Our Hearts Entwined (14 page)

“What are you planning?” Josh asked, once he was sure that Natalie was out of earshot.

Turning away to pull a box of cereal out of the cupboard, Eric started to break the news, thankful that he could busy himself with preparing his breakfast so he didn’t have to look Josh in the eye when he told him he was taking off.

“Mia wants us to go to the Goldcoast,” he stated simply, pouring his cornflakes into an oversized bowl.

Raising his eyebrows, Josh watched as Eric selected a banana from the fruit bowl and started to slice it over the top of his cereal with the edge of his spoon.

“What, for a holiday or something?”

Eric’s eyes flitted up to Josh’s momentarily, and Josh understood that it was more than a mere holiday.

“She wants you to move there?” he asked disbelievingly.

Eric cleared his throat and nodded, continuing to busy himself by squeezing honey all over his breakfast before adding the milk.

“When?”

“Ah…” Eric cleared his throat again, suddenly finding it very hard to break the news fully.

“When!?” Josh pushed, feeling slightly annoyed now.

“Next week.”

“Next week? What the fuck Eric?! How the hell am I supposed to pay the rent on this place on my own?” Josh started, his exasperation taking over and causing him to momentarily forget what he was supposed to do today.

“I’m sorry mate, you’ll find someone else and until then – I don’t know, I’ll still pay my half ok? Don’t freak out.”

“Whatever,” Josh responded, shaking his head and taking his cereal bowl over to the sink, dumping the last of it down the garbage disposal. Suddenly he wasn’t hungry enough to finish it anymore. “You know why she wants to go so quickly right?” he asked.

“Because she wants a fresh start. She told me she has a lot of money from her parent’s estate and she wants to go away and live together. I don’t see a problem with that.”

“Oh I see, all of a sudden she has money she’s never told any of us about and she’s willing to throw her job and friends away. Do you really think Mia would walk away from her students? From Louise? They mean the world to her,” Josh stated.

“Fuck off Josh. Why are you trying to ruin this?”

“Because you’re a fucking idiot - you’re so sexed up right now that you aren’t looking at this properly. You aren’t asking any questions.”

Turning and leaning against the counter to face Josh, Eric folded his arms across his chest and huffed out his breath. “What are you getting at Josh?”

“That’s not Mia, Eric.”

“Yeah? Well who the hell is it?” he shot back.

“Her twin – Natalie.”

“Fuck you Josh, that’s not funny.”

“I’m not joking Eric. Me and Lou looked at her wallet last night. Her name is Natalie Johnson and she’s from Mosman up in Sydney.”

“You’re lying. Mia doesn’t have a sister.”

Josh could see that his friend was getting defensive and didn’t want it to end up in a full blown fist fight – the last time that had happened between them, Josh ended up with a black eye that he couldn’t open for two days. He wasn’t keen on going through that again. So when he spoke, he held up his hands to show that he wasn’t any threat and lowered his voice to come across as calm as he could.

“Will you at least let me prove it you? I wouldn’t lie about something like this mate.”

Closing his eyes briefly, Eric shook his head, his arms still tightly folded across his chest as his face conveyed a look of disbelief and aggravation. “Fine, prove it,” he bit out, glaring at Josh challengingly. “And this had better not be some sort of sick joke Josh or I swear I’ll –”

“It’s not. Ok?” Josh interrupted, he didn’t need to hear the threat. He knew Eric well enough to know he’d cop a punch to the face if he was talking shit about Mia. “Let me make a phone call and then I’ll take you and show you.”

***

“She looks different…” Natalie said to herself as she watched Mia via the link up for the video monitor on her phone. She now wished that she had paid extra for the colour option, or even paid for the online storage so it would record constantly and she could rewind back to see what had happened in her absence.

She could see Mia talking on the phone to someone as she paced around her living area, looking slightly agitated. It was hard to see properly on the small screen but Natalie made a mental note to check Mia’s recent call list when she went in there.

When Mia ended the call and placed her phone on the kitchen bench, Natalie’s heart started to thud loudly in her chest. Something it did every time she saw Mia reach for a coffee cup and switch the kettle on.

She held her breath when she saw Mia spoon coffee and sweetener into her mug. It wouldn’t be long now. From this point Natalie knew she had maybe twenty minutes left to wait before Mia would pass out.

While she waited, Natalie thought about how wonderful it was going to be to move to Queensland and not have to worry about being caught out anymore. She had been planning on telling Eric the truth but the more she thought about it, the more she felt that she couldn’t do it – it could ruin everything, and she loved him. She couldn’t risk losing him.

This time when she entered Mia’s flat, she was planning on taking her license and a few other items to use as her own ID. She still swore that she had taken her bag into Eric’s bedroom last night. So finding it in the lounge room that morning made her realise how easily she could be found out.

Suddenly, Natalie realised what was different about Mia. “Oh shit, she changed her hair!”

Chewing on her lip, she thought about whether she should change hers too, realising that Louise saw Mia on a regular basis and was likely to already know about the change. “Damn it!” Natalie said to herself knowing full well that if she didn’t get the match just right, this could all blow up in her face before she and Eric even booked a plane ticket.

Mia’s heart thudded wildly in her chest as she sat, slumped over on the couch as if she had passed out. She wondered how long she would have to sit like this before something happened. Normally, she really was asleep – so she had no concept of the time that passed between her unconsciousness and her twin’s appearance.

Just before she had made the coffee she had spoken to Cayd on the phone. He was outside in his car with Louise, keeping an eye on Natalie. Who, he’d said, he could see sitting in her car. He felt fairly sure she had some sort of surveillance happening in Mia’s apartment, for she constantly had her head down as if she was looking at something in her hands.

That had troubled Mia greatly. “What if she saw us all last night? What if she heard the entire plan? We’ll be screwed!” she worried.

“Just continue like we planned ok? Everything will be fine. We’ll be right behind her alright? I won’t let anything happen to you,” he reminded her soothingly.

Nodding even though he couldn’t see her, Mia ended the call then went and made a coffee, exactly as they had planned.

***

Emerging from her car, Natalie quickly checked the street for oncoming traffic before she rushed across the road, practically sprinting up the stair case so she could get into Mia’s flat. She desperately needed to see what she had done with her hair. In her mind this was a complete disaster – the last thing she wanted to do was change her looks, she loved her hair the way it was.

Unlocking the door and stepping inside, Natalie walked directly toward Mia, as she had so many times before now. The flat now familiar to her after spending plenty of time there, familiarising herself with Mia’s things, with her life. She’d gone through photo albums, paperwork, Mia’s email and snail mail – she’d stalked her on facebook, googled her name and discovered everything she possibly could about her electronically.

When Natalie had arrived in Melbourne she had spent almost a full month watching her twin. Of course she could have just walked straight up to Mia and introduced herself, but upon actually seeing her – it all felt so surreal. She had decided, even before she had gone to Melbourne, to observe her twin from afar. To learn about her life and her personality as an outsider before she actually approached her.

This was how she fell for Eric. The first weekend that she saw them together, Natalie was physically taken aback by how attractive Eric was.

Mia and Eric were both leaving her flat on a Saturday afternoon. Eric was dressed in his football uniform, his lean arms and legs showing as he walked beside Mia laughing about something and hugging her to his side as she elbowed him playfully.

They seemed to be so close. Natalie felt herself wishing that she had been the twin who was sent down to Melbourne to live. In her life, she didn’t have the adoring boyfriend, she didn’t have her own flat – she didn’t have anything like what Mia had.

Everything about Mia’s life seemed so wonderful and all Natalie could do was watch and wish that it was her Eric was smiling and laughing with.

As time went by, Natalie found herself watching Eric more than Mia. She became infatuated with him and kept putting herself in situations where he could possibly see her.

She knew it was risky, but she couldn’t help it. She felt that if fate somehow intervened and made him notice her, then maybe she was the one who was meant to be with him and not Mia.

That’s what she told herself the day she got up early and went to the 7Eleven, where she stood at the coffee machine near the donut case and the pie warmer. This was the closest she had ever situated herself to where she knew he was going to be. She assured herself that she wasn’t going to turn around, she wasn’t going to look at him, but if he saw her then, in her mind - that was fate talking.

She had planned to immediately say that she wasn’t Mia, wanting to introduce herself and try to tempt him away. But something about the familiar way he greeted her had her wanting to experience what it was like to be her sister – just for a little while.

However, it seemed that the longer she pretended, the deeper she sank, until she was at the point where she felt that to keep Eric, she would have to pretend to be Mia forever and that would mean moving away. She couldn’t stay in Melbourne, surrounded by people who knew them. Eventually she’d be caught out.

The only surprise Natalie had found in Mia’s life was the fact that her best friend was deaf. With Louise being in Sydney when she had arrived, she hadn’t had a chance to see her before it was too late. She really had to work to not be around Louise too much so she wouldn’t get found out.

She could see the way that Louise looked at her when they were over at Eric’s place, and she felt that it wouldn’t be long before some sort of confrontation would come about – then she’d truly be screwed. Because despite trying to learn a couple of basic signs, she seemed to draw a blank any time Louise was near and instead dragged Eric either into his room or out somewhere so they could be alone.

Natalie didn’t bother to be quiet as she moved towards the passed out Mia, she knew from experience that she could move Mia about and she wouldn’t stir at all.

Which was what she planned to do. Despite the fact that she had insinuated herself into Mia’s relationship, she didn’t hate Mia at all and couldn’t bring herself to leave her sister slumped in a chair for hours on end. Each time, Natalie would move Mia so she was laying comfortably on the couch, her head on a pillow and a blanket covering her for warmth.

Sighing, Natalie took in Mia’s new hair colour, muttering to herself about not wanting to have red hair as she reached out to perform her ritual of repositioning her sister.

“Don’t worry, you won’t need to dye your hair red,” Mia said suddenly as she lifted her head, causing Natalie to shriek as she leapt back from the couch.

With wide eyes, Natalie stared at her twin, properly face to face for the first time in their lives.

“Natalie, I presume?” said Mia, standing and moving towards her sister who was nodding her head, too dumbfounded to actually form any words.

When the door opened, both Mia and Natalie turned their attention toward it, each girl having a very different reaction as they recognised each of the four people who entered.

“Oh my god,” Natalie whimpered, a feeling of utter hopelessness flooded through her, making her limbs go weak as her blood pulsed loudly through her ears.

“Sit down,” Mia instructed Natalie who did what she was told without falter. Her mind was reeling as she saw her plans come crashing down around her. They knew, they all knew…Eric knew.

“Natalie is it?” Cayd asked calmly as he approached, she looked up at him and nodded her head slightly, her eyes flitting over each person in the room and lingering on Eric, who was refusing to make eye contact. “I’m Cayd Donnelly,” he told her, holding out his hand to introduce himself properly. “I’m a friend of Mia’s. Is it ok if we all ask you some questions?” he said calmly, pulling a chair away from the dining table and bringing it closer to the couch were Natalie was seated.

Sighing, Natalie closed her eyes. “Fine,” she whispered.

Mia indicated that everyone else should sit as well, which they did – all except Eric, who appeared to be the most affected out of everyone in the room.

“Oh my god,” he choked out, looking between them. “Mia! Oh my god!” He raked his fingers through his hair as he started to pace from side to side near the dining table, glancing briefly at the twins who, before Mia had dyed her hair, would have been absolutely identical.