Chapter 1

Lily and Avery strolled on the sidewalk with their clasped hands swinging between them, enjoying the sunny summer day. It was early in their summer break from high school so they weren’t bored yet. The two had just finished lunch at Lily’s house. Since both sets of parents worked, the girls alternated houses for lunch. As next-door neighbors and best friends their entire lives, the two sixteen-year-olds were inseparable. They did everything together. It actually began before they were born since their mothers weathered their pregnancies together and even shared a hospital room in the maternity ward. With Avery being born barely two hours before Lily, they had even gone home the same day.

“Hello, girls,” a sweet voice said from their right.

Both girls stopped chatting and turned to see the widow Mrs. Mallory sitting in her rocking chair on her porch, her knitting needles still busy as she peered over them. They both smiled and waved with their free hands at the gray-haired lady.

“Why aren’t you twins wearing the same clothes?” Mrs. Mallory asked with the faintest of smiles.

Lily and Avery automatically glanced down at what they were wearing and then at each other. In fact, both wore identical white shorts they had bought on one of their many trips to the mall. However, their tops were different, and not just that Lily’s was black and Avery’s red. With her light ginger hair, Lily would never wear a clashing red top. But that wasn’t what was so different. Lily’s top was tight and sleeveless, molded to her body, whereas Avery’s short-sleeved shirt was baggy. The styles were the result of both being self-consciousness of their breasts. Mrs. Mallory had called them twins, but they looked nothing alike. It was simply because the adults thought of them as the neighborhood twins because they were always together. The children called them other things that weren’t so nice, especially the boys. But, physically, the two could never pass for twins.

At 5’2”, Lily was a petite girl, while Avery’s 5’7” frame towered over her. Other physical differences were more extreme. Lily’s light ginger hair was almost orange, while Avery’s was dark brown. And Lily had green eyes with a splattering of freckles on her pale skin. Avery had an olive complexion and brown eyes. And then there was the reason they didn’t wear the same style tops. Lily had round orange-sized breasts that weren’t visible unless she wore a tight top. Even then, the boys claimed they looked like small bumps. Avery, on the other hand, had a completely different problem and was only comfortable wearing baggy tops. Her breasts had begun as puffy nipples that swelled into points. But as they grew, they didn’t fill out. So instead of being round or even pear-shaped where the base was round, they were more like cylinders protruding from her chest. And if that wasn’t enough for her to get teased, even a bra couldn’t hide the large nipples that poked out the front of most tops. The boys tormented Lily by called her flat-chested, but Avery with more cruel taunts.

“We don’t wanna get teased,” Lily said to Mrs. Mallory.

“Yup, dressing the same could get you teased, but you’d look so cute. Where you girls heading?”

“Just the park. See ya.”

Lily clenched Avery’s hand tighter and whisked her away. The teasing Lily had let slip had nothing to do with them dressing alike and Mrs. Mallory was prone to ask questions that made them uncomfortable. It was better to get away.

When they slowed down to a leisurely stroll, Avery asked, “Does it bother you when people call us twins?”

“Nah, you’re like my sister. Closer than a sister. Like a twin sister. So, no.” Lily smiled. “I kinda like it.”

Avery wrapped her arms around Lily and hugged her tight. “Twins forever.”

“Look at the lezzies,” a boy shouted.

The girls separated as if the other had suddenly turned into a zombie. They stared at the group of boys in the street who had stopped their bicycles. Their backpacks had baseball bats sticking out. The ones without backpacks had their baseball gloves hanging on their handlebars. Both girls blushed. The pale skinned Lily burned redder.

“If you’re gonna do all that lezzie stuff, get a room,” the boy said. “Don’t do it outside.”

“We were just hugging,” Avery said.

“That’s what I mean. Pressing your tits together and— Oh wait, little Carrot Head there don’t have no titties. So, Lily, how’d you like those pointy torpedoes Avery calls tits pressed to your chest? That’s the only time you feel tits, ain’t it?”