When we pulled into the driveway, none of us spoke. The headlights died and the entrance to the garage became darkness. With the rattling of keys, the engine was next to cease, and the silence thereafter was deafening.
"It's over," I thought aloud.
"Yeah," the barely visible figure, my sister, added from the backseat. "Going back to real life is going to be... weird."
"What are you two going on about?"
"It's like you... changed me," Katy confessed, "but now you're leaving, and I'm going to wake up tomorrow, go to class, and come back home to Mom like none of this even happened."
"For someone so eager to call it quits," Miranda noted, "you're talking like you're let down now that you've gotten what you wanted."
"It's not the same, though. I'm not the same..."
"Maybe we'll visit more often?" Miranda looked to me, and a stray moonbeam caused her glasses to shine.
"Yeah, of course," I agreed. "It's not like we're never seeing each other again."
"But that's not..." her words drifted into confused contemplation.
"It's not what?" I tried to get her to say.
"You're going away again, and now I've got an even bigger hole in my heart than before because of it. Visits are just visits, and even if you come around more often, it's not the same."
"What's she talking about?" my wife interrogated me.
"I know you have to go," Katy sniveled, "but I don't want you to leave me."
"I, uh..." I'd no idea what to say.
"You sound like we're breaking up with you," Miranda joked, though I could hear in her inflection that she was unnerved by the girl's emotiveness.
"I'm just so confused..." my sister proceeded to exclaim. "About you, about myself, and I don't know what I'm going to do."
My spouse, unable to handle emotions, froze up and couldn't say anything. I was in a similar position, though I knew I had to at least try to speak. "It'll be okay, Katy," I said. "Things can go back to the way they were now—"
"But I don't want them to go back to the way they were before, don't you see that? I... I think I love you."
The door on the driver's side opened and Miranda stepped out, closing it behind her with somewhat of a slam, though not angrily so. We watched as she lingered briefly before treading the walkway to the porch and taking a seat upon the swinging bench which hung there, waiting for us to finish our conversation.
"Is she mad at me?" my sibling whimpered.
"I don't know," I admitted. "She's not good at stuff like this."
"Do I chase after her?"
"What—"
"I just said 'I love you' and she left. Doesn't she see what she's done to me, or what she's doing to me? Shit, I'm crying."
"Katy, who is the 'you' you're talking about?"
"I...I don't know."
"It's not me, is it?" the implications were overwhelming.
"It is, but... It's just... Ugh," she groaned, frustrated and upset.
"It's just," I picked up where she left off, "you meant her too, didn't you?"
"She made me feel something I've never felt before, and now I'm afraid I'll never feel it again."
"Are you talking about like... attraction to other girls, or?"
"No, you idiot," she went to slug me but hit the seat instead, "I meant when she was talking to me like..."
"Like what, when she was calling you a lesbian and a dyke?"
"She was so sweet and warm to me, and it made me feel so weak, like my heart was melting and I'd lights in my chest and butterflies in my stomach..."
"Katy, she was trying to sexually confuse you. Don't you see that she was just playing with you because it excited her?"
"No—but—she was... and I..."
"Is this like Stockholm syndrome or something, where she made you do stuff against your will—"
"It wasn't against my will; I just didn't know I wanted it until she said it."
"Whatever you think it was, Katy," I tried to get her mind straight, "it's not. It was like roleplaying, just... crazier."
"I want to hear her say it, then."
"What—"
"Go get her," the sobbing creature demanded. "I don't believe you; I want to hear it from her."
My door popped open and I stood without it shutting, waving to get Miranda's attention, beckoning her near. The swing was left swaying after her departure, and she descended the wooden steps before wandering over. She'd a hand in her pocket, the other adjusting her glasses.
"You two done yet?" was her inquiry as she approached.
"Uh, I think Katy wants to talk to you."
The window was rolled down and my wife rested her arms there as she greeted the girl. "Yeah—"
She was interrupted and I couldn't immediately see why. I ducked back into the car and my heart pounded when I saw in the dim light my sister having seized her, their lips sliding together. The blonde was desperately kissing her, an arm locked around her torso and the hand of the other gripping the side of her face. I nearly staggered from the sight, and I couldn't tell if Miranda returned the gesture or not, because all I could see was her face, more so illuminated than Katy's, being intimately embraced. Then, the faint smacking of lips ended, and they split.
"Why did you do that?" the brunette was flabbergasted, thick frames sideways and lopsided.
"It was the only way for me to tell you everything I had to say at once."
"But it was so... gay."
"...I'm your little gay girl, remember?"
"Katy, it was just lust," I could hear the sound of my sibling's heart being broken. "I say some filthy things when I'm turned on, and I'm sorry," Miranda continued before pausing. "...I'm married to your brother."
The wife had to back away when the door opened. My sister stepped out, wiping her eyes, and it was shut, like mine was moments afterwards. She took a few wobbly steps, found her balance, adjusted her clothes, and headed for the front door, purse slung over her shoulder. She retrieved a key and found her way inside, where I, by this time, had circled around the vehicle to meet with Miranda. She was silently touching her lips.
She turned and started chasing after the girl, I following her in the exact same way.
"You look like you've been crying, dear," was what we entered to hear my mother empathetically exclaim, holding onto Katy by the shoulders. "And your mascara, it's running down your face. What happened?"
"It was just a sad movie, Mom."
"Aw, sweetheart... Here, let me get that for you." She looked right at me as she dabbed the fresh tears from her daughter's face. "But baby," she gasped when her eyes fell upon the shivering thing in her nearness, "you're still crying."
"They didn't get together in the end," her snivels became sobs and she buried her head in our mother's bosom.
After tending to Katy, who was consoled enough to take a seat at the kitchen table, face down and nestled in her arms, Mom motioned for me to join her in the hallway. I looked at Miranda, who gave me a terrified look, and then, realizing I was panicking probably even harder than she, followed the woman I feared most at that moment.
"What did you do to her?" she was grave. "You obviously didn't take her to see a movie. What, did you go out drinking and something happened?"
"No, I—"
"Let me smell your breath," my mother pulled me close, held my mouth open, and sniffed before letting me go. "Okay, then, so you're not drunk. Is she?"
"No, ma'am..."
"Then what'd you do to her, huh? Why's she crying like that?"
"It wasn't me," I stammered, unsure if that was the truth or not, though thinking it to be at the time.
"Then who was it? Tell me what happened... now."