hanging down from said door that when pulled released a ladder and went up to the attic. Hope did everything she could to avoid going up there, not because it creeped her out of course. Mainly because the last two times she used it she had injured herself going up or down and got stuck up there.

Off to the left of the staircase was a railing that held various knick knacks and candles, Hope being a big sap for the mingling of different smells and the rest of the open space and more paintings and some flowers hanging from hooks in the ceilings. On the white walls, Hope had painted simple designs in black to give the place a more cozy feel and placed a rug in the middle of the hardwood floor, two sofa chairs facing inward towards the stairs, and a table between the two chairs. Directly behind the chairs was a chestnut bookcase that she had purchased filled to the brim with more books, decorations, knick knacks, and various art supplies.

Taking a sip of her coffee, Hope turned to the right and entered the square room that was her creative space. The inside held a room painted plum purple that had a desk pushed up against the window that looked out onto the street, a few other shelves and desks that did not have any chairs with tim and cluttered in various art supplies and books, as well as a stack of empty canvases in the back. Directly in front of the door was a window the introduced you to the beautiful view of the next door neighbors side of the house. In front of that window Hope had placed an art easel in the perfect position so that when she was painting she could look out the window and see down the street to admire the way the trees rose and fall along the hilly roads.

In the other corner next to her desk there was a hook that held a very dirty apron and a stool that she used when her legs got tired while painting. Hope stepped into her space and flicked the light on, the yellow light looking beautiful beating against the plum purple walls, and made her way over to her desk that had a sketchbook pressed to the back of it, a cup full of pens and pencils, and colored pencils scatter about.

She placed her mug on an empty spot and gathered the pencils into her hands as he sat down in the comfy computer chair, placing them in the cup and then opening the bag slumped against the front set of drawers at her feet. She pulled out her laptop and gingerly placed it in front of her, taking a sip of her coffee as she opened it up and turned it on. The screen instantly opened to her open document and she sat there, determined to at least start on this paper that was due in two weeks.

An empty cup of coffee and an hour and a half had passed by with no further improvement on the document Hope had opened up. She couldn’t even tell you how many times she had started writing something and then immediately deleted it before time had got the best of her and she had to leave for work. She slid her laptop back into her knapsack and slung it around her shoulder as she exited the room and made her way back down to the main floor. She turned right that led into her small living room and shoved her feet into her combat boots and then quickly ran through the open glass doors that separated the living room and the family room, or foyer as some people might call it, and out to the street.

She jogged down to the bus stop that wasn’t too far from where she lived and barely missed it, climbing on and whispering an out of breath thank you as she paid for her ride. She made it to the back of the bus and sat down in an open seat, fixing her hair and getting comfortable for the fifteen minute ride.

The day blurred by rather quickly, a rare yet enjoyable feeling for Hope since the feeling almost never happened, and she went through work in a blissful daze of her fake register voice and happy to help attitude, leaving exactly at noon to grab some discounted tea and lunch to go out on the patio and yet again work on her dreaded paper. It was the only assignment she had left to work on. All other classes were finished and she had no other homework to conveniently do before she worked on her paper.

The blank screen mocked her in its perfect cleanness, just begging her to type on the pages. Only, the document was a very picky one and would only expect the best and nothing else. The cursor blinked at her for the next hour as she sipped on her tea and munched on her sandwiches, not able to come up with even a good starter for her essay.

It wasn’t even a hard topic to write about. In fact, she had been looking forward to this assignment since the beginning of the year. But now that it’s in front of her and she actually has to do it, she doesn’t know what to write about. There were certainly many options. Hope Derringer was not a girl who made one thing more important than the other when it came to something she cared about her believed in. She had always thought that one thing drove her, kept her going...but now that she has to actually sit down and think about it, let alone write about it, she can’t seem to find the perfect thing to write about.

There was always the topic of ‘faking it till ya make it’ and she did that quite often, but did that really look all that good on an assignment? And then there was the typical ‘don’t give up.’ but lets face it, when things got too difficult Hope always gave up. She could always write about Shia Labeouf's ‘Just Do It’’, but her teacher was no fan of memes and Hope know that the teacher wouldn’t take her seriously. Hope could always just write about her struggles of growing up as a queer child in an unaccepting household, but that was far from the truth. She had always told herself that her family wouldn’t be accepting and delayed the coming out for a very long time but in the long run when she finally told them, her family did the exact opposite. They supported her for who she was and treated it as if it was a normal thing. Maybe that’s something she could write about. ‘Things aren’t always what we make them out to be.’

Satisfied with her idea, Hope pushed aside her empty paper cup and bowl and leaned over her laptop to start typing. She glanced down at her laptop for a quick second and realised that her break was over. Groaning, Hope put her laptop back in her bag and grabbed her trash as she stood up. The chair scraped against the concrete, matching the sound that came out of the girls mouth, and screeched when it had been pushed back to where it belonged. She shuffled over to the trashcan and dumped her empty containers into the bin then made her way back into the shop to get ready work.

The day continued on in it’s blissful blur, allowing Hope to make it through the day with nothing but peaceful thoughts in her mind. Her boss had even let her out a little early so that she didn’t have to run to the bus-stop that day, grateful for the early leave time due to the bus coming earlier than it should have and then made it through school while managing to maintain none of the stuff she had learned that day. By the time she had made it home, Hope was too tired to cook so she had just settled on dumping her bag on the lumpy milk chocolate couch in her living room, wandering into the kitchen to get a big bag of chips, and then moving to her room to change out of her jeans and into a pair of sweatpants.

She shuffled out of her room, shoving a handful of Biscuits and Gravy Lays Potato Chips into her mouth as she went into the living room. She laid the bag on of chips onto the couch and then rummaged around the clothing cluttered room to look for the remote, finally finding it under a shirt that was balled up on her table pushed against the side of the creamy colored wall. She plopped down on the couch between the bag of chips and her knapsack and crossed her legs as she turned the tv on and put some Netflix show on.

By the time she had finally gotten herself comfortably situated with her laptop in her lap and the bag of chips resting against her side she could hear the sound of her front door opening and closing. With a groan she craned her head to the side to look through the glass doors to spot two boys that looked exactly alike enter her house. Why on earth she thought it was a good idea to give Ethan and Aiden a key to her house was beyond her. Ethan, the older one, spotted Hope glaring at him through the door and gave her a cheery smile and a wave with his long slender fingers.

Both boys shared the same facial features, being twins and all, but had made it an easy way to tell who was who. They weren't that big of fans of tricking people and also hated being mistaken for the other. Ethan had kept his fluffy ash brown hair messy and free to flow wherever it wanted while Aiden kept his hidden away underneath a grey beanie, the long fraying out at the bottom. Ethan styled his hair so that his bangs swept the the right and Aiden usually pushed his bangs to the left, both of them covering their long slim eye-brows common in the Lee family. Both had thin black frames around their round shaped dark brown orbs, weak eyesight also being a commonality for the men in the Lee family.

To make sure he looked older, and to annoy Aiden a little, Ethan had grown out a little bit of stubble along his long slender jaw. Facial hair was one thing that Aiden hated the most. He despised the feeling of it growing on his chin so he shaved regularly to keep his jaw baby smooth and tried his best to avoid kissing Ethan’s prickly cheek whenever possible.

They both had a similar style of clothing, typically a white undershirt with the color hanging over some sort of oversized sweater, one of those jean jackets where the sleeves and hood where a grey cloth like material, skinny jeans of any color, a flannel wrapped around their wastes for god knows what reason, and a pair of navy blue vans. To go with their sense of style, Ethan had gotten a lip ring piercing to wrap around his thin lips and Aiden had gotten a bridge piercing at the top of his long slender nose. It was also not a rare sight to find their nails painted black.

“What do you waaaaant?” Hope groaned as Ethan stepped out of the foyer and into the living room that Hope was sitting in, leaving Aiden behind to close the door.

Ethan pushed his sleeves up, showing off his pastel galaxy sleeves sporting some simply drawn birds flapping through the sea of green, blue, and pink on his forearm.

“Are we not allowed to spend time with our best friend?” Ethan asked, plopping down on the arm of the sofa chair pushed up against the side of the glass door that was usually kept closed.

“Not when I have an assignment to work on.” Hope sat up and set her barely eaten chips to the side.

“Girl, you need to clean.” Aiden judged as he wandered into the room and sat down at the chair Ethan was on, looking around at the clothing covered room.

“Boy, you need to not show up at my house unexpected. What did you two want?”

“To tell you something.” The both said in unison, smiling wide.

“Are you two finally gonna tell me that you’re dating?” Hope asked as she turned the volume down on the tv.

“Aaww Hope, you can’t just ruin our surprise like that.” Aiden pouted and rested his elbow on Ethan’s leg and then propped his head in his hand.

Hope chuckled and looked back down at her laptop, “Come on, tell me what it is so I can go back to writing this essay.”

“Well, you kinda told yourself.” Ethan mentioned as he slowly started pulling off the others beanie.

“What do you mean?” Hope didn’t even bother looking up at them as she typed out the title of her paper.

Aiden pulled his beanie back down, “You asked us if we were dating.” Ethan pointed out.

“I ask everytime I see you guys.”

“Yeah, but our answer was different this time.” Aiden.

“Mmm...nope. You guys made it a joke like you usually do.”

“Yeah, but this time it was about us being together.” Ethan.

“It usually is.”

“No. Usually we go ‘Oh my god! How did you know!’ And then the we smush our cheeks together.” Aiden.

“Exactly. My point still stands.”

“Hope, we’re dating.” Aiden.

Hope’s eyes flickered up to the two, “Ooh~ who are the luck boy’s?”

“He is.” Ethan pointed at Aiden, “And he is.” Aiden pointed at Ethan.

Hope quirked her brow, “What do you mean?”

“Ugh, why are you so dense.” Ethan smacked the others head, “We’re dating each other.”

Her eyes suddenly widened, “Yeah.” Ethan trailed out.

“Seriously?” Hope straightened up and leaned in closer to the two. “You’re not pulling my strings or anything? Like? You two are actually dating?”

“Yep.”

“I don’t believe it.”

“We can kiss to prove it.” Ethan smirked.

“You two have kissed in front of me before.”

“Just a peck on the lips, he means actual kissing~.” Aiden wiggled his brows up at his brother.

“Please don’t.” Hope cringed and shook her head just from the thought of it. “So you two are dating.”

“Yeah.” Ethan.

“Wow.”

“We know.” Aiden leaned forward in his chair, crossing his arms over his knees as Ethan crossed his legs and rested against the back of the seat and the wall. “It’s weird. We haven’t told anyone else and don’t really plan on it, but we thought that you should at least know. Being our friend and all.”

“Does that mean I can’t tell Cas?”

“Nah. You’re chill to tell Cas.” Ethan chuckled and messed with a stray strand from his sweater.

“So what about your family?”

“Well, we told our little brother who then later told our uncle who then told our dad. He was oblivious to it though so he still has no idea.” Aiden leaned back in the chair.

“That or he’s in denial.” Ethan added.

“Yeah true, but our little sister was listening in on it so she know’s too but that’s chill cause she won’t tell anyone important.” Aiden continued.

“So pretty much all the people that you trust.”

“Yeah for the most part. You and Cas will be the last to know.” Ethan stated, still paying more attention to the stray strand than the conversation.

“What about your mom?”

“Hahaha. Our mom has known since we first started!” Aiden burst out laughing.

“And when was this?!”

“Long before we met you, Hope. Don’t worry though. We only waited so long to tell you because we didn’t want you to, like, ditch us or something after we came out.”

There was a short pause before Hope nodded. “Fair enough.”

The day had started like any other day. Hope’s godawful alarm started it’s rude beeping sound at 5:45 just as it had every day before, the red light flashing the pitch black room with its annoying wake-up call. A hand had suddenly smacked down on the black box, making a loud slap, as tired fingers fumbled around for the snooze button prior to slithering back to the warmth of the brown blanket it had come from. This went on for four more times before the lump of brown sighed and slowly rose up from it’s laying position.

Pushing the covers off of her head, Hope practically fell out of her bed as she wandered sleepily to the corner of her room and picked up a towel that was laying there. Yawning, and wiping her finger over her eyes and pushing up her bed horrid hair, the girl shuffled out of the black of her room and out into the round hallway in front of her room, the dark hardwood floor freezing her feet and making the hair on her arms stand up. She fumbled around with the light-switch that was placed between her bedroom and the bathroom before finally finding it and flipping it up, causing her to squint until her eyes adjusted to the bright yellow light.

Stumbling forward, Hope tripped over a stray bra that had made its way out of the bathroom causing the girl to stumble into the built-in bookshelf that held various books and porcelain decorations on its shelves and behind glass doors, making them rattle as she held herself up. Annoyed by the piece of garment that obviously had it out to get her, Hope kicked the bra into the open bathroom and then stepped onto the cold linoleum floor of the kitchen. She flipped the switch up and wandered over to her counter and opened the cabinet above her white coffee maker. She pulled down a small container and popped the lid off, pulling out a plastic wrapped package of coffee filters to tug loose before plopping it back in the container and shoving it into the cabinet most likely not where she found it.

Hope popped open the brewing basket and placed the filter where it belonged as she reached back up into the cabinet and pulled down her pre-grinded coffee grounds. Deciding to be extra lazy this morning, as per usual, they skipped the measuring aspect and just scooped what looked about right out of the container and dumped them into the filter. She then filled her water up to what looked right and put everything it belonged and pushed the on button, leaving the coffee to brew while she walked back into the rounded hallway and crossed over to the bathroom between her room and the guest room.

She crammed herself into the tiny bathroom, cramped even smaller by the excessive amount of dirty clothes on the floor and any open space stacked to the brim with old and new shampoo bottles and makeup. She opened her orange shower curtains and turned the water on, it automatically going to shower mode from her never having the time to take any baths, and then closed it as she waited for the water to heat up. As she turned around, she was immediately met with a sink cluttered in makeup, soaps, toothpaste, and a toothbrush as well as her tired morning face.

She uncapped her tube of toothpaste and spread it onto her well used, in need of new bristles, toothbrush and started scrubbing her teeth as she sat on her closed toilet and waited for the water to heat up. By the time she had finished brushing her teeth and lazily threw the contents back onto the sink the water had heated up to the perfect temperature and Hope had stripped out of her shirt from the day before and a pair of striped white and pink pajama pants so that she could step in and rid the residue of yesterday down the drain.

After a quick lather up and scrub of the hair and body, Hope turned the water off and stepped out of the warm tub. She immediately wrapped the fluffy towel around her bump covered body as she stepped into the cold air of her bathroom and dried off, quickly scampering into her room during the process. She quickly threw on undergarments, a baggy t-shirt, and a pair of black skinny jeans before running out of her room and into the kitchen to take care of her forgotten coffee.

She pulled a mug out of the dishwasher and set it on the counter before walking across the kitchen to her fridge to grab some creamer, picking up a spoon from a nearby drawer on her way back. She added what she needed to make her coffee taste nice and sweet and checked the time on her phone as she walked out of the kitchen, yet again into the rounded hallway, and over to a door that led up to the second floor. Hope jaggedly circled her way up the stairs, the staircase being more of an up a few steps and then a flat part that turns to another few steps to the floor, and admired the works of art hanging up on her walls.

Some of the pieces were hers that she liked or had won awards and somewhere paintings that she had bought and felt looked nice, keeping the bland white walls from taking over this exciting house. The energy it seemed to possess did not find the bland interior that Hope had been introduced to, and she was quick to fix that.

At the top of her stairs was a mid-way section between two rooms. On the left was a rather long room that she had turned into yet another guest room and on the right was the room to her study, or as she liked to call it; her creative space.  One the ceiling where a light would normally have been placed there was a pull-down door with a strand hanging down from said door that when pulled released a ladder and went up to the attic. Hope did everything she could to avoid going up there, not because it crept her out of course. Mainly because the last two times she used it she had injured herself going up or down and got stuck up there.

Off to the left of the staircase was a railing that held various knick knacks and candles, Hope being a big sap for the mingling of different smells and the rest of the open space and more paintings and some flowers hanging from hooks in the ceilings. On the white walls, Hope had painted simple designs in black to give the place a more cozy feel and placed a rug in the middle of the hardwood floor, two sofa chairs facing inward towards the stairs, and a table between the two chairs. Directly behind the chairs was a chestnut bookcase that she had purchased filled to the brim with more books, decorations, knick knacks, and various art supplies.

Taking a sip of her coffee, Hope turned to the right and entered the square room that was her creative space. The inside held a room painted plum purple that had a desk pushed up against the window that looked out onto the street, a few other shelves and desks that did not have any chairs with tim and cluttered in various art supplies and books, as well as a stack of empty canvases in the back. Directly in front of the door was a window the introduced you to the beautiful view of the next door neighbors side of the house. In front of that window, Hope had placed an art easel in the perfect position so that when she was painting she could look out the window and see down the street to admire the way the trees rose and fall along the hilly roads.

In the other corner next to her desk there was a hook that held a very dirty apron and a stool that she used when her legs got tired while painting. Hope stepped into her space and flicked the light on, the yellow light looking beautiful beating against the plum purple walls, and made her way over to her desk that had a sketchbook pressed to the back of it, a cup full of pens and pencils, and colored pencils scatter about.

She placed her mug on an empty spot and gathered the pencils into her hands as he sat down in the comfy computer chair, placing them in the cup and then opening the bag slumped against the front set of drawers at her feet. She pulled out her laptop and gingerly placed it in front of her, taking a sip of her coffee as she opened it up and turned it on. The screen instantly opened to her open document and she sat there, determined to at least start on this paper that was due in two weeks.

An empty cup of coffee and an hour and a half had passed by with no further improvement on the document Hope had opened up. She couldn’t even tell you how many times she had started writing something and then immediately deleted it before time had got the best of her and she had to leave for work. She slid her laptop back into her knapsack and slung it around her shoulder as she exited the room and made her way back down to the main floor. She turned right that led into her small living room and shoved her feet into her combat boots and then quickly ran through the open glass doors that separated the living room and the family room, or foyer as some people might call it, and out to the street.

She jogged down to the bus stop that wasn’t too far from where she lived and barely missed it, climbing on and whispering an out of breath thank you as she paid for her ride. She made it to the back of the bus and sat down in an open seat, fixing her hair and getting comfortable for the fifteen minute ride.

The day blurred by rather quickly, a rare yet enjoyable feeling for Hope since the feeling almost never happened, and she went through work in a blissful daze of her fake register voice and happy to help attitude, leaving exactly at noon to grab some discounted tea and lunch to go out on the patio and yet again work on her dreaded paper. It was the only assignment she had left to work on. All other classes were finished and she had no other homework to conveniently do before she worked on her paper.

The blank screen mocked her in its perfect cleanness, just begging her to type on the pages. Only, the document was a very picky one and would only expect the best and nothing else. The cursor blinked at her for the next hour as she sipped on her tea and munched on her sandwiches, not able to come up with even a good starter for her essay.

It wasn’t even a hard topic to write about. In fact, she had been looking forward to this assignment since the beginning of the year. But now that it’s in front of her and she actually has to do it, she doesn’t know what to write about. There were certainly many options. Hope Derringer was not a girl who made one thing more important than the other when it came to something she cared about her believed in. She had always thought that one thing drove her, kept her going...but now that she has to actually sit down and think about it, let alone write about it, she can’t seem to find the perfect thing to write about.

There was always the topic of ‘faking it till ya make it’ and she did that quite often, but did that really look all that good on an assignment? And then there was the typical ‘don’t give up.’ but lets face it, when things got too difficult Hope always gave up. She could always write about Shia Labeouf's ‘Just Do It’’, but her teacher was no fan of memes and Hope knows that the teacher wouldn’t take her seriously. Hope could always just write about her struggles of growing up as a queer child in an unaccepting household, but that was far from the truth. She had always told herself that her family wouldn’t be accepting and delayed the coming out for a very long time but in the long run when she finally told them, her family did the exact opposite. They supported her for who she was and treated it as if it was a normal thing. Maybe that’s something she could write about. ‘Things aren’t always what we make them out to be.’

Satisfied with her idea, Hope pushed aside her empty paper cup and bowl and leaned over her laptop to start typing. She glanced down at her laptop for a quick second and realised that her break was over. Groaning, Hope put her laptop back in her bag and grabbed her trash as she stood up. The chair scraped against the concrete, matching the sound that came out of the girls mouth, and screeched when it had been pushed back to where it belonged. She shuffled over to the trashcan and dumped her empty containers into the bin then made her way back into the shop to get ready work.

The day continued on in it’s blissful blur, allowing Hope to make it through the day with nothing but peaceful thoughts in her mind. Her boss had even let her out a little early so that she didn’t have to run to the bus-stop that day, grateful for the early leave time due to the bus coming earlier than it should have and then made it through school while managing to maintain none of the stuff she had learned that day. By the time she had made it home, Hope was too tired to cook so she had just settled on dumping her bag on the lumpy milk chocolate couch in her living room, wandering into the kitchen to get a big bag of chips, and then moving to her room to change out of her jeans and into a pair of sweatpants.

She shuffled out of her room, shoving a handful of Biscuits and Gravy Lays Potato Chips into her mouth as she went into the living room. She laid the bag on of chips onto the couch and then rummaged around the clothing cluttered room to look for the remote, finally finding it under a shirt that was balled up on her table pushed against the side of the creamy colored wall. She plopped down on the couch between the bag of chips and her knapsack and crossed her legs as she turned the tv on and put some Netflix show on.

By the time she had finally gotten herself comfortably situated with her laptop in her lap and the bag of chips resting against her side she could hear the sound of her front door opening and closing. With a groan she craned her head to the side to look through the glass doors to spot two boys that looked exactly alike enter her house. Why on earth she thought it was a good idea to give Ethan and Aiden a key to her house was beyond her. Ethan, the older one, spotted Hope glaring at him through the door and gave her a cheery smile and a wave with his long slender fingers.

Both boys shared the same facial features, being twins and all, but had made it an easy way to tell who was who. They weren't that big of fans of tricking people and also hated being mistaken for the other. Ethan had kept his fluffy ash brown hair messy and free to flow wherever it wanted while Aiden kept his hidden away underneath a grey beanie, the long fraying out at the bottom. Ethan styled his hair so that his bangs swept the the right and Aiden usually pushed his bangs to the left, both of them covering their long slim eye-brows common in the Lee family. Both had thin black frames around their round shaped dark brown orbs, weak eyesight also being a commonality for the men in the Lee family.

To make sure he looked older, and to annoy Aiden a little, Ethan had grown out a little bit of stubble along his long slender jaw. Facial hair was one thing that Aiden hated the most. He despised the feeling of it growing on his chin so he shaved regularly to keep his jaw baby smooth and tried his best to avoid kissing Ethan’s prickly cheek whenever possible.

They both had a similar style of clothing, typically a white undershirt with the color hanging over some sort of oversized sweater, one of those jean jackets where the sleeves and hood where a grey cloth like material, skinny jeans of any color, a flannel wrapped around their wastes for god knows what reason, and a pair of navy blue vans. To go with their sense of style, Ethan had gotten a lip ring piercing to wrap around his thin lips and Aiden had gotten a bridge piercing at the top of his long slender nose. It was also not a rare sight to find their nails painted black.

“What do you waaaaant?” Hope groaned as Ethan stepped out of the foyer and into the living room that Hope was sitting in, leaving Aiden behind to close the door.

Ethan pushed his sleeves up, showing off his pastel galaxy sleeves sporting some simply drawn birds flapping through the sea of green, blue, and pink on his forearm.

“Are we not allowed to spend time with our best friend?” Ethan asked, plopping down on the arm of the sofa chair pushed up against the side of the glass door that was usually kept closed.

“Not when I have an assignment to work on.” Hope sat up and set her barely eaten chips to the side.

“Girl, you need to clean.” Aiden judged as he wandered into the room and sat down at the chair Ethan was on, looking around at the clothing covered room.

“Boy, you need to not show up at my house unexpected. What did you two want?”

“To tell you something.” The both said in unison, smiling wide.

“Are you two finally gonna tell me that you’re dating?” Hope asked as she turned the volume down on the tv.

“Aaww Hope, you can’t just ruin our surprise like that.” Aiden pouted and rested his elbow on Ethan’s leg and then propped his head in his hand.

Hope chuckled and looked back down at her laptop, “Come on, tell me what it is so I can go back to writing this essay.”

“Well, you kinda told yourself.” Ethan mentioned as he slowly started pulling off the others beanie.

“What do you mean?” Hope didn’t even bother looking up at them as she typed out the title of her paper.

Aiden pulled his beanie back down, “You asked us if we were dating.” Ethan pointed out.

“I ask everytime I see you guys.”

“Yeah, but our answer was different this time.” Aiden.

“Mmm...nope. You guys made it a joke like you usually do.”

“Yeah, but this time it was about us being together.” Ethan.

“It usually is.”

“No. Usually we go ‘Oh my god! How did you know!’ And then the we smush our cheeks together.” Aiden.

“Exactly. My point still stands.”

“Hope, we’re dating.” Aiden.

Hope’s eyes flickered up to the two, “Ooh~ who are the lucky boy’s?”

“He is.” Ethan pointed at Aiden, “And he is.” Aiden pointed at Ethan.

Hope quirked her brow, “What do you mean?”

“Ugh, why are you so dense.” Ethan smacked the others head, “We’re dating each other.”

Her eyes suddenly widened, “Yeah.” Ethan trailed out.

“Seriously?” Hope straightened up and leaned in closer to the two. “You’re not pulling my strings or anything? Like? You two are actually dating?”

“Yep.”

“I don’t believe it.”

“We can kiss to prove it.” Ethan smirked.

“You two have kissed in front of me before.”

“Just a peck on the lips, he means actual kissing~.” Aiden wiggled his brows up at his brother.

“Please don’t.” Hope cringed and shook her head just from the thought of it. “So you two are dating.”

“Yeah.” Ethan.

“Wow.”

“We know.” Aiden leaned forward in his chair, crossing his arms over his knees as Ethan crossed his legs and rested against the back of the seat and the wall. “It’s weird. We haven’t told anyone else and don’t really plan on it, but we thought that you should at least know. Being our friend and all.”

“Does that mean I can’t tell Cas?”

“Nah. You’re chill to tell Cas.” Ethan chuckled and messed with a stray strand from his sweater.

“So what about your family?”

“Well, we told our little brother who then later told our uncle who then told our dad. He was oblivious to it though so he still has no idea.” Aiden leaned back in the chair.

“That or he’s in denial.” Ethan added.

“Yeah true, but our little sister was listening in on it so she know’s too but that’s chill cause she won’t tell anyone important.” Aiden continued.

“So pretty much all the people that you trust.”

“Yeah for the most part. You and Cas will be the last to know.” Ethan stated, still paying more attention to the stray strand than the conversation.

“What about your mom?”

“Hahaha. Our mom has known since we first started!” Aiden burst out laughing.

“And when was this?!”

“Long before we met you, Hope. Don’t worry though. We only waited so long to tell you because we didn’t want you to, like, ditch us or something after we came out.”

There was a short pause before Hope nodded. “Fair enough.”

“Hey, can we stay the night?” Ethan asked out of nowhere.

“No.”

“What the f**k, Hope?” Ethan complained.

“I have work tomorrow. And school.”

“Can we at least stay for dinner? We drove all the way out here, at least let us stay for a little while.”

“You’re paying.” Hope closed her laptop, any thought of working on her essay thrown out the bus.

“Pizza it is.” Aiden said, pulling out his phone.

“Order from Domino’s, we’ll get a discount.” Hope quirked her brow yet again, “Aiden works there, so he gets discounted pizza’s.”

Hope nodded and turned the volume back up.

Author's Note

So here's the updated chapter two.

Comments are always welcomed and I still need your input on the rating thing!