A/N: This is for tiger002's Tides of Tears contest.
You were the one
no one ever expected
would end up
here.
Then again,
it's not something you expect,
this.
But circumstances change,
and lives change.
You have something to live up to.
Now.
You need to do this—
to be both
when both cannot be.
You are half of both,
but not quite one either.
So you walked—
no, more like barged
—into the office.
The office of the dean of admissions.
And you made a very hefty request.
You asked them
to let you have his place—
even though
he didn't have one.
You could've gotten thrown out.
But you didn't.
You managed to explain yourself.
And
for some bizarre reason,
they let you take his place.
Of course,
you were kind of there for a bizarre reason in the first place.
It was May 5.
You were planning on going to The Art Institute.
He was going to be accepted to Yale.
Everyone knew.
He was going
to be accepted.
It was a great day.
Until Moseby came in.
He announced
that the ship was sold.
Graduation was moved to the next day,
and the ship was to be dismantled.
Cody and Bailey were named co-valedictorians.
Obviously.
All students were given the day
to get their stuff sorted out.
You went to the Aqua Lounge to hang out.
Until she came in
and said that the Peace Corps had assigned her
to Chad.
Which, apparently,
is a country, not a person.
You can't have a long-distance relationship.
Not that long of a distance.
You had to break up,
but you couldn't.
So she did it for you.
You'd never felt a breakup
from this side before.
You were paralyzed
with pain.
You went to your room,
and you wouldn't come out.
Not until you felt
another intense pain
that you recognized
distinctly
as not your own.
It was Cody.
You still have the link
from the Gemini project.
You aren't—
weren't
—sure it will ever go away.
You learn through the link
that he wasn't accepted.
Cody
wasn't
accepted.
Everyone knew
he was going to be accepted.
It's quite shocking that he wasn't.
You want—
no, need
—to console him.
To tell him
that it will get better.
And as much as you want to get up...
you can't.
Your own pain is too much.
Or so you think.
It's May 6.
You still won't leave your room.
You lie in bed
for hours.
Even when you start to think
work might distract you from this girl
(wait, what?)
you still won't get up.
Then you hear something.
"If I'm not worth it to Yale,
I'm not worth it at all."
At first,
you think you're hearing things.
Then you realize that
your twin is saying these things.
To himself.
That makes you bolt upright.
You jump out of bed
and leave your room.
You charge across the hall,
but the door is open
and the room empty.
You fly to the Sky Deck,
somehow knowing
that's where he'll be
and hoping that
you heard wrong.
You arrive at the Sky Deck,
and there he is.
There's a strange bulge in one of his pockets
that no one else seems to notice.
It's a gun.
You hear him tell Bailey that he loves her.
You heard correctly.
He strides
nonchalantly
to the middle of the Sky Deck.
He pulls out the gun.
Bailey screams.
But she doesn't run to him.
Because she's not sure
what he will do
if she does.
Mom and Dad walk onto the Sky Deck.
They couldn't have picked a worse day
to arrive late.
Cody puts the gun
to his chest,
oblivious to the world
turning cold and still around him,
even though
he's staring straight at you.
You and everyone else
are in a paralyzed silence,
wanting to scream,
to move,
but unable to send the signal
to your vocal cords and muscles.
He pulls the trigger.
You hear someone scream
but you can't identify the voice
over the pain.
The pain
you should never have to feel.
The pain of death
without dying.
You collapse to the floor
and stay there
until the pain fades
and is replaced with emptiness.
And you scream with no end
when your thoughts are coherent enough
to put together the reason why:
Your twin brother just killed himself.
A/N: Quite morbid story, huh? How'd I do? I feel like I write better in a poetry format than I do in prose, and I'm wondering if readers feel the same way. Last word count minus A/Ns and horizontal lines (if they count) is 724.