Page 1 of Almost Ours

Chapter One

Wednesday

October 7th 2015

Ruby:

"Rubes?" I look up to see Oscar, my twin brother, leaning against the doorway of my new dorm. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah." I close the journal I'd been writing in—something mandated by my therapist. "You?" Glancing past his shoulder to the empty hallway, I frown. "Where's Emma?"

My brother rolls his eyes, coming further into my dorm. "I don't go everywhere with Emma."

I snort. "Yes, you do. But it's okay, I don't blame you. Not after everything that happened—"

"I don't want to talk about it." He cuts me off, closing the door behind him and venturing deeper inside. "I can't talk about it anymore." Oscar drops down beside me on my bed. "I want to move on from it all."

Is that possible? "Yeah. Me too."

He nudges his shoulder against mine, a show of support, and we lapse into a comfortable, familiar silence.

Today is my first official day of uni. I was supposed to start last year, along with Oscar and our childhood best friend, Cameron, but my therapist didn't think I was stable enough to leave yet. I think he was right. I feel much stronger this year. And who knows, maybe if I'd come here then, Oscar wouldn't have met Emma.

"Got you something." Oscar reaches into the bag he brought with him, the plastic rustling loudly in the quiet room. He pulls out a pack of Oreos and tosses it onto the bed.

I grin as I reach for it. "Do you remember when we used to sneak into the kitchen at midnight to eat these?"

He scoffs, leaning back onto his palms. "I don't think it was midnight. I think it was probably about nine-ish. But Mum let us do it anyway." Oscar shifts closer, hooking a finger under the seal and tearing the packet open before holding them out to me. "It'll help keep the crippling depression away, won't it? A bit of sugar is always a pick-me-up."

"Not so crippling anymore." I grumble, pulling out a biscuit and twisting it absently. It's a habit now. I always lick the white bit first. "It's sort of... lingering."

"Lingering's not so bad, right?"

I nod thoughtfully, chewing the Oreo, my eyes taking in my new home. "Lingering is good." The room smells of cardboard and new carpet, and the fluorescent overhead light is flickering above us, almost like it's unsure about me being here too.

"Is it?"

"Mm," I shrug, as I kick the cardboard box by my feet that Mum had packed for me. "Did you know about this?"

"Know about what?"

I lean forward and pull out a framed photo, holding it up for him to see. It's one of the two of us on holiday a few years ago, both sunburnt despite Mum's insistence on following us around with factor fifty, Oscar's arm locked around my neck while I try to shove him away. "This. There are bloody loads of them."

He glances at the collection before shrugging. "Maybe she thought you'd forget what we look like?"

"I've moved to university, O. I haven't developed amnesia."

"Could happen."

"You only live down the road, and you won't stop bothering me. When on Earth would I get the chance to forget you?"

"You might've forgotten me between visits."

I roll my eyes and put the photograph with the others, reaching back into the box. There are more. Loads more. Mum seems to have taken the fact I'm moving out as confirmation that I need a photographic record of every person I've ever met, despite the fact home is barely an hour away and Oscar lives close enough he is constantly popping in.

Not that I really mind.

I'm hit with a strange mix of nostalgia and sorrow as I look back at the pictures spread across my desk. There are so many versions of us there.