"Look out!" Krista screamed.
I turned around to see her barrelling out of control in my direction. I braced myself as I caught her, causing us both to spin out of control into the grass. We both laughed as we collapsed in a tangled mess, with her half on top of me.
"Sorry, I lost control," she grinned, looking down at me as she pulled her hair behind her ears.
Our merriment was interrupted by a loud voice yelling from the nearby trail where we'd been skating together just moments ago.
"C'mon, why don't you get a room already?"
"Excuse me?" Krista demanded to a teenager standing on the path. He looked to be about 15.
"You're both really hot. Can I watch you make out?"
"I--I don't know," Krista hesitated.
"Why not? Are you embarrassed to be out in public with your girlfriend?"
"We're not..." Krista started to protest.
I knew her well enough to tell that she was very uncomfortable. I realized this was probably the first time she'd been publicly confronted about her sexuality. I didn't like seeing my sister feeling that way, and it all made me angry.
"We're not embarrassed to be out together," I cut off Krista, finishing her sentence for her. "My girlfriend and I aren't going to put on a show for a prick like you. Now why don't you go fuck yourself?" I surprised myself a bit, to say nothing of the look on his face.
"Geez, I was just kidding around," he said defensively, as he backed away. "Fucking dykes," I heard him mutter as he was almost out of earshot.
Krista was nearly in tears. "I'm so sorry, Sara. I never thought anyone would think we were together. We're sisters for crying out loud! I don't blame you if you're not comfortable hanging out with me in public after this."
"It's OK, Krista. That guy was a douchebag."
She smiled in spite of her tears at my use of profanity. "You're sweet, as always, but no one should have to be accused of being gay with their own sister. Do I just have a sign on me somewhere that screams 'dyke'?"
"What? No!" I insisted, "Not only do you look like any other straight woman, it wouldn't matter whatsoever if you didn't! You should be able to look however you want and not have people assuming you're a lesbian."
"Well, apparently he could tell," she started to cry again.
I worried that a lot of what was really bothering her was that she was afraid I was going to be embarrassed to be out with her in public after this. Little did she know she could have done anything, and I would still want to spend as much time around her as possible. I felt a little guilty that my motives were at least partially selfish.
After Tamara had promised me that she wouldn't try to make me go down on her if I didn't try to remove the belt again, I'd come up with a plan. Although my trust in anything Tamara said was minimal at best, I realized that if she thought I was keeping my promise there was every chance she would leave me alone. However, that didn't mean I wasn't going to exploit every opportunity to minimize the time I spent around her. And that meant keeping Krista away from her. Unfortunately, the only way I'd found to consistently get Krista to bail on Tamara was to offer to practice kissing. I wasn't sure how long I could get away with that excuse. In truth, I was surprised it was still working. It had been nearly two weeks since my last encounter with Tamara, and Krista and I had practiced our kissing nearly every day since. I'd felt awkward and even a little disgusted at myself initially, but I couldn't deny that we'd both developed into better kissers. However, the more I kissed her, the more comfortable I started to feel about it. I'd gotten to where kissing her was feeling as natural as breathing, and I'd even started to notice more detailed sensations of kissing such as the softness of her lips and the heat of her breath.
My only concern was that we had started to go beyond practicing to the point of just making out for fun. However, I was content to let things continue this way forever if it kept Tamara away from me. Unfortunately, I knew I didn't have forever. It was only a matter of time before Krista decided she was ready to move on to the real deal. She'd leave me in the dust and the next thing I would know, Krista and Tamara would be inseparable. That was why the second part of my plan involved finding a girlfriend for Krista as I developed my relationship with Michael. So far, things were progressing well between Michael and me; I could easily see myself falling for him hard. Once we were serious enough to move in together, I would be protected from Tamara by default and I wouldn't need Krista to serve as a buffer. I even had hopes that once we were closer, I could even confide in him. I hoped at least to be able to explain enough that I could convince him to retrieve the blackmail material from Tamara. And with Krista spending all of her time with her future girlfriend, Tamara would become nothing more than an unpleasant memory. My plan was a far-cry from being fool-proof, but I was optimistic. I'd had such a bad run of luck lately that I was long overdue for some good.
I wished I could re-assure Krista that I wasn't going to stop spending time with her, and I wasn't embarrassed to be seen with her. And then it hit me. I grabbed her face firmly between both of my hands and pressed my lips against hers. Krista's eyes widened. She pulled away, her cheeks flushed crimson.
"Sara! Someone will see," she whispered urgently, "What were you thinking?"
"I was thinking that I don't care what people think when I'm together with you. Sure, I wouldn't kiss you in front of people we knew, but who the hell cares about what a bunch of random strangers think?"
"But you didn't want to kiss me earlier when that guy asked--" she started.
"I meant what I said. I don't have a problem kissing you in public. I have a problem kissing you in front of a guy who thinks lesbians exist solely for the fantasies of straight men. I bet that asshole didn't know until today that lesbians existed outside of porn. He probably thinks that they are all just waiting for the right man to come along and show them what they've been missing."
"You--you really don't care if people see us together and think we're," she paused, "together?"