chapter 1: partners in crime

The Graham sisters did literally everything together.

The two were completely inseparable; it was the first thing that people would always notice about them. It was a nigh impossibility to see one without the other. And the two spent a lot of time being “seen”, as a matter of fact.

The two seniors had grown up being the local stars of their home town. They were the MVPs of the high school soccer team, always the last two kids standing during the spelling bee, they had even taken turns playing the female lead in the community play the last three years in a row. Always sticking together, one never seemed to want to outshine the other. Not that that would have ever been possible.

See, neither sister would ever really have to worry too much about overshadowing the other because of the other most immediately noticeable quality that the pair shared: they were completely indistinguishable from one another.

Holly and Minnie were identical twins exactly three minutes apart, with Holly being the older. Heh… Holly and Minnie… Don and Linda Graham must have thought that they were the most clever parents on Earth when they named their daughters. Not only did the two look alike, they dressed alike, acted alike, wore their hair in the exact same way… The two clearly loved being dopplegangers. Having been lifelong friends since birth, being a twin was a fundamental part of self-identity for both girls. They reveled and giggled at the confused looks that they would get from strangers and would secretly high five when a parent called one by the other’s name. In their earlier teenage years, the two would even stay up some nights practicing finishing each other’s sentences so that they could wow people later in public.

Everyone at high school knew who the Graham twins were, especially the male students.

The two wore their sparkling golden hair down to their shoulders, framing round faces with alluring hazel-colored eyes. Years of athletics had kept them trim and toned but they were supple where it counted, the two having inherited their mother’s hourglass shape with none of the thickness in the middle. They wore outfits that weren’t necessarily revealing but could only be described as “form-fitting”, which was more than enough to turn heads and set fantasies ablaze as the two sauntered down the hallway together towards some Advanced Placement class or extracurricular activity.

The two were physically comfortable with each other in a way that was borderline sensual, frequently hugging each other, playing with and fixing the other’s hair, sitting in each other’s laps when they were reading from the same textbook… It was difficult for a guy not to take notice.

There were even rumors that the two were so inseparable that they did… kinkier things with guys as a pair too. But those were nothing more than the wishful thinking of horny and underdeveloped teenaged minds.

No, the Graham twins always seemed far too busy enthusiastically double-teaming some new task or securing yet some other trophy, recommendation or other symbol of their joint overachievement. The two were model daughters, model students, model athletes and, according to a lot of the guys in their classes, model, well… models.

Of course, it was an unfortunate turn of events that would soon cause everything to change in only a matter of a few years. And that turn in question was Holly’s diagnosis.