Twins

by Dermansky, Marcy

• ISBN13: 9780060759780
• ISBN10: 006075978X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-01-01
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

A quirky and disturbingly comic first novel about identical twin sisters trying to make it to eighteen in affluent New Jersey, from an award-winning short story writer. Told in alternating voices, Twins is the heartfelt and unsettlingly honest story of identical twin sisters on an epic journey to survive their difficult adolescence. Sue, younger by four long minutes, idolizes the seemingly perfect Chloe. Although they look the same, Sue thinks of her twin as prettier, smarter, better. For this Sue torments herself, and in the process, with her caustic wit, she torments Chloe. The sisters' parents, divorce lawyers, trust the girls to grow up on their own; their older brother Daniel treats them with contempt; and Daisy, the family's standard poodle, needs more love and care than the girls can deliver. On their thirteenth birthday, the sisters get tattoos to prove their love is stronger than DNA, but instead, they continue to grow apart. When Chloe befriends Lisa Markman, an aspiring model and the daughter of a famous basketball player, the careful, strained peace between the sisters erupts into a violent climax. Over the course of five years, the twins survive heartbreak, unhappy Hawaiian vacations, parental neglect, eating disorders, pill abuse, and the first painful explorations of love and sex. As they try to keep their hold in the ever-confusing world they inhabit, both Chloe and Sue reach out to new mentors who help them understand the complex connection they have to the world, and to each other. Surrounded by an eclectic cast of characters, including the selfish Japanese sculptor Yumiko, a young Indian writer named Smita, and former Knicks player Rodney Markman, the twin sisters attempt to overcome apathy and despair to redeem each other. At times funny, bitter, and affecting, Twins introduces two new suburban heroines on the verge, and a talented new author to watch.

Excerpts

Twins
A Novel

Chapter One

Sue

I wanted tattoos for our thirteenth birthday. Chloe didn't. Chloe refused. I told her I did not know what I would do if she kept saying no.

"Tattoos are dirty," Chloe said.

Chloe was four minutes older. She was an eighth of an inch taller. She was smarter. She was prettier. We were identical twins, but Chloe had turned out better. She was the better twin, she had the better name, and I was desperate to hold on to her. Horrifying girls like Lisa Markman were inviting Chloe to their parties and offering her cigarettes and beer and birth control.

My childhood had passed in a golden bubble of happiness. I adored Chloe and Chloe adored me. We didn't need our parents; we didn't need our brother or friends or parties or separate bedrooms. Chloe and Sue.Our hair was blond, our eyes were blue. For twelve perfect years, Chloe and I lived and breathed each other.We took baths in the same bathtub, shared the same rubber bath toys. Now Chloe took constant showers, all by herself.

We needed tattoos.

"I won't," Chloe said. "You can't make me. No one in the eighth grade has a tattoo."

She was right. No one did. We were from the suburbs. I hated every single person in the eighth grade. They were all morons, out to steal my sister. Chloe was much too good. She was too eager to please.

I sat on my bed, staring at Chloe, waiting for her to crack. Chloe wanted her own room, but there were no extra rooms in the house. It was a st upid idea. We were meant to shar e a r oom. We were identical twins. We had no secrets. Chloe picked up a hairbrush and started brushing her hair. She was obsessed with being clean. Chloe was always taking showers, smoothing her hair, washing her face, washing her hands, looking at herself in the mirror.

"You want to be like everybody else," I said. "But they're all boring."

"Who is boring?"

"Everyone."

"Everyone?" Chloe said.

I reached for her hand. Chloe laid down her hairbrush on the bed and squeezed my fingers.

"There is no one like us," I told her.

"Everyone is boring?" Chloe repeated.

I picked up Chloe's brush and threw it against the wall.

Chloe bit her lip, looking down at her hands.

"Our tattoos won't be dirty," I said.

I'd explained it to her. I had found someone who didn't care that we were underage. I had paid in advance. Everything was planned. Our tattoos would be simple. Chloe would get a SUE tattoo. Mine would say CHLOE. If Chloe ever got lost or made friends with someone who was not me or had sex with some strange, awful man, she could never forget who we were. Who we belonged with. It wasn't enough that we looked the same. Chloe could put a rhinestone barrette in her hair and she became someone else. She would get upset with me when I put a barrette in my hair too.

Chloe looked at her brush. It had left a dark mark on the pale pink wall.

"I can't get a tattoo," she said.

"You have to," I said.

Chloe shook her head.

"We could get o ur ears do uble-pierced," she whispered.

"No," I said. "Tattoos. It's all planned. It's already paid for."

Chloe crossed the room, picked up her brush, and started brushing her hair again. She was so beautiful. Wherever we went, people stared at Chloe, they stared at us. I knew that I looked like her. Technically I was beautiful too. But when I wasn't next to Chloe, I didn't feel right. I tripped on my shoelaces. My hair tangled easily.

"Three letters," I said. "To make sure we are never apart. No matter where we go. You won't do that for me?"

"It's enough to be twins," Chloe said. "It's practically tattooed on our faces. We look the same. Why isn't that enough?"

We had been having the same conversation for days. Chloe wanted friends, boyfriends. She wanted to blink her eyes and imagine me gone. I sat down on the floor and cried. I cried until my chest hurt and then I coughed. Snot dripped down my face and my head started to ache. Chloe sat down next to me and put her hand on her own head, like it hurt her too. For a while, she did nothing, just watched me cry. I'd blink through my tears, wipe the snot on to my sleeve, and watch her, watching me.

"Sue," she said. "Why do you do this?"

And then Chloe wrapped her arms around me. She rocked me like I was her little baby. I was miserable, but I felt wonderful, rocking. We rocked back and forth. Chloe and I were miserable together. It was the middle of the night. I could hear our older brother, Daniel, in his room down the hall, strumming chords on his guitar.

"We are underage," Chloe whispered. She kissed the top of my head. Our age didn't matter. The appointments were made. The tattoo guy had taken my money and told me how to come in the back door. I had been slipping twenty-dollar bills from my father's wallet for months.

One day, Chloe would be glad. One day we would be old, we would be thirty, and Chloe would thank me.

Chloe's interest in other girls was temporary. It was adolescence. The tattoos, I knew, would keep us safe.

"We could get a compu ter," Chloe said. "Or leather boots."

"No," I said.

I stretched across Chloe's lap and reached over to open her schoolbag. I took out her pencil case and removed a freshly sharpened pencil. Chloe liked her pencils sharp. She loved multiplechoice tests, filling in the small circles with all the right answers.

"What are you doing?" she said.

I stuck the sharp tip of the pencil into my arm. A bubble of blood spurted from the spot. . . .

Twins
A Novel. Copyright © by Marcy Dermansky. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

---

Excerpted from Twins by Marcy Dermansky
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.