"Kate? What are you doing?"
"Heeeyyy," Kate called, her eyes expanding at the sight of Sophie awake and sitting up in her bed.
"It's… it's two in the morning," Sophie continued, bleary-eyed and baffled by the noise coming from her roommate. It was pitch black except for the hall light flooding into the room from the open door. For all of the late nights of partying, she had never known Kate to bring the party back to the dorm
"Itzmyburthday," Kate announced as a garble of drunken sounds. It took a moment for Sophie to interpret the sounds into words and was caught by the fact Kate didn't look especially excited about it.
"And so you're celebrating with a fifth of Jack?" Sophie asked, noting the near-empty bottle swaying between Kate's fingers.
"Nope. I hate birthdays."
"People don't usually start hating birthdays until they're like… thirty," Sophie scowled, juggling between annoyance and intrigue. Much like she had never seen Kate bring her drinking back to the room, she'd also never seen her this intoxicated.
"I'm different," Kate said, shaking her head. "I am one half of a whole. Except now I'm just a half of a whole."
"What does that mean?" Sophie asked, struggling to contain her growing annoyance and the riddles spewing from Kate's mouth.
"I am a twin," Kate replied.
"What? Really?" Sophie gawked in surprise. It was practically season two of a television show, and she had never once heard mention of a sibling, let alone a twin. "You've never talked about a sibling."
"That's because she's dead."
Sophie's confusion crashed into another wave of shock.
"I… I'm sorry, I didn't… I didn't know."
"I know," Kate said, waving Sophie off while lifting the bottle to her lips.
"I… Were you… do you remember her?"
Kate nodded into the sip of the caramel liquid.
"Uh… w-when did-?"
"Seven years ago today."
Text scrolled over the screen, but Sophie's eyes were glazed over, unable to concentrate on the information. It had been six weeks and she still found herself lost for moments on end in memories. Of what was. Of what could have been. Heartache wasn't something she knew how to describe, but it showed up in small ways: like how she skipped meals and slept on the couch. Like how she clung to her Point Rock sweatshirt like a lifeline. Like how she'd let the unlikely partnership with Ryan Wilder and Angelique Martin be the focus of her attention. Like how she fought for that relationship because her own was buried in an empty casket.
"Moore," she said, answering the buzz from her phone. She paused, taking in the information and scratching an address down for reference. "Did you say lime green?... Got it, I'll be there in ten… What? No, no back-up."
Like how she was becoming more reckless.