The Savage Brothers | ✓

CHAPTER 2: Jeremiah 29:11

CHAPTER 2: Jeremiah 29:11

B R A N D O N

It took seven years before my twin brother finally got out of the shower this morning. And I will blame him if I get another late slip! He already left off to his school and now I'm hurrying to finish my bathroom business.

As I step out of the shower, I glanced myself at the mirror to see my features; and the very first thing I saw in the mirror were my growing facial hair. Fuck. I need to shave this.

Surprising as it may sound, but our coach doesn't allow players to play if they have facial hair, because he believes in "hygienic athletes" and also because he's a big germophobe. He said that our hair chins and mustaches are prone to absorbing multiple bacteria—whatever he meant by that. Even our lockers are clean because of him. I have never seen any boys' locker room so clean before!

He reminds me of my twin little brother.

Bryan is such a clean freak that I'm very much sure that his part of the uterus was much neater and more organized than mine. And even after we were born, it is clear that he had a habit for cleanliness that is even showing up to now.

Best example: our shared bedroom. If Sherlock Holmes would come visit our room, he would immediately know which side of the room is which without batting an eyelash.

As I skillfully shave, I stare at myself in the mirror. Yes, me and my brother look exactly—like, exactly—the same. Same hair, eyes, nose, lips, everything. Even our teeth, voice, height and body structure. Though in the past, Bryan had experienced quite a few bodyshaming depression and insecurities because he was fatter than I was; but it all changed when I helped him workout and now we look exactly alike. Of course, my abs and muscles are much more defined since I play football.

It's funny how people mistake me for Bryan and him as me . . . but what's funnier is that many people thought we're Identical Twins. I'm a little annoyed whenever people are like, "But there are only two types of twins, right? And if you're not either one, then what are you two then?"

C'mon, men! It's frustrating to answer and explain everything to them.

There are actually seven different types of twins categorized as: Identical, Fraternal, Half-Identical, Mixed Chromosome Twins, Superfecundation, Superfetation, and Mirror Image Twins. And we fall on the latter.

(So saying that there are only two—Fraternal and Identical—is like saying that LGBTQ+ is only limited to Lesbian, Transgender, Gay, Queer, and Bisexuality and no such thing as Asexuality, Pansexuality, and other sorts of sexuality. It's just . . . dumb, you know?)

To make the explanation for Mirror Image Twins understandable and short, twins who fall on this category look exactly like one another, hence the term "mirror image." But what makes one differentiate from the other is because of their reversed asymmetric physical features. For example, one may be right-, and the other, left-handed, or can also be twins having hair whorls that swirl in opposite directions.

As of us, we're both right-handed and we have both hair whorls going to one direction only. But what makes us identifiable, some ask? Well, it's our moles . . .

. . . On our buttcheeks. Mine is on the left portion and Bryan's on the right.

It's a bit challenging for our parents to figure out who is who, so whenever they want to reprimand a specific twin, they need to check which buttcheek has the mole of the child they are going to have a scolding session with. But as time passed by we grow older and it is very awkward for our parents to make us strip our pants just to make sure they are talking to the right kid, so they based their judgment on our personalities.