The Unholy Trinity

The Unholy Trinity-Chapter Twenty-seven

Somewhere between Tuesday and Friday, Joelle got the bright idea for her and Fallon to hang out together at her house after school. Then the boys could both pick them up there and only have to go out in one car. Fallon got the feeling Joelle thought since they were dating twins that made them instant best friends. Joelle wasn’t the worst person on the planet, but she did come off as kind of boring. For the life of her, Fallon couldn’t understand what Griffin saw in her.

            With two sisters and a brother, Joelle’s house was a hubbub of after school activity. Every boy in the neighborhood seemed to be clustered in front of the Play Station in the family room. It didn’t look like her mom minded though. Mrs. Heatherton took refuge in the front room where she watched an afternoon talk show. Only Mr. Heatherton managed to avoid the chaos by having a job that kept him there until six.

Joelle shared a room with her younger sister, Carrie, who was a thirteen-year-old eighth grader and looked nothing like Joelle. Fallon expected Joelle to protest when Carrie followed them into the bedroom, but she actually held the door open for her sister. Having been an only child all her life, Fallon didn’t know what normal sibling behavior was, but she always heard brothers and sisters fought all the time.

            There was a pair of twin beds in the room, but all three girls flopped down in the middle of the floor. Carrie turned on the iPod that was plugged into a set of speakers on the dresser, and the sounds of Rhianna filled the room. Fallon figured that had to be Carrie’s music since Joelle looked like the kind of girl who listened to classical music. That was just a guess of course, but the girl wore white cotton panties after all.

            “I can’t believe I’m going to Griffin Locke’s house,” Joelle said and heaved a dreamy sigh.

            “Totally,” Carrie agreed. “The Locke’s house is the biggest one in town. No offense, Joelle, but I can’t believe you got Griffin Locke to go out with you.”

            Joelle didn’t look offended. “I can’t either.”

            “I still wonder that about Lucian, and I’ve been with him almost nine months,” Fallon admitted.

            Carrie turned a big smile in Fallon’s direction. “Is it true the twins look completely identical?”

            Fallon nodded. “Yeah, but there’s an easy way to tell them apart.”

            Joelle leaned forward. “What is it? I still haven’t figured out how to tell them apart.”

            “Griffin is left handed, and Lucian is right handed,” Fallon said, and Joelle gasped. “What’s wrong?”

            “It’s nothing,” Joelle said, and Fallon could hear the lie in her voice. “It’s just that, um, Christian said they were the right and left hand of the devil.”

            “You can’t be serious with this whole son of Satan thing,” Carrie said and rolled her eyes. “Besides, even if he is the son of Satan, you shouldn’t care.”

            “Why not?” Joelle asked.

            “The guy’s rich and totally into you,” Carrie said. “Two very good reasons to be accepting of what would be just a teeny little flaw.”

            Fallon laughed. At thirteen years old, Carrie seemed to have a better handle on the way the world worked than her sixteen-year-old sister did.

            When the boys picked them up just before five, Joelle’s mom couldn’t get over their similarities. It wasn’t the first time she’d met Griffin, but it was the first time she’d met Lucian and seen the two side by side. Before they even introduced themselves, she started in about it and even went so far as to say she couldn’t see how they could tell themselves apart from each other. That one made Fallon smile while Joelle pinked. Of course they knew who they were. Joelle didn’t seem to know though. The boys had changed clothes since going home, and she stood in the crowded entryway of her house glancing from Lucian to Griffin and back before giving Fallon a help me look. Fallon took pity on her and pointed out which was which when she introduced them to Mrs. Heatherton who in turn gave a quick rundown of her brood.