Twin Envy

by CidGregor

Chapter Two: Harsh Reality

"Sarah's always been…really expressive, emotionally…she was never one to suppress herself when she was mad, or upset, or freaked out…so I guess…with something as big as this…her reaction shouldn't come as such a surprise."

A few blocks away, a petite, blonde-haired girl of seventeen lay limply upon her un-made bed in rumpled pajamas, a spot on the pillow beneath her damp from the tears that leaked from bloodshot eyes. Where her walls had once been decorated with posters of her favorite musicians and paintings of a certain brown-haired half-cat, they were now papered with dark, joyless paintings; black and red dominated the works, making her entire room seem to swallow up what little light reached through the closed curtain.

The girl slowly sat up, drew her legs up to her chest, and hugged her arms around them, staring blankly at the wall. After a long moment, she turned and reached into the drawer of her nightstand. Slowly, almost reluctantly, she drew out an object from within, and looked at it. It was a framed photograph of a pair of people sitting together in front of a canvas. One of them the girl could recognize was she herself, perhaps at age five or so; her fingers and hands and even as far up as her tiny wrists were covered in finger-paint, slapping it all over the paper before her and looking as though she was having the time of her life. And right beside her, helping her, was an older man, little square spectacles adorning his plump face and a mess of grey, almost white hair atop his head, enjoying himself just as much.

The girl couldn't help it; she traced a delicate finger around the figure of the man in the photo, and as she did, a tear fell from one eye and landed right atop him.

"…Sarah's grandfather passed away a couple of days ago."

Quickly she stuffed the photo back into the drawer, slammed it closed, and threw herself back down on the bed, hiding her face as another wave of anger and sadness ran down her spine and gave her a shiver.

"Grandpa…"

"I never really knew him all that well…but Sarah was…close to him…really close."

Sarah tried not to let the rush of memories come to her, knowing full well how painful it would be, but they came anyway. Older memories came first…memories of picnics at the park, throwing Frisbees and swinging on the playground while he pushed her...memories of riding high up on his shoulders, of getting her little knee-scrapes kissed so they'd feel better. Then came the newer memories, memories in which he somehow never seemed to grow any older. She saw him taking her to her first real art class, shaking and nervous until she showed her first painting to the class and they all ooh-ed and ahh-ed over it and grandpa was right there beside her telling her how proud he was…she remembered nights together of laughing at old movies from when he was young and sneaking ice cream when they weren't supposed to and him asking her if there were any special boys that she really liked and she went terribly red because of course she'd invited Elliot over that night…

"He'd always been pretty healthy, even for his age…probably why it was such a shock to her when her parents told her."

Her thoughts fast-forwarded against her will and came to a rest just a couple of days prior…she'd walked home from school and come in the front door just like always, and called out hello to her parents just the way she did every day, and put away her backpack and came into the kitchen to greet her parents in person, the same as any other day…except they didn't say 'hello' back to her, didn't respond at all except to look sadly at her, and she knew right then that it wasn't the same, that it would never be the same again…

Then suddenly they were at the hospital, and oh God she didn't want to be there, she couldn't, she wouldn't see him like this, with tubes in his mouth and IV needles in his skin and machines monitoring his pulse as it slowly faded and God, why did it have to be him…?

"The doctors said…his heart was weak. Always had been. He was in danger of heart problems for a lot of his life, but it just never manifested until that day…when he had a heart attack."

And then there was that beep, that long, unbroken, bone-chilling beep, and she knew that the nurses rushing in couldn't do any good, he was gone, and a part of her had gone with him…

Sarah snapped out of the memories with an angry sob. It wasn't fair, she told herself. He'd been a healthy person all his life; he didn't smoke or drink, he ate right, he exercised…everything a person was supposed to do to stay healthy…and life paid him back with a heart attack and took him away from her. It just wasn't fair.

"No one was expecting it, least of all Sarah…and, well…it hit her really hard. Needless to say…she's not taking it well at all."

Her arm dangled over the edge of the bed, and grazed something rough and flexible that she'd stuffed underneath there sometime in the last two days. She had half a mind to just smash whatever it was, if for no other reason than to vent some of her anger and frustration. But as she pulled it from under the bed to do just that, she looked at it and realized what it was: her canvas portrait of a certain brown-haired boy, half-morphed into a big furry cat.

Elliot… she thought, a mass of emotions tagged to the name rushing upon her. They'd been together for a while now, and she'd been crushing on him for a long time before that, and he was never mean or hurtful or unfaithful to her, and he always did his best to make her happy…in that sense, she couldn't help but love him. But he just didn't understand. At least her parents knew exactly what she'd lost, having lost it themselves…but Elliot…he'd never truly known her grandfather. The comfort he'd tried to offer her when she told him was empty…forced, even. The kind someone gives when they have no idea how to react or what they should say. Elliot didn't have a clue just how much her grandpa had meant to her, and she hated him for it. She hated that the one person she found herself desperately wanting comfort from wasn't giving it.

But he's trying, at least, isn't he? Some part of her reasoned as she stared into the kind, honest eyes of the boy in the painting. Maybe he doesn't know how you feel, but at least he's trying to be there for you anyway…isn't that enough?

One thing was for sure…she did regret what had happened right after that. He'd been trying to comfort her…trying and failing…and when he couldn't ease her pain like she so desperately needed, it was like a dam suddenly broke, like all her anger and frustrations just came spilling out in one big rush…and Elliot was the one she drowned with it. The things she'd said to him…angry or not, she wanted so badly to take them back.

You have to talk to him, her conscience reasoned. The rest of her eventually agreed, and she was in her coat and out the door before she knew it.

"I tried to be there for her…to comfort her, to give her…I dunno, a shoulder to cry on, I guess…but she wouldn't have it. She just…pushed me away."

Tedd nodded along, enraptured by his friend's story. "Man…that has to hurt…"

"You're telling me," Elliot said. "It's like…she's mad at the world for taking her grandfather away from her. And I guess I'm just unlucky enough to be the scapegoat…some of the things she said…it was just painful to hear them…especially coming from Sarah."

"Well, like you said, she probably just made a scapegoat out of you," Tedd reminded him as he went back to his computer. "She's probably realized it by now and feels so bad about it she can't face you."

"Yeah, sure," Elliot muttered cynically. "Or maybe she's still stuck in 'I hate you, I never want to see you again' mode…"

"Yeesh…she actually said that?"

Elliot nodded and sighed into the couch cushion.

Tedd turned to Elliot again as a program on his computer loaded. "You have to know she didn't mean it, dude."

"She still said it," Elliot said back.

"And I'm sure she's sorry, but you should still talk to her about it. The longer this thing drags on the worse it's gonna get. You'll get bitter, she'll get upset all over again when she doesn't hear from you, and it'll all blow up in your face."

Once again Elliot's only answer was to grumble and mutter inaudibly.

Tedd turned back to his computer, typing in a few commands. "Well fine, don't listen to me. I'm just the genius mad scientist successfully holding onto a girlfriend."

"Look, Tedd, I appreciate your advice, but I just don't want to deal with it right now."

"I'm not saying you have to now," Tedd amended. "Just…soon."

"…I guess," came Elliot's noncommittal reply.

"Good. In the meantime you can give me a hand here," Tedd changed the subject.

Glad for the excuse to stop thinking about his problem with Sarah, Elliot crawled off the couch and over to the computer, where he could get a good look at the program Tedd had been fiddling with. It was a web-camera program, he discovered, and judging by the number of open windows on the screen, it was connected to not just the camera mounted atop Tedd's computer monitor, but something like half-a-dozen mounted in various spots around the basement, each capturing the room from a different angle.

"Smile, you're on candid camera," Tedd chuckled.

Elliot didn't look amused. "I hope for your sake these weren't running while we were all body-switching at the birthday party."

Tedd looked drolly at him. "C'mon, dude, have a little faith in me."

"What are they for, then?"

"They're mostly for keeping a record of any transformation-related activity in the event something goes wrong. …Or in the event of a particularly cool transformation that I want to see again in slow motion," he added with a sly grin.

"I bet Grace would just love to hear about that," Elliot said with an eyeroll.

"Actually…it was her idea." He eyes glazed over as he grinned widely. "God I love that woman…"

"…Uh-huh. Well, nothing's going wrong, and there's been no saucy transforming recently, so what exactly are you looking for?"

"This!" he announced, pointing dramatically at one of the windows, which showed the boys a recording of Tedd's father as he opened the secret wall in the basement and hid the dewitchery diamond inside.

"Tedd," Elliot said warningly when the camera zoomed in to pinpoint the exact spot on the wall that activated the secret compartment. "You promised your dad you weren't gonna go breaking in there."

"And I'm not," he answered. "I'm opening it perfectly normally. No breaking involved."

Elliot threw up his hands and dropped back down onto the couch. "Forget it…I don't have the willpower to fight off your ridiculous logic."

"I'm just gonna run a couple of harmless little experiments, he'll never know," Tedd assured him, mirroring what his father did in the recording and tapping the exact spot he needed to. As he'd hoped, the wall slid open again, revealing the safe. Tedd looked at the recording again as it zoomed in to capture the safe's combination as well, and entered it into the dial. The tumblers clicked into place and the door popped open easily, and Tedd eagerly reached for the diamond inside.

"Hey hey hey!" Elliot jumped up and smacked his hands away. "If you're really gonna disobey your dad, at least wear some gloves or something before you go grabbing that thing!"

"I'm not transformed or cursed or anything, it's not gonna do anything to me," Tedd assured him.

"You sure of that?" Elliot asked rhetorically. "You sure it's not going to create an unwanted clone of yourself anyway?"

Tedd considered the point, decided he really didn't know enough about the diamond to say that with any certainty, and carefully wrapped a cloth around the diamond before removing it.

"Look at it," Tedd stared wide-eyed at the bundle. "It's beautiful."

Elliot just sighed. "I have a bad feeling about this…"