Beyond Love and Lies

Chapter 1- Twins

"Andy! Come on! Help me, just one more time...please," Mickey begging his sister. He was nudging and shaking Andy's back while she laid down on her bed. It was almost past bedtime. Andy irritatingly turned her head to face him.

    "No can do, Mickey," Andy said, showing her four fingers. "Count?" Asking him.

    "I'm not blind. It's four." He sluggishly answered, adjusting his eyeglasses.

    "Four! that's how many times you have asked me to pretend your girlfriend just to get out of your flings!" Andy answered back.

    Andy was exasperated by what her brother was asking her to do for the fourth time. She had been asked by him many times. Four! If she remembered it right. Three times she helped him and this time again to pretend his girlfriend so he could shoo away the woman who wanted to have his attention, basically to trap him.

    Her brother, Mickey wasn't even a womanizer; they were not also wealthy or well known in society, but he was a good-looking guy. Very good looking. His light, blue-gray eyes were mesmerizing. A sharp jawline that sometimes his five o'clock shadow grow was attractively striking. 

Perfect button nose, check. Red plumpy lips, check. Some people say she was the female version of Mickey, a softer version. Their only difference was their hair. She got a dark-thick one, but Mickey had a silky brown crown.

    Mickey was not into relationships, and he wasn't mingling at all. It was all because of his looks and charms. Women get swooned easily with him. He was being harassed at work by a coworker who he did a bit of favor by sending her home after a drunken night party. According to him, he never slept with her, but the woman kept telling everyone at work they did, and now his job was on the brink of jeopardizing.

    He wanted to bring her to their annual company party and introduced her as his girlfriend with his colleagues and friends. They've done that before when they were a bit younger and in university. Nobody would suspect since they've been barely living here in New York for a year.

    Andy and Mickey were actually twins. She was older by two minutes, according to their mom. All their life was about moving and relocating, if not hiding. There was a time they had to move in the wee hours of midnight without any reason from their mom. All they knew was they had to leave the town.

    For the last 23 years of their life, they've lived in 5 states and two countries. They stopped moving since their mom got diagnosed with aggressive cancer, and they had no reason but to stay in one city for her treatment. She had lost the battle three years ago.

She and Mickey stayed for two more years in California to finish university before relocating to New York to find a job and live a new life.

    "Please... Andy... She's getting on my nerves, and I don't want to lose this job. I needed you to smack the senses out of her,"

    "Arghh...another favor from you again!" Andy jeered in irritation "okay, okay, just let me sleep, for Pete's sake?" She added, taking her pillow Mickey was holding.

    Mickey smiled widely.

    He had been bugging his twin to do another favor for him. It was to save his ass from the clingy woman he had no interest in giving in. He grew up so close with Andy that he treated her as an older sister, although she was really older than him. 

Andy has been his support all his life, especially before and after their beloved mother's death. She helped him with his studies by working while he was at university. She had to stop studying to send him to school plus to pay for his back therapy from the injury he got from his Highschool senior year.

    "Yes! I love you, sissy!" Mickey said, punching his hand up in the air. He kissed Andy on the forehead before getting up from her bed. He knew his sister wouldn't say no to him, especially when she needed a good sleep for tomorrow.

    "Just leave me alone. I have a new job interview tomorrow. I cant f****d that up, Mickey!!!" Andy said, rolling her eyes.

    "I know you won't! Your college credentials themselves will speak for you! What kind of company would say no to a high school valedictorian and Summa c*m laude, and  one of the best accountants in the city?" He bantered proudly.

    Andy graduated with high honor just recently. She graduated a bit later than him since she had to sacrifice for their needs. Their mom didn't leave anything to them except a small box she asked them to send to a specific person, which Andy hadn't done since they were both occupied after their mom passed away.

    Their mom never had a stable job when she was alive. They were quite skeptical of where she got the money they'd spent for the past 18 years. Andy had asked their mom once, but she answered that their dad left it for them. 

The amount was too significant; they could almost live off without working and enough for their college fund. But since tragedy struck, the money was used deliberately for their mom's hospital treatment and medication, and by the time she died, what she had left with them was the house, a bit of cash, and debt.

    "Get out!" She whispered-yell "and turn off the lights, please... good night, and I love you." Andy then said softly before burying her head on the pillow.

    Mickey chuckled. "Good night, and I love you too." He knew his sister won't ever get angry at him. He was never a player, and he had so much respect for women. It was rare for a man to be like that, but from the past three relationships he had, it ended mutually and were still friends with his ex-girlfriends.

    His focus was to stay on his job and save money to pay Andy's debt when she was helping him. Andy didn't know he knew about it, it wasn't that much, but still, she did her best to save him when he almost had nothing. Mickey would love to surprise Andy. He was currently working as an Assistant Manager at a four-star hotel.

    Mickey left Andy's bedroom and went straight to his own. He laid down to the bed, reminiscing how he and Andy survived.

    The money they got from selling their house in California was used to buy a small two-bedroom loft on the outskirts of New york. It wasn't that big but just enough for them. Their parents had no family and relatives that they knew of. He didn't even know who their father was. 

    Their mom said he left her alone to tend himself apart with the twins coming along the way, which they later found out, according to their mom again, that he went after with another woman. An understanding that he didn't want to make the same mistake their father did to them, promising himself not to follow their father's foolish path.

    After some time of spacing out, Mickey closed his eyes and slumbered away.