Chapter 22: Chapter 22

Pearl’s POV

The only thing I was grateful for about the prank incident was the fact that it was investigated before they could even think of calling my parents. If they had acted irrational and called them, my mom would have a fit of rage flying on the roof and yelling profanities. It’s been a week since it happened and I’ve tried my possible best to avoid trouble, aka, Lucas Anderson, aka, leather jacket devil.

I feel accomplished because of that. Aurora had woken up with another splitting headache this morning and even though I tried going to the hospital with her, my mother insisted on dropping me off at school before taking her to the hospital.

“Mom, are you sure everything is okay with Aurora?” I asked her. She was driving me to school.

She groaned before she responded. “Why are you such a difficult child, Pearl? Why don’t you ever listen?” She asked.

“Sorry,” I apologized quickly after realizing how irritated she was, even though she didn’t answer my question.

She dropped me off at the gate and I didn’t bother to tell her goodbye and she didn’t also bother to tell me goodbye as well. I could see other mothers attempting, mine didn’t care, she never did but the reverse would be the case if Aurora was in the car.

I waited and watched as she drove away. What did I ever do wrong? I know I wasn’t as intelligent and perfect as Aurora, I’m just me. I’m just Pearl and that wouldn’t ever change for anything.

“Aurora isn’t here, why?” Lyla asked as she came behind me.

I shrugged. “Same old, same old. She’s not feeling fine but I feel my mom’s hiding something from me and Aurora knows about it,”

“That isn’t possible. Even if your mom hides something from you, Aurora would never do that to you,” She argued.

“You think?”

“I don’t think. I know. You’re like her better half and you both talk about everything every time. And I get jealous of you guys,” She whined, making me smile. She wrapped her hand around my shoulder and we walked into the school together.

Lyla stopped walking when Lucas walked past us, acting as if every other person on earth are invisible except for him. “You guys are still not talking,” She asked. I rolled my eyes at her statement,

“Since when have we ever talked?” I asked her back.

“I thought you guys talked once in a while. I was even thinking you guys are getting to know each other,”

“Well, erase that thought from your mind and focus on better things,” I had told her and the rest that it was Lucas who had pranked Mrs. Summers and tried to implicate me with it. Jerry didn’t stop talking for hours about how he had warned me to stay away from him. Well, I don’t remember tying him to my waist everywhere I went. Saying that didn’t end well with Aurora. She asked why I got involved with him in the first place and I stared at my sister in disbelief asking if she forgot it was Jerry who got me in the situation that I was at the moment and not me.

“Still, that prank was funny. Mrs. Summers looked like she just walked out of a movie. Red and hilarious,” Lyla laughed. I smiled as I remembered what she looked like. For real, it was funny but at the expense of my reputation, it was not.

“Do you want to hang out with me and my brother this weekend at our house? I’ve invited Jerry and Aurora and a few friends. We might have a sleepover after everyone leaves” She asked, smiling.

“Is it a party?” I asked. She shook her head.

“What about your parents? I don’t like meeting people’s parents” I asked her

“You can’t meet them even if you want to,”

She began walking away.

“Why?” I asked her.

“They’ve been dead for years” My mouth suddenly went dry as I tried finding the right words to say. When I finally could think of something, Lyla was long gone. She only waved at me and sent me a text, telling me she would see me this weekend.

I never knew something like that had happened to Lyla, she was always laughing, carefree and jovial that you wouldn’t even notice she was an orphan. Instead of being sad about Aurora, I was occupied with Lyla’s thoughts throughout the first half of the day.

Before I went for lunch, I sent Aurora a text, asking her if she was alright and to send me a picture. She only sent a love emoji back. At that moment, I knew something was wrong. Sending an emoji as a response was Aurora's lazy way of replying to a text. It was either she was very sick or unhappy about something.

I went to Mrs. Summer’s and got a break from school, telling her it was an emergency and Aurora needed me at the hospital. I was given a pass despite the bad blood between us or maybe it was between her and Lucas.

On getting to the hospital; a specialist hospital that Aurora had told me she was referred to from our family private hospital, I approached the lady at the reception.

“Hi, I’m Pearl Augustus, I’m here to see my twin sister, Aurora Augustus,” I informed her.

“What department is she?” She asked.

“I have no idea” I replied truthfully,

“Okay, what about this? What cancer was your sister diagnosed with?” immediately she asked, I heard a bell go off in my head.

“Cancer?” She looked up at me from her computer.

“This is a cancer specialist hospital. Wait a minute, let me enter her name into the system and see if anything comes up. Is your mom named Gloria Augustus?”

“Yes,”

“Okay. Your sister is at the brain cancer treatment department, it’s on the next floor,” She said, smiling.

‘What was funny again? Did she say anything funny?’ I asked myself because I wasn’t in the right state of mind. I shivered as I walked up the stairs, hoping it was a lie, hoping my sister was hale and healthy, hoping it was a lie, hoping Aurora hadn’t lied to me.

I stopped in my tracks when I looked into the lobby and saw Aurora with my mom, she had an injection in her hand and I realized it was her chemotherapy. My world went blank, instead of walking closer and confronting the both of them, I turned immediately.

I couldn’t stop the tears from drowning me when I got outside the hospital. Right on the grass there, I crumbled to the floor and I cried. The feeling of pain, fear, and betrayal washed over me. A shadow covered the sun from entering my eyes and when I looked up, it was Lucas Anderson.

“Why are you here?” I asked through tears.

“I followed you,” He replied.

“Why?” he shrugged, not giving me a response.

“Are you done with the tears?”

I don’t know what came over me but I shook my head and I started crying all over again.

He touched my cheek and made me look up at him. “It’ll get better. It always gets better”

Thank you for reading. What do you think about this chapter? Has Pearl's parents being fair by keeping her twin's sickness a secret?