8 years later

Laughter filled the room as we celebrated mine and Zed's 17th birthday. My brother's had given me A LOT of chocolate and vouchers, Zed had given me a pretty necklace that had a small star on and my parents had given me a proper make-up set that we were now putting.

'Guys get off already.' He whined as apparently we were messing up his 'look'.

'Fine. Get off guys.' I said pulling back; shooing everyone else away as we laughed. I handed him a pack off make up wipes to clean himself up with. For his birthday I had got him a new watch, our brothers had gotten him a whole new football kit that he had been wanting for ages and Mum and dad had gotten him a new skateboard and extra wheels in different colours if he wanted to change them.

Later on me and Zed were sat at the tree where I ran to on my first day. It was our special place and no one knew except for us. Over the last eight years me and Zed had become best friends as we normally ended up in detention together as we knew exactly how to wind up the teachers. And the fact that we were twins might have something to do with it. We laughed away the evening sharing memories that had ended up with us in detention or the teachers getting told off by the headmaster or principal. The fact that Zed and I were really popular at school so the rest of the students backed us up in arguments. Once when I was ten a boy pushed me into a puddle and the next day Zed went round to his house and punched him in the face. Good times.

Ziva! Zed! Dinner's ready! Mum called telepathically

Coming. We intoned getting up from our spot.

'Race you back?' I asked looking across at him.

'No savant gifts. Promise?' Zed laughed as once he challenged me to a race back to the house and I had used my gift to get there as he had had a head start.

'Promise.' I confirmed.

We sprinted off through the woods neck to neck as we always drew on the track and cross country as we hated losing to the other person but at the same time neither of us really minded losing. Friendly rivalry. We sprinted down the last slope hurdling the fallen trees and crashed into the kitchen laughing and panting. Then mum caught sight of us. Uh oh.

'Oh my gosh! Look at you two! Go and change now!' we hung our heads and walked out but as soon as we were out of sight we high fived before getting changed for dinner.

For dinner tonight it was mine and Zed's favourite dish. It was basically a Spanish ratatouille with chicken as mum had a huge dose of Mexican heritage. Anyway either way it tasted amazing so it was our favourite dish. Almost all our favourite things were exactly the same apart from our favourite colour as I prefer turquoise to him liking a deep almost midnight blue. But still we both like blue in general.

Over dinner we sang happy birthday and had cake which was a mixture of different blues. It looked as good as it tasted. Amazing. Me and Zed sat in his room later on messing around on his Xbox when Dad called up the stairs.

'Zed! Ziva! Time for bed!'

'Okay!' We called back synchronised and continued playing until he actually came upstairs.

'Guys! I said it was lights out an hour ago!'

'Sorry Dad.' I whispered pretending to be sorry as I telepathically smirked to Zed causing him to smirk too.

In my room I got changed for bed and prepared myself for the nightmares I got every night.

I was just getting to sleep when a pair of arms snaked around me from behind I went to scream when I realised it was Jake by his cologne, Zed's best friend from school apart from me. I twisted in his arms to face him and stared him dead in the eye.

'What are you doing here?!' I hissed 'If my parents find you here we're both dead.'

'I can't stand watching you cry into your pillow every night.' He replied as if it was obvious. I had known Jake since we were 8 when we met at his birthday party when he invited the whole year group. Ever since then he had an annoying habit of calling me Angel which honestly drove me insane along with all his teasing and everything.

'And what if your parents find out your gone?' I asked trying to understand why I was feeling safer in his arms. I mean come on, he was a total man-whore. Zed and Jake were considered the 'hot players' at our school. They were seniors and every girl's dream – the boys wanted to be best friends with them and the girls wanted to sleep with them. It was sickening.

'Then I'll take the hit.'

I sighed. There was no point arguing with him when he was like this; he wouldn't give in. Turning back around it to go to sleep, I snuggled back in to him. As much as I hated him I did trust him.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I woke up grudgingly the next morning to the sound of my alarm going off. I went to silence it when I remembered Jake was in here with me. Why had he felt the need to comfort me though? I mean we ALWAYS argued. Like constantly. I tried to scoot out of his arms to wake him up but I got dragged back to his chest.

'Where you going Angel?' he murmured in a husky voice.

'To get up you fell asleep last night.'

'What! Oh my god!' he moaned running his hands across his face.

'Go! Shoo!' I hissed motioning to the window. It was only a couple feet drop as my bedroom was on the ground floor. He gave me one small genuine smile before jumping out the window and running to the gap in the fences between our houses. I saw him in his room and gave him a small smile before closing the curtains and pretending to reopen them. I trudged into the kitchen exactly 26 minutes later to find a plate of pancakes on the table and Jake leaning against the side whilst Zed was looking in his bag for something.

'Running late this morning Angel?' he asked, smirking

I scowled at him causing him to smirk harder as Zed chose that moment to look up at me.

'You looked harassed this morning, Zivs. You ok?' Zed asked, concerned.

'Slept in.' I muttered defeated.

Jake laughed wickedly behind me as Zed threw a carton of juice at me which I only just managed to catch before it tumbled to the floor.

I cleared up the rest of my pancakes and walked out to Jake's car and waited for them to grace me with their presence.