[Previously: Cassie and her beautiful little sister - Helena - have discovered a deep and passionate taboo love for each other. More than that, they are exploring each other's boundaries with a photographer friend - Sasha. But just as things look rosy, the girls are upset by the news of a family visit...]
*
Helena and I took the car home as fast as we could. I rang up mom and left a message for mom to say that my lecturer had called in sick and that I'd be returning home early that day. Helena and I didn't speak much on the way home. Helena found my hand during a stop at a set of traffic lights and squeezed my fingers. I squeezed back.
When I pulled up outside the house we stopped to get a few things straight.
"What do we say if Jack has already found the paper?" I said. Helena frowned, thinking. She always looked like that when she was deep in thought; almost angry-looking that her brows were so crossed.
"We say that it was a prank by some guys at college who we turned down for a date. They wanted to get back at us."
"What guys?"
"Cassie, it doesn't really matter. Jack won't know them."
I nodded, seeing the logic. "But what about the stuff on your computer?"
Helena smiled, but only faintly. "Not much I can do about that" she said. "But Jack is such a pervert, it won't take much to get something back on him."
"How do you mean?"
Helena smiled, biting the bottom corner of her lip. "Just imagine" she said, giving me an alluring wink, "What Aunt Maddy would say if she caught her darling son jacking off in his teenage cousin's bedroom."
I wrinkled my nose at the idea. "But how would you-"
Helena leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. I wanted to kiss her on the lips.
"Never mind the details, Cassie" she said. "I have a plan."
We got out of the car and went indoors.
"Hi mom, we're back" Helena said, as brightly as she possibly could.
"In here sweetie" floated back the reply. Just before we went into the main living room, I pulled my sister to one side and put my arms around her neck.
"I love you, Lena" I said. I leaned forward, eyes closed, and felt my sister's lips press against mine. My heartbeat raced even at that short contact.
"Love you too" Helena whispered back. She hugged me, very briefly, then broke off and opened the door to the living room. We stepped through.
"Oh there they are! Aren't they darlings?"
Aunt Maddy was sitting with mom, holding a large mug of coffee. She was a couple of years older than mom, and looked it; slotting comfortably into the frumpy role of middle-age where mom almost had to work at it. She was dressed very conservatively, in court shoes and slacks, with a shirt and sweater. Her shoulder-length bob looked about twenty years out of date (although she probably thought it was risqué fashion). Sitting across from her and mom was Rachel, our cousin. Of the troublesome Jack, there was no sign.
Rachel and Jack, fraternal twins, were only a little younger than us, but it showed on our female cousin's face (and in what she wore). Rachel had long, dark brown hair, gathered up in a butterfly clip at the top of her head. She wore a long skirt and sensible shoes, with a blue polo top; buttoned all the way to the top. She wore bottle thick glasses and smiled only in extreme circumstances. But she was sweet, in her own way.
Helena and I sat down on the spare sofa and beamed at Aunt Maddy. She was insufferable and a parental tyrant, but hey; what can you do with family?
"My goodness Phee" she said to our mom, "They're almost like twins. And SO grown up!"
There was a measure of distaste in the last sentence, as though we were growing up too quickly, or were dressed inappropriately (both of which were true, in some respects). Aunt Maddy, although the older sister, had married later in life and had watched mom beat her to parenthood. But she'd always seen it as her responsibility to impart pearls of wisdom about bringing up children, even if such pearls were generally useless and unwanted.
"Rachel, say hello to your cousins"
Rachel looked up from the spot she'd been examining on the floor and gave us both a level stare.
"Hello" she said.
"Hey" we both replied. It was an awkward moment.
"And, um, where's Jack?" Helena said. This prompted Aunt Maddy into producing a sound we would later discover to be something resembling a laugh. She leant over to my mom and patted her on the knee.
"See?" she said. "I told you Helena would ask about Jack. You'd better watch that one, Phee; she's very close to her cousin!"
