“Tomorrow is going to be another hassle...” she said before heaving another sigh.
“More love letters asking you out?” I made an educated guess.
She turned to me and nodded her head before shaking her head and rolling her eyes upwards at the same time. I ended up laughing whenever Diana made that funny face. I liked the fact that I seemed to be the only one who knew this side to my sister. After all, she couldn’t show off all the nasty, playful, and truthful sides of herself to anyone else without being judged. Sadly, that also meant that she couldn’t be herself in front of anyone, our parents included.
“Dahlia, can you be Diana again tomorrow? Please...” she asked with pleading eyes.
For me, it wasn’t that challenging to act as Diana. The effort was well worth it mostly because I knew that Diana could relax more on the days when she was acting as Dahlia. Fewer eyes would be on her and she wouldn’t have to spend her days living under such crushingly high expectations. The truth was that I pitied my sister and all that she had to go through to live up to her name and the expectations that our parents and everyone had of her. Being the heir to our family was tough, especially now that we had lost our fortune and didn’t have much left to our name but the marriage agreement between Anthony and my sister.
I had decided a long time ago since the day that I fully understood the implications that the marriage agreement meant for my sister that I would do anything in my limited power to help her. Even if it was just a little, if there was anything that I could do to help lift her burden or elevate her pain, I would do it without hesitation. It was the least that I could do to support my only sister and the only savior of our family.
To help people recognize us easily, we adopted very different ways of dressing. Diana would wear sweet-looking girly or lady-like clothes feature light or pastel colors. On the other hand, my clothes would be trendier and more daring. Our fashion sense and preferences did not matter. What mattered was that it was easier for us to switch places this way. All we had to do was dress up in the other’s style when we made the swap, and people would naturally associate our identity with the clothes, hair styles, and the accessories that we had on.
“Sure. Just pass me the letters so at least I’ll sort of know how many and who I’m supposed to reject tomorrow,” I replied like it was no big deal.
“Thank you. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. Anthony is coming to see me after school tomorrow,” Diana said with sudden realization.
Anthony is coming?
“Are you two supposed to go on a date?” I asked as I started to worry.
“Not really. It’s more like a meeting. He just wanted to drop by. His parents probably talked him into it...” Diana said without much care.
“If that’s the case, shouldn’t we refrain from swapping places tomorrow?” I asked as I started to frown.
“You can meet Anthony in my place. It’s not like you two don’t get along...” she said with a shrug of her shoulders before letting out a yawn.
“He’s your fiancé...” I pointed out.
“You get along with him just fine and it’s not like he can tell us apart,” she responded confidently.
“Even so...” I muttered.
“Daphne wants to go out shopping tomorrow with you. Would you rather wander around randomly in the malls with her for hours?” Diana asked with a knowing grin.
“Fine...” I replied before heaving a loud sigh of resignation.
Diana smirked at me before she giggled at my eventual submission. I had to admit that meeting Anthony in my sister’s place was much better than shopping around with Daphne.
“You don’t really like her, do you?” Diana asked and I knew immediately that she was referring to Daphne.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like her, but I felt like there was something off about Daphne, especially as of late. It felt like there was something that she wasn’t telling us, and maybe because of that, I started to feel like she was just faking it in front of us. It wasn’t like I had expected her to be our true friend when it was obvious that she started hanging out with us for the sake of increasing her popularity. I thought that it was useless effort on her part but didn’t want to push her away because it could be bad for the relationship between our families. Diana probably thought the same way as well so we kind of kept her around.
“I don’t like her, but I don’t hate her either,” I replied truthfully.
“I’ll keep an eye on her if I were you. She’s definitely up to something,” Diana said with squinted eyes.
“Do you really think so?” I asked.
“We’ll just have to wait and see...” Diana replied.
...
The school bell rang and that marked the end of another school day. By that time, I couldn’t wait to see the guy who wanted to confess his love to Diana so that I could get it over and done with. Just like the classic love confession letter stated, I headed to the garden at the back of the school building. I had no idea who came up with the idea or tradition of confessing their love in that part of the garden, but I was surely getting sick of it.
“Thank you so much for letting me know, but as you know, I’m already engaged to Anthony. I’m so sorry but I can’t go out with you, and I can’t return your feelings,” I repeated the same line of rejection again right after the guy had finished confessing his feelings.
Just when I was about to let out a sigh of relief that I was now done with this little task, I felt a firm grip on my wrist. For a moment, I was shocked and when I looked down, I realized that he had grabbed hold of my wrist quite tightly.
--To be continued...