Reflected in the mirror was me and Janie. She was bigger. Brushing our teeth, shoulder-to-shoulder, I watched as the white foam bubbled and frothed from our lips, watching her watching herself, wondering if this would be a night when she did something funny like let the toothpaste dribble into a Santa Claus beard on her chin, or if this would be a night when I leaned forward to spit in the sink and she chose the very same moment to spit a warm glob of foam onto the back of my neck.
I never knew with Janie which side of the glass I was going to get. I waited nervously at her side, feeling the hairs on her warm arm as they brushed in a sisterly fashion against the hairs on mine. She didn’t like the darkish hairs sprouting on her forearms, and so I worried about the blond hair on mine.
I wanted to be in her best books. I want her to let me into her dear diary safe heart but she never did. I watched her like a weathervane twirling on a barn. The lightning strikes were fierce and I covered my ears in the thunder of her rage. I wished we could be one instead of two.