n i n e
Don't tell, don't ask
Go fast, headed straight for the past ?
**
The sound of my alarm ringing in my ear jolted me awake the following morning.
With a groan, I slowly propped myself up on my elbows.
My gaze briefly shifted around the room as I took a moment to recall the events that took place yesterday afternoon.
"Huh," I murmured to myself, "so it was real."
My head remained stuck in the clouds for the next couple of minutes as I tried to make sense of my newfound reality. When the faint smell of bacon began to float into my room, I finally decided that it was time for me to get up.
Since I usually sleep in shorts and a tank top, I figured I would be better off changing into my uniform before I went downstairs.
The pain-inducing journey that Damien, Jessica, and I embarked on at the mall yesterday came rushing back the minute I stepped into my closet.
Only one thought occupied my mind as I quickly stripped out of my pajamas:
Kyle was right in the fact that Damien loves to shop.
At first, I didn't believe him because, to me, Damien seems like the kind of guy to own the same shirt in five different colors. By the end of the trip, I realized just how wrong I was after he insisted on buying out the entire strip that we were walking down.
It was an interesting excursion, to say the least, and I pray that I never have to experience anything like it ever again.
Once my clothes were snug on my body, I rushed over to my ensuite bathroom to complete the rest of my morning routine. As I brushed my teeth, my focus drifted down to the black and white dress that I had on.
Maria was able to get me fitted in under ten minutes yesterday evening, and I was surprised at how quickly she was able to get it all done.
She managed to tailor my day-to-day uniform as well as four additional spares all in the course of one night. (A/N: her uniform is identical to the one pictured above , although she is not going to be wearing that necklace , lol ;)
In a way, I guess she has no choice but to work fast, given the kind of life that Kyle lives.
Upon finishing my morning routine, I realized that I still had one last problem that needed solving:
What to wear on my feet.
Since this technically isn't my house, I didn't feel comfortable walking around barefoot. Also, given the sleekness of Kyle's marble floors, shoes didn't seem like a good option either.
After carefully weighing my choices, I decided to grab my favorite pair of fuzzy socks from the drawer in my closet. These particular socks are a soft shade of purple with little yellow ducks scattered along the sides, and they're my favorite pair simply because my dad gave them to me.
I quickly slipped them on before I made my way downstairs to start my day.
Since I haven't received a formal tour yet, I simply followed the smell of bacon and prayed that it led me to the kitchen.
My navigation skills worked wonders as I managed to reach my destination without any problems.
(A/N: so , i'm probably thinking too deeply into this , but the countertop that the sink is on looks like it could be an island , so we're going to pretend that it's an island .
kyle is sitting on what would be the very first bar stool , which means that lilac is going to be standing directly beside him (on his right) .
my god , i'm such a detail-oriented person , but i like for y'all to know exactly what i'm talking about . sorry not sorry :)
Stepping into the kitchen was like stepping into another dimension. Everything in the room hit me all at once, and I found myself struggling to pick what I wanted to stare at first.
In my daze, I failed to notice that two other people were occupying the room with me.
"Good morning, dear," a woman whom I've never seen before greeted me in the softest of voices.
I met her gaze and was a bit taken aback to discover that she, too, looked as though she just stepped off a runway even though she was merely standing over the stove, cooking bacon in a skillet.
"Hi . . ." I trailed off, hoping that she would fill in the blank for me.
She did, thankfully.
"Julianna," she supplied kindly. "I'm the douchebag's cook."
The carefree smile that she wore on her face let me know that she and Kyle were relatively close. After all, he just so happened to be the second occupant in the room.
Either that, or he was all of a sudden deaf in both ears.
I managed to mask my confusion with a tight-lipped smile, and Julianna seemed to buy it as she wasted no time returning the gesture.
Since she seemed to be only halfway through breakfast, I decided to go and sit down next to Kyle.
"Busy day today?" I asked while sliding onto the barstool next to his.
"Why do you care?" he bit back in an overly distasteful manner.
The urge to roll my eyes hit me harder than it ever has before and I swallowed down the urge to curse him out.
"Kyle Armando Rodriguez!" Julianna whirled around to face us. "Didn't Jacques teach you and your brother some manners?"
"Oui, tatie," Kyle replied without missing a beat. "He did."
My mouth went dry at the sound of him speaking in his native tongue. I knew that he was a quarter French and a quarter Mexican, but I didn't expect him to start communicating with people in his first language.
It was at that moment that I understood what he had said.
"You're his aunt?" I asked, directing my question towards Julianna, who was now laying the finished pieces of bacon on a plate.
She glanced up from the food.
"Indeed, I am," she said. "Kyle's father, Jacques, is my annoying ass older brother."
My mouth formed the shape of an 'o' as she continued on after a momentary pause.
"Even though I want to strangle him 99% of the time, I wouldn't trade him for the world."
A curt laugh escaped Kyle's lips, causing me to cut him a side-eye.
"Correct me if I'm wrong," he began, chuckling to himself, "but aren't you the same one who told him to go to hell after he bought you a house?"
My eyes widened at his question as I quickly realized that the rest of this conversation was about to fly right over my head.
Who the hell curses out their family member after they buy you a house?
"Va te faire foutre!" Julianna waved Kyle off with the flick of her bracelet-clad wrist. "He knows how much I hate being handed things."
Kyle feigned hurt, pouting dramatically.
"That wasn't very nice," he said mockingly.
I bit my lip to stop from laughing after Julianna raised her middle finger to flip him off.
"You are your father's child," she muttered to herself.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Kyle slowly turn his head to look at me, and the thought of him staring so intently at the side of my face made my heart skip a beat.
"You know French?" he questioned.
I shrugged.
"It was my language of choice back in high school," I explained while picking at the frills on the bottom of my apron. "I took it all four years."
He opened his mouth to respond, only to be cut off by a male voice screaming one of the most cliché phrases of all time at the top of his lungs.
"Honey, I'm home!"
Julianna's posture visibly straightened at the sound, whereas Kyle's rapidly deteriorated.
Meanwhile, my face crumpled together in confusion.
"Shit," I heard Kyle swear under his breath.
Before I could ask him what was wrong, a man that looked virtually identical to the one sitting beside me glided into the kitchen.
"Bonjour, ma belle famille!" the man exclaimed cheerfully.
A lump of air became lodged in my throat the second I caught sight of his features.
I'm well aware that siblings are supposed to resemble each other, but this is unlike anything that I've ever seen.
Julianna must've noticed my horrified expression because she was quick to jump in and introduce me to the man who was now standing beside her.
"I take it you weren't made aware of the fact that Kyle is a twin," she guessed while reaching down to pull a batch of cinnamon rolls out of the oven. "This is Justin—Kyle's better half."
"You mean my bitchier half?" Kyle retorted with a smirk.
Justin heaved out a dramatic sigh that made me lower my head for fear that Kyle might see the giant grin that I had plastered across my face.
"Kitty Kat, aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?"
"Kitty cat?" I laughed, struggling to believe that those were the words that had just come out of his mouth.
Justin flashed me a lopsided grin.
"Yes, but it's cat with a 'K', not a 'C'," he corrected me. "You see, Kyle here is feisty like a female cat in heat, and since his name starts with a 'K', it only makes sense for his nickname to start with it as we—"
"This is Lilac," Kyle proclaimed, interrupting his brother's speech. "She's going to be replacing Mrs. Davis."
A surge of panic raced through my body as Justin's lips dipped down into a frown.
"But I liked Pamela," he whined. "She always gave me a cookie every time she saw me."
My heart melted at the sight of his unhappiness.
"Do you like cupcakes?" I asked him hesitantly.
He paused for a minute to think before his lips curled back up into a smile.
"I love cupcakes!" he confirmed excitedly.
Julianna glanced between us with a knowing look.
"Looks like someone just found himself a new best friend," she said smugly.
Kyle re-entered the conversation with a scoff. "Is breakfast ready yet? I have a meeting at 10, and I cannot be late."
Julianna gently set down the cinnamon roll that she was holding before she shot one of the deadliest glares that I've ever seen straight in the direction of her nephew.
"Oooh," Justin instigated from his spot beside her. "You're in troubleeee."
Julianna placed her left hand on her hip before she raised her right one to point the knife that she was holding at Kyle's face.
"écoute ton frère," she scolded him sharply. "Il a plus de sens que toi."
Her command managed to shut Kyle all the way up as he quickly switched his attention over to his phone.
"Lilac, honey?" Julianna's voice tore me out of my trance, and I instantly turned to look at her.
"Can you get out the plates and the silverware for me?" She pointed to a drawer that was located across the room before she gestured to the cabinet above it. "Everything should be in there."
I nodded my head. "Of course."
I tried to ignore Kyle's heated stare as I walked past him, but my brain refused to shake the feeling.
"Oh my god!" Justin exclaimed after I stepped out from behind the island.
I shot him a questioning glance after he failed to elaborate further.
"Your socks are so cute!" he gushed while pointing at my feet.
My cheeks flushed red.
The attention that he was showing me was a bit overwhelming.
"Thank you," I replied.
Once I retrieved the silverware and plates from their respective locations, I began to set the table.
Breakfast was ready just seconds after I finished, and I watched in amusement as Justin and Kyle rushed to Julianna's side to help her transfer the food over to the kitchen table.
Once she finished blessing the food, I made sure to voice my admiration. "This looks wonderful, Julianna."
"Thank you, darling." She smiled, passing me the plate of cinnamon rolls. "Please, take as much as you'd like."
I decided to take her up on her offer, filling my plate to maximum capacity.
Julianna, Justin, and I carried most of the conversation throughout the remainder of breakfast while Kyle kept mostly to himself, picking aimlessly at his food.
"So, Justin," I began while pulling off a piece of my cinnamon roll, "what do you do for a living?"
Justin dabbed at the corner of his mouth with his napkin before he answered my question. "Well, believe it or not, I work for the FBI."
My eyes widened as this was quite literally the last thing I expected him to say. "No way."
He smirked. "Throughout the week, I'm typically out conducting investigations with my team, which is why the media isn't all over me like they are with Kyler here."
Justin's hand came to rest on Kyle's shoulder, and the lack of expression on Kyle's face told me that he wasn't amused.
He wasted no time shrugging his brother's hand off his shoulder, and the action caused a frown to slip onto Justin's face.
"Don't call me that," he grumbled.
Justin mouthed Kyle's words back to him in a mocking manner before he returned his attention to me. "I'm currently stationed in LA for the summer, but I'm supposed to be transferred over to a base in Texas sometime this fall."
I nodded my head slowly.
"You've probably seen some crazy shit over the years, huh," I stated more than asked.
He inhaled sharply before he let the built-up air in his lungs trickle out of his mouth in one, short breath. "Now, that, I can't tell you."
I raised my glass to my lips. "Fair enough."
For a split second, everyone's focus switched over to Kyle after he abruptly stood up from the table. His, otherwise, rough actions nearly made me choke on my orange juice as the sound of his chair scraping against the floor caught me by surprise.
"I have to go," he spoke so lowly that I almost missed what he said.
He reached down to grab his phone before he rounded the table to bid Julianna goodbye.
"à cet après-midi, tante Julie," he murmured while placing a kiss on top of her head.
He then bobbed his head in mine and Justin's direction after he pulled away from her body.
"Justin," he stated before he dragged his eyes over to me. "Miss. Reynolds."
I opened my mouth to remind him of our deal, but he rushed out of the room before I could say anything.
Breakfast ended shortly after his departure, and I was left to complete my tasks for the day.
Justin was nice enough to give me a tour of the house since Kyle's rude-ass decided not to and I was grateful to finally have some sense of direction in this place.
"Do you live here too?" I asked after we came to our final stop on the tour.
The room that we were in just so happened to be the laundry room, which was perfect since one of my tasks for the day was laundry.
Justin shook his head in response to my question. "I moved out a couple of months ago."
I silently gestured for him to hand me the laundry basket that was sitting on the floor next to his foot while nodding my head to show him that I understood.
He passed it to me with a sigh. "Kyle is seriously a pain in the ass to live with."
I fixed the basket against my hip, letting loose a tiny snort. "I can imagine."
"He's only five minutes younger than me, but he acts like he's five years younger than us."
The intentional nod to Kassandra brought a smile to my face.
"Kassandra's the oldest?"
"By two years," he confirmed with a scowl.
I tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear with my free hand.
"Cute," I grinned.
He opened his mouth to say something else, but his phone cut him off before he could get any words out.
"It's work," he sighed, flashing me his screen. "Specifically my boss."
I lightly tipped my head in the direction of the door as an indication for him to get out of here.
"I'll catch you later, yeah?"
"You know where I'll be," I quipped before throwing in a quick, "It was nice meeting you."
He exited the room and made a move to round the corner, but not before shooting me one last smile.
"It was nice meeting you, too!" he called out over his shoulder.
I stood, lingering in the laundry room for a few minutes as I tried to piece together how he and Kyle were related.
The two of them are polar opposites of each other, even though that's often the case when it comes to twins.
I don't know what I'd do if they were an exception to the rule.
It's hard enough dealing with one Kyle.
Imagine if there were two.
I shuddered at the thought.
The house was eerily quiet as I made my way upstairs, and I couldn't help but wonder how Kyle manages to stay sane living alone in this big house.
Since I'm most familiar with my room, I decided to start my rounds there.
Given that most of my clothes now reside at the local Goodwill, my hamper was now considerably empty.
Muttering profanities to myself, I grabbed a handful of the new clothes that I just bought before I made my way down the hall to Kyle's room.
My heart began to race the moment I came to a stop in front of his door.
It's just a room, Lilac.
Calm down.
My hand slowly came down on the handle, and I forced myself to push open the door before I psyched myself out.
I'm not sure what I was expecting his room to look like, but I was genuinely surprised to find that it was a hell of a lot cozier than my own.
The soft beige and white color scheme threw me for a loop as I pegged Kyle to be more of a dark wood with black accents type of guy.
Even though my assumption was off, I found myself admiring the relaxing vibes that the overall palette gave off.
Feeling like an intruder, I made a beeline for Kyle's ensuite bathroom, which was situated off the door and to my left. Thankfully, his hamper was sitting directly underneath the towel rack, so the retrieval of his clothes was quick and easy.
Upon exiting the bathroom, I rushed to leave the room, only to stagger in place after a shiny object sitting on top of his nightstand caught my eye.
Without thinking, I dropped the laundry basket straight onto the floor.
My fingers must've contracted a mind of their own in the time that I spent looking at the sparkling object because the next thing I knew, I was reaching out to pick it up.
"Oh my god," I breathed once my mind registered what it was.
It was an engagement ring.
An expensive-looking one, too.
The ring was a beautiful shade of rose gold and it had small diamonds littering three-fourths of the band on either side.
Now I'm no diamond expert, but this ring looked to be sporting four karats minimum.
The inner child in me begged to try it on, but the sensible adult in me shot that idea down within a matter of seconds.
Kyle would kill me if he knew that I had even made eye contact with the thing.
The thought alone persuaded me to put the ring back exactly where I found it.
I knew from personal experience that the nosey side of me wasn't going to let this go, which is why I raced downstairs to throw our clothes into the washing machine.
After setting the wash cycle and pressing 'start' on the machine, I bounded back upstairs to my room to grab my phone.
My breathing was now severely labored from my running up and down the stairs. Once my heartbeat returned to its normal rhythm, I unlocked my phone and dialed the number belonging to the one person who holds all of the latest celebrity gossip.
The dial tone rang twice before my person of interest finally decided to pick up.
"Hello?"
"Does Kyle have a girlfriend?" The question flew out of my mouth before I could stop it, and I could tell that it caught Veronica off guard, given that she quite literally choked on her spit.
"What?" She coughed in my ear repeatedly as she tried to restore her breathing.
"Is he seeing someone," I repeated.
"You and I both know that that man is a player for life," she deadpanned. "Why are you even asking me this?"
I paused for a fraction of a second to debate with myself, and, Veronica being Veronica, took my silence to mean something totally different.
"You're not catching feelings for him, are you?!" Her voice was filled with an alarming amount of urgency as she interrogated me. "Because he's in between two girls right now, and I don't need you being his third."
"What the hell, Veronica!" I shouted, feeling weirdly defensive all of a sudden. "I so do not like him."
"So, why are you asking me about his love life, then?" she asked. "Or should I say his lack thereof."
I took a deep breath as my mind momentarily flashed back to the ring that I found in his room.
"I don't mean to start anything," I told her slowly, "but you'll never guess what I just found in his room."