"Melanie, dad's going to make you do it again, you know. You're doing a horrible job." Silas threw himself back onto the couch. My brother was so incredibly impatient sometimes.
"Silas, I'm doing the best I can," I shouted over the noise of the vacuum. I pushed it back and forth over the beige carpet Dad had asked me to clean before we left for the airport. I reached down and switched off the vacuum, silencing the only noise in the room besides my bother's huffing and puffing. "There, all done. That wasn't so bad," I said, starting to walk to the wall socket to unplug it. I hadn't noticed that while I was pushing the vacuum in circles around the room, I'd tangled the chord around my ankles. When I took my first step towards the plug, my feet were pulled out from under me and I fell. Flat on my face.
"Oh… My… God! Are you… okay?" Silas asked me, rolling around on the couch clutching his stomach and laughing. "You are so uncoordinated!" He was right. I was completely uncoordinated. I was always the one who fell, who got hurt, the one who couldn't play sports. Silas had enough athletic ability for the both of us. He was the jock and I was the brains. It sounds like the cliché twin story, but it's one hundred percent factual.
"I need to work on that…" I said standing up and untangling myself from the chord.
"Kids, we need to get going!" My mom shouted coming out of her room and walking down the hallway into the living room.
"Finally!" Silas cried, jumping off the brown leather couch and hurtling himself towards the door. We'd been anticipating this day for weeks. Silas and I had always wanted to host an exchange student, and ours was finally arriving today! All I knew about him was he was fifteen-almost sixteen, just like us, British, and his name was Liam. Yes, the school usually didn't pair up male exchange students with a female host, but because of Silas, we ended up with a guy. And hey, I had no problem with it. A guy with a sexy accent living in my house? I think yes.
"Oh. My. God. This is so exciting!" I squealed as we pulled into the airport parking lot. As soon as my mom cut the engine, I threw open the car door and tried to jump out. But, I was restrained and pulled back into the car by my seat belt, which I had forgotten to unbuckle. I scrambled to unfasten the restraint and stumbled out of the car. I turned around to see my mom and my brother trying hard not to laugh at me. "Just, please." I said holding my hand up, imitating one of my favorite 'You Tubers.'
"Race you inside!" Silas cried as he took off towards the revolving doors that marked the entrance to the building.
"No fair! You got a head start!" I shouted after him. Not only did he have a head start, but he was the school track star. As a sophomore, he held the record for the fastest mile. There was no way I could win this race. Besides, if I tried running, I'd probably fall and rip my jeans or something.
We went inside and waited anxiously at the gate to pick up Liam. My mother
held a sign that had our school name on it so he could find us easily. I was full of anticipation and I was just bouncing around the seats like a little Mexican jumping bean. "Melanie, sit down!" my mother scolded, patting the seat next to her.
"Yeah, Melly, you don't want Liam thinking you're a hyperactive puppy do you?" Silas teased.
"Oh, shut up. I'm just a little excited."
"Understatement of the century…" He mumbled.
"Excuse me? What did you just say?" I asked shooting him a glare.
"Nothing." Jeeze my brother, sometimes he annoyed the living hell out of me.
I turned and sat down in the empty chair between my mum and my brother. I twiddled my thumbs for a few minutes anticipating the arrival of Liam when finally I saw a boy, around my age, dragging two large black suitcases behind him and wearing a back backpack on his shoulders. He had shaggy sandy blonde hair that framed his face and big brown eyes. My jaw dropped. I swear, if it hadn't been connected to my face, it would have gone right to the floor. "Y-y-you…y-y-you…y-you're…" I stammered completely horrified with myself, and utterly shocked at what I was seeing standing before me.
"Your exchange student?" He suggested, "Hi, I'm Liam. Liam Payne," he said offering his hand out to me.
My eyes were bugging out of my head, "Y-you…y-you're…" I continued to stutter, still gaping at him.
He turned to Silas, "Is she always like this?" He asked raising his eyebrows.
"Nah, she just thinks you're hot," Silas replied smirking at me.
"No, I do not!" I said a tad too loudly. Yes, I did think this guy was extremely fit, but that wasn't why I was so awestruck when I saw him. He looked exactly like someone I saw on the YouTube site for the British talent show 'X-Factor'. Hell, he even had the same name as him! He'd auditioned last year, and hadn't made it through to the live shows and it broke my heart seeing him get sent home. But, it couldn't be him. It's just way to ironic. "H-he's j-just…" Liam looked at me like a deer in headlights and shook his head ever so slightly, "never mind," I said looking down at the floor and shuffling my feet around.
"Jesus Christ! Melly, just spit it out!" My brother said, obviously irritated that he didn't understand what was going through my head.
"I just thought he looked familiar, that's all," I murmured. I could feel heat rising from my stomach, to my cheeks, and up to my ears. Damn it. I was making a fabulous first impression on Liam, the guy I was going to be living with for the next few months. Not to mention that he was kind of semi famous in the UK.
"I think you're losing it Melly…" Silas said shifting his eyes back and forth, while dropping his lower lip to reveal his bottom teeth. It was faces like these that reminded me that we really were related. Besides having the same black hair, nose, and build (I was more feminine than he) there was nothing else, physically, that would signify that we were twins. Except for the facial expressions. We always pulled the same silly faces and photographs. When we were being sarcastic, when we were being serious, when we were sad, when we were angry, when we were excited, when we thought something was funny, we always had the same facial expressions.
"Alright kids, it's time to get moving! We're going to run out of time in the parking meter," Mom said, "Silas, you and Melanie can each take one of Liam's bags."
I tried to reach out and grab one of the suitcase handles from Liam. He looked at me with wide eyes. Iwon'ttell I mouthed back at him. Fucking hell, this was getting off to a great start now, wasn't it?
"So, Liam, Hun, are you hungry or anything? We can stop for a bite to eat on the way home if you like," my mom asked as she helped load the suitcases into the trunk of our silver Volkswagen Passat.
"Uhm, no thank you Mrs. McAdams. I had plenty to eat on the plane," He said hoisting the last bag into the trunk.
"Oh please, call me Jen, or Mom even. Either works fine. But if you're going to be living with us, I won't be having any of this Mrs. McAdams nonsense."
"Okay… Jen!" He said elbowing her in the side and grinning. Oh God, his accent. I was going to completely love having him stay in the room next to mine. I mean,
who wouldn't.
The entire way home, Mum and Silas bombarded him with questions about England. What's the food like? How's the weather? Does everyone have an accent? What kind of TV is popular there? Liam was such a good sport he answered them all and firing back with his own. There was an awkward lull in the conversation a few minutes before we arrived home. Silas filled the silence, "Are the girls hotter over there?" Of course he would say that. "Because, I mean Melanie, she always talks about how boys here should dress better, and look better like the guys over in England."
"Silas!" I screeched, digging my elbow into his ribs.
"Melanie!" He screamed, grabbing at my arm and twisting it behind my back, and causing me to smash my face into the window.
"SILAS!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, trying to throw my head back and bash it into his nose.
"Liam!" Liam piped up from the front seat. Damn, this kid had a sense of humor.
Silas released my arm. I turned around to face him and we both burst into one of the worst fits of laughter I'd ever experienced over one simple word. I swear, once we were finished I had a six pack and three years added onto my life.