alternate_girls (alternate_girls) wrote in btvsal, @ 2010-08-10 15:27:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | camille blake-benoit, place: la, ~sage collins |
Twin Bonding
Who: Sage and Camille with special guest star Delia Blake
Where: The Sugar Shack
When: Saturday Afternoon - August 7
"I really do appreciate you accompanying me on this little shopping venture." Sage was saying to her birth mother as the pair headed on into The Sugar Shack. This had been the second time since she arrived in L.A. and met her biologically parents that Delia Blake had escorted her newly found out about daughter on a shopping trip. With Camille having turned out to be quite the disappointed Delia was trying use her influence and mold Sage into the daughter she couldn't make Camille be.
Camille herself was cleaning off a table in the Sugar Shack. Yep, just another day on the job for her. This place wasn't have as interesting to work at as Avarice was, but it helped keep her in money, plus she only worked here part-time, so it wasn't too draining on her time. Plus, the tips were still decent. She was hoping to start a savings account soon so that, maybe by next year, she could start paying for classes at UCLA or something. She looked up when she heard the bell over the door ring, and then froze. It was her mom, which was bad enough, but...well fuck her if it wasn't a damn twin of her with her. Other than the tragic hair color, of course.
"It's the least I could do, dear." Delia murmured softly in return to Sage as they entered the coffee place.
"I'll get us a couple mocha lattes if you want to sit at a table." Sage offered before leaving the older woman's side to make her way up to the counter. The brunette's stride slowed as her gaze settled on the blonde who had been cleaning off one of the tables. A young woman who looked her identical, save for the blonde hair.
Camille dropped her rag on the table and looked at the other girl who was basically wearing her face. "So, Delia pick you out to replace me or something?" Oh, since she got kicked out, Delia Blake no longer got the title of 'Mom' from her.
"You must be Camille." Sage stated matter-of-factly to the blonde when she stopped a couple feet away from the girl. It was so easily figured out who the other woman was. Sage had seen plenty photos of Camille that had somehow been forgotten to be tucked away somewhere. "And mother didn't exactly 'pick' me out of a crowd to be your replacement." And as easily as Camille was able to refer to their mother as Delia, it was equally as easy for Sage to refer to Delia Blake as mother.
"The one and only, no matter who she's replacing me with these days," Camille said with a roll of her eyes. "Seems like she lucked out in finding one that looked like me, too. Lucky her. Too bad she's a psycho." With that, Camille grabbed her rag, ready to go to the back while her mother was around here. Mouse could control the front. These were exigent circumstances.
"Actually," Sage now becoming more then slightly irritated with her double, or twin as it was in this case, when Camille turned away from her to continue with cleaning off the table. Though with Camille and their mother having severed all communication with each other the blonde was clueless to that little fact. "I was the one that found her. And I would appreciate it if you didn't refer to our mother as a psycho." Just because Delia had different views and values on things, Sage didn't feel she should be labelled as a psycho type.
OK, her saying 'our' actually caught Camille's attention. "Wait...'our' mother?" She turned around and asked. "OK, this I've got to hear. What's going on? You the long lost sister I never knew I had or something?" Sadly, she meant that as a joke.
Well, duh! "Your parents never told you?" Sage gave a glance back toward Delia, then looked back to her twin. While she could understand Camille not being told about her sudden appearance, she had thought that the girl would have been told that there had been a twin. Even with the Blakes believing that she had died shortly after birth, surely they would have at some time told Camille that she had been born with a twin.
"No, or I would understand why a girl with my face would do something as bad as try to go brunette with our skin tone," Camille pointed out simply. OK, she was trying to be nice, she really was, but a girl who looked almost exactly like her had come in with her mother. Was she supposed to take this well?
"Okay. Don't even go there." Sage warned when Camille made the unflattering comment about her hair color. She had been born with the color, and Sage actually like being a brunette. A color that she had never found to be unflattering to her complexion.
"Obviously this isn't the place to get into things." An argument or otherwise. The otherwise being telling Camille the truth about everything she seemed to have not been told about their shared birth. "When does your shift end here?"
"Fine," Camille said with a sigh. "I get off at six. I have a shift at Avarice at nine, so just meet me here at six and we can have a quick talk before I go home and shower." She really didn't have much time to talk about anything today, but she supposed this was important enough to hear about.
"I don't need.. " Sage cut herself off with a sigh of her own and slight rubbing of her temple. She was getting irritated with the other girl's attitude, even though it might be warranted after Camille found out something she hadn't known. But at least the brunette was going to continue to try and be nice. "I'll be back at six." Sage said committing herself to the arranged meeting time and place.
Once it was Camille's time to get off, she was tugging off her apron and heading toward the front door. She wasn't sure if this other girl was going to meet her inside or outside or what.
Any conversation that they would have wasn't an appropriate to be had inside a public place such as The Sugar Shack. So when Sage arrived back at The Shack five minutes before the hour, minus mommy dearest, the dark haired version of Camille decided to wait in her Hummer. When six o'clock rolled around Sage climbed out of the vehicle to stand next to it with her eyes trained on the front door to wait for any sign of her twin.
Camille found the girl standing outside of a very nice car. "So, got something to tell me?" she asked Sage as she came outside.
"I'm your sister if you haven't yet figured that out." Sage returned bluntly. "We can either talk here or you can get in." Sage would rather have their conversation while driving or at a more remote place rather then standing there in the parking lot, but she was going to allow that choice to be made by Camille.
"You can give me a ride back to my apartment," Camille told her simply. Had she put together that this was some long lost twin that her parents had told her about? Sure. She just didn't know what to make of it yet.
Sage gave an acknowledging nod before she moved to open the driver's side door of the Hummer. Climbing in the brunette hit the switch to unlock the passenger side door. Buckling herself in, Sage waited for Camille to climb aboard before the engine was started and the vehicle pulled out onto the street.
Camille climbed inside and waited for her to start driving. "So give me the short version of just who exactly you are. Yeah, I get it: twin. How come I've never heard of you, though?"
Sage gave a glance over to Camille before turning out of the lot onto the street. "They never told you about Clarise. The child that died shortly after being born?" Which obviously never happened as Clarise Blake was sitting right there in the vehicle flesh and blood.
"No, I never heard about anyone named Clarise," Camille told her. "I can only assume that was you. So, what happened then?"
"One and the same." Sage replied. She then drove in silence for another minute before pulling into a lot that was half vacant of cars. Parking the Hummer in the back in one of the unused spaces, Sage cut the engine and looked over to Camille. "Story goes that one child was born and then when the other made its way into the world she was snatched away and replaced with another couples deceased child. Translation: You were born and raised by the Blakes and I was born to be taken away by the Collins'."
"Well, bummer for you," Camille said to her simply. She wasn't really sure WHAT to say to this girl. "Did you have a bad life or something? Did your adoptive parents lock you in the basement or something?"
"Just the opposite." Sage told her. And she really wasn't clear on why the other would have thought such things about her life. "I don't think I ever had any valid complaints about being raised by the Collins. They were, and still are my family."
"Hate to sound like a bitch or anything, but why worry so much then? Seems like you had a good life. Basically adopted by a sane family. Why dredge this stuff up? For that matter, why involve me at all? Delia sure as hell doesn't."
"You don't get it, do you?" Sage questioned with a soft little sigh. "But then I guess you wouldn't having been raised by your natural parents." Sage added starting the Hummer up again. "So, which way to your place?" She knew her twin needed to be at another job in a couple hours, so maybe it would be better to just drop Camille off at her apartment so she could do whatever it was she needed to do before heading to her other job.
Camille gave quick directions to her place. "No, I guess I don't," she said. "I can't really get it. I don't even get along with my parents, obviously. I kind of envy you because you got taken away and had what sounds like a good childhood. I didn't." She looked out the window. "Delia is a social climber taken to the worst extreme. She doesn't just worry about her own status, she worries about everyone around her, too. If you're not matching up to the standards she thinks everyone should be at, she'll cut you off in a second." She rolled her eyes. "I didn't set the house on fire or anything and got kicked out. I questioned her. I asked why any of that crap really mattered. You don't question the queen, though." She turned and looked back at Sage. "Dad isn't too bad. He's just a little spineless. His mom was the same way, so I'm not even sure if he knows *how* to stand up for himself by this point, much less for anyone else."
"And that's my point. You got to spend all these years with our parents getting to know them pretty much inside out. I grew up not knowing they even existed." Sage explained. "Not that the people who raised me were bad. They were great actually, but that didn't keep me from wanting to know my biological parents and where I came from. So, if playing the perfect daughter for a couple months is what it'll take to get to know my heritage. I'll take it no questions."
Camille shook her head. "Then good luck with that. I bet it'll take about a month for you to get to know her more than you would ever really want to," Camille said. When they pulled up to the front of her apartment building, she reached for the door handle, but then looked back for a second. "You ever want to hang out, sister to sister or whatever you want it to be? I'm either at the coffee shop or a club called Avarice where I work as a waitress. I'm trying to put money away so that I can go to school next year."
"Avarice?" A dark brow arched at hearing the name of the club. "Tell me you don't hang out with a guy there who thinks he's gods gift." Sage went on to describe Brayden practically to a T. The brunette then grabbed for her purse to get a pen and paper, which she wrote her cell number on. If Camille wasn't welcome at the Blake house then it seemed most logical for Sage to give the girl an alternate way of contacting her.
Camille just started laughing when Sage described Brayden. "He's...well, friend would probably be giving it too much credit," she admitted. "We're friendly. Just laugh him off. Plus, he'll always get it somewhere else. Lots of girls fall hook line and sinker for it and then cry an hour later when he pushes them aside, so I wouldn't bother with him much." She took the cell phone number. "Honestly, calling the shop during the day and Avarice at night is a better way of getting in touch with me. We have a party line in the building, so it's a pain in the butt to get on the line or get a call in."
"Guys like him are the ones I give a wide berth to." And to Sage they were a dime a dozen. "When's your next day off?" Sage asked after Camille took her number. If they were going to actually hang out sometime knowing when her sister didn't have to work would help.
"Well, the next day that I only work at the coffee shop is next Wednesday," Camille said. "That's about as close to a day off as I really get. I pretty much have made sure that I work at least one job every day. Gotta pay my bills and still eat, you know?"
"You want to make tentative plans for that night then?" If somehow those plans fell through Sage knew they could always reschedule for another day and time.
Camille smiled. "Sure, sounds like a plan. Mind picking me up here at eight? We could hang in my apartment, but it's the size of a shoe box, so I'm not sure two people would fit." She was mostly joking.
"I'll be here at eight sharp." That didn't mean Sage wouldn't seek out her twin at one of the places she worked before next Wednesday rolled around. Though they had gotten off to a bit of a rough start, Sage was actually taking a liking to her new found sibling.