6Because you all liked my story and you asked for a continuation, here is a second part to the story. Please tell me what you think. I would be most appreciative, so thank you.
CHAPTER 2
With hands clasped, they head out the door of the bookstore, and started down the street not feeling like taking the bus this time, in case Leah got queasy in the stomach again. The two talked about everything as their hands joined together. They walked down the street, their strides matched perfectly. They caught up on past events in each other's lives that they have missed. It turns out that they actually did go to the same high school and had two of the same classes; they were just so wrapped up in their own worlds that they didn't even notice the other. Alex said that he did in fact notice her a couple times at lunch but he didn't register the fact they were the same, also he was too shy to talk to Leah then.
They ignored the passing looks and the whispers from passing men and women, 'That boy's hot.'
'No, that girl's even cuter, I wonder if she will go out with me.'
Alex and Leah winked at each other before they turned to face the crowds, at the same time flashing dazzling smiles that would make anyone melt. Everyone around them was almost drooling on the sidewalk. The twins turned back and laughed. Leah had never had so much fun. Usually everyone just ignored her thus making Leah an outcast to the students.
"Alex!"
A high-pitched voice shouted over the clamor of the crowds and made the twins' head turn toward it, eyes wide with surprise. Alex didn't have time to react though as a petite brunette ran toward him and jumped into his arms, making him stumble back, and he lost his grip with Leah's hand. The loss of warmth made Leah's heart jump and her body froze, as she watched the girl latch playfully onto her brother.
"Kristy…" Alex choked out as he tried to push off the girl, who just moved to grasp tightly to his arm. A bright flush came across face when he looked back toward his sister.
Kristy followed his eyes and her gaze quickly scanned over the blonde girl and she scowled, but it disappeared when Alex turned back to face her and she smiled giddily and whined.
"Come on Alex, you promised to meet me at the amusement park this weekend!"
Kristy tugged relentlessly on Alex's arm while glaring in Leah's direction. Alex relaxed as he tried gave up trying to pry the girl off his arm. He gave a quick smile to Leah and grabbed her hand again before turning his attention back to the brunette.
"I'm sorry Krissy; I just lost track of time. Can we still go?" Alex smiled, almost pleadingly, before his eyes widened with realization, "Oh, I want you to meet my twin sister Leah Collins. You don't mind if she joins us right?" Alex turned back to Leah and she could swear his eyes were as big as a puppy dog's eyes.
Leah nodded. She felt happy that Alex was including her in their social activities. She had no real friends to have such fun with. Leah was really nervous; she felt sick again, but she swallowed her pride and quietly followed alongside her brother. She noticed the glares Kristy's brown eyes kept throwing at her and tried her best to ignore the girl. Leah suddenly felt like a third wheel.
"Let's hurry Alex; I already bought plenty of tickets!" Kristy exclaimed hugging Alex's arm.
They soon came upon floods of people flocking in and out from under a wide ark that was decorated to look like a rainbow covered with thousands of balloons and streamers. Smiling clowns with make covering their bodies from head to toe were stationed by the entrance with handfuls of giant multicolored balloons that hovered two feet above the their heads, out the reach of jumping little kids, hopelessly screeching gibberish about wanting a balloon shaped like a giraffe. Leah saw another smiled grace Alex's face as he pulled away from the two girls, and rushed to one of the clowns, who was surrounded by a mob of child midgets. He rushed back carrying two balloons in each hand; a red one and a blue one.
Leah smiled as she reached for the blue that he presented her with. She had never received gifts like this before. It was so humble and kind. She always had received nothing but the most elaborate and expensive from her dad, like the two and half foot porcelain doll that he had gotten her for her sixth birthday, imported all the way from China. Those gifts were beautiful and she loved them, but sometimes the littlest things held the most lasting memories.
"Alex, thank you so much! You shouldn't have gone through the trouble to get me two balloons though. I know you love me but one is enough!"
Kristy had run in front of Leah and grabbed both balloons, hugging the strings tightly. Leah wasn't sure want to think, but she had a good idea. Had Alex meant both gifts to be for Kristy? It made sense if she was his girlfriend. Maybe Alex was just teasing her, isn't that what siblings do? Leah lowered her head silently affirming to herself that she was the third wheel.
"Oh, Alex, look over there!"
Kristy pointed excitedly at tall attraction that had an opening that looked like a giant's mouth and the red carpet flowing out of it was its tongue. Above the mouth opening were words that were splattered in red paint, and looked like a five year old wrote it. It read, 'Welcome to the House of Mirrors!'
"Please Alex we used to go in there all the time as kids, let's go now, please!" Kristy whined even louder as she gripped tightly to Alex's arm, the balloons were tied around her wrist. Alex's glazed over the kiddy attraction and smiled. Then he looked over to Leah.
"Yeah, it will be fun, come on Leah!"
Leah gazed nervously up at the attraction. She had been in a fun house once when she little. It was first time her father had ever taken her to an amusement park, and Leah had begged her daddy to let her go inside just once by herself. It was so dark and scary and things kept reaching to grab her. Leah thought she would never find her way out. She was so scared. When she finally found the exit and saw that her father was waiting for her with arms outstretched; she jumped into them and cried, promising she would never go in another maze again.
However, before she could answer and politely refuse Alex's invitation; he grabbed her hand and pulled her along inside. Once inside the darkness, Alex hugged Leah close and whispered in her ear. "Whatever you do, don't let go of my hand. You can't trust you're own eyes in the mirror maze."
Leah gave long sigh of relief once they all had escaped the maze. To be truthful, she didn't know why she was so afraid in the first place. 'Why is it that the carnival houses are always bigger and scarier to a four year old?' Leah looked down and smiled. Thankfully, Alex had not let go of her hand even when Kristy constantly tried to pull him away.
The three walked through the numerous rows of games watching the boys empty their pockets trying to win a giant stuffed animal, which their girlfriends were going nuts over. The smell of half eaten corndogs and cotton candy filled the air like the smog over the city of San Francisco.
Alex stopped abruptly and dug into his back pocket and pulled his light brown leather wallet. He smiled. He had just enough.
"Come on girls," He started as he pulled away and headed toward a nearby game stand with rifles set up and with the targets moving horizontally along the back wall.
"Alex, this is your best game!" Kristy clapped her hands together and bounded over to Alex only to latch onto his arm again; his arm must have been a magnet, "You never lose at this one!"
"Yeah, I know." Alex said proudly.
Leah walked over to his opposite side. She jumped up in shock each time Alex fired and knocked over a target. Bye-bye yellow duck. Bye-bye blue giraffe. It went on. Alex had hit one on all of his six shots. The owner of the booth, who looked like he should be in college studying, watched in amazement at the excellent marksmanship.
"Uh…well congratulations you got all the shots, so you can pick two prizes."
Kristy immediately pointed to the giant brown teddy bear that was well over 3 feet tall. As the man took it down with some struggle; the girl enveloped the helpless boy into a tight hug, wrapping her arms around his neck and planted a kiss on his cheek. This made Alex, however, flush deeply in his cheeks and pull away quickly. Even more quickly, he composed himself before turning to Leah and asking with a smile.
"Leah, you pick a prize now. Go on, pick any one you want."
Leah looked over the wall of prizes again and again. She didn't know which to choose. Her father had always said these games were a waste of money, but Alex did all that work; it would be rude to not accept his gift of chivalry. Her green eyes caught sight of a small stuffed animal hidden in the corner, congested by all the other bigger prizes. She pointed it out to the game keeper and he plucked it out and plopped it into her outstretched hands. It was small white bird that somewhat resembled a dove, but its eyes were colored differently. Both sparkled like gems, one was gold while the other was silver. Leah smiled, "I'll take this one." She looked up to see an affectionate smile and glazed green eyes grace Alex's face and she blushed. A sister should not look at her twin brother in such a light.
Again the three found themselves walking, Alex was forced to hold the teddy bear as Kristy said she was getting tired, and she walked ahead of him stuffing handfuls of pink cotton candy into her mouth. Leah kept glancing back to Alex, making sure he was alright, but kept getting his assuring smile. Reluctantly, with the stuffed bird balanced perfectly on her shoulder at the crook of her neck, she lightly nipped at her chocolate ice cream cone.
They soon came to the giant Ferris wheel. It was tallest ride in the park, and the rumor is that one could see the entire city at the very top. It was also said to be the most romantic place at night. Leah shook her head; she was getting dizzy staring up at the giant monstrosity. She never did well with heights. Her father never tried to pick her up because she would always scream that it was too high. So affirmed by her fear, she decided to speak up upon seeing Alex and Kristy running toward the ride.
"You two have fun; I think I'll just wait here until the ride is over!"
At this, Alex halted and turned abruptly around. Leah could see an almost hurt look in his sorrowful green eyes. Her heart was pounding in her chest. It tore her up inside to see him like that. She threw him her best assuring smile.
"Don't worry, Alex, I'll wait right here. I promise!"
Alex was about to say something when Kristy ran ahead of him, grabbing her teddy bear from his loose grasp and tossed it to Leah, who fumbled it a moment before grasping its brown fur. Kristy then grabbed Alex's wrist and pulled him toward the ride's front gate and gave the ride keeper two bright orange ticket stubs. They waited about five minutes for the ride to stop and another five for the other passengers to get off.
The door closed behind them and the ride started to move, however, Leah, from on the ground, could still see Alex through the car window. He was looking directly at her with a seemingly longing look in his eyes. As soon as their bright yellow car reached the top of the ride, Alex shot his head out the side of the car and yelled at the top of his lungs so that the whole carnival could hear.
"I love you, Leah Anne Collins!"
Leah covered her mouth with her hands just as a squeaking gasp escaped. The stuffed fell now abandoned on the ground. Her eyes filled with tears. She was afraid. He couldn't love her, they were siblings; twins. This wasn't possible, but Alex sounded so determined and very sincere. Leah watched the car slowly descend but she was too confused, too scared to face her brother now. Could she ever be able to call him that again? That was only thing she had ever wanted, someone to talk to about her problems and the good times in her life. Now it just became complicated. How could she talk to him about whom she loved, if he loved her too? A blush covered Leah's face and she gasp doing the only thing she could think of. She ran.
She ran through the entrance, pushing her way through the passing crowds. Down the street, her tears streamed from her eyes and fell on the sidewalk, she continued to run. She just had to get away. Rounding a corner of an alley, Leah realized she was lost. Her back slid down against the brick wall and she pulled her knees to her chest.
How? How could she do that in such a short period of time? She had only just met Alex today. How could someone fall in love with a person so easily, especially if that someone was their twin brother? Leah cried so much out of grief she had cried herself to sleep.
Her daddy was entertaining his guests, all of whom looked like giant black and white penguins to longing green eyes. Little hands pressed anxiously against the thick glass window. Little Leah wanted so much to be held in her daddy's arms right now. It had been so long since she was put into this small room. Just then her daddy's hazel eyes glanced over to her. She gasped and waved frantically as if trying to tell him to get her out of there through the sound-proof glass. He waved quietly then turned his back to continue his discussions. Feeling abandoned, Leah turned around and plopped down upon the multicolored carpet and started to play with the blocks that were scattered around her. On the other side of the room was a big screen TV playing 'The Little Mermaid' while at least six other toddlers sat around and watched it; mesmerized.
Just as Leah finished her tall tower of ten blocks, a boy with a mop of messy black hair kicked over her tower with a harsh squeaking laughter in her face. Leah had worked so hard, now it was ruined. She began to cry when another boy with a thick mop of wavy blonde hair ran up to the other boy and pushed him to the ground, a scowl had crossed his face. His attention turned back to the girl, and his expression softened as he squat down to pat her head.
"It okay now."
"Tank you."
"You wa help?"
Leah nodded and together two built the tallest tower either had ever built. The evening went on and the two played together finally exhausting themselves in front of the TV watching when Ariel married Eric and sailed off into the sunset. He then looked over at Leah as he played with her hair.
"Leah, can I marry you?"
"Sure." Leah whispered tiredly.
"Promise?"
"Promise, one day, Alex." With that Leah had fallen asleep on the rug.
Leah's head shot up as she remembered her promise that day. She was only three at the time, how could she know that that was her twin brother? They had spent the whole night together and had so much fun. Leah fully admitted even now that she did love Alex even before she knew he was her brother. And no matter what they would be together, whether as brother and sister or boyfriend and girlfriend, or both, but never once had Leah ever broken a promise. She stood up, balancing herself against the wall. She slowly made her way back the way she came toward the theme park.
Leah was just a block away from the entrance when she saw Alex standing several feet apart from her, struggling to catch his breath as he held the little bird, which had fallen off Leah's shoulder, in his clutched yet trembling grasp.
"I…thought I'd lost you."
"I'm sorry I forgot our promise."
"I forgive you."
"What about your girlfriend?"
"I love you; I always have, I always will."
Leah finally broke down and burst into tears. Alex smiled and rushed forward and embraced the girl in the middle of the sidewalk, not caring who saw them. At that moment and forever more, they would not just be twins of the same blood. They were two individuals who had at last found the other half of their hearts.