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The sun had set, the night sky illuminated with shades of purple and blue. THe sky was relatively clear, only a few clouds lingering in the air.
Their parents were out, having some sort of extravagant dinner to celebrate their anniversary. Something fancy, probably, with weird alcohol and a live band.
Eloise sat on their beige sofa, aimlessly watching whatever reality show was on the tv. She had a bowl of ice cream resting on her lap, vanilla, her favourite. Basic in some peoples eyes, but delicious to her. The main light in the room wasn't on, only the lamp by the small table was illuminating the room.
Ellie was curled up in a fuzzy blanket next to her, with a bowl of ice cream too, only in chocolate, not vanilla. Ellie hated vanilla ice cream, ‘not enough flavour’ as she says, but chocolate was deemed rich enough to her.
“Eloise?” Ellie piped up, breaking the everlasting silence. “You don’t hate me do you?”
“What?” Eloise questioned. “Why would you think that?” She paused the tv program, and shifted herself till she was fully facing her sister.
“I don't know,” Ellie murmured, “I was just wondering….” She didn’t finish her sentence, instead, took a big spoon of her slowly melting ice cream, holding the spoon in her mouth for a few seconds too long.
“What is it Ellie?” Eloise sighed, mindlessly stirring her own ice cream, watching as it slowly started to look more like custard.
“Its nothing,” Ellie retorted, her tone surprising Eloise.
“Well it's clearly not ‘nothing’ if you're getting mad,” Eloise replied. “Tell me what's wrong, I can help.”
“It’s fine.”
“No its not Ellie-”
“It’s FINE.” Ellie shouted. A look of realisation and guilt crossed her face, and she immediately slumped down further into the sofa. “Sorry,” she barely whispered. “I don’t know what came over me”
“No it's okay,” Eloise replied, though she was still slightly shaken by Ellie’s outburst. “But…can you tell me what's wrong?”
“I just..” Ellie started, pulling the blanket closer to her, “I feel like I make mum and dad not care about you, and you hate me for it”
Eloise didn’t know what she was expecting, but it wasn’t this. “What?” she said. “Can you explain?”
Ellie took a deep breath, her fingers running up and down the soft fabric of the blanket. “Because I have…you know…ADHD or whatever,” Ellie said, averting her gaze from Eloise’s deep eyes. “It feels like I get a lot of attention from mum and dad, and you don't get as much.”
Eloise paused. While yes, deep down she agreed with what Ellie was saying, she couldn’t just say this to her.
“But that’s because you need the extra support sometimes,” Eloise said, “I really don't mind-,”
“Don’t lie,” Ellie butted in, and Eloise sighed. Eloise was one of the only people Ellie could read like a book, which was proving to be a problem here.
“Well,” Eloise stated, “I’m not going to lie, sometimes I do feel like I get less attention-”
“I’m so sorry Eloise,” Ellie interjected. “I really really don’t mean to make you feel like this, I’m so so so sorry.”
“Ellie, chill,” Eloise smiled. “Let me finish what I was saying-”
“Sorry”
“-before you jump in. I don’t hate you for it, at all, and I understand why mum and dad do it, I should’ve brought how I feel about this up to them a while ago, but I was scared about how you would react”
Ellie turned round fully to face Eloise. “So…you promise you don’t hate me right?”
“No, you idiot,” Eloise giggled. “You annoy the fuck out of me sometimes, but I don’t hate you”
“Okay…that's good to know,” Ellie sighed relievingly. “I don’t hate you either by the way!” Ellie leaned into Eloise’s side, who had resumed eating her now melted ice cream.
They stayed like that for a few minutes, Ellie resting on Eloise, watching the tv, Eloise eating her ice cream. After some time, Eloise brought up something that had been playing around in her mind since their conversation.
“Why’d you bring this up?” Eloise asked in between slurps of her custard looking ice cream.
“Some people at school told me that…” Ellie trailed off, downcasting her eyes. Eloise immediately tensed up.
“What did they say,” she questioned, trying to control herself. No matter how hard she tried, Ellie kept on getting picked on at school, and Eloise hated it.
“They said I take up too much space in peoples’ lives…and that you would want a more ‘normal’ sister,” Ellie murmured.
“Who said that?” Eloise demanded. “I’ll personally go punch them myself, Ellie. None of what they said is true, okay? I love you, no matter what you think is wrong with you.”
“Thank you Eloise,” Ellie smiled. “You’re the best sister… but also the most annoying one”
“I’ll take that,” Eloise sighed, running her hands through Ellie’s coils. “But tell me who said that to you. Don’t tell me it was Eliza, I always hated that bitch”
“No,” Ellie stated. “It was Maryam and Bella-”
“I’ll go punch them Ellie”
“Eloise!” Ellie exclaimed. “It’s okay, you don’t have to risk getting suspended on my behalf, I can manage perfectly fine!” Ellie giggled. “I don't need you protecting me like I’m some sort of glass object!”
“Okay, I’m sorry,” Eloise apologised. “Just…I don't know, report them or something!”
“And I WILL Eloise!” Ellie reassured. “As I said, I don’t need protection!”
“But Ellie, even if it’s only by 19 minutes, you’re still my younger sister,” Eloise smiled. “It’s sort of in my nature to try and protect you”
“Um, I thought I was the older twin?” Ellie questioned, grinning.
“It’s the way you’re literally NOT, Ellie” Eloise disputed, a smile creeping up on her face.
“I swear I am!”
“You’re not!”
“I AM!”
“Get the birth certificates if you’re so sure!”
“Oh I AM sure, thank you very much!”
—---------------------
“Why aren’t you talking?” Eloise smugly said. “Are you too sour to admit the birth certificates said I am the older twin?”
“Shut up,” Ellie huffed, though she was unable to stop her wide grin. “I swear someone told me I’m older!”
“Well, these say otherwise,” Eloise smirked, shoving the birth certificates in Ellie’s face.
“Alright, alright,” Ellie groaned. “I was wrong, you were right, and can we please change the tv channel? I don’t know how much more of Love Island I can take!”
“Sure thing,” Eloise grinned. “What do you wanna watch?”
“Can we watch She-Ra, as in the 2018 one?” Ellie asked. “It's getting removed from Netflix in a few days, I really wanna rewatch my favourite episodes.”
“Is it actually?!” Eloise gasped. “Oh my gosh we need to rewatch it then!”
As Eloise searched for the show on Netflix, Ellie turned to her, devilishly grinning.
“So,” Ellie grinned, as Eloise looked at her nervously.
“...so?” she questioned.
“What's the deal with you and Charli!” Ellie exclaimed, swinging her legs.
“Ugh, Ellie I’ve told you, there's NOTHING between us, we’re just friends, and I don’t have a crush on her”
“Sure, sure, just friends,” Ellie chuckled.
“Ellie.”
“Okay! Okay! I’ll drop the topic!”
—---------------------
The twins hadn’t realised how much time had passed, how long they had spent watching She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, until their parents’ car rolled into the driveway.
Ellie was fast asleep on the sofa, whilst Eloise was curled up in the armchair by it, reading her book. She heard the noise of the car, and picked up her phone to check the time.
2:36am.
Eloise swore- because it was only then she realised that they both had a photoshoot at 10am- in 8 hours.