A Mother And Her Twins, Part 5

A Mother and Her Twins

CHAPTER 5

While her mother was lighting only her fourth cigarette of her life, Kate was
chaining into her eighth since she had ran home from Ellie's house. She had
run into the house in tears, both scared and angry, and slammed the door
shut. Why had her mother chosen to come over to Ellie's that night? She had
made no mention of going over when Kate was getting ready to go out, and Kate
started to wonder if her mother had figured out that Kate was smoking and was
looking for an opportunity to bust her. She expected her mother to come
flying through the door behind her, but after 15 minutes of nervous
anticipation, Beth had still not arrived home. Kate wished she could have a
cigarette to calm her down, and then thought, "Fuck it. If mom knows I smoke,
one more is not going to get me into any more trouble than I am already."
Kate decided to have a cigarette and, feeling like things could not get any
worse, lit up right there in the living room. Calming down slightly, she
chained into a second cigarette before hearing a noise from upstairs.

"Mom, Kate is that you? I thought I could smell smo..." Anne's voice trailed
off when she saw her sister smoking an all-white cigarette right there in the
living room!

"Kate, what the hell are you doing?" Anne enquired of her sister. "Are you
smoking?" she asked, rather stupidly.

"Well, duh, Anne, what does it look like?" Kate said, showing Anne her
freshly lit cigarette.

"When did you start smoking?" Anne asked incredulously.

"A few months ago," answered Kate, taking another drag. 

"A few months ago?" Anne repeated. "God, Kate, how did I not notice this?
Does mom know?"

"She does now," Kate responded. "She busted me at Ellie's house not long
ago."

"Where is she, then?" asked Anne. "I thought she would be grounding your ass
for the next fifty years or so by now."

"So did I, to be honest," Kate responded. "I waited for her for, like, 20
minutes, but she didn't show up. I guess she must be chewing out Ellie for
allowing me to smoke at her place or something."

"Ellie let you smoke at her place? What am I missing here? When did all this
start?"

Kate started to tell the story of how she started smoking to Anne. Anne,
unusually for her, did not judge Kate's smoking, even when Kate chained one
after another.

"Do you like it?" Anne asked at one point. "I mean, you do know it's bad for
you...?"

"At first, I hated it, but when Ellie got me the menthols and showed me how
to do it properly, I suddenly started to enjoy it. It surprised me as much as
anyone. One minute I was a complete amateur, the next I was smoking ten a
day. At first, I only did it to prove a point to Debs and Jill and the rest
of them, but at the same time, I wanted to look good for Anya. That's the
other thing, Anne; I'm gay."

"Oh, I've known that for ages," said Anne dismissively. "We are twins, after
all. I know what you're thinking before you do, most of the time. I'm more
curious about the smoking thing; how could you have kept that from me for all
this time?"

Kate was somewhat bemused by Anne's last few remarks. She had only told Ellie
about her sexuality, and was concerned how her family would respond to it.
Now Anne was sitting here telling her she had known for years and didn't even
care! Feeling a surge of emotion, Kate suddenly reached over and hugged her
sister, being careful not burn her with her cigarette.

Anne, somewhat unsure how to respond to this, let Kate hug her for a few
seconds before the cigarette smoke started to irritate her eyes and she
pushed her sister off of her.

"How can you even think of putting that thing in your mouth?" asked Anne.
"The smell is revolting."

"It tastes different than it smells. I would rather be smoking than have
someone sitting next to me smoking. After you have been smoking regularly,
you start to appreciate the taste more. You know, Anne, you really should try
it sometime."

"I don't think that will be happening any time soon," commented Anne, "after
all, we've still to see how mom and dad will react to you smoking!"

Kate was surprised (and a little relieved) at the way this conversation was
going. She fully expected her sister to react with fury at her disclosure, as
Anne seemed to have no tolerance for anything which did not fit into her way
of thinking. Kate decided to question Anne as to why she did not react the
way she expected.

"I don't know, actually. If you had asked me yesterday how I would have
reacted to seeing you sitting smoking, I would have said badly. I know that I
am quite judgemental sometimes, but seeing you tonight looking so scared and
your cigarette the only thing that was comforting you, I just decided that it
was not up to me to make your life miserable."

"Thanks, little sis," said Kate lighting yet another cigarette, "I appreciate
that. I'm not sure how all this is going to play out with mom, but it's nice
to know you have my back."

"No problem, big sis. You know I'm always there for you."

At that moment the door opened, and Beth walked in.

Previous part | Next part