Stolen

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My twin sister and I were so different. She was always doing homework, I was always looking at the latest Teen magazine. Sam was always like that, doing her homework. I, on the other hand took hours to do forty-five minutes worth of homework. I always needed breaks in between. 2

School was not my thing or at least doing all that work was not. I did well in school but I never wanted to do the work. I always tried to find ways out of it, but it rarely worked.3

Sam always did her homework. She was always working. She did way better in school. She was a straight A student, I was more of a B student. 4

I guess you can say that we were opposites. Sam was a bookworm, I only read magazines. She always did her homework, I did it when I wanted to or had to. She was talented in art and I was athletic. 5

We were in our freshmen year in high school. So far, school was going ok. I was doing good enough in school to keep my parents happy and with Sam doing so well they rarely bugged me about my grades. I was happy.6

Sports wise I was doing well. I was on varsity everything. I played volleyball, basketball, and soccer. In volleyball I was the setter, in basketball I played a guard, and in soccer I played goalie. I was thrilled being on varsity. 7

Sam was an artist. She drew, painted, sculpted, took pictures, anything that had to do with art, Sam did it. She was happy being in her studio drawing or doing anything that had to do with art. The art teacher at our school loved my sister. My sister was happy just making art.8

Sam and I had always been best friends. I told her everything and she told me everything. We were really close. I always thought that nothing could ever pull us apart. I mean we had other friends but my sister and I were almost one person. 9

Sam had always been close to her friend Ashley. Ashley was like Sam’s second best friend. So I didn’t think much of it when all of a sudden Sam started hanging out with Ashley more and more. I was too busy with my sports to notice that my sister was drifting away from me. 10

Slowly but surely I started to notice that Ashley was suddenly everywhere Sam was. 11

At first I hung out with them to. We would go to the movies or just hang out at our house or at Ashley’s. We just did what ever we wanted. Then after a while Ashley started to get on my nerves. So I sort of started to hang out with them less and less. I told Sam that I didn’t like her, but Sam didn’t understand why.12

During one weekend that we were at Ashley’s house her cousins from Chicago moved here to Denver. I had heard about them from Ashley. They sounded like nice people, at least from what Ashley said. 13

When they showed up they were really nice to us. There was Jason, Michael, Andrew and Alex. All of them were related except for Alex who was just a friend of theirs.14

When they had gotten there I had been shooting hoops, so they instantly asked if I played and that’s pretty much how we started off. I got along with them great. We hung out a lot. They were a lot of fun and funny. You would thing that by hanging out with the guys that I would have to hang out with Ashley. No, I just hung out with they guys. 15

They noticed right away that I didn’t like Ashley all that much. They thought it was funny that Sam and her were such good friends and Ashley and I weren’t. 16

About two months or so after the guys had gotten to Denver, Ashley started to go out with Alex. I felt bad for Alex, but hey it was his decision. A little after that I heard that Andrew liked Sam. It didn’t come as a surprise to me. When ever we hung out Andrew would always asked about Sam. I sort of got the idea he liked her. Soon Sam and Andrew were going out. 17

In no time the guys were hanging out with Ashley and Sam more than with me. It hurt but what could I do. I just gave up.18

After a while all Sam did was hang out with Andrew, Ashley, Alex, Michael, and Jason. She rarely hung out with me anymore. It hurt that my sister would rather hang out with them than with me, but there was nothing I could do. 19

Soon the only time I would see her was at dinner unless she had made plans with the guys and Ashley.20

At school Sam would always be around Ashley so I could never talk to her. Ashley was soon Sam’s new best friend. Ashley had just walked right into Sam’s life and taken my place.21

To try to take my mind off Sam I focused more on my sports. All I did was practice and practice. Sadly that didn’t work. After a while Sam didn’t show up to my games anymore. 22

I know it sounds stupid but I always felt that I played my best when she was there. I felt that I had to show off for her. But since she was not there I felt lost. Fortunately, sports just came so easily to me that I didn’t have to think about it anymore, my body just did it on its own.23

Sam not being there made me mad. I think more than mad it made me jealous. Sam would rather spend time with Ashley than come to my games. It made me really mad but I never said anything to Sam about it. I guess I just hoped that it would just go away on its own.24

Sam and Andrew went out for about four months. When they broke up, guess who was the first to know. Ashley was. 25

When she was telling me about it she said that she had tried to get a hold of me. Sam said she had tried to call my phone but that it was off or something because I didn’t answer it, no I know that the first person she called was Ashley. 26

That was when it finally hit me that Sam and I were not best friends anymore. Though she still said that we were, we weren’t. Ashley was always the first to know anything and everything about Sam.27

One day when we were on our way home Sam said she didn’t want to go to dad’s house. I didn’t mention that our parents were divorced. Sam and I traded of between mom’s and dad’s. So I just said lets just go out to a movie or something and then we will go to mom’s. She agreed. I was ecstatic to finally have some time with my sister.28

Right as I was going to ask her what movie she wanted to go see her phone rang and it was Ashley. Ashley wanted to hang out with Sam. Sam asked if I could drop her off at Ashley’s house, my excuse was that it was out of the way, with that I thought that Ashley would just give up and let us hang out. But Ashley said that Alex was there and that he would go pick her up from wherever I dropped her off.29

So I dropped off Sam at a near by grocery store, she told me that she would just go over to dad’s since he lived closer to Ashley’s, she told me to call her tomorrow and that we would hang out.. Right after I dropped Sam off I cried all the way home. That weekend I didn’t call Sam I just focused on homework for once. I thought that if I didn’t call her she would call me or on Monday she would ask why I hadn’t and I would be able to tell her why. But on Monday she didn’t even say anything about me not calling her. 30

That was the last drop. Since that day I have hated Ashley more and more each day. Sam and I were farther away from each other than ever.31

It went on like that for about two more years. Some time in our junior year Sam got really sick. At first we thought it was just the flu or something not serious. But when Sam started to get worse my parents decided to take her to the doctor. The doctor ran some test and told us what was wrong with Sam.32

Sam was in the final stages of cancer. Sometime earlier she had gotten it and since there had not been any symptoms we hadn’t noticed it. The doctor said that there was nothing we could do, but I refused to that. 33

Our dad was a doctor so I begged him to do something for her. But he said that there was nothing he could do because for one he was no specialist in cancer and the doctor had already said that there was nothing we could do.34

I hated to think that all we could do was wait for Sam to die.35

Two weeks after Sam had been diagnosed she was allowed to go home. The doctor asked that she get a lot of rest. My parents would not let her get out of bed. They brought all her art stuff to her room so that she could draw or paint or what ever she wanted. 36

One day I was just tempted to go into her room to talk to her. When I walked in Sam was sleeping. I walked over to the bed and slowly and as gently as I could lifted her fragile body up and held her in my arms. I felt her heart beat in unisonant with mine. I felt her warm breath on me. I just stayed like that for what seemed like hours.37

Sam woke up and tried to talk to me. She said that she loved me and that she knew that I would be fine once she died. I tried to stop her from saying that she was going to die but she only told me that it was the truth and that I had to accept it just like she had.38

I just nodded my head and held her in my arms. A few minutes later Sam had her last breath of air. Sam died in my arms. It was the worst feeling in the world. I felt like half of me had been chopped of. I felt lost and alone. 39

To this day I still have that feeling I had the day Sam died in my arms. I hate my self for having just sat back and watched my sister drift away from me. I feel like I could have stopped her. I feel that if I had said something to her she would have spent more time with me.40

Even today, ten years after Sam died, I hate Ashley. I hate her for having taken my best friend away, for having taken my sister away, and for having had Sam all to her self in Sam’s last months. Ashley took my place in my sister’s life.41