“Can I ask a question?” Evander smiled at me as we found a quiet spot to sit behind the reception hall, “how is Kaia your twin? You look too different to even be fraternal.”

“Oh!” I laughed, “My parents both donated then each used a surrogate at the same time without knowing who used who. Kaia and I happened to be born on the same day, she was born at 1 in the morning and I came into the world around 3 pm. We each look like one of our dads. I'm a clone of Alexander and Kaia has the same bright red hair as Caelan but her eyes are green. It's pretty common in Caelan's side of the family actually.”

“I never heard him talk, is he from here?”

“Nope. Montana back in the States.”

“Really? That's so cool,” Evander smiled, taking a sip of water. His hair seemed more silver than when we were inside, rivaling the moon in color, “your family is interesting.”

“It’s massive is what it is. Caelan has 5 siblings. In turn, three of them have kids. Alexander has one brother and he has two kids. I have 10 cousins. I'm the… third youngest?”

“Jesus. Kip and I have one cousin. His name is Blue.”

“It's a lot I know. I'm not close to my cousins that live in America but we do talk now and again and I see them at Christmas because we almost always go to Montana.”

“That's nice. Um… I'm not trying to be nosy…” he looked at my prosthetic and I shrugged.

“I was in a car accident the day we got back from the qualifiers in Tokyo. A lady plowed into my side of the car, flipped it a few times, and my right arm was pinned under the hood,” I held out my prosthetic hand and Evander studied it, “but I was about 20 feet away from it. It was ripped off and I kept moving. I lacerated my liver and had massive road rash down my back and legs. I couldn't vault anymore because I didn't have the strength to do it. I also didn't finish physical therapy until six months after the Olympics ended but I did watch, happy to see the guys on my team even if they didn't win anything I was still proud. My uh… ex-best friend was in the car with me when the accident happened. Broke his leg and nose.”

“Beau,” he nodded and I stared at him surprised, “we're the same age, we were in the same classes most of the time. Our secondary school wasn't exactly the biggest.”

“Oh. I didn't think about that. Yeah, Beau. He's okay now. I think. We haven't talked in a year. Decided to finally date him and he uh… cheated on me.”

“Ew! I hate people like that,” his soft features screwed into a scowl, making me smile as Evander looked younger than the 21 he was, “my friend got cheated on last year and I remember being so sad for her. I don't have big plans for my life, we weren't allowed to do that. I'm happy with what I have. It makes me scared that no one will want me but I'd never want to give someone that pain.”

“Me either,” I cleared my throat, finishing my drink, “I'm just trying to get ready for medical school. Why weren't you… allowed to want more?”

“That's the real question,” Evander snorted, taking off his tie and laying it over his thigh, “our parents are… hyper-religious. Fundamentalists. Gender roles and all that. Kipton and I are men. We were required to go to university, marry a woman, and fill the quiver as much as we could to have enough children to fight Satan when he returned to the earth. Apparently. We followed every doctrine, and every law set down by our father until we came to the age of consent. Kip left first on our 16th birthday. He had already been disillusioned with their beliefs because of being at a public school. It took me a little longer. I was 17 when I ran away and found Kipton. He had already met his wife Queenie and her family let me move in with them. We didn't realize how harmful the way we were raised was. The putting down of women, the hate of the LGBT community. It was terrible. We're free now though. Kip bought the pub with a loan from Queenie’s parents and I helped him fix it up before we did training to be bartenders. I run the catering part of the business so we can serve at weddings and parties and Kip keeps the pub afloat with Queenie. She does all the bookkeeping.”

“I'm glad you got out of there. To live your life as you want. My parents are wonderful so I can't relate. Two very different people though. Alexi is loud, silly, and incredibly clingy. He was raised Catholic and still prays daily. Caelan is a bit quieter, stoic, but eternally caring and loving. He agreed to have Kaia and me baptized because it made Alexander happy but I've never gone to a church service. Alexander stopped when we were born. He used to take my uncle Ezekiel all the time because they raised him when my grandparents died. I don't think Zeke is Catholic anymore. Doesn't align with their beliefs. His wife is a beautiful trans woman. My auntie Belle.”

“Wow,” Evander smiled gently, “oh that's beautiful. I'm a bit… ignorant when it comes to different families from mine. Is most of your family gay?”

“No. Well. I have two grandpas. Remi and Teddy but Teddy is trans. Then Uncle Cash and his wife Penny. They're here at the wedding actually. Um… oh my dads. Caelan is bisexual, Alexi is gay. Aunt Cadence married Layla. They're non-binary. Aunt Calliope has a husband named Bobby. Uncle Cyrus is married to Uncle Carter. They're both pansexual. Uncle Cruz has a husband named Sunny. Alexi's parents were named Jacob and Ruthie but they died before I was born. Kaia is straight and I'm… gay.”

“Really?” Evander smiled when I nodded, “Me too. It's why I left. My parents tried to send me to a conversion camp.”

“Those still exist?” My eyes grew wide in confusion.

“In some places, yes. My parents managed to find one in Australia. I left the day before they sent me. I found the tickets and the camp information. I knew who I was so I ran away and it was the best thing I ever did. Queenie’s family adopted Kip and I without question.”

“That makes me happy to hear,” I smiled at Evander and he giggled quietly, “It was… this was nice. To sit and talk to someone. I don’t remember you though.”

“Oh! Yeah, you wouldn’t know me this way. But maybe you remember Evangeline Klein,” he whispered and I sat for a moment before jumping up, my eyes wide, “hi Koa. It’s so nice to see you again.”

“Eva…” I continued to stare at him and Evander laughed again, “Oh, wow!” I dragged him off the bench and hugged him tightly, “look at you!”

“Surprised?”

“Incredibly. I didn’t even recognize you! I guess that’s the point but… we used to practice together all the time.”

Evander was a former gymnast I used to practice with. He was incredible on the balance beam, most likely due to the fact he was small, only five foot three. We had known each other since I was 12 and changed gyms but when Evander was 16 he suddenly disappeared and I now understood why.

“My parents forced me to stop because the coaches wouldn’t let me wear gear that wasn’t revealing as it could have caused me injury. So they pulled me out of gymnastics. You didn’t know I had a twin brother?”

“I’d never met Kipton. Plus, your last names are different now so I wouldn’t have put two and two together,” I cradled his face and Evander blushed a bit, “God… I was worried about you.”

“Since when can you touch people?” he laughed quietly, his hands lingering at his sides.

“Since the accident. I hit my head really hard and it scrambled my brain enough to cause all of my issues from before to just… disappear. I can eat food now. Touch people. I don’t wear headphones everywhere. I’m a whole person.”

“Koa?” Triss called from the door to the hall and I ducked behind a bush, pulling Evander with me who stumbled and we fell into the grass, Evander cradled in my arms for safety, “Kaia, he’s not out here. He must have gone back to the hotel,” he yelled, his voice getting quieter as he closed the door and I laughed, laying entirely back to look up at the stars.

“Why are you hiding?” Evander smiled, still lying on me.

“Because as much as I love my older sister, if she sent Triss to find me she needs something and I’m not about to deal with that. Oh! Wait, Kip said something about Queenie knowing Kaia.”

“She was a cheerleader too.”

“Got it.”

We lay there together, Evander smiling the entire time as I continued to look at the sky, watching small clouds roll past.

“Oh,” a familiar voice came from above my head and I looked back to find Beau, “I… figured you’d be somewhere quiet. I wanted… to talk to you…”

“Get away from me,” I sighed, patting Evander on his back before he climbed up and helped me to my feet, “I have nothing to say to you, Beau.”

“I just want my ring back.”

“And I gave it to your mom. Get it from her,” I fluffed my hair and Evander giggled, pulling me down by my tie to pick a bit of grass out of my curls, “thanks, Evan.”

“Of course.”

“Um…” Beau stuttered, narrowing his eyes before gasping, “E-Evangeline?”

“I don’t know who that is. Is she nice?” Evander put his hands on his hips, glaring at Beau.

“Yeah? It’s you…”

“No. My name is Evander Gideon Thorne. I don’t know anyone named Evangeline. Koa? I need to go shut the mobile bar down. I can’t leave Kip to do it alone.”

“Aw,” I whined and Evander laughed, “you still live in Christchurch?”

“I do,” he nodded and I grabbed my phone from my pocket, placing it in his palm.

“Put your number in. I’ll text you later okay?”

“Okay.”

Evander did as I asked before slipping my phone into my pocket with a smile, “It was so good to see you. Talk soon?”

“Mhm. Talk soon,” I caressed his cheek and Evander blushed before running inside, my heart settled as I watched him before turning back to Beau, “what else can I do for you?”

“Why are you flirting in front of me?”

“Evan is super cute. I used to spend a lot of time with him when I was learning to vault. We were in the same program. When he practiced on the beam, I was the tallest there so I would act as his spotter, catching him so he wouldn’t hit the ground. It was easier to touch people back then if there was a reason for it. We were friends until we lost contact. That’s all.”

“I miss you,” Beau whispered and I let out a sigh, “I miss us and I… I know I messed up but I learned what I did wrong. Please… I only want another chance.”

“I told you. I don’t do second chances. You cheated on me, Beau. I gave you my heart because you promised to be patient, to understand that I was doing my best, and you couldn’t even do that. I don’t want you back. I don’t want to do this again.”

“Koa please,” Beau grabbed my arm and Kipton suddenly appeared next to me.

“Let go of him,” Kipton pushed Beau away, “Koa, your sister is hounding us trying to find you. Evan is busy cleaning glasses but he told me you were here so I came to get you. I think there’s something wrong.”

“Really? Thanks, Kip. Hey?”

“Hm,” he smiled at me, pulling me inside as Beau stood in the garden crying.

“Is your brother single?”

“Very much so. Finds it hard to date being trans and liking men.”

“Think he’ll let me take him on a date?”

“His heart might explode from excitement but yes,” Kipton snorted.

“Then I will at least ask. Thanks… really. I couldn’t figure out how to get out of that situation. I didn’t want to hurt Beau’s feelings. Do you know what’s going on with my sister?”

“Oh, that was a lie. They already left. Your parents are drunk, you might want to take them though.”

“You lied for me?”

“Well, Evan can’t lie to save his goddamn life but I can so I decided to come get you when he noticed you’d been gone a while and thought you might be uncomfortable. He was right.”

“That he was,” I waved at Evander when I saw him at the bar and he returned it before looking around nervously and blowing me a subtle kiss.

I winked and returned it before patting Kipton on the back and heading to my parents who were drunkenly flirting with each other, my uncle Cyrus making disgusted faces as Carter tried to do the same.

“Jesus,” I whispered, rolling my eyes and dragging Alexander to his feet, “Come on, you big drunk baby.”

“Mmm. I want water,” Alexander mumbled.

“When we got to the hotel. Uncle Cy, can you get Dad?”

“I’m working on it. I might just carry Cae at this point. But I have no idea what to do about Carter.”

“I’ll get Caelan,” my uncle Ezekiel came running over, laughing softly, “I didn’t drink either. I have to take Xavier to a judo competition tomorrow, I don’t want to be hungover and drive to Pukekohe.”

“Thanks, Zeke,” Cyrus laughed and we finally managed to get my parents and Carter into the car we had rented, “Koa, are you coming back with us?”

“Shit,” I stuttered, “I’ll walk, I left half my shit in the room Kaia got ready in. It’s only 15 minutes, I’ll be fine.”

“Alright. Love you!” Caelan yelled before falling over onto Alexander, snoring loudly.

“Take care of them.”

“Don’t worry, I will,” Cyrus patted my back and I watched them leave before running back into the country club to get the bag I left behind.

“Koa?” Evander looked at me surprised as I passed back through the hall, his suit jacket laying on his arm, “why did you come back?”

“As much as I want to say I just wanted to see you, I left all of this behind,” I laughed loudly, holding up my bag, “where did everyone go?”

“Queenie was feeling sick so Kip took her back to the hotel. I’m staying in the van to watch over the mobile bar. I get worried someone will steal it and the club owner said I can stay in the parking lot for the night. I was double-checking to make sure we cleaned properly. I don’t want your sister to pay extra to the country club because of our mess.”

“Do you need help?”

“Really?” he stared at me confused and I nodded, “I just need to move the tables to the walls and stack the chairs.”

“Alright,” I pulled my jacket and shirt off, leaving me in a white short-sleeve, and checked my arm battery, “I have enough left for about an hour before this arm is useless.”

“It’s… beautiful,” Evander whispered, coming closer and gently touching my prosthetic.

“Yeah? I can actually feel that. See?” I moved my shirt and leaned down to show him the small scars on the back of my neck and along my shoulder, “there are nodules that send a signal to my brain, letting me know if something is touching me. It’s stronger in my hand though.”

“I didn’t know they could do that!”

“I’m basically half robot,” I laughed, “my parents spared no expense. It’s technically experimental. It attaches by magnets and if I press a button near my elbow it will disengage. Not a great spot for it but I’m pretty careful. It did fall off earlier when my uncle grabbed me.”

“I… wish you didn’t have to suffer the trauma of it but I really do think your arm is beautiful. I love anything mechanical. I’d love to see the manual of how it works. Or documentation. Anything.”

“I have a file on it. I’ll let you read over it,” I took his hand and spun Evander in a circle, making him giggle, “We can finish the tables and things quickly. Dance with me?”

“Really?” he gasped, making me smile.

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

We spun around the wide dance floor, laughing at how terrible I was but enjoying ourselves and I came to a stop, staring down at him.

“Can I take you on a date?” I whispered.

“Yes. Absolutely.”