Page 8 of Some Things Never Change

However, I wouldn’t be going this year. Not with other things weighing on my mind.

“No, I really need to go home and start packing. I’m ready to leave as soon as my two weeks are up,” I said.

“You really are ready to leave, aren’t you?” asked Andy.

“Yup, I am,” I said.

Anthony scoffed. “Good thing Andy’ll be there with you then. I feel better knowing you’re not going to be alone on your drive down.”

“You really thought that I’d make that drive by myself?” I asked, surprised.

Anthony shrugged with a smile. “It was going to be either Jonathan, Andy, or me that was going to be there with you. But, if you wanted to, you would have driven all the way by yourself, too. When you’re determined to do something, no one can ever stop you.”

I smiled in his direction. “Aw, Anthony. Are you complimenting me?”

“No shit,” he laughed. “I’m proud of you, Julie. Both you and Jonathan.”

I laughed back. “Thanks. What are you two doing up so early anyway?”

“That’s supposed to be my line,” said Anthony.

“We were planning to race down on Crenshaw Street and see who’s the fastest. And, you?” asked Andy.

“Running too, but just around the corner,” I said. I pointed to my outfit, which was just a cropped windbreaker and workout leggings paired with some old running shoes I left at my mom’s.

“Around the corner? Why don’t you just run with us?” asked Anthony. He turned to Andy. “Wanna race tomorrow morning instead?”

“Yeah, can’t have Tink running on her own,” he answered.

“Actually, I don’t want to run with you two,” I said sharply.

Andy and Anthony are two hot-blooded, fit brothers that hone their bodies to perfection, not for health or to attract the opposite sex, but literally to compete with one another. They are extremely competitive, especially if it has anything to do with who’s the “better” twin. Their competitions used to end in brawling matches despite the obvious winner. There are more scars on their bodies than I can count from those.

“What’s got you so scared, huh?” teased Anthony, wiggling his eyebrows at me.

“Don’t worry, Tink. We’ll run at your pace,” said Andy. “It’s not safe for you to run alone this early in the morning.”

“Fine,” I said. “But I’ll only run past the parking lots at Stonebrook High and back. I can’t handle running any more than that.”

Stonebrook High was the large high school we all went to. It was literally just a few blocks down the road. I’d say I was spoiled quite a bit during high school. Auntie Gao is a French teacher there. With that, I was lucky not to be forced into eating horrible cafeteria food the whole time I was a student there. The twins and I used to clamor into her classroom every day to eat home-cooked meals with her.

Anthony groaned. “Fine. I was going to suggest we run further, but sure.”

“If you want to, you can also go off on your own. I don’t really care. There’s literally no one out anyway,” I said.

“No,” said both the twins in unison. Their voices were firm. I shook my head at them.

“It’s dangerous, Julie,” said Anthony.

“He’s right. I can’t believe you would’ve run around this early in the morning all by yourself if we weren’t out here,” chimed in Andy.

“I wasn’t going to run far! I just wanted to get out and run to calm down my mind,” I said. “I was planning just to run back and forth on our block and maybe circle around the neighborhood once.”

“That’s still dangerous,” said Anthony. “Thank God we planned our race this early.”

“Why are you two running so early anyway? It’s not even seven yet.” I started to run in place. Anthony started to do the same.

“It gets dark too early, and we didn’t want to run in the dark,” said Andy with a long exhale as he finished his warmup. “That would be too dangerous.”

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