Twin souls.
That's what everyone called them. It couldn't be a coincidence that they were both five feet six inches, had wavy brown hair, though not in equal length, and were born only two days apart.
Melissa Sandal and Gracie Kings bumped into each other in the mall. They were initially two girls who barely knew their way around Atlanta, strolling the shelves in search of the exact same flavor of Pringles. When their hands brushed as they both reached for it, their destinies collided.
Melissa had turned around to make her lips into a pout, ready to plead with whoever to let go of it for her since it was the last jar. But Gracie was already backing away. She was never one to struggle for anything.
The coincidences kept increasing when they met again at the salon that weekend. Melissa offered to pay for Gracie's hairdo as compensation for her act of kindness that day at the mall.
When the day was over, they exchanged contacts and walked home together.
But now, they're staring daggers at each other. Gracie's arms are folded on her chest while Melissa is seated in the opposite direction, tears brimming in her eyes.
“How could you? You're supposed to be my best friend. My sister!” Melissa cried, palms reaching up to cover her eyes as tears slipped down her cheeks.
“Usually, people can't take the nonsense they dish out. I'm not surprised you're acting like the victim now.” Gracie responded, admiring her new set of press-on nails.
Melissa lifts her head to face Gracie, jaw dropping. “And what's that supposed to mean?”
Gracie's eyes narrowed into slits, hands dropping at her sides as she closed the gap between Melissa and her with only a few steps.
“You knew from the first day that I had a crush on Mark.” She tosses her hair away from her eyes impatiently, “Girl, I introduced you to him as my crush. But guess who's engaged to Mark today.”
Melissa rose to her feet, anger flashing in her eyes as she wiped tears and snot off her face. “So that's what prompted this betrayal? Jealousy?”
Gracie scoffed, “No, not jealousy. Karma. You have an annoying way of always wanting to have what I have and on every single occasion, I let you have it. When you went for Mark, you undid whatever bond used to hold us…”
“I didn't go for Mark!” Melissa yells, cutting her off. “He came for me.
Gracie waved her hand in the air as if waving the accusation away from herself. “Still you knew I liked him, but you never told me about his advances towards you until the engagement. And I was supposed to be your best friend!”
Melissa shook her head, lips opening and closing as she tried to muster some form of explanation but none seemed to be forthcoming. She hadn't given much thought to how Gracie had felt about her relationship with Mark.
Of course she met Mark through Gracie, and her friend had expressed her feelings for Mark, but the feelings weren't mutual. Mark said even after knowing Gracie for three years he felt nothing for her but upon meeting Melissa, he loved her at first sight.
Why was that suddenly a problem for Gracie?
“You know the funny thing, Mel? You didn't do this with just Mark. You do this every single time!”
“How?” Melissa brushed the angry tears that just wouldn't stop. The accusations were getting intense and as far as she was concerned, she'd done nothing but love Gracie.
“Oh suddenly you don't know? What happened during Christmas? You made a fuss about how you wanted to go to Philly when you knew I always wanted to spend Christmas in Canada! Did you or did you not have your way?”
Melissa fell silent. She had indeed made a fuss about going to Philly but since Gracie seemed indifferent about the location she didn't think that was a problem either.
“Still you shouldn't have pushed me to resign from my job, lying that there was a better offer in a rival company just so you could take up my position. That's the height of it!”
“No,” Gracie turned back to her, “I'll tell you the height of it. You knew that I always wanted to work with HR but you applied for the job a week before me, taking the very position you knew I wanted….”
“But you said you weren't sure! I was only trying to secure my life….”
“At the expense of your so-called friend! You made sure to apply at the same company and for the same position…” Gracie slaps a hand to her face. “Funny how you're ranting and sobbing all over the place since you never considered doing that to me a big deal.”
Melissa grabbed Gracie's arm, tears pooling in her eyes. “Please don't do this to me. We can sort this out, we're sisters…”
Gracie yanked her arm away, grabbing her bag from Mel’s reading table. “You already submitted your resignation and I've already been promoted to HR. There's nothing that can be done.” She walks to the glass doors and the moment they open, she turns around.
“By the way, Mel, I'm not your sister. I can never be.”
PS: Image is not mine