On the Strawberry Moon - 13. Chapter 13

‘Wow, Jameson’s Diner,’ remarked Rosey as they entered the café.

The café was large and pink and smelled strong of sizzling hot bacon.

‘Yeah,’ grinned Jasper as he held the door for all of them to go through. ‘Have you guys been before?’

‘We love it here,’ smiled Kalum on que as he shut the door behind them.

It was crowdy in the café, full of families, of students hanging out, and of couples on dates. But it didn’t feel too overcrowded where they needed to shout. Soft dance music beat in the background as they walked over to a free booth.

The heat from the kitchen wafted over sounds of other cooked food, sizzling and boiling.

‘We’ve been here, twice, I think,’ smiled Hannah as they sat down in the booth.

As they took their coats off, Kalum, full of nervous, snatched up the one-page menu and flipped it back to front.

Looking up at his date, Hannah, he nodded, ‘You look lovey,’

She smiled back. it was obvious the effort she had put in, with a hair all straightened out and her full make up. Her white long skirt and summery shirt flowed just as much as sisters did.

‘Yeah,’ Jasper caught up with Kalum’s observation and beamed a white dashing smile, ‘You both look awesome, seriously.’

‘Thanks, guys,’ grinned Rosey, reaching for the menu. ‘It’s so nice when guys notice things.’

‘Ah, no, you didn’t cut your hair as well, did you,’ teased Jasper.

As they all laughed, Kalum cast his eyes back on the menu. He must have read it a couple of times but none of the words ever sank in.

He had put on a dark blue shirt, just like his brother, black trousers, smart shoes. He couldn’t wait to rip the shirt off later. But for now, it was a felt like he had a corset on and he had to play the part with his brother.

‘What do you recommend, Kalum?’ Hannah asked, sweetly.

Without hesitation, Kalum said, ‘Cheese and chips. I know it’s messy but,’ he laughed.

‘But they are so worth it,’ Jasper finished the rehearsed sentence off his brother as they both laughed at the same time.

‘Cheese and chips? Really?’ smiled Rosey, raising an eyebrow.

‘What did you guys get, last time you were here?’ asked Kalum.

‘Ice cream sundaes,’ commented Hannah. ‘We both got sweet tooth.’

Kalum was sure he would get points off his brother for making a hundred percent effort into this date. He was talking, making conversation, complimenting the girl. He even matched doing twin sentences with him.

Jasper gave a quick glance sideways at the waitress, who was in drag. Jasper looked at the menu but Kalum saw the look no one else saw. The hidden look of disgust.

Kalum looked at the waitress, she was tall with bright red silk hair, bright blue eyes, whenever she smiled and laughed with the customers, the smile lit her whole face and it looked adorable. Kalum thought she was very pretty; he couldn’t understand why his brother did see that.

Kalum looked back his menu too, not wanting to think about anything further,

‘Tell you guys what,’ grinned Jasper. ‘We got to give three course meal now, cheese and chips and sundae for dessert. We just need to know what we have for starters.’

‘How about soup,’ suggested Rosey.

‘Soup is so boring,’ teased Hannah.

As they were laughing, the door of the café opened again and Kalum looked up.

It was Robert.

Robert and that guy, Paul, he was going out with. Kalum felt like his insides fell out and that he felt embarrassed that Robert would see him in this stupid dating twins’ thing.

Unfortunately, Kalum knew Jasper had seen them too.

‘I’d say chicken bits,’ said Kalum, rushed, waving the waitress over as much as he could.

As the waitress came over, Jasper got up, leaning to the table, ‘I’m just going to go to the toilet, you guys can order for me, I’ll be two minutes.’

‘What about your drink?’ called Rosey.

‘Kalum knows what I want,’ Jasper called back.

The waitress had her notepad out ready, Kalum had to sit there frozen and he gulped and smiled at the waitress, ‘Two pepsi drinks please.’

‘Hey, Robert,’ called Jasper, as he reached the boys. ‘Didn’t know you guys would be here too.’

Robert smiled and went to open his mouth.

‘You guys have absolutely got to sit with me and my brother, we’ll make it a triple date,’ chuckled Jasper, his voice loud with arrogant swagger. He placed his hands on his hips.

Robert, realising this was Jasper and not Kalum, put his hands in his pockets and looked over at this date. Jasper wasn’t stupid so he wasn’t going to pretend that him and Paul weren’t on a date, ‘Are you sure? We’d be cramping your twin style.’

‘Nonsense, you got to sit with us, it will be fun,’ Jasper flashed an aggressive grin. ‘Plenty of space, we got a huge booth.’

Kalum managed to get away from the girls and caught up with his brother. Unfortunately, he knew he had got there way too late.

Jasper, aware of his brother behind him, called and said, ‘Kalum, you’d be cool with a triple date, wouldn’t you?’

Kalum couldn’t look at Robert. ‘Um, we’ve already ordered.’

Jasper caught hold of the waitress going past, ‘Excuse me, it’ll be okay if these guys joined us, and you could take their order, right?’

Robert and his date exchanged looks.

‘Of course, not a problem, guys,’ the waitress nodded and flashed her lovely smile.

‘Come on,’ smiled Jasper putting his arm around Robert and guiding him to the table. Paul and Kalum trickled behind.

As they all sat in the booth, Jasper announced to the girls, ‘Yous don’t mind if our friends Robert and Paul join us? Looks like we all thought of this place as our date night.’

‘That’s fine, yeah,’ nodded Rosey.

Kalum instantly starting drinking his drink and slide the menus over to Paul.

‘Cool, glad you guys aren’t homophobic or anything,’ beamed Jasper.

‘We’re not really bothered,’ shrugged Rosey as she sipped her drink.

Kalum wanted to run out the booth so badly, he’d break his own leg to do it.

‘So, Robert,’ Hannah turned to Robert and smiled, ‘You’ve been at the school a few months now.’

‘Yeah,’ Robert replied, softly while flipping the menu around.

‘These guys recommended cheese and chips,’ Hannah nodded at Kalum.

Gulping back the hard lump in his throat, Kalum forced that grin out, ‘I know it’s messy but,’

‘But so good,’ laughed Kasper. ‘Sorry, can’t help it!’

Kalum staged his giggles as well.

The date had only started ten minutes ago so why did it now feel like ten hours?

Kalum focused on his drinks, and his rehearsed questions to Rosey and Hannah. He barely joined in the conversation with Robert and his date, instead he laughed when everyone else laughed and kept his eyes down.

He never looked Robert in the eye and Robert never looked at him either.

The date ended well for Jasper, they had walked the girls home, and arranged another date with them.

When they got back to their Care Home, Kalum peeled the shirt off him and went into his bunk bed and pulled the cover over him.

It was strange, they had eaten so much and yet Kalum’s stomach felt so empty.

Finally, with his head safety into his pillow, he closed his eyes. The pain of his heart came out and the tears were freed to come out now. It felt like he clasped how he felt for hours and his body was in a cage. He bit his tongue hard to not cry out loud and grab Jasper’s attention.

‘Great night tonight,’ declared Jasper as he climbed to the top bunk.

‘Yeah. Definitely,’ mumbled Kalum into his pillow.

‘Twin boys, dating twin girls, that’s how it should be,’ declared Jasper.

‘Yeah.’

‘Not like those freaks. Robert and that guy. Or that waiter. We are not like that, are we,’ Jasper paused. ‘You’re not like that, twins are the same and we both like girls, we both like Rosey and Hannah.’

The tears were warm already on Kalum’s face as he murmured into pillow, ‘Yeah. You’re right, brother.’