I splashed my face with cold water and then took a look up at the mirror in front of me. My blonde hair hung limply around my shoulders. I hadn't washed in in at least a week - I'd been too distracted. My brown eyes looked muddy and dull instead of holding their usual shine. My normally tanned skin looked sunken in around my cheeks. 

With a gasp, I jumped. I looked like I had at Dr Frisbone's office - my therapist for my anxiety. I looked... I looked partially dead. I took a quick step back from the mirror and there was a knock on the door, "Natalie?"

I walked quickly out of sight of the mirror and into my bedroom, "Ready?"

He nodded slowly, "Only if you are?"

"Let's go," I whispered and he led me out into the hall. 

Reluctantly following after him, we caught the elevator down to the dining hall where lunch would still be happening. 

I stopped him at the doors, "Christian... how do we do this?"

"They already know we've been stooping - you kind of announced it - but don't we want to know why?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Well, duh," I shrugged, "But we can't just go in there and say to them, 'Why did you choose us for this bitchy science experiment?'. We've tried that before, just in not as much detail, and got nowhere."

Christian sighed, "You're right."

"Should we be figuring this out ourselves?" I asked, raking a hand through my hair. 

Christian nodded slowly, "Yeah, you're right..."

I leant against the wall, "Then how do we do that?"

Christian frowned, "We could-"

But the bell rang over his voice. 

The doors opened behind us and I stepped away, "I'll see you in Drama."

He nodded once, still in deep thought mode.

***

"He jests at scars that never felt a wound," Christian mused, trailing along below me. 

The set design team had created some sort of tower with a 'balcony' for the stage where in reality I was just standing on a staircase behind a cardboard wall, looking through a hole in it. 

Christian continued with his lines and I took the moment to appreciate the irony. Romeo and Juliet believed they were destined to be together and were tried to be forced apart. Christian and myself had been genetically modified to suit each other and have been forced together. And here, Christian and I were, trying to pretend to be Romeo and Juliet. 

"Ay me!" I swooned at my part, leaning against the 'balcony'. 

I waited as he ran through his lines and then I scanned where the audience was going to be, "O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name! Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I shall no longer be a Capulet."

I stared off with a slightly dreamy look, but inside I wanted to gag. Why was this thirteen-year-old girl so ready for marriage? Marriage. She was ready to betray her family and marry the son of her sworn enemy for the sake of lust. At thirteen, I was becoming best friends with Emily and experiencing my first lapse of anorexia. 

I went through my next passage easily, but inside I was still confused. Why would Juliet know exactly who she wanted to marry the moment she laid eyes on him? I was still cautious on who I liked. The guy I liked had been forced on me, but it made me wonder if I would have liked him anyway. 

If I hadn't been drugged or dreamed of him, would I have still been interested in him? I would have met him at the End of Year dance - which happens biannually for everyone Year 10 and older. Would I have liked him then? Or were all these feelings completely engineered from whoever's behind 'Soulmate' or 'Alto Emus'. 

"Miss Roberts," my drama teacher half-shouted, "It's your line!"

"Sorry, miss," I winced and ran through my lines, "Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face..."

I kept running through them absentmindedly. My eyes connected with Christian and he asked a silent question with his eyes, 'What's wrong?'

I just went through my lines. When it was his line I mouthed back, 'Tell you later.'

It was about time I tell him of my feelings.

And, also, how they're scaring me. 

***

Emily flopped melodramatically onto the bed, "So... you've been a part of a science experiment?"

"Apparently," I sighed, "They drugged me and changed what I dream."

"They changed it to Christian?"

"Yeah," I admitted, "And they did the same to him."

"Oh god, is that even legal?" she raised an eyebrow.

I shook my head, "I don't know. But the file looked like the government knew about it. It was all professional and-"

"Wait," she narrowed her eyes and interrupted, "What file?"

I gulped. How did I explain the break-in? 

I took a deep breath and then said, "On that Saturday, when everyone went out, Christian and I snuck into one of the testing rooms. We got into Dr Weston's computer because we wanted the answers they had. We... we found a file. It explained how when Christian and I were fourteen they selected us to be a part of this experiment. But we didn't know about it..."

"What did the file say?" she asked in a whisper.

"It just had a log book about everything that happened." I closed my eyes for a moment and then opened them, staring at Emily, "They've been tracking me for the last three years... and I didn't have a clue."

She dropped her gaze to the floor, "I-I'm sorry... for at lunch."

"No sweat," I leaned back on my bed, looking to the ceiling, "The only problem is that I lost my temper... and now the doctors know that I know..."

*I've had enough... there's a voice in my head, says I'm better off dead... but if I SING ALONG A LITTLE F***ING LOUDER, TO A HAPPY SONG, I'll be alright...* I leapt for my phone across the room and glared at the Caller ID. My phone bounced onto the floor. 

Emily picked it up, still ringing, "Why is your Mum calling?"

I shrugged and whispered, "I don't know!"

Before I could stop her, Emily slid something on the screen to accept. She pressed the phone to her ear, "Hi Mrs Roberts!"

Ms, I automatically corrected. 

Emily's face paled, "Oh, yes, of course, Ms Roberts. How's work?"

I cursed her. My mum will now drag her into a long and boring conversation about her job. 

Emily gulped, staying quiet as someone - my mother - rambled on the other side of the phone. After a long moment, Emily replied, "Of course, Ms Roberts. I'll put Natalie on her phone, now."

She quickly handed me my cell and scampered off into the bathroom. I frowned and put my phone to my ear, "Mother."

"Natalie," she said, ignoring my blunt tone, "Are you well?"

"Very, thanks," I said quietly, "How are you doing?" 

"Fine, Natalie," she replied, "Listen, we... we need to talk."

***

I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. I sat on the floor of the bathroom, currently, and shook slightly. 

My own mother had just betrayed me. She'd never been much of a mother figure, anyway, but she had done the one worst thing I could imagine. 

She's marrying again. 

When I was fourteen, suffering from sleep apnea and anorexia, I was also suffering from anxiety. I had never had a real mother figure in my life - she was always so busy with work - but I was really close to my dad. He would take me and Shawn out to the park on weekends and always gave us a little extra allowance. What Dad didn't do was tell us about his cancer.

When I was a week away from turning fourteen, my dad had to be rushed to the hospital. He'd had a sudden faint and no one would tell me nor Shawn anything. Mum didn't arrive at the hospital until three hours after we'd arrived in the ambulance. 

A short bit away from that, Dad let us come in and see him. He asked me and Shawn to sit down and he proceeded to tell us about his leukaemia. Anyone could have seen the signs, but Shawn and I were just oblivious to that type of stuff, at that age. 

He passed away three months later, whilst I was in the FSWC Sydney. I'd never gotten to say a final goodbye. Mum took a week off work and then went back like nothing had happened. 

But she'd never fallen back into love so I saw that as her only coping mechanism. 

However, she's getting remarried. 

For work. 

Mum had said across the phone, "Work's losing a bit of money. No one's buying our new products." So instead of working to improve this, she's marrying the widower that owns Trevors - a chain of department stores. With all their money together, they might be able to save Roberts' Cosmetics. The catch is the marriage.

There's always a catch in these situations, isn't there? Funny how no one can just do a good deed to someone these days. Trevors can't just loan money to Roberts' Cosmetics - no, the owner has to marry the owner. The people behind Alto Emus can't just ask for my help - no, they need to keep it a secret from me. 

And she wants me to be the maid of honour. The wedding's in four weeks. That's barely any time to pull something even respectable together...

Emily wrapped an arm around my shoulder, "It'll be fine... It will be fine, Nattie."

***

Song: Jerk it Out - Caesars

A short chappie. Everything's falling apart *mwahahahaha*

xx Sharky.