Rain tapped softly against Catarina's window, tracing silver paths down the glass.On her screen, the bluish light of the call lit up Althéa's face sprawled on her bed, headphones on, a tired smile curling at her lips.
"You do realize it's two in the morning?" Catarina murmured, voice rough and muffled beneath her blanket.
"And so what?" Althéa laughed. "It's the perfect hour for saying existential nonsense."
Catarina rolled her eyes, but her smile betrayed her.These late-night calls had become their ritual, not quite conversations, not exactly confessions. Just fragments of truth traded between bursts of laughter.
Althéa swung her legs idly, earphones tangled around her fingers.
"You know what's funny?" she said dreamily.
"What now?"
"I feel like I live two lives. The one everyone sees, loud, smiling, pretending… and the one no one ever gets to know, where all I want is to vanish under my blanket."
Catarina stayed quiet. With Althéa, those sentences always fell like fragile flowers between stones ,delicate, unexpected.
"You don't have to show everything," Catarina whispered.
"Yeah, but sometimes I wish someone would see anyway. Without me having to say it."
She looked up, eyes fixed on an invisible ceiling.
"My brother… Niels. He just knows things. It's creepy. Like, he can tell when I lie, even over text."
She let out a small laugh.
"It's annoying, but… comforting too. Like having a human radar against loneliness."
"You're lucky," Catarina said softly.
A silence stretched between them, not awkward, just full.
"And you? You've got a brother, right?" Althéa asked.
Catarina hesitated.
"Yeah. My twin. It's… complicated."
"Complicated how?"
"It's like staring at yourself all the time. He knows me by heart, but sometimes I feel like he doesn't see me anymore."
She laughed, a nervous, fragile sound.
"We share the same heart. It just… beats differently."
Althéa went still, her expression softening.
"That's beautiful. Sad, but beautiful."
"It's just true."
Althéa's battery icon flashed red. She sighed.
"Do you think we become our families?" she asked suddenly. "Like, are we doomed to turn into them?"
Catarina frowned.
"Why would you say that?"
"Because… my dad's not cruel. Just cold. He lives in this huge house where every room echoes. And sometimes, I'm scared I'll learn to live like him, to love walls more than people."
Catarina's chest tightened.
"You're not like that, Althéa. You're full of light. Even when you're faking it."
"And you, you're full of mystery. I never know if you're about to laugh or disappear."
They burst out laughing, that trembling kind of laughter that hides tenderness underneath. Then silence fell again, softer, gentler.
"Okay," Althéa said, stretching. "If we keep going, I'm gonna cry and my camera's gonna crash."
"Wouldn't hurt you," Catarina teased.
"Oh, shut up, you. Goodnight, mysterious soul."
"Goodnight, pajama sun," Catarina whispered, more tenderly than she meant to.
The screen went black.The room suddenly felt emptier than before.Catarina stared at her dark reflection in the phone's glass, and for a fleeting moment, she could still see Althéa's smile dancing in the light.
A smile that, though she didn't know it yet, would soon leave a shadow behind.