AUDREY
I never really liked the colour of my room. It was baby blue; I had picked it when I was 11 after we first moved in. My efforts to hide the childish pastel walls with posters and pictures were all in vain, the baby blue always somehow poked through the spaces between my favourite bands and my friends smiling faces. Every time I packed I couldn't help but think of how much things had changed since we first painted those walls, including my decorating choices. My taste in music was another thing, rather than using it simply to drown out the sound of my parents, now I actually enjoyed it. Now it was summery sugar coated pop tunes instead of the loudest most angry guitar the internet could give me.
"I don't understand Dad! We're almost 17, you should give us a choice instead of just shuttling us back and forth for temporary house to house!"
"Florence, it's only for another year. You and Audrey are just gonna have to stick it out."
"Can't we just fast track the year, like skip it or something?"
"Not unless you wanna go speak to the lawyers about it, you should really be used to this. We've had this system for almost six years now. One year should go by in no time. Now go get your bag and wait in the car"
I could hear Florence stomp up the stairs muttering something about 'our shitty unfair legal system'. Maybe I would have to go back to my old tuning my family out tactic. I tried not to let it bug me and just kept packing my bag.
"Audrey! Is your bag almost ready?" my dad yelled anxiously jingling his key like he always did.
"Yep I'll be down in a sec"
Just as I zipped up my bag Florence leaned in against my doorframe. "You hear his key jingle? He can't wait to get rid of us" she said in her typical anarchist tone.
"He told us yesterday, he's got of errands to run today Flor"
"Don't be so naïve little sis. Errand is clearly code for Barbie time"
Barbie was Florence's affectionate nickname for our dad's girlfriend Lacy. I don't understand why Flor hated her so much, but my guess was she felt as if she was trying to replace our mum. But then again, the two of us are so different that my theory could be completely off. Looking at Florence leaning there so casually as if the doorframe was so comfortable to her in her strategically picked no name hoodie and slightly too short frayed jean skirt, it was painfully obvious how different we'd turned out to be. People would never guess that never conforming Florence were ever related to quiet, blend in and aim to please me. It seemed like the only thing that linked us to one another anymore was the fact that we had exactly the same facial features and the same extremely awkward body shape.
"Whatever, think what you want he's just busy. And who are you calling little? I don't think I need to remind you were twins, or have you not looked in a mirror lately?" I said in my best 'please don't take offense from my sibling joke and start a fight simply because you can' voice.
" And I don't think I need to remind you of who was born first, I am a full –"
"Girls! Let's go! Traffics not getting any lighter!" yelled my dad still jingling his key clearly getting more and more impatient.
"Come on, Let's save him the heart attack and get in the car"
We both clopped down the stairs and piled into our dad's extremely impractical topless zero truck space BMW convertible. Florence called shotgun of course so she could pick the radio station. It was going to be a fun half hour.
FLORENCE
Sucks, sappy, classical, double sucks, country. I must have punched the radio dial at least thirty times before settling on the least sugar coated pop bubble gum fluff station I could find. Audrey would be pleased.
"Did it really take you that long to find something you liked?" Dad criticized trying to be heard over the sweet voice of Sam Roberts telling Eileen not to walk away.
"What can I say, I have original taste in music. You and mum should have expected that naming your kid's Audrey and Florence? Not exactly on the top 100 most popular baby names."
"We named you two after your Grandmothers, we were exactly planning on trying to sway you into being individuals through naming you"
"You know I don't believe you" Audrey finally spoke from inbetween all the bag that she was buried under in the back seat. "I think you and mum were secretly angsty hippies in college who wanted to start a feminist movement and stop global warming or at least 'always be true to the individuals we are'. I think that's where Florence got it from"
"Well," my dad chuckled, "I hate to burst your bubble Audrey, but your mother and I went to college in the 80s, we weren't quite in the hippy decade."
The song changed to some throw back to the 70s band that sang monotony. Dad punched off the radio.
"Hey! Why'd you do that? I like that song!"
"Hunny, I can only put up with so much of this crap per day, and I've reached my daily limit."
"Wow okay dad, its not all about-"
"OH look were here!" shouted Audrey nervously from between our duffle bags, clearly eager to get out of the claustrophobic backseat.
Our mum rushed out of the house to meet us the way she always did, ready to smother us in hugs as soon as we got out of the car. I practically leaped out of the car as Audrey struggle to escape in the back. I hugged her like I hadn't seen her in years. I smelled her vanilla shampoo as she squeezed me tighter, I was really home now. For the weekend at least. Audrey obviously couldn't wait to get her fix if mums comforting vanilla and hugged right on behind me.
"How are my girls, I missed those three days without you!"
"We missed you too mum!" Audrey and I said in sync, our twin telepathy at work.
"Wow, why don't I ever get this kind of greeting?" dad said from inside the car. I shot him a look at said 'because you change my radio station and call it crap that's why' look, then continued to inhale mums sent like it was a drug.
"Your right on time too, I was just about to start a Grey's Anatomy marathon! Why don't you two go put your bags inside and meet me in the living room, I have a few financial items to discuss with your father." Mum raised her voice and her eyebrows at the word 'financial' to make it clear to our dad she meant business. "For a rich guy you sure do know how to avoid the cash issue" she added with her ever friendly chuckle that made me want to smile along with her. Audrey and I grabbed our bags and went inside to settle back into our home.
"I don't know about you, but I missed my room and my bed way too much." I said to Audrey as we climbed the stairs up to our rooms."
AUDREY
Unlike my room at my dad's house, my room at my mums house was perfect. The walls were my favourite shade of dusty lilac, the bedspread my mum picked out for me from a craftshow had the coolest floral print, and all of my pictures had frames here, like they belonged. I quickly threw the dirty close from my duffle bag into a hamper and threw on some sweat pants and headed down to the basement.
Once I got to the living room, neither my mum nor Flor had come down yet, weird. So I waited and tried to busy myself by straightening the pictures on our mantel. I got to about the middle of the mantel and paused, staring at the picture of my parents with Florence and I on our vacation to Disney land when we were ten. It was just before they got their divorce. It sounds so cheesy to say after the fact, but we looked so happy then. Maybe it was just the fact that we were in the most magical place on earth for ten year olds surrounded by characters in costume and sugar, but I think it was something else. I think it was because we were all together for once, and this was one of the last pictures of us taken as a family all together. I loved that mum still had it out for the world to see unlike dad. It seemed like after the divorce he'd just put away every picture with my mum in it and moved on so quickly. That's another reason why Florence hated Barbie, she started seeing dad less than a year after the divorce. Flor swears it would have been sooner if he didn't have to deal with the whole custody battle thing. He even took time off of work to get everything settled so that he could "get back to life" sooner, and by get back to life he meant back to work.
Dad worked for a multimillion dollar corporation, he made a killing. Despite the fact that he worked so much, Florence and I were never really entirely sure what he did there. He was kind of like Barney from How I Met Your Mother, except he was always working instead of out picking up chicks (despite what Florence may say). I could hear footsteps coming down the stair and rushed over to the couch and tried to look casual, like I hadn't been sitting there waiting, reminiscing about the good old days.
"So did you just study for your MCAT's when we were gone like you good little book worm mum?" Florence mocked. Mum had gone back to school after her and my dad broke up to furfill her dreams of becoming a doctor. Florence loved that and always wanted to know every single detail, she thought it embodied the whole strong independent woman thing.
"No! You make it sound like it's all I do!" Mum gave one of her signature chuckles again, "I went out to dinner with your Aunt Clara Saturday night and we had a good time . . . and then I studied the rest of The weekend."
"Ha! I knew it!" Florence pointed her figure triumphantly.
"C'mon mum, you promised us you wouldn't work too hard when we were gone" I said with a grin hoping she'd pick up on my sarcasm.
"Oh well, I didn't. And anyways, I'm relaxing now with my two beautiful daughters" she said patting the couch beside her and reaching for the remote control.