Ryan Diaz

Reconnecting with my twin brother after eight years was something else entirely, an experience I was sure we were both never going to forget. We last talked when we were six years old and now we were fourteen, so many years had passed. So many things have happened and so many things have changed.

"The fuck?"

Ian must have noticed the voice that sounded just like his and tears started building up in my eyes.

"Are you catfishing me right? Is this some kind of joke?" He asked and I could hear our dad ask some questions in the background.

"It's Ryan," I cried, then I chuckled. "I'm not catfishing you right now."

The line stayed silent and then it went dead. I stared at my phone in confusion and shock.

"What happened?" Wayne asked and I shrugged.

"He cut the call." My voice was shaky and I dropped my phone down, my fingers pulling on my hair. "He doesn't want to speak to me."

"I'm sure there some explanation." Wayne didn't even get to say everything before my phone started ringing but with a different number.

I picked it up, "hello?"

"Ryan?" Ian asked, voice softer now and sounding more like me again. "As in, Ryan Peters, right?"

I chuckled, "no, Ryan Diaz. Probably going to be Ryan Diaz Pickford soon enough."

"Pickford?" I could hear the smile in his voice. "Like the soccer keeper?"

"Yeah," I rolled my eyes at Wayne. "My step dad is a dweeb."

"Hey! I'm right here!"

Turned out Ian cut the call so he can run up to his room and call me with his own number. We talked and never stopped talking to each other from then on. We exchanged social media contacts and saved each other's number. We also had video calls and marveled at how much we still were identical. We both couldn't believe it at times and would call each other in the morning to see if it was a dream. I didn't tell mom about talking with Ian and Ian didn't tell dad either. We were each other's secret and only Wayne and Ian's best friend, Myra, knew about us talking. Ian introduced me to Myra during a video call and she was frozen in awe after seeing me. Apparently we had seen each other years back when I was still at home but we both didn't remember ourselves.

Myra said she would have forgotten about me if not that Ian talked about me all the time. Of course Ian denied this fact and then Myra proceeded to tell me the story about how Ian paid money to her alcoholic aunt, booked a plane and flew with her to Cuba two years ago. But apparently it was bigger than it showed on the map and he had just one day to find me. He didn't succeed and they returned to Virginia and he got grounded.

"What?" I asked, not believing it as my mouth remained open wide.

"I swear he did it," Myra said and Ian just stayed silent, blushing in embarrassment.

I looked at Ian and he shrugged. "I wasn't even sure you were there. All I knew was that mom was from Cuba. I figured I'd find you there."

"I actually was there." I laughed. "I came to England a year ago. So I was in Cuba then. How crazy would it be if we actually met?"

Ian laughed. "I would not have come back."

"Wait, how did you even buy plane tickets at twelve? I can't even buy tickets now."

Ian stayed silent and Myra broke into a loud laugh. "Oh he hasn't told you?"

"Myra, stop."

"Your brother is a fucking gangster!" She cackled and Ian facepalmed.

"Gangster?"

He looked up defensively. "I'm not! I literally just polish motorcycles and refuel them for a race."

"No you don't." Myra turned to me. "He has had a total of four races and he had won each of them. He's literally the youngest and fastest racer on the team right now."

"Ah ah," Ian interrupted her. "What about mean August?"

"August is a year older and he'd the strongest and smartest streetwise," Myra shook her head as if she was thinking of August. "I've never seen a fifteen year old with such a strong hook."

I laughed. "So is it a team or a gang?"

"It's illegal racing that has illegal betting. They all have tattoos and dabble drugs here and there, what do you think?"

"I don't dabble drugs," Ian quickly said.

"You have a tattoo?" It was like too much information at the same time.

Ian blushed again and removed his shirt, turning his back. On his right shoulder was written I 🤝 R. He turned back to me and put his shirt back on. "Jon said we had to get tattoos and it didn't matter which," he shrugged. "I was scared I'd forget you so I had our first letters tattooed on my back. And the handshake," he did the 'yourself shake' and I did it too. "Our thing."

"Our thing."

Ian explained that after the divorce and everything, dad sinked into a wormhole of poverty and things got really bad. They barely ate two times a day and Ian had to spend a lot of times with other people since Dad was always doing one work shift or another. Dad even had a heart attack one time and was now battling with some heart issues that he needed constant drugs to keep up with and the drugs were not cheap. Things didn't really improve and by eight he was already working. He met a guy named Jon when he was very hungry one day and Jon made him into a 'delivery boy'. He'd run errands and deliver things to places and people and run whenever he saw the cops and at the end of the day, Jon would give him a couple hundreds and he'd buy food and clothes for both him and dad. When dad asked him where he got the money and clothes from, Jon told him to say he got a job babysitting with a very generous and that's exactly what he said and dad let him be, congratulating and thanking him.

Jon became like a father to him and he always carried Ian wherever he went. Sometimes Ian would stay weeks away from home and dad would think he was sleeping over at the babysitting house. He was too tired from all the work he was doing if not he would have questioned the whole thing sooner. By ten years, Ian was introduced to the gang comprising of Jon, Jakob, Phil, Anissa, August and him. August was Jon's adopted son, a kid that also grew up in the streets. All Ian had to do was polish out their motorcycles before and after a race, clean the junkyard they called home and count money if August wasn't around. Jon, Jakob, Phil and Anissa were the older guys and did the racing and gamblings then.

Ian started riding motorcycles at a pretty early age and now he was a full fledged part of the gang. They were like his second family and if not for them he wouldn't have had the life he did now and he and Dad would probably still be swimming in a pool of debts.

I felt terrible. I thought my life was bad because I had to move to another continent and leave my Tita behind but I had never experienced hunger before, not like Ian has. There was always food and clothes back in Cuba, more than enough even and now, Wayne was a bloody millionaire so I lacked nothing. I had no idea what Ian was going through and my life has been rosy and perfect compared to his. A part of me was curious though, about what it would feel like to live a life like Ian's. What it'll be like to have such freedom and liberty to do what I want. What it'll be like to get a tattoo and be exposed to such wildlife. It was insane just thinking about it. Mom would kill me before she even lets me dye my hair.

Life continued the same, the only difference was that I had Ian in my life now. I was never lonely again and I had someone to share similar experiences with and had similar thoughts on things. We struggled with the different time zone at first but quickly got the hang of it. I broke up with Williams and got back together with Imogen; yeah, I know, I was more than confused then. Ian had never dated in his life and wasn't planning on dating anytime soon.

At fifteen, we both had our first sex, not at the same time and not planned of course. His happened first and he hooked up with a guy, mine happened with Imogen during a party. Ian refused to tell me who the guy was and he said it was a mistake and he regretted it. I didn't regret mine and went ahead to do it a couple more times, safely of course. I didn't love Imogen though and she knew this, things were just more... simple with her. Time passed by and Ian confessed that he had a hooking up situation-ship with one of the guys in his gang.

"Ha, is it Jakob?" I asked eyes wide. "I mean, he'd fucking hot but he's four years older. Isn't that some kind of crime?"

Ian blushed. "It's not Jakob."

"It's him? Damn."

Ian laughed. "Stop saying he's hot. That's so gay."

I wiggled my brow at him, "are you gay?"

His eyes widen, "no. You're one to ask, aren't you?"

"I'm not and you've hooked up with a guy, I haven't."

"You dated one. I haven't," he grumbled. "And the hooking up, it's just... convenient sex."

"Is it really?"

"Yes," then he rolled his eyes. "Well, fuck it. Maybe I'm gay."

I laughed. "Well, let's just say, we're bisexuals."

Ian paused. "You think it's a twin thing?"

"Nope. I highly doubt." I looked him over. "Do you really like Jakob? Most times I'm not sure about Anita."

"It's not Jakob," then he shook his head. "And no, like I said it's convenient sex."

"Okay."

"Okay."

At sixteen, Ian wasn't hooking up with his gang mate anymore and got himself a guy I thought he was falling in love with but then they broke up and he stopped anything sexually with anybody or at least that was what he told me.

I stayed in Liverpool with my mom and her husband Wayne for approximately four years and I got myself a step sister, Becca. I and my Tita still communicated and the whole family sometimes went to Cuba for some festive season. The one time I mentioned visiting Virginia, I almost got grounded and almost had my phone confiscated. My mom absolutely loathed my dad but that wasn't enough reason for her to just forget one of her sons, I didn't know how she did it, it was a mystery to me. I was patiently waiting until I clocked eighteen and could leave but then shit hit the fan quicker than anyone would have seen coming.

Jon died.

I know it shouldn't be a big deal, at least not to me but it turned out to be one of the biggest deal in my life. An absolute life changer and a 360 degree to what my life was. Ian was absolutely devastated and we went weeks without talking to each other. I kept a little bit in touch with Myra and I learnt that a war was going on back in Virginia. Ian's gang was at war with a rival gang. After Jon died, the other gang saw it as an opportunity to take over Ian's gang's territory. Ian somehow blamed them for the death of Jon but he had no proof and was going out of his mind with thoughts of rage and revenge.

"They killed him!" Ian barked out when he finally picked my calls. He was crying and looked so angry. "I swear they killed him. Matt and his fucked up group killed Jon."

I swallowed. "Ian, you don't know that."

"I do, I know it! How can he die just when we acquired the new land and Matt and his gang start fighting about territory? They are going to pay, Ryan. I swear on Jon's life, it's either I die or one of them do but blood is going to flow." Then the call ended.

"Ian!" I slapped my laptop closed, pulling on my hair. "Bloody hell!"

I don't hear from Ian again and days later, I get a call from a wailing Myra. Ian was in an accident and almost died.

I couldn't believe it, I heard ringing in my ears for a whole minute and I nearly passed out. Myra showed me a video of him in the hospital and he was in a bad shape. She said nobody knew about it yet and she was scared of telling our dad or any of the gang members. Our dad might just get a heart attack and die and the gang members would lose their minds and act on revenge that might result in more blood shed. She didn't know if someone was responsible and Ian didn't tell her where he was going. She only heard about it because she was the one the hospital called first when his body was brought in.

I tried to calm down and I made Maya calm down too as we thought of a possible solution. There was no way dad could pay for all the hospital bills Ian would need to get better and no good would come from more fights between Ian's gang and the rival gang. And if it wasn't the rival gang that caused the accident, then Ian would be put in a very vulnerable spot and could be killed just like Jon.

"Ryan, Ian didn't want me to tell you this but..." she drawled, crying and fruitlessly wiping her eyes.

"Myra, what is it?"

"He made a bet." She choked out. "He has a race in a month time and if he loses or worst doesn't show up, Matt and his team has every right to acquire the land they have been fighting for. Jon's legacy and they would control everything regarding the races from now on."

"What?" I couldn't believe my ears. "Why would he make such a stupid bet?"

"He was furious, they were arguing and Matt kept getting on his nerves. Everybody thinks it was a foolish decision but Ian was convinced he could do it and he could. He's the fastest racer in the state."

"He's currently in a coma, Myra!" I yelled. "He can't win anything now."

"I can see that!"

I shook my head. "We have to tell them. We can't just keep this to ourselves, we have to tell the group."

"No, absolutely not. I know how twisted Matt can be. He'd blame the group and probably said they plotted the accident on purpose to make sure Ian doesn't keep up to his word. Things would be worst than we can imagine now."

"Well, what do we do? Ian can't participate!"

Myra sighed. "Ryan, Ian wouldn't want to wake up if he's waking up to find out that Job lost his legacy and the group broke off. Ian would rather die. Jon is like a father to him and he respects him so much. This means the world to him."

"What the hell are you saying Myra?"

"Ian has to be replaced."

I blinked at her. "By who?"

Myra stayed silent, looking at me. "There's only one person Ryan."

"Myra..."

"You."