A/N: Heyo! Man it feels good to be posting things again... anyways, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept, drabbles are... well, small segments of stories that sometimes contain plot but are mostly just fun little excerpts. I love writing them, and have a bunch of them stock-piled on my computer, so I figured I'd post them here. The drabbles posted here will be unrelated (and thus do not build up one story in particular) and many will be pathetically angsty. Anyways, I hope you enjoy them.

ODDS AND ENDS #1:

My Evil Twin

By Emilee Petersmark

Today I made contact my evil twin

I'd woken up from a nap this afternoon to find her sitting at my desk, legs crossed primly, tracing a dainty finger through the dust on my printer with a slightly-derisive look on her face. She seemed to have materialized while I slept; I only had a moment to contemplate her arrival before she broke into my thoughts with a tactful cough.

"Hi," I managed.

"Hello," She returned.

She talked to me a bit in a quiet voice as I stumbled gracelessly out of bed, articulate as a duchess and just as distantly polite. She told me that she had traveled long and far to get here; she called herself Kristen and that her previous incarnation lived around the area now known as Rockville, Maryland.

It was a funny thing, to see my own face talk to me-- I wondered if I always had that hint of condescension in my expression. She spoke with my voice, but gentler. Her face was mine but the flaws were softer-- she was... pretty. My stomach gave a slight churn at the realization, undoubtedly envious.

I implored her at a break in the conversation, "Pray tell, Kris, what awful things would you say about me?"

She hesitated for a brief moment, picking at her brand new acrylic nails (French Mani/Pedi) and looking me up and down.

"Where do I start?" she said, her pristine veneer warping a bit as she relaxed, whatever wariness she had previously used in my presence melting as she had apparently decided that I was no threat.

Within what seemed like seconds, Kristen had drawn up an impressive list of countless defects and criticisms, starting with my ridiculous fear of thunderstorms and ending somewhere around my inability to be happy/settle for what I have. Somewhere between #47: Virtually no athletic ability or desire to gain athletic ability, and #49: Leaves something to be desired in the kitchen, there was the dreaded #48: Unable to commit.

"I can commit!" I spluttered in an indignant fashion once I'd semi-recovered from the barrage of abrasive critiques.

My twin looked me right in the eye and laughed. "Name one thing that you've stuck with for longer than a few years without your mother forcing it on you."

I paused. "My friendships."

Kristen laughed again. Was my laugh always that cruel? "Right. You know, how anyone can consider the relationships you have with other people as healthy is beyond me..."

"I have healthy relationships!" I defended, albeit a bit unsurely. She was probing a raw insecurity, and we both knew it.

"Don't lie to me-- I'm your twin, remember?" She said with my voice. "You've never had a long, stable relationship with anyone. Whenever you feel yourself getting attached to someone, you play the 'annoying bitch' card until you've driven them back to a safe distance. Face it: you're terrified."

I chewed my cuticles. "Maybe I've done that in the past, but that doesn't mean I'll do it again."

Kristen eyed my broken nails in unmasked distain, my worst fears coming smoothly from her lacquered lips, "You think you've changed? Think again. It's only a matter of time before you drive these new friends away."

I tried to hide the pang of fear I felt in my heart, but I knew it was all over my face.

"It's already happening, isn't it?" she continued, perfectly composed. "They're already starting to lose their affections for you. You can only be endearing for so long before it starts to become irritating. And what about this new boyfriend?"

"He's not my--" I started out of instinct, scrambling to re-errect some form of defense. But then she looked at me, my patented 'Don't-Bother-With-The-Bullshit' Look, and the denial died halfway. "What about him?"

"How long do you think it'll last before he gets tired of you? Or worse..." her eyes sparked, "... before you get tired of him?" She smoothed her skirt around her perfectly defined thighs before continuing in an almost sing-song way. "All of these suspicions you have, your refusal to trust him-- you know what it's doing to your relationship. It's too bad, really. We both know you like this one."

I looked away. I couldn't bear to see that smug expression on my own face as those words pierced me. "Just leave, won't you? It was nice meeting you, but I have things to do."

The courteousness sounded bitter.

Kristen sighed, looking horribly unimpressed. "I see that my welcome has worn out." She stood. "It was nice meeting you." The duchess was back, all walls and ice.

"Sure," I returned half-heartedly.

She turned to go, but stopped just for a moment, to shine me with an empty smile. "We both know I'm right." Then she shrugged before disappearing in a cloud of quasi-noxious fumes, her voice echoing in my head: "In time, you'll see. I know you won't disappoint."

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!...

The insistent screeching of my alarm chased her words away, and I slammed the snooze and went downstairs to grab a book from our crowded living room, ignoring everything but the sound of my own steps on the stairs and closing myself in my room without a word to any of my on-looking friends.

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