Chapter 1 - Twins No More by myboyfriendisbald

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My fiance Colby is an identical twin. He and his brother Jared couldn’t be more different personality-wise. Colby is reserved and cerebral whereas Jared is bubbly and restless. Jared and his girlfriend Casey are constantly traveling, Jared works as an outdoor lifestyle photographer and Casey writes for a travel blog. Compared to myself and Colby, a cookbook author and a private chef, they live a much more fast paced and spur of the moment lifestyle. But we all get along so well, and whenever Jared and Casey are in town they stay with us. The four of us bring out each other’s best qualities, and we’re all always finding ways to root for one another and support our various endeavors.

Now, up until about a few weeks ago, the only physical difference between Jared and Colby was that Jared was a bit more tan from having traveled to Costa Rica for a month. But other than that, they were both broad shouldered and athletically built, with stick-straight long brown hair, dark green eyes, and a neat but full beard. It was next to impossible to tell them apart, even for me and Casey.
Everything changed when Casey and Jared waltzed up to our front door, and it was as though Casey had brought home a complete stranger. If it hadn’t been for Jared’s disarming smile and dimples, I would probably have panicked and thought she was being held hostage!
"What the hell Jar!" Colby screeched upon opening the door.
Jared let out a belly laugh and thumped Colby on the back, "Good to see you too, bro."
I couldn’t believe it, Jared’s hair had been buzzed off to no more than a half inch on the top of his head, and bald on the back and sides! Gone was his outdoorsman's beard too, he was completely bare faced. And was that an earring?? Yes, it was. Turns out Jared had a pierced ear under all that hair!
Casey’s eyes flicked between both twins, "God this is so weird, it’s like having a time machine."
I gave her a big hug, "How are you guys, and what the heck happened to Jared?!"
Jared let out another laugh, "It was just time for a change. Cas has always wanted to know what I’d look like without the man bun, so we just went for it two days ago. It feels so freeing. Colby, man, you’ve gotta go for it too. That way we can twin again."
"Absolutely not," Colby laughed nervously, "We’re just gonna have to wait until your hair grows back to twin again."
Casey rolled her eyes and hugged Jared from the side as I ushered them both into the foyer, "I dunno, I kinda love it. I think I might persuade him to keep it short for a while."
Colby shot me a look that I interpreted to mean something along the lines of "please tell me you’re not with her on this", which I almost snort-laughed in response to.
"Don’t worry honey, I like the man bun."
"You two are no fun," Jared groaned, "It’s a good thing you both cook wonderfully, or I don’t think you’d ever see us!"
Casey swatted his arm, "That’s so not true, you take that back."
I set about filling everyones’ wine glasses, "It’s ok, we like boring," I mused, "And besides, without our boringness, you’d have nowhere to sleep when you finally decided to take a break from shagging on the jungle floor."
"Yeah yeah," Jared said with a wink, sipping his wine, "So, what’s for dinner?"
Typical Jared, always hungry!

The rest of the night went swimmingly, aside from the fact that every time Jared left the room and returned I did a double take. He looked SO different, and not in a bad way. I had never considered what the twins would look like with short hair, or beardless. For as long as I’d known them, which was almost a decade now, they’d both had hair long enough to tie back in a bun, and at the very least a well developed 5 o’clock shadow. Neither one of them had ever hinted at a desire for drastic change, and Casey and I had never done anything but fawn over their rugged appearances. But I found myself accidentally staring at the angular cut of Jared’s jawline, and how the back of his neck looked so soft…

Later that night, after Casey and Jared had gone off to bed, I was snuggled up next to Colby on the couch. "I can’t believe Jar did that, he’s so impulsive," Colby muttered.
I stroked his hair and kissed his hand that was entwined with mine, "That’s your brother, babe. He’s always been the crazy one."
Colby was silent for a while, and we watched TV wrapped in each other's arms. He let out a yawn indicating it was time to head up to bed, and then turned to look at me and cupped my face in his hands, "Tell me honestly, do you like his haircut?"
I bit my lip, unsure of how to word my answer, "I think it suits him."
"So you think it would suit me too then."
"Well, yeah, Cole. You’re twins, so if it works for Jared it works for you too. But I already told you, I like your hair long, so don’t worry about it. What’s got you so on edge about this anyway?"
"Jared and I have always lived life on very different terms, but we’ve always been twins. We’ve always looked identical. We’d show up to parties wearing the same thing by mistake, and then people would spend the whole night confusing us for one another. I know a lot of twins could care less about matching, but we’ve always just done it, you know? So now…"
"Now you feel left out?"
"No, it’s not that… and I know that this is gonna sound crazy, but this is the first time in thirty years that I barely recognize my own brother."
"Oh honey," I said, nuzzling his neck and drawing him for a hug, "I’m sorry baby, I guess I always figured at some point or another you two didn’t look exactly the same. Didn’t one of you ever get a haircut without the other before?"
"I don’t know if it’s twin telepathy or what, but no actually. We seemed to always be in sync. And even when we weren’t necessarily in sync, Jar has a way of being persuasive. This is the first time he didn’t call me up and blabber about having a bright idea and rope me into it…"
"Well, maybe this is kind of a fun thing then? I mean, it probably won’t be like this forever, so for now isn’t it kind of fun to see what you’d look like if you cut your hair too? It’s like a trick mirror. And I’m sure by this time next year Jared will have decently long hair again, and then maybe you guys can get matching cuts again like you’re used to."
He nodded slowly and kissed the top of my head, "Yeah, you’re right honey. I’m reading too much into it. Jared’s an adult, I’m an adult, we don’t need to consult one another if we want to get a different haircut. If he wants to twin again I’m sure we can figure something out that’s a happy medium."
"That’s the spirit," I said, kissing his cheek, "Now, let’s go to bed shall we? Casey wants to go for a sunrise jog tomorrow, so I’ve got to get my beauty sleep."

To be continued…

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