Only four more stories left, getting close! How do you think its gonna end?

(RANDY)

“WHAT. THE FUCK. IS THIS!”

We both stood there horrified as dad held the picture of us in his hands. It looked as if the frame was going to crumble into a million pieces any second. He never took his eyes off of us the whole time he was waiting for an answer, and we were too scared to give him one. I’ve never, I mean never, seen dad this angry, there was no way in hell we’d be able to talk our way out of this one, at least an still be in one piece.

“I’M WAITING! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!”

He looked like he got even angrier as he held the picture up so we could see it. Within seconds of him yelling again we heard footsteps quickly ascending to the top of the stairs, and were met with an on edge mom and Aunt Lisa as the came in the room with their eyes wide open.

“What is going on here? I can hear you yelling downstairs Mike what happened?” mom asked.

“What’s going? You wanna know what’s going on? What’s going on is your kids are fucking KISSING each other in this picture!” dad said as he threw it on the bed by mom.

Mom picked up the picture, looked at it and sunk, for dad because she didn’t want him to know she knew, and for us because we were so careless and got caught. Aunt Lisa walked over and looked at the picture and did the same thing mom did, then they did a double take at us and tossed the picture back on the bed, and then looked up at dad.

“You see this? Our kids are kissing each other Anna! What kind of shit… how the hell… I don’t even know what to say right now. OUR KIDS ARE FUCKING KISSING EACH OTHER ANNA!”

“Mike calm down, yelling isn’t gonna help anything, it could just be an innocent…”

“A WHAT? LOOK AT THE PICTURE ANNA, THEY LOOK LIKE LOVERS! THERE’S NOTHING AT ALL INNOCENT ABOUT THAT PICTURE! WHAT ARE YOU CRAZY?”

“No I’m not crazy Mike, I’m just trying to keep an open mind here.”

“AN OPEN MIND ABOUT WHAT? THAT THEY DECIDED FOR THE HELL OF IT TO JUST TAKE A PICTURE OF THEM KISSING LIKE THAT? BROTHERS AND SISTERS DON’T KISS LIKE THAT ANNA, AT LEAST NOT THAT I KNOW OF! IF THEY’RE DOING THAT THEN THEY’RE PROBABLY DOING OTHER… I DON’T WANNA EVEN THINK ABOUT WHAT ELSE THEY’RE DOING!”

The whole time we were just standing there, afraid, not knowing when to jump in, or what to say, or how to say it, dad just kept yelling, and yelling, and yelling, and mom kept trying to calm him down, but it wasn’t working, it only made him more angry. No matter what mom said, he had a rebuttal for each argument. We were in a lot of trouble.

“They’ve always been close Mike, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to you,” mom said.

“SO WHAT! THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU CAN GO AROUND KISSING YOUR SISTER! I DIDN’T, YOU DIDN’T, THIS IS NOT OK ANNA! WE DIDN’T RAISE THEM TO ACT LIKE THIS!”

“They’re twins Mike, it’s different for them, especially after everything that happened…”

“NO, DON’T BRING THAT UP, THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS PICTURE!” He turned his attention from mom and looked directly at us. “You are gonna tell me exactly what’s going on is that picture, and you are gonna tell me right now!”

“Mike, just let…” Aunt Lisa started.

“I DON’T WANNA HEAR IT LISA! Let them talk,” dad cut her off. “What am I looking at, was this a one-time twin thing, or has this been going on for a long time?”

Rita’s hands were shaking. We were in one hell of a spot. On one hand I knew if we told the truth dad would completely explode, but on the other hand if we told a lie he might calm down, and he would be suspicious of us forever, and then again on that same hand if we got caught in a lie it would only make things ten times worse than they already are, and things were already bad enough. I knew we had to tell him the truth, I just didn’t want it to come out like this. We had to tell him about us, there was no putting it off anymore, we had to tell him everything and we had to tell him now, but I had to be the one to tell him. I slowly locked my fingers with Rita’s, as scared as we both were, and looked dad straight in the eye.

“It’s been going on for a long time dad.”

He just about lost it. He went to say something, but stopped before any words came out, turned away from everybody and clasped his fingers together behind his head, paced around the floor with his hands on his hips, and finally turned back to us, to me, with clenched fists.

“What is ‘it’? Is it kissing and touching, or is it more than that?”

I sighed and took a deep breath, maybe my last. “More than that.”

That was the last straw. Dad lunged at me so fast I barely had any time to react. I had just enough time to push Rita into the hallway before dad had me by my shoulders pinned to the ground. He slammed me to the ground pretty good before mom tried to grab hold of him.

“MIKE NO! DON’T HIT HIM!” mom pleaded as she tried to pull one of his arms back.

“DID YOU JUST HEAR HIM ANNA! HE SAID IT WAS MORE THAN TOUCHING, THE ONLY THING MORE THAN TOUCHING IS SEX! HE’S FUCKING HIS OWN SISTER!”

He turned his attention back to me. I was about to get the shit beat out of me, I just knew it. mom was trying her hardest to hold his arm back, but he was starting to overpower her, at least he was until Aunt Lisa came up and grabbed hold of his other arm.

“LET ME GO LISA! LET GO OF MY FUCKING ARM!”

“I’m not letting go until you calm down Mike!”

They were trying their hardest to hold him down, but I knew it wouldn’t last forever. He was Hulk mad, and everybody knows you can’t contain Hulk mad. They put up a good fight, but just as I knew it would happen dad eventually broke free, causing the three of them to fall backwards. Dad quickly hopped back up and was ready to jump right back on me when Rita threw herself right on top of me with the most fearful look on her face I’ve ever seen, and he looked at her and saw it. As mad as he was at me, at us, even after all this, she was still his little girl, and he knew it, and slowly, but surely, dad finally managed to calm down. Just like the Hulk when he was mad, dad had that same defining weakness, the girl, in this case, his daughter.

“Daddy please don’t do this!” Rita begged.

“Rita. Move outta the way. Me and your brother are gonna have a little talk.”

“You mean you’re gonna punch his face in? No dad, I’m not moving!”

“Rita move outta the way.”

“No dad I can’t, I can’t let you hit him.”

“RITA MOVE! I’M NOT JUST GONNA LET THIS PASS! HE HAD SEX WITH YOU… IT JUST HURTS MY EARS EVEN HEARING MYSELF SAY IT LET ALONE THINK ABOUT IT!”

“Why are you just mad at him dad? He didn’t rape me, I was there too. This wasn’t just some spur of the moment thing going on dad, we love each other.”

Dad stood all the way up and squeezed his fists together. He gave me a death stare that I couldn’t help but get locked into for the sake of him lunging at me if I took my eyes off him for one second. “Get off of him Rita, let him stand up, you’re not gonna fight his battles for him, I raised you to be a man, now stand up and be one.”

“Dad please, you’re just gonna hit him, I don’t want…”

“I said let him stand up! You’re not gonna fight his battles for him!”

“I’m not fighting his battles for him, I’m fighting our battles with him!”

In a way dad was right. While I laid there on the floor mom and Aunt Lisa held him back, and when he got free Rita went Pocahontas on me and threw herself on me like I was John Smith. I touched her arm and slowly lifted her off me, she was reluctant to move, but I still did it. “He’s right Rita, I need to stand up and face him like a man.”

She hesitantly moved away as I stood up, but she didn’t stand more than a foot away from me as I got to my feet and squared up with dad. Mom and Aunt Lisa were still behind him just as fidgety as Rita was, ready just in case dad tried another lunge at me.

“I’m gonna be calm. I got all of my rage out, don’t worry honey,” dad said to mom.

Mom, being the human lie detector she was, looked at him and breathed a sigh of relief, and when she relaxed, the rest of us did, mom knew dad better than any of us, and if she believed him when he said he was calm, then he was calm. He gave her a little half smile to help reassure her, and she gave one back, and I thought the situation at least had somewhat taken a step in the right direction, but when he looked at me he instantly went back into demon mode.

“So you thought it was ok to screw your little sister? What’s the matter with you?”

“Dad, it’s not just that, we love each other, I mean we really love each other.”

“THAT’S INCEST! Don’t you know it’s illegal, and morally wrong? You could go to jail if someone found out, and did I mention it’s morally wrong!”

“Dad! How do you think we as a people got here? Adam and Eve had to start somewhere, it’s not like random humans that weren’t related just started popping up at the right time…”

“Don’t give me that shit Randy I don’t wanna hear about Adam and Eve, I’m talking about Randy and Rita! Anna can you believe what we’re hearing!”

Mom held on to her poker face, not showing sighs that she knows about us already, or signs that she’s taking dad’s side, she just looked like a concerned mother all the way through to her body language. Aunt Lisa moved to sit on the bed with her arms crossed, she didn’t say anything, she just looked at mom to try to gauge a reaction.

“How long has this been going on, you two?” dad asked.

“A little over ten months, since our birthday last year,” I replied back.

“Ten months? Wow. Ten months. So out of nowhere you just decided to have sex. Decided to have yourselves an incest birthday huh? So every time we’re not here you’re probably taking that time to screw the pants off of each other! What I wanna know is, how you were able to keep it secret from your mother, aunt, and I for so long. How did I not notice anything!”

“Dad we were gonna tell you, we weren’t gonna hide it from you forever,” Rita said.

“Yeah right you were gonna tell me. If I hadn’t seen that picture I never would’ve known.”

“No dad, we were gonna tell you, all of you,” I said throwing that last part in to cover mom and Aunt Lisa. “We were trying to figure out how, in case something like this happened.”

“In case something like what happened? Me acting the way I’m supposed to act upon finding out my son has been fucking his sister for the last ten months!”

Now it was my turn to get upset. “DAD IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT THE SEX, I LOVE HER!”

“You better lower your damn voice and remember who you’re talking to!”

I was in a mode, too late to turn back now. “THEN STOP DEGRADING IT! YOU’RE MAING IT SEEM LIKE WE HAD NOTHING BETTER TO DO, IT’S NOT LIKE THAT AT ALL!” I stopped and took a deep breath when I saw dad’s face start to get red a little. “It’s not like we planned this dad, it just happened. We’re twins, we were in the same womb together, we’ve never been apart from each other, it just seemed, inevitable, destined. We just have that bond, and this, me and her, it just feels right dad. I’ve never wanted to be with anyone more in my life.”

“Me too dad,” Rita jumped in. “I never want to be with anyone else. Please try to understand.”

Dad took a minute to soak in what we just said, and in that time Rita came and rested her head on my shoulder and held my hand. She looked at me with her big blue eyes that looked like they were on the verge of letting out some water works.

“Thank you for standing up for us.”

“I couldn’t claim to love you if I weren’t willing to.”

Dad grunted upon hearing my last statement. “(sigh) You know what, I believe you. I do believe that you two are really in love, but that doesn’t make what you’re doing ok. It is illegal, and I will not stand for it in principle or in my house. You two are to stop this…thing, now.”

“We were completely floored. That was not the answer we were expecting. “What!”

“You heard me, you are to stop this relationship right now. You are not husband and wife, you are brother and sister, it’s time you started acting like it.”

“DAD NO!” I yelled. “DID YOU HEAR EVERYTHING I JUST SAID!”

“Yes I heard everything you just said, now hear everything I’m saying. You two are to stop this charade right now and go back to your lives before this mess happened.”

“Dad please, you can’t do this, we can’t just pretend like none of this happened!” Rita said.

“You can, and you will. You will go back to being brother and sister as of this moment.”

“Mike, maybe we need a couple days to cool our heads,” Aunt Lisa said.

“I don’t need to cool my head, I said what I needed to say and that’s it, case closed. Randy, get your stuff out of here, you two won’t be sharing a room anymore, you can sleep on the couch until Lisa moves out then you can have your room back,” dad said as he headed for the door.

I couldn’t let it be like this. Rita is the girl I’m supposed to be with, I can’t just sit back and let that be taken away from me. I overcame worse odds than this when I got shot, I had to stand up to dad, no matter what the outcome was, I had to, for Rita. “Dad, no.”

“He stopped dead in his tracks and turned to look at me. “What did you say?”

Like I said before, I came too far to back down now. “I’ve never disobeyed you in my life dad, because you always did what was best for me, but not this time. Rita is what’s best for me dad. I love her, and she loves me. You want me to tell the girl I wanna spend the rest of my life with I can’t see her anymore? I’m sorry dad, but sister or not that’s something I can’t do, I won’t do. I might be asking for a beating saying all this, but so be it, I have to say it. We’re meant to be together, and I’m sorry dad, but I can’t let you get in the way of that. She is my girlfriend, and I know it hurts for you to hear it right now, but I will not stop seeing her, no matter what.”

For a while he said nothing, he showed no emotion, he didn’t even move, it was like time stopped only on him, and we were waiting for him to pop back to the present. We all looked around at each other to try and gauge a reaction, but noone knew what to make of it. After some time in deep thought, dad, finally moved, and looked directly at me.

“You’re sure you feel like this? Nothing can change your mind?” dad asked.

I sighed, relieved. “Yes dad, I’m sure. I love her and nothing you say is gonna change that.”

“Ok. Pack up your stuff, I want you out of here in the next fifteen minutes.”

Completely out of left field. “What dad? NO!” Rita screamed.

“I don’t wanna hear it Rita! If you don’t wanna separate willingly, I’m gonna have to make you do it, pack up your stuff, and get out of here, now!”

“Where is he supposed to go Mike? He’s just a kid!” mom said.

“We all know exactly where he’s gonna go, over to Chris’ house. He’s not gonna be in any danger, he’ll be away from Rita, which is exactly what they need right now. Some time apart is just what they need to realize what the hell they’re doing with each other!”

Dad headed for the door and Rita took off after him. “Dad no! Please don’t do this!”

“I’m doing this for your own good Rita, and for Randy’s. Brothers and sisters aren’t supposed to act the way you do, this isn’t normal behavior!”

“So the best thing to do is throw him out? How is splitting us up by force gonna help?”

“It’ll help stop this!” dad said as he grabbed the picture and held it up in the air. “This is gonna stop one way or another, even if I have to watch you 24/7, it’s gonna stop!”

“If you’re kicking him out then I’m going too dad!”

“No you’re not, you’re gonna stay right here until we can fix this.”

“Fix what dad? Nothing’s wrong with us! You can’t help who you fall in love with!”

“THAT is what’s wrong! You can’t fall in love with your brother. I won’t let you!”

“Mike, don’t you think…”

“I know what you’re gonna say Anna, and no I’m not being too harsh. Look at this, these are our kids Anna! I will not sit by and let this happen! Randy, call up Chris and tell him to come get you, Rita, you stay right here. THERE WILL BE NO MORE OF THIS IN MY HOUSE!”

In anger dad threw the picture at the wall and the glass shattered and fell on the floor. There was a mark on the wall where the picture hit and the frame had broken from the impact, but the picture itself was fine. Dad stared at the pile of mess then turned his gaze towards me.

“I mean it Randy, pack up and go, you got fifteen minutes.”

He left and went downstairs and as soon as he did Rita went to pick up the broken frame. The rest of the glass slid out of the bottom and onto the floor as she lifted it up into the air. She stared at it helplessly for a few seconds then turned and looked at mom and Aunt Lisa with tears forming in her eyes, and ran over to me and threw her arms around me.

“Don’t leave Randy, please! He’s just mad right now, he’ll calm down in a little bit.”

“Yeah, but he’ll still feel the same way. I have to leave before I make things worse.”

“No you don’t! please Randy, mom do something!” Rita pleaded.

For the first time in a long time mom didn’t know what to say. “I’ve never seen your father get THAT upset, I don’t know if there’s anything I can do, not right now at least.”

“So we just let him leave? I know dad is mad but kicking him out isn’t gonna help anything! How are we supposed to function without each other?”

“We’ll figure it out Rita, I promise, but right now me being here is a big problem, we don’t wanna do anything we’re gonna regret, let alone dad, I have to leave.”

Rita started crying. “I’m coming with you. I don’t care where we go, I don’t care if we have to sleep under a bridge, I’m coming with you!”

“Rita…”

“NO! I’m coming with you! There’s nothing you can say to change my mind!”

“There’s nothing I want more than for you to come with me, but you know dad’s not gonna let you leave, and who knows what’ll happen if he finds us together. This is the maddest dad’s ever been, even more than the last ten years combined. We have to tread carefully, we have to.”

“Randy, no, you can’t ask me to stay, please don’t ask me.”

“Only for a little bit, until we can figure this out. Once dad had a few days to calm down we’ll work it out, but for right now. This was not how he was supposed to find out, we can’t be mad at how he reacted. He’s not mad at you, he’s mad at me, he needs to not see my face for a while. The sooner I leave and get it outta the way, the sooner I can come back.”

She just looked at me and cried. I truly hated seeing her like that. She wrapped her arms around me as tight as she could, knowing I’d be soon out that door for who knows how long. I sent Chris a text asking if I could crash over and if he could pick me up, he responded yeah and said he’d be on his way in ten minutes, which meant I’d have to leave the house before he got here.

“Mom, please don’t let dad kick him out, go talk to him, please!” Rita pleaded again.

“I will, but Randy’s right Rita, as mad as your father is right now, he needs to not see Randy’s face for a few days, him leaving with help more than it will hurt,” mom said.

“It’ll help who? Not me! I hate this so much. We’re always being careless and leaving stuff out in the open. This time we got burned for it. if I hadn’t pulled the picture out…”

“Then it would’ve happened a week from now or whenever we decided to tell him, this was unavoidable Rita, the only good thing is we can get the hard part outta the way now,” I said.

“We haven’t even told him the full truth yet, about everything else,” Aunt Lisa said.

“No, don’t tell him that, none of you, he doesn’t need to know about that at all.”

“You don’t get to tell me what to do, I’m YOUR mother, or did you forget that?” mom asked.

“He doesn’t need to know about that mom, ever. All he should be concerned about is me and Rita, he’ll definitely blow a gasket if he finds out you guys are
involved too.”

“That might be true, but it’s not just your decision, he still should know.”

“Maybe he doesn’t need to know Anna. Think about it, he lost it when he found out about his kids, how do you think he’s gonna react if he finds out not only did we know about it, but we participated in it? He’ll lose his mind! He has enough to deal with.”

“So what, we just never tell him the whole truth?”

“Sometimes people don’t need to know everything. If in thirty years you still have a guilty conscience then you can tell him, but I won’t, and I don’t think they will either.”

Mom paused for a second and thought it over. “As long as he wasn’t listening outside the door the whole time,” mom said as she paused to go check. “Fine. We kept it away from him for this long, what’s another thirty years, by then, he’ll be too old to care.”

“I should probably get my stuff packed, don’t want dad storming back up here,” I said.

“This isn’t right! Why does Randy have to leave? I’m just as guilty as he is!” Rita said.

“Because he’s not gonna kick his little girl out, it’s way easier to send me off.”

“When he goes to sleep, I’m gonna sneak out. He can’t keep me locked up in here.”

“Don’t, all that’s gonna do is make him angrier, which is gonna keep me away longer.”

“So what are we gonna do, Skype all the time? I wanna see you!”

“You will, I promise, we just have to do this first.”

“You’re making it sound so easy, like you’re gonna get along fine without me.”

“This is far from easy Rita, I’m gonna be miserable over there without you, I’m just putting up a front so dad won’t see me weak. It’s gonna be hell not being able to see you every day!”

“THAT’S what I want you to say! I want you to miss me! I want you to not go!”

“It won’t be so bad. I’ll be staying with Stephanie and Chris, so it’s not like I’ll be living on the street. We’ll talk every day and we’ll still get to see each other, and who knows, this might help up, absence does make the heart grow fonder they say.”

“I’ve already had my absence, three months’ worth, I don’t need any more absence!”

“Rita, you’re making this harder on him than it already is,” mom said.

“Well I’m sorry, but I’m having a hard time believing this is the best thing to do.”

“Not necessarily the best thing, more like the only thing. It’s only for a little while.”

“FIVE MINUTES RANDY! LET”S GO!” dad yelled loud enough for us to hear from downstairs.

“I guess that’s my cue.” I said as I threw random clothes and items in my big duffle bag. “Don’t worry Rita, pretty soon this’ll all be over and I’ll be back before you know it.”

She walked up and hugged herself to my chest. “You promise?”

“I promise.”

“You never broke a promise to me Randy, you better not start now.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I said as I softly kissed her forehead.

I guess she wasn’t satisfied with my gentle forehead kiss because she pushed her lips to mine in the way she does when she really wants me to know she loves me. Our lips were melded together perfectly as we embraced each other for the last time in who knows how long, which clarified why my forehead kiss was immediately shot down. Aunt Lisa and mom looked on without saying anything, knowing we were vulnerable and hurting, they let us have our moment. I grabbed my bag and smiled at everyone, holding my gaze with Rita a little longer, and headed downstairs before dad came back up looking for me. He was sitting on the couch waiting for me to come down, and when I did he got up and walked to the door.

“Dad, I know you don’t agree with what we’re doing, but we…”

“No I don’t agree with it, and I won’t agree with it. When you agree to stop seeing your sister in that manner then you will be welcomed back, but until then, stay away from her.”

He held the door open for me to walk out without even looking at me, no matter how hard I tried to make eye contact he just wouldn’t budge. I wanted to be mad at him for the way he was treating us, but how could I be? We’re committing incest and we hid it from him, save for mom and Aunt Lisa, and Ashley, this is the reaction we’d get from almost everybody else. I looked around one last time and walked out the front door, and no sooner than I was walking to the stairs did the door close and lock behind me. He didn’t even check to make sure Chris came to get me, but it was daylight, so I overlooked it. I texted Chris to see where he was, and he said he was on the way, which everybody knows means he didn’t even leave yet, so I just started walking until he text me back to let me know where he was. Ten minutes into walking I wished I picked a better bag because the one I had had a strap that was really starting to cut into my shoulder. I tried switching it to the other but it wasn’t helping much, being shot in that shoulder wasn’t doing me any favors either, so I decided to stop somewhere and wait for him.

It just so happened I walked far enough to be within sight of the ice cream shop that I was just thinking about where I was shot at, what are the odds. I was hesitant at first but it being daytime and seeing people sitting out there made it easier for me to suck it up and do it. I took a seat at one of the tables on the outside patio, the scene where it all happened. I haven’t been back since that day. The layout was a little different than I remember it being, but overall it was still the same place. I started having flashbacks of that night, from the guy drawing the knife on Ashley, to us wrestling through tables trying to gain control over the other, even the image of me taking two bullets popped in my head. I felt like a soldier coming back from war who had PTSD since this was my first time actually coming back here since that day. I needed to occupy my mind, think of something that would help me forget about what happened, or deal with it so I could move on, but without Rita being there, it made it that much harder. I contemplated getting an ice cream while I waited for Chris, thinking that would help me forget about what happened, but this was hardly the mood for it, that and I wanted Rita to be here when I finally did, so I just sat there and waited for Chris to text me back. When he finally did about ten minutes later he was outside my house, and I had to redirect him to the ice cream shop. I knew he’d be curious why so I told him I’d fill him in on everything once he got here. A couple minutes later I saw his Lincoln pull up and him get out ready to crack a joke, but when he saw I wasn’t in a joking mood and had a packed duffle bag fit for the Marines, he lost his smile.

“What’s up man? Why you have a big ass bag for a couple days?”

“I’ll fill you in on the way back, let’s get out of here.”

We walked back to his car and I threw my bag on the back seat and got in the front without saying a word. Chris obviously knew something was up but he waited until we left the ice cream shop before he asked me anything.

“So what’s up man? You and Rita have a fight or something?”

“Nope. We’re perfectly fine, at least for the moment.”

“Then what? You went from loving life to rock bottom in two hours, what gives?”

“Dad kicked me out.”

(RITA)

“Dad why are you doing this? You just can’t kick him out like that!”

“You two didn’t leave me a choice. Sleeping with each other, what were you thinking Rita?”

“We were thinking we loved each other and didn’t care that we were related!”

“You can’t love each other, not that way, not ever again. You hear me?”

“No dad I don’t wanna hear you. I love him, and he loves me dad, I know you can see that. You can’t expect us to just turn off our feelings for each other!”

“It won’t be easy, but yes that’s exactly what I expect both of you to do.”

“Dad that’s not fair! I can’t be with the person I love more than anything in this world because of some stupid society superstition?”

“I don’t wanna talk about this anymore Rita! You two WILL stop seeing each other!”

I was not gonna take no for an answer. “And what if we don’t?”

He was caught off guard, he didn’t expect me to say something like that to him. His face drew up with the look he gave Randy the moment he first found the picture. “You will stop seeing each other, or I’ll send him so far away it’ll be like he left this planet, got it!”

I could feel the tears start to well up in my eyes. He just didn’t understand. I can’t just turn off my feelings for Randy, I just can’t. I know he thinks he’s doing what’s best for us, but he’s doing the exact opposite, and to hear him threaten to send Randy away for good was it, I couldn’t deal with it anymore, I couldn’t stop the tears any more than dad could stop us from being together. One look at his crying daughter and he knew he’d gone too far, but he didn’t budge.

“Rita I’m doing this for your own good. I WILL NOT have it, it needs to stop! You can be mad all you want, but for now you are not to have any kind of contact with your brother for a while.”

“JUST LEAVE ME ALONE DAD!”

I ran up to our room and fell into the bed, pushing everything they brought us back from the trip onto the floor, I could care less about it at that moment. I cried into my pillow. The thought of Randy being far away from me with nothing I could do about it was the worst feeling in the world. Every time I pictured anything about the future, Randy was always there, even before we were intimate with each other, he was always there. I couldn’t let dad do it, not without sending me away with him. I know dad would never send me away, so I would have to find a way to play that to our advantage. I was so caught up in my thoughts and emotions that I didn’t know someone was in the room with me until I felt a hand on my back. I turned over expecting it to be dad and was relieved to see it was Aunt Lisa, who looked as sad as I did.

“I’m so sorry honey, I can’t imagine how this must hurt right now,” Aunt Lisa said.

“I can’t so it Aunt Lisa, I can’t stop seeing him. Why won’t dad understand?”

“Look at it from his view, his kids are committing incest, which is forbidden in the states, and he feels he’s been lied to all this time. I didn’t expect him to be as angry as he was, but I can’t fault his reaction, incest is one of the biggest taboos known to man, and it’s happening in his house.”

“But to send him away? His own son? Why?”

“He feels like that’s his only option. Right now the only thing that matters to him is getting you two to stop seeing each other, it’s gonna be at the forefront of his mind.”

I wiped my eyes and sat up. “I should leave too, nothing’s keeping me here.”

“Don’t do that, the threat your father made earlier about sending Randy away, he can make good on that. Do you really wanna force him to make that decision?”

“I shouldn’t have to! We’re his kids, he should accept us no matter what!”

“He just needs time Rita, this is a lot for anybody to take in in one day.”

“You and mom took it pretty cleanly.”

“That’s because me and your mom are a different case entirely. We’ve been messing around with each other since our late teens, and still do to this day, your father as far as I know has never even seen his mother or sister come out of the shower with a towel on. He needs to cool down, once he has a level head, he’ll be open to reason, and if he sees that you two are at least making an effort to see where he’s coming from, that’ll ease him up too, that’s why Randy knew he had to leave, even though he didn’t want to.”

What she said really made me think. I didn’t like it one bit but the way Aunt Lisa put it made me understand it was necessary, as much as I didn’t wanna do it either, I had to. I started thinking too much and it hit me again that I would have to sleep in our bed alone, I wouldn’t feel his arms around me as I slept, I wouldn’t feel his lips against mine, I wouldn’t hear him whisper he loved me in my ear, I was already getting sad again just thinking about it.

“How am I supposed to get through the day without him Aunt Lisa?”

“What kept you going when you were in the hospital with him?”

“I kept telling myself he’d wake up, that he would never leave me, and I made a promise to be there when he woke up, but this is different, he’s not hurt or dying, he’s just gone.”

“Just think of it like this, absence makes the heart grow fonder. When you finally see him again, it’s gonna be like falling in love again, you’re never gonna wanna leave his side.”

“I already don’t wanna leave his side, can’t we just skip the leaving again part?”

Aunt Lisa chuckled a little. “Ahh my dear sweet niece, if only life worked like that.”

I laughed with her to try and make myself feel better. “This is gonna be hard Aunt Lisa, I’m gonna be thinking about him, calling him, skyping him, I’m gonna be a mess.”

“We’ll help you through it, your mom and I, and don’t forget you have Tibbles to keep you company too. Speaking of Tibbles where is he? I haven’t seen him since we got back.”

“He’s probably in the basement. Tibbles would be good company, Randy surprised me with him when I saw him in a pet store one day and wanted him.”

“If anything, you have a solid case for being in love, you two have done more for each other in the past ten months that all of my relationships in my entire life combined.”

I sighed. “This is gonna be the longest few days of my life.”

(RANDY)

“He kicked you out? Why would he do that?”

“Because we screwed up. The picture of me and Rita kissing at the water fountain? He saw it. We left it on our bed for anybody to see, and dad was that anybody.”

“Oh geez man how’d you forget that. He was beyond mad wasn’t he?”

“I have a bag packed headed to your house, beyond mad is putting it nicely. It mom and Aunt Lisa weren’t there he would’ve took my head off, definitely some broken ribs.”

“That makes me that much more worried to tell my dad about me and Steph.”

“Your dad doesn’t look like the type to blow a gasket, but then again I thought the same thing about my dad before today, so who knows how he’s gonna take it.”

“Yeah thanks for that. So how long are you crashing for?”

“Hopefully just a few days. I don’t plan on being away from Rita longer than that. It’s already sinking in that I’m gonna be sleeping alone tonight for the first time in a long time.”

“It’s not so bad, at least you’ll get the bed to yourself again.”

“I don’t want the bed to myself. I’ve gotten so used to her resting on top of me I don’t even remember how to sleep by myself. Hearing her breathe man, telling me she loved me, knowing she was right where she wanted to be is the best feeling in the world.”

Chris looked surprised to hear me talk like that. “Wow man, I didn’t expect to hear anything like that from you, I thought you were gonna lead with how you were gonna miss the sex.”

“I could care less about the sex at this point, I just want this whole thing to be over so that I can hold her again. This is gonna be a long few days man I tell you.”

“Yeah you’re already bumming me out, you got me worrying about stuff now.”

“Good, that’s just a little piece of how I feel right now. I’m gonna call her when I get in the house, we have that video app on our phones, I need to see her face.”

“We have skype pretty much everywhere in the house, you can use that too.”

“We never made accounts since our phones have the video thing, but if I need to I’ll make one, it’s the only way I can talk to her now, which is gonna bother the hell out of me.”

“Damn this is really bothering you huh?”

“How would you feel if you had to stay away from Stephanie for a few days? It might even be longer than that, there’s no guarantee everything’s gonna be all peachy keen in a few days. I hate this man, I wouldn’t let Rita see it but these days apart is gonna kill me, and I don’t care how soft that makes me sound so whatever jokes you gonna crack you might as well…”

“Hey whoa whoa man, I wasn’t gonna do that. I know I joke about stuff but come on man, I’m not heartless. I know what you guys mean to each other, I wouldn’t joke about that.”

I took a breath. “Sorry man, it’s just all hitting me at once. I basically have to trust that my dad will be open to reason in a few days, if not, I don’t know what we’re gonna do.”

“Well I tell you what, if anything, you guys picked the perfect time to move.”

“I don’t wanna leave on a bad note, it’ll mess up our whole family, and everything’s been damn near perfect up to this point family wise. I just want dad to accept us that’s all, so I’m gonna give him what he asked for and leave for a little bit, then I’m gonna convince him that I’m in it with Rita for the long haul, and then
everything’s gonna go back to normal, hopefully.”

“Yeah, hopefully. Well if you need me or Steph for anything we’re here for you man.”

“Thanks. Right now all I need is a couch and a phone charger, I left mine at home in the rush to leave, I’m gonna be killing that battery all day talking to Rita.”

We pulled into his driveway and immediately I saw Stephanie sitting in the porch swing rocking back and forth while on her phone. She didn’t even look up until we were walking up the stairs.

“What took you so long, you left like half an hour ago,” Stephanie said.

“Had to take a detour, Randy wasn’t where I thought he was.”

“Yeah right, I know you did something, and when I find out what it is, you’ll never hear the end of it. So what’s up Randy, why the sudden visit?”

“I can’t tell you here, we need to go up to somebody’s room away from your parents.”

We walked into the house and Jim and Marie were right there to greet me. They always looked so happy, like they won the lottery every time they completed a sentence or something. Seeing Jim happy only reminded me of the mood my dad was in, and the reason for my being here, but I couldn’t let them know that, I had to put on my best poker face and get through them.

“Hey Jim, hey Marie, thanks for letting me stay here for a few days,” I said.

“Nonsense, you’re welcome here anytime, all of you are, you should come over more often, you and Rita. Speaking of Rita, how come she’s not with you?” Jim asked.

I didn’t wanna straight up lie, but I knew I couldn’t tell them the truth, so I went somewhere in the middle on a whim. “That’s the thing, we’re doing a little experiment, we’re trying to see if we can make it a few days without being around each other, nobody thinks we can.”

“Shoot I wanna get in on that bet, you two are practically joined at the hip. I say the most you can last is a day, tops, then you’re either going back home or she’s coming over here.”

Marie gave me that look like she already figured out I was lying. Dammit. I only said one sentence and she was on to me. Why are moms so hard to trick? It’s like to them our bodies give off green truth smoke and red lying smoke, and I was smoking bright red. Jim was buying it hook line and sinker, but Marie just smiled and nodded along.

“I’m not usually a betting man Randy, but I got $50 that says either one of you caves before three days. You want in on this Marie?” Jim asked.

“We don’t wanna take all his money, we know he won’t make it,” Marie giggled.

“No faith. Just remember I take cash, not credit card, not check, not IOU, cash,” I said.

“Yeah we’ll see. We can either bunk you up with Chris or you can take the couch, I personally would take the couch, it’s really comfortable once you sink into it,” Jim said.

“The couch is good, thanks again. I’ll put my stuff up in Chris’ room.”

Jim patted me on the back and walked back into the kitchen and to the basement, and once he was out of sight Marie turned to me with her hands on her hips. “Ok, so what’s the real reason you came over? Oh no, did you and Rita have a fight?”

“No we didn’t, but something did happen. I’ll tell you about it later, I wanna get my little area set up before I get too lazy to do anything.”

“Ok, just remember, if you want some motherly advice, I’m right down the hall.”

Once Marie was out of sight Stephanie picked up where her mom left off. “Ok so what’s going on? You and Rita really did have a fight didn’t you? That’s why she’s not here?”

“No, well technically yeah, it’s complicated. Let me get situated and call her then I’ll come back and tell you what happened. I’m gonna need some privacy though.”

I went back outside through the front door and walked around to the back and called Rita, who answered halfway through the second ring.”

“I was just getting ready to call you, I miss you already,” Rita said.

“Yeah me too, it hasn’t even been an hour yet, but it’s knowing what’s ahead that’s the issue. Did things calm down over there? What happened after I left?”

“I told dad I’d come with you, and he threatened to send you across the country if I did.”

“What? He said that? Maybe he was trying to scare you.”

“No, he meant it. He got mad and yelled at me because I wouldn’t stop.”

I was pacing around the backyard at this point. “No matter how mad he is he wouldn’t send one of his kids away, he knows that’ll mess up his relationship with us forever.”

“He’s not thinking clearly, people make dumb decisions when they’re mad.”

“That’s why I had to leave. I was the source of the problem in his eyes, if I stayed there he would’ve definitely did something drastic, like try to take my head off again.”

Rita was quiet on the other end for a minute. “I don’t wanna do this Randy. I know all the reasons why we have to, but I still don’t want to, three days it too much time for me.”

“I don’t want to either. I wanted Chris to turn the car around so many times and go back, but…”

“No, don’t say but, not this time. Just turn the car around and come back.”

“We’ve never been in a situation like this before, so far everybody’s been accepting of us, and the one who isn’t is dad, it’s dad Rita. He’s been there our whole life. If we go about this wrong we could ruin our whole relationship with him.”

“I’d rather ruin my relationship with dad than my relationship with you.”

I sat down on the back steps. “That’s exactly how I feel. That’s the only reason I agreed to leave. I wanna give dad a chance to come around, because he’s dad, but if he can’t, then I won’t feel bad if we have to cut ties with him. You are more important to me than his approval.”
She gasped for air in shock. “I love you so much right now for you saying that Randy.”

“I mean it, if he doesn’t come around, then it’s me and you. We’ll figure out a way to still be in contact with mom and Aunt Lisa, but if dad won’t accept us he won’t have to see us.”

“Hearing you say that made me feel a thousand times better.”

“We’re gonna need it to get through the next few days. Everybody here already knows somethings up, Stephanie’s questioning me and Marie can already tell I’m holding back.”

“You can tell them, just don’t tell Jim, he doesn’t know about us I don’t think.”

“To my knowledge he doesn’t. Let’s switch over to the video call, I wanna…”

“Here comes dad! I’ll call you back when I can I promise, I love you!”

Before I could even say I love you back the call had already ended. I stared at the screen for a minute, taking note of the battery being less than 50% charged and got up and walked back around the front and went back into the house. My stuff wasn’t in the living room anymore, so I assumed Chris had taken it up to his room, and when I got up there, I was right, in fact, he was already going through my bag looking for something.

“Ummmm, can I help you?” I said as I walked into his room.

“You didn’t bring any games? That should’ve been the first thing you packed!”

“Yeah I was busy grabbing sets of clothes so I wouldn’t be walking around here in the same outfit smelling like a garbage dump, but I did get a few games, they’re on the bottom.”

“Rushing outta the house and you still had time to grab Super Mario Bros and The Last of Us,” Chris said as he sorted through the games to see what I had.

“I grabbed them in the hopes that they would help me pass the time, but I don’t think that’s possible at this point. It’s worth a try though.”

“So what did Rita say? I’m assuming that’s who you called.”

“Yep, basically everything I’ve been saying, it’s gonna be a long three days. At least she’s got mom and Aunt Lisa to help make things easier.”

“You got us man, what we don’t count? That’s messed up.”

“I meant she’s got the mother and caring aunt, both with personal experience in the matter.”

“Oh, well yeah there’s that. You can always call over there, they won’t block your calls or anything, and there’s always my mom, since she already knows everything.”

Stephanie came into Chris’ room and shut the door. “So what happened with you and Rita? You have a big fight? Is it because you passed out drunk before she could get off again?”

“Umm, no, I don’t think I’d get kicked out for that,” I said.

“You might not, but Chris will if he leaves me hanging. So what happened? I’m surprised Rita didn’t call me and tell me herself, we tell each other almost everything.”

“This ones a little different, and she was probably getting out a lot of yelling to even think about calling you. Long story short, dad found out about us and kicked me out.”

Stephanie gasped. “What? How’d he find out? You slip up and tell him?”

“No, we accidentally left the picture of us kissing out in the open and he saw it.”

“Geez Randy. How mad was he? Did he try to hit you?”

“More than once, mom and Aunt Lisa had to hold him back.”

“So what, you can never go back over there? What about Rita?”

“I agreed to leave so he could have some time to clear his head without having to see me. Rita’s still there, he’d never kick her out, it’s easier to make a boy fend for himself than a girl.”

“What if after the three days he’s still just as mad as he was when you left?”

“Damn Stephanie this isn’t twenty one questions! You don’t have to drill him!” Chris said.

“It’s better to get everything out now than try to space it out all night while he’s trying to do something. It’s still fresh in his mind so now is the best time anyway,” Stephanie replied.

“I knew it was coming Chris I was ready for it, and Steph if he’s still just as mad and still won’t approve of us we’ll just have to leave, it’s like Chris said earlier we picked a good time to think about moving, we’d just have to push it up a little bit,” I said.

“You can’t just up and move. Where are you going to live? Are you going to get jobs? Is your father gonna let you take anything with you? There’s a lot to think about.”

“We didn’t get that far, but if we have to grow all the way up now, then that’s what we’re gonna have to do. If I need to I can always cash in my favor with Ashley’s dad, he told me if I needed anything just ask, I’d ask him to help us get an apartment, that way it shows I’m trying to get out on my own and not straight up asking him for cash, then when we get settled we can go out and find jobs, it can’t be that hard, everyone’s always hiring around here.”

“Yeah around HERE, you were talking about going to Seattle, or did that change?”

“Seattle’s still where we wanna go, but we can hold it off if we have to.”

“Well at least you kinda sorta have a plan, but what about us? If you move now we won’t be able to come with you right away, we can’t drive to Seattle to come see you!”

“Like I said, we haven’t thought that far ahead, right now we’re hoping for the best with dad.”

“Yeah, fingers crossed, that’d be a bad way to leave everything you know here.”

“Not to mention no more Mikey’s pizza, us hanging out all the time, your mom and aunt pulling a fast one on you, hell the Ashley’s were even becoming fun to hang with,” Chris said.

“Yeah, that and we were just starting to find a lot of new stuff here too, the gladiator place, the boat thing, Denise’s restaurant… fuck our food is still in the trunk!”

“Overnight? And you still didn’t get it this morning? You can toss that, maybe not though, ours is still good, we took ours outta the car when we got home and it’s still good.”

“Knowing my luck today, I won’t even bother. It’s not like I can get it anyway, the car is back at the house, where I can’t be at the moment.”

Chris came over and patted me on the back. “Don’t worry about it man, stuff like this happens to you guys all the time and you pull through, this times no different.”

“This ones a little different, but for our sake, I hope you’re right man.”

(RITA)

I haven’t stared out a window in a long time, because I didn’t really have a reason to, but here there I was, looking out the window into the backyard from the room Randy and I shared. I found myself wishing he would just run into view and make everything better. It hasn’t even been a whole day, but I missed him bad. We’ve been apart at times, even spent a couple weekends apart, but that was always by choice, like some kind of girls only sleepover or something, but this time we were being forced apart. There’s nothing worse than watching someone you care about most in this world leave and there’s nothing you can do about it. Dad is really going too far, I know he’s shocked and all about finding out about us, but he’ll be crossing the line to complete asshole if he keeps this going. I don’t even want dad to see me on the phone so he can’t blow another gasket, he keeps walking past the room to make sure I’m not trying anything sneaky, and I don’t wanna give him another reason to add anything else to what he’s already done, so I don’t even mess with my phone, for now. I always let Randy talk me into doing things, but I never should’ve let him convince me him leaving is what was best. It might seem like it now, because of how heated the situation was, but he could’ve just went for a drive and came back, dad didn’t need to kick him out, and if anything, I should’ve put up more of a fight to go with him. All I know is Randy better be right, this better blow over in a few days because I haven’t been by myself for three hours yet and I’m already starting to feel withdrawal from Randy, these are the types of situations that makes a person do crazy things, and when it comes to Randy, I’ll do whatever I have to do to be back in his arms again. I stared desperately into the backyard, hoping for anything, when my phone started ringing Ashley’s ringtone, I knew dad would hear it, but she called me, and I needed to talk to somebody, and for some reason Stephanie wasn’t answering her phone, so I answered it.

“Hey Ashley.” There was nothing I could do to hide my sadness, she noticed it right away.

“Hey what’s wrong? You didn’t sound like that when you left this morning!”

“Yeah, the worst possible thing that could happen, happened, and I don’t know what to do.”

“Oh. Well umm, I know I’m not ‘Stephanie friendship’ level or anything, but if you wanna tell me what happened you can, but if you don’t I’ll understand.”

“It’s ok, you’re a friend now, so I don’t have a problem telling you. I actually didn’t even get to talk to Stephanie today, but yeah.”

“Thanks, it’s nice to hear somebody say I’m actually a legit friend and mean it.”

“It wasn’t easy, I never thought in a million years I’d say that, but here we are. Anyways, long story short, my dad found out about me and Randy’s secret relationship.”

“WHAT? How’d he find out? You tell him? What did he say?”

“No we didn’t tell him, I accidentally left a picture of us kissing out in the open and he saw it. he was so mad I thought he was gonna beat the hell out of Randy.”

“Where is he at now?”

“Who my dad or Randy? Randy left for a few days to go stay at Chris’ house to give my dad some space, which I regret agreeing to now, and my dad keeps walking past my room to make sure I don’t sneak outta the house, which I really feel like doing right now.”

“Who are you talking to? That better not be your brother!” dad said bursting into the room.

“It’s not, it’s Ashley! You don’t have to watch me all night!”

“Yes I do, put it on speakerphone, I wanna hear her say something.”

“Ashley say hi, my dad don’t believe I’m talking to you.”

“Umm, hi Mr. Stevens, this is Ashley,” Ashley said sounding a little weirded out.

“There, are you happy now? Can I please be left alone now?”

“Don’t talk to him Rita, not for a few days, you hear me?” He stood there waiting for me to answer, and the longer I took to respond the more pissed he got. “DO YOU HEAR ME?”

“Yes dad I hear you! Jeez! Can you please leave me alone now?”

“I mean it, no contact,” dad said as he left the room.

“I’ve never heard your dad that angry, not even at the hospital,” Ashley said.

“It’s like he turned into a different person, this is probably the worst thing that could’ve happened in his mind, aside from someone dying obviously.”

“Maybe you should get out of there too, if he’s angry enough he might hit you.”

“No, one thing I know he’d never do no matter how mad he was is hit me, mom, or my aunt, Randy on the other hand would be the only other option as a punching bag.”

“But do you think you should leave?”

“I wanna, but he’d just find me and bring me back, and he’d already threatened to move Randy somewhere far if I did. We have to let it play out.”

“Well you know if you need anything you can call us, and by us I mean me or my dad. After what Randy did you can ask him for ten million dollars and he’d happily write you a check.”

“That’s nice to know, but right now all I want is Randy back. Can you dad do that?”

“I wouldn’t put it past him, he has that influence on people, and your dad is doing business with him after all, or did business with him, they closed the deal on the other house.”

“That might work though, if your dad demands a meeting with my dad he has to show right? It might be cause enough for him to have to bring us, he’d wanna see Randy, and you could invite me, I mean it could work right?”

“It’s worth a try, I’ll see if I can get my dad to set something up. But what are you gonna do once you get here? Your dad is gonna be watching you both like a hawk.”

“He can’t watch us the whole night. Your dad is gonna keep him busy with all the legalities and whatnot and we can slip away and ‘do what kids do’ or whatever. It might piss dad off even more but he can’t just expect us to not have anything to do with each other anymore.”

“Should I have the Ashley’s, see now you got me calling them that, should I have Becky, Carina, Dana, Stephanie and Chris over to make it more believable?”

“Stephanie and Chris definitely, but the rest I don’t know, they still don’t know anything about us and I don’t wanna slip up and do something and they see it, because I know as soon as I see Randy I’m gonna be all over him and vice versa.”

“I’ll figure it out. If anything we’ll go to the pool and you can sneak upstairs or something.”

“This is hoping we even get that far, I don’t know what to make of this situation.”

“He can’t be mad at you forever, maybe he really does just need a few days to process it.”

“Are you gonna be mad at your brother forever? You had some years to process it.”

“How did this switch onto me? I thought we were helping you?”

“We are, but you brought up a good point. You had some years to cope with your brother situation but you’re still mad about it, and it’s an entirely different than our situation.”

“It’s not like I didn’t try, that’s not something you can just forget about though.”

“And that’s what I’m saying, this is something dad will NEVER forget about. If this doesn’t work itself out my life from here on out won’t have either Randy or dad in it, and I’d much rather be homeless with Randy than live the rest of my life without him. I don’t wanna lose contact forever with my father, who’s been there with me my entire life. I’m scared.”

“Trust me, you don’t. I hate my brother for not getting in contact with me, but I still miss him.”

“Then get in contact with him, you have control over that situation. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I go years without seeing, let alone talking to Randy.”

“We’re probably never gonna be as close as we were when we were younger.”

“At least he’s there, that’s a start. You can always build back up if you wanted to.”

She was quiet for a minute. “Ok, I will, you convinced me.”

“You won’t regret it either way, you get your brother back or you get closure, win-win kinda.”

“Yeah I guess. So what’s the final verdict on what you’re gonna do?”

“I’m gonna suck it up and be the bigger person. I’ll give dad the few days he asked for and not see Randy, but I’m not gonna stop talking to him, that I won’t fucking do. Hopefully, he’ll see that we’re serious and there’s no separating us, and he’ll just try to live with it.”

“I wish you the best of luck, I’m gonna go do some profile hunting and track down Sean Jennings, if that’s still his name, mom probably had him change it.”

“Ok. Let me know how it goes, I’m just gonna sit here for a minute.”

“Sure, and let me know how it goes on your end too, talk to you later.”

I hung up with her and went back to staring out the window. I wondered what Randy was doing right now to try and pass the time, most likely playing video games, but with everything still lingering in the back of his head he wouldn’t be able to concentrate long enough to have fun playing, much like me, so I wouldn’t even bother turning the game on. At least he had Stephanie and Chris to be around, I had noone. I was confined to the house like a prisoner, with dad being the warden, watching my every move. Each passing second made it more and more obvious that Randy wasn’t gonna show up in my line of sight anytime soon, and that made me hate myself for leaving the picture out, so careless, but like it was said earlier, better to get it over with now than down the road. Three days with noone to keep me company and nothing to do, all I knew was it better be worth it.

(RANDY)

I tried my best to keep myself occupied by playing video games with Chris, but it was doing very little to help. I kept thinking about what Rita was going through over there by herself with dad no doubt breathing down her neck for what might last the whole time I’m gone. Suddenly playing NBA 2K didn’t interest me anymore and I stopped playing, letting my guy just stand there dribbling the ball until Chris finally looked up and saw me just sitting there.

“Dude, it’s no fun playing multiplayer by myself.”

“I just don’t feel like playing right now. I thought it would help, but not really.”

“Maybe we should put another game in then, like Call of Duty or something.”

“Nah, I don’t wanna play any video games right now.”

“Then what? You wanna go somewhere and do something outside the house?”

“It wouldn’t be right going to do something with Rita locked up in our house.”

“Then I don’t know what to tell you man, aside from anything electronic or leaving the house, the only other options are cleaning, cooking, reading, sleeping, or sitting still.”

“The sitting still sounds like a winner, that’s probably what I need, to sit and think.”

“Yeah, I’m not a big fan of sitting still, so I’ll let you handle that part by yourself.”

“It’s a solo thing anyway, unless it’s that group meditation thing, which it’s not.”

“Umm, ok then. Good luck finding a spot where you can be isolated. Somebody always pops up somewhere in this house no matter where you are, nowhere is safe.”

“If that’s the case then I might as well just sit right out in the open then.”

“Whatever works for you. If you change your mind I’ll still be here for like another hour.”

“I might be sitting down for way longer than that, but thanks anyway.”

“Hey man, try not to kill yourself worrying about it, I know that’s a dumb thing to say to expect somebody just to turn off worrying about something, but it’s gonna make you crazy and you’re not gonna be able to do anything. Wait those few days, then if nothing changes then start to worry, don’t make yourself crazy for something that might not even escalate.”

I stood there and thought about it for a second. “I’ll give it a try, but I make no promises.”

“I have a strait jacket for you if I need it, don’t make me pull it out.”

That helped me a little. “Don’t pull anything out until I’m clear away from the room.”

I heard him laugh as I left and headed downstairs and sat on the couch. There was noone in the living room and everything was off, so it seemed like as good as place as any. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and went to Rita’s video contact. I wanted so bad to push the button but with my luck that’d be the one time dad decided to drop into our room and talk to Rita only to see me calling her. I didn’t wanna do anything that would cause any more problems, and she said she would call me back as soon as she got a chance, so I just had to sit and be patient. Me not wanting to do anything actually made the time go by a lot faster. Since I was doing what I wanted to do at that moment and the couch was pretty comfortable, I breezed through a couple hours like it was nothing, and that whole time noone sat foot into the living room. That all changed when Jim, Marie, and Stephanie came walking through the front door with handfuls, of bags from the grocery store, I guess that was the reason for all the quiet, I didn’t even know they were gona and Chris as far as I knew was still upstairs on the game, probably online since he hasn’t stepped foot out of his room. They all came in the door laughing and smiling, and I did my best to try not to ruin their mood by playing it off like I was just tired.

“Hey Randy, I thought you’d be stuck on the video games with Chris still,” Jim said.

“I was, but I wanted to get a jump start on getting my sleeping area ready so I won’t be rushing to do it when it’s time to go to sleep. This couch is pretty comfortable.”

“It better be, Marie spent $1500 on it. I could’ve gotten three couches for that.”

“You spent $1500 on a couch? Why?” I asked Marie.

“It’s supposed to be like that bed, the one that adjusts to you when you lay on it, that TempurPedic bed or whatever. It’s supposed to be the most comfortable couch in the world.”

“It definitely is. If I were you I wouldn’t be letting anyone sleep on it, not after paying $1500.”

“That’s why I didn’t get it in white, brown is easier to clean if it ever gets dirty.”

“You were just sitting here in the dark? No TV on or anything?” Stephanie asked.

“Yep, just me and my thoughts in silence. That’s one of the reasons that made me come downstairs, Chris is way too loud screaming into the headset.”

“Nothing wrong with sitting and thinking. Well, once you get yourself all straightened out you can eat dinner, tonight it’s three cheese lasagna with meat sauce,” Jim said.

“I haven’t had lasagna in a long time, sounds good,” I replied.

“Well good then. You haven’t had lasagna until you tried it a la Jim, even better than the restaurants. Steph come help me put up the groceries,” Jim said as he walked to the kitchen.

Stephanie followed Jim and Marie took the bags she was holding into the kitchen behind then and came back to the living room and sat on the couch next to me. At first she didn’t say anything, she just sat there looking back and forth from her hand, to me, to the TV, I guess waiting for me to say something, but after a while she caught on that I wasn’t taking the hint.

“So are you gonna tell me what happened or are we just gonna keep being awkward?”

“I don’t know if I should say anything with Jim being in the kitchen.”

“He’s a good distance away, but I’ll turn on the TV just in case,” Marie said as she turned the TV on and flipped it to John Carter. “Ok, what’s got you moping around the house like this?”

I looked her in the eyes and then looked down at my hands. “Dad found out about us.”

Her face instantly drew up in shock. “Oh my god, what happened?”

“We left a picture of us kissing out in the open and he saw it, he wasn’t happy.”

She did her best to regain herself. “Is that why you’re here? Did he kick you out?”

“Technically yes, but I kinda agreed with it. He was so mad he would’ve broke me in half if he got ahold of me, the best thing to do right now it to put some space between us for a few days so dad has time to process everything and clear his head, then we can have a calm talk.”

“I can imagine a few days apart is gonna be hell for you and Rita.”

“It’s already hell and it hasn’t even been twelve hours yet, it’s the knowing I can’t see her when I want to that’s the hard part, but it’s only for a few days, and we have to do it.”

Marie got to thinking and her face suddenly went to shock again. “Wait, does he know about…”

“I already know what you’re about to say, and nope, he doesn’t know about that.”

She breathed a huge sigh of relief. “I almost had a mini heart attack right there.”

“My mom wanted to say something, but I told her not to. The only thing he ever needs to know about is me and Rita, he won’t know about mom or Aunt Lisa or you or Stephanie, ever.”

“I appreciate you stepping up and saying that, as I’m sure your mom and aunt does too.”

“Yeah if he was mad now, I wouldn’t have a prayer if he found out them too and you knew about it, you’d be reading about my death in the paper.”

“I’ve never seen Mike angry, I don’t even know what that looks like.”

“Trust me, you’re better off not knowing. You might wanna avoid him for a few days.”

“That might be best, but you don’t avoid us. You’re a guest here, don’t sit around on the couch in silence, do stuff like you would at your own house.”

“At my own house before or after this whole thing started?”

“Good point. Ok then take as much time as you need, then when you’re up to it you can join us at dinner or whatever were doing, there’s always something going on here with somebody.”

“Ok, thanks. I’ll go outside for a little bit, the fresh air might do me some good.”

“I don’t know about the fresh part, but there’s definitely air outside. Don’t be too long.”

She rubbed my cheek and got up to go into the kitchen to help Jim and Stephanie with the lasagna. I put on some shoes and went out their side door to the backyard. They didn’t have swings or anything, but they had a picnic table off to the side and a couple lawn chairs facing the house. I picked the lawn chair because it looked to be the more comfortable choice and sat down. I wasn’t even thinking about Marie when I told mom not to say anything, what would dad say if he knew about that? What would Jim say? What would Jim say if he knew about Stephanie and Chris? He doesn’t look like the type to blow up out of nowhere, he’s more like a Ned Flanders without all the church references, but then again I never thought my own dad would blow up like he did. What if he found out why I was really here? Would he kick me out too? I didn’t think he would, but the way this day took a drastic turn into the ground anything could happen. I’d had enough negative thinking for a while. I decided to take Chris’ advice and try not worry too much about anything until the three days were up, so I thought about the only thing worth thinking about at the moment, Rita. How was she holding up with noone there with her? I mean yeah mom and Aunt Lisa were there, but I had Stephanie and Chris around me, she had noone her age to talk to, unless she called somebody on the phone, but who knows how dad would react to that. Maybe this happened for a reason. Maybe it’s fates way of saying it’s time to leave and we don’t wanna make it hard for you, but that would mean cutting someone off if we left with the situation as it was, and at best dad would have to accept us but refuse to be around us. I covered my hands over my face and leaned back in the lawn chair, what the hell were we gonna do? We needed to figure out the answer fast.

(RITA)

I gave up sitting at the window hoping for something I knew wasn’t gonna happen. I would have to wait the full three days to see Randy, I didn’t know how I was gonna do it, but I had to. I wanted to call him so bad, but the minute dad heard me talking or it got too quiet there he was, making sure Randy wasn’t on the other end of the line. I talked to damn near everybody else, and even though they tried to help, they weren’t the one I wanted to talk to, I wanted Randy. I sat on the edge of the bed and actually thought about what I was agreeing to, and when I said it over and over in my head, no contact whatsoever, no contact whatsoever, NO CONTACT WHATSOEVER, I knew there was no way in hell that was gonna happen. If I had to not see him for a few days I would have to find some way to deal with it, but to say I couldn’t hear his voice either, no, hell no, no way I was gonna agree to that. I turned on the Xbox and set up a Madden football game for the computers to play each other for the full game (a trick I learned from Randy when he wanted our parents to think he was in the room playing the game) and snuck out the room and closed the door behind me. I made sure every corner was clear before I went around it, heading to the basement and hiding on the side of the washing machine. I had about 40% battery left after being on it without charging it, but it was gonna be more than enough. I called Randy, hoping he had his phone with him, and he picked up right after the first ring.

“Yes! I was trying so hard not to call you and get you in trouble with dad. So what’s going on over there? Did he finally calm down and say it was ok for you to talk to me?”

“Not really no, I’m hiding on the side of the washing machine.”

“Oh, well whatever the case I’m happy to finally hear you talk if anything.”

“Randy what are we gonna do? We can’t go sneaking around like this forever.”

“If we wanna talk we’ll have to. I’ll do my part and not let him see me for a few days, but not talking? We can’t just cut off ties like that, it’s impossible for us.”

“Maybe we should have stood up to him more, maybe you shouldn’t have left. It made us look scared and weak the way we just gave in to him like that.”

“We didn’t give in, we compromised, our terms were just steeper than his.”

“He didn’t have any terms for himself, they were all on us, that’s what I’m saying, we caved.”

I was silent for a second, she was kinda right. “Yeah maybe we did a little, but we didn’t have much of a choice. If we rebelled against him that one moment could’ve forever ruined our relationship with dad. Can you see us never talking with dad ever again?”

“No, but if it came down to it, I would cut ties with dad before I ever cut them with you.”

“And I would too, in a heartbeat! I’m trying to avoid us having to do that, that’s why I agreed to leave for a little bit. He’s gonna be a lot more rational when he has time to think.”

“He’s not doing anything rational, he’s keeps making sure I’m not talking to you.”

“It’s a unique situation, this is one of those time where you have to do something you absolutely don’t wanna do, and in our case that’s be patient.”

“You’re damn right I don’t wanna do that, it hasn’t even been half a day and I already miss you. What’s it gonna be like tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that?”

“I was just thinking about that too, it’s harder because were being forced to be apart, that makes the urge to wanna see each other that much stronger. I don’t know how we’re gonna get through it, but we are, we’re gonna find out a lot about ourselves the next few days.”

“I know all I need to know about myself, I just wanna see you. Hang up and I’ll call you back on the video chat thing. If I can’t see you in person I’ll do the next best thing.”

We hung up and I called him back on the IMO thing or whatever it’s called, and he answered but the glare from the sun blocked him out, but once he fixed it and I saw him my heard melted, there’s nothing better than seeing the man you’re in love with light up when he sees you, no matter how bad you look, and at that moment, I looked pretty bad.

“Rita you look beautiful.”

“No I don’t, I’ve been crying, my hairs all frizzed out, my cheeks are all puffy…”

“And all that just makes you look even better, natural beauty is still beauty.”

I blushed. He always knew how to make me feel good. “What did you tell them over there?”

“I gave Stephanie and Chris the short version of everything, Jim doesn’t know what’s going on, he thinks it’s some kind of bet to see if we can make it a few days without each other, but Marie pretty much knew something was up when she saw me, either I have a lousy poker face or she’s just that good at figuring out when something’s wrong.”

“She’s just that good. You said Jim didn’t know so you must have a decent poker face, women just know when something’s wrong, we all have that instinct.”

“She thought dad knew about the time you all messed around with each other too, she went white as a ghost. I don’t think she would’ve known what to do with herself.”

“Oh wow, we did do stuff together that’s right, it was so long ago and it only happened once I forgot about it. I wouldn’t have told dad about it anyway but still, yeah, that’s right.”

“She’s helping Jim make dinner now so she must have a lot of trust in us not to say anything. She flipped from freaking out to calm as a cucumber in seconds.”

“And she’s gonna be extra nice to you to make sure you don’t say anything.”

“It should be you over here getting all the good treatment. He may have kicked me out but you’re the one suffering over there with him watching you like a hawk and noone to talk to. He probably told mom and Aunt Lisa to leave you alone for a while.”

“Yeah I haven’t seen them in a while. I’m trying not to be pissed off at him because he’s never been this mad before, so he doesn’t know how to actually be mad without taking it too far, but that’s exactly what he’s doing. I can’t take it if the next few days are like this.”

“We should meet somewhere, let’s go to Mikey’s pizza.”

“Yeah he’s not gonna fall for that, if anything he’ll go with me, or order in. By now he’s suspicious of everything I do, which is why I’m hiding next to a washing machine.”

For a while we sat there just looking at each other, not saying anything, not needing to say anything, just looking at each other, smiling. You never know how much something means to you until someone takes it away, but I already know how much Randy means to me, and he’s already been taken away from me once before, so why do I have to go through this again? He knew what I was feeling because his smile slowly left his face.

“We’ll figure it out Rita, I promise. And I don’t mean we’ll just figure it out where we can get away and have a whole mess left behind, we’ll figure out how to make it right all the way around, even with dad, maybe even with Jim and Marie too.”

“Coming clean with Jim and Marie means we have to tell on Stephanie and Chris.”

“Not necessarily. We’ll just say they found out and we begged them to keep our secret, that we’d tell everyone when we were ready. They don’t have to tell on
themselves for us.”

“I know you’ll keep your promise. I don’t know how we’ll do it but I believe you.”

“When you think about it it’s kinda like the circle of life thing. We started up, then mom and Aunt Lisa found out, we got good with them, then comes the competition, Stephanie and Chris, they show up and test us, and by some strand of coincidence they’re doing the same thing we were, then enter the antagonist, Ashley and her crew, who almost succeeds in breaking us up, then something huge happens, me getting shot, that fixes our problems and frees Ashley from the dark side, then everything is good for a while, but nothing good lasts forever, then the ultimate test, convincing dad, the only one not for our relationship, to let us be together. Everything’s come full circle. It sounds like a movie almost.”

“Yeah but how is this movie gonna end? Is it gonna be the ‘everyone dies’ ending or the ‘guy gets the girl in the end’ kinda ending? I’m hoping for the ‘guy gets the girl’ ending.”

“That’s the only ending I’m shooting for. It’s the only one I care about.”

“Then we got our work cut out for us. The only thing that matters…”

I didn’t get to finish my sentence on account of my phone being snatched out of my hand, and when I turned around to see what happened I was confronted with our pissed off dad.

“What the hell are you doing? I thought I said NO CONTACT!”

“DAD! You can’t expect me to just completely stop communicating with him!”

“Yea I do, and you will,” dad said as he looked at the phone to Randy who was still on the other end. “Stop talking to each other, or I’m gonna come over there and fill Jim in on why you’re really there since I know you didn’t tell him the truth. NO CONTACT!”

“But dad, we’re just talking, can’t we just…” Randy started before he was cut off.

“NO CONTACT! Don’t make me have to say it again! Don’t call her back!”

He hung up the phone and tuned back to me. “Dad you can’t do this!”

“I’m not gonna argue with you Rita. You are not to talk to him until I say so.”

“To him? You mean your son! Why are you talking like you disowned him!”

“I didn’t disown him, but me makes a strong case for why I should!”

“I was there too dad! He didn’t force his way onto me, I’m just as guilty as he is!”

“No, he manipulated you, that’s how boys are. You’re just too corrupted and blinded to see it.”

“I’m not manipulated, I’m not corrupted, and I’m not blinded dad, I’m in love.”

He squeezed my phone in his hand in anger when I said that. “Not anymore you aren’t.”

He started walking away and made no attempts to give me my phone back. “Dad give me my phone back! You can’t just tell me I’m not in love anymore and I’ll just listen!”

Yes you will! I said you were to have no contact with him and that’s what I meant, not go sneak off behind my back and disregard what I said!”

“I already can’t see him, don’t you think not talking is going a little too far?”

“That’s pretty funny coming from the girl who just admitted to being in love with her brother!”

“So what then? Am I on house arrest? I can’t go anywhere or do anything without you checking to make sure it has nothing to do with Randy, is that what this is?”

“That sounds about right, until I have some time to think this over.”

“Why don’t we get a say in what we want? It’s our lives!”

“You’re not old enough to have lives yet, that’s what parents are for, to step in and save the day before you do something stupid, which is exactly what I’m doing.”

“You’re only doing what…”

“I don’t wanna hear anymore about it Rita! I said what I said and it’s done!”

He started to walk away with my phone in his hand. I already knew he wasn’t gonna give me my phone back but something in me wouldn’t let him leave on that note. “Dad stop! Can’t you see how cruel you’re being? If you keep doing this you’re gonna ruin our family!”

He stopped dead in his tracks and turned back around to me. “I’m gonna ruin the family? I’M GONNA RUIN THE FAMILY? You and your brother are the ones whose gonna ruin the family, I’m trying to save it! You’re blood related! Who in their right mind thinks incest is normal!”

I wanted so bad to tell him about mom and Aunt Lisa and Stephanie and Chris, but I knew I couldn’t without making the situation ten times worse. “Your kids do.”

“And that’s why you’re here and he’s there. Seriously Rita how did you think I was gonna act? Did you think I was gonna look past the fact that you’re sleeping with your brother just because you say you’re in love? NO! It’s still incest! That’s like saying… that’s like saying I killed my neighbor because he was an asshole to everyone around him, good excuse or not it’s still murder, and what you two are doing is still incest, in love or not! I won’t stand for it! Now since I don’t trust you to not call him again I’m gonna keep your phone for the next few days, if you need to make a call, use the house phone. Get yourself together and come back upstairs.”

He walked away and I dropped to my knees on the floor. Possibly the last road block before Randy and I could fully be with each other, and dad wants nothing more than to break us up. The worst part is when he realize he can’t he won’t accept us, Randy might not ever be allowed to set foot back in the house. I tried to hold back my tears but everything that happened, my emotions, and the thought of losing Randy overwhelmed my and I couldn’t hold back. I saw no good solution in all this, every scenario ended with someone being out of the picture, and nine times out of ten it was dad. No matter how unruly he is now, he’s still dad, the man whose been there since birth, who would do anything to protect his kids, which is what makes this so hard. He’s trying to protect us from something that we don’t need to be protected from. He has every right to be mad, but he’s beginning to take it a few steps past going too far. If there was any hope of being solved peacefully, we would need a miracle, and we would need it now.

(RANDY)

I took Chris’ car keys and was on my way back to our house, speeding through traffic as if it wasn’t there. Dad snatched Rita’s phone out of her hand and was yelling at her in a way he’s never yelled at her before. He got so angry at her before he hung up on me that it looked like he was about to hit her. I know even thinking that dad would hit her is a stretch, but we’ve never seen him this angry before, so we didn’t know what to expect, which is why I was driving back to the house, just in case. I know I was taking a chance by walking directly into the path of dad while he was still mad, but I didn’t care. I’d do anything for Rita, even if it meant becoming dad’s punching bag the entire time I was there, as long as the hits were directed at me and not Rita I could live with it. I was going dangerously fast and I turned corners, flew down intersections, and took off after a red light. I knew I needed to calm down but I was just too fired up to think about anything, all I knew was I needed to get home ASAP. When I finally reached our neighborhood I managed to slow down my erratic driving dramatically, but not so much that I still wouldn’t get pulled over by the cops if they saw me. A few minutes later I turned onto our street and parked Chris’ car across the street so I wouldn’t alert anyone to my presence until I actually walked in the house. I never gave my keys back so I opened the door, not bothering to be quiet about it, and took off towards our room. It was quiet in the house as I made my way up the stairs, but when I got to our door I could hear Rita crying through it. Wondering if she was crying from her and dad arguing or from dad hitting her, I went to open the door and rush in only to find it locked.

“Rita open the door, let me in,” I said as quiet as I could in case dad was in his room.

“Go away dad, just leave me alone!” Rita said back through tears.

“It’s me Rita, let me in.”

I heard the springs in the bed bounce and a few thumps in the floor before the door flew open and Rita threw her arms around me, crying into my shoulder.

“Oh my god Randy!” Rita said before she started kissing me over and over on the lips.

“Did he hit you Rita? Stand back let me look at you. If he hit you I swear…”

“No he didn’t touch me, he just yelled at me that’s it.”

“I didn’t know what to think. When he snatched the phone from you I thought he completely lost it. I took Chris’ car and came over here as fast as I could.”

“One thing I’m definitely sure of is dad would never hit me, or mom, no matter how mad he was. You’re a different story though based on this morning.”

“If it came down to it I’d rather it be me than you. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

Before we could say anything else dad was standing in the doorway giving both of us the evil eye. By this point I didn’t even try figuring him out anymore, all I knew was that he was angry.

“Didn’t I tell you not to come back here for a few days? What are you doing here?!”

“I came to check on Rita, I just wanted to make sure she…

“She doesn’t need you checking up on her, that’s what I’m for, now leave!”

“Dad please! Don’t you see what it’s doing to us? It hasn’t even been a half a day and we’re miserable! How are we supposed to get through the next three days like this?”

“That’s not my problem, my job is to stop this before it goes any farther, and that’s exactly what I’m gonna do! Now I don’t wanna hear any more about it!”

“NO DAD! YOU’RE GONNA HEAR A LOT MORE ABOUT IT! SEPARATING US ISNT GONNA CHANGE THE WAY WE FEEL ABOUT EACH OTHER, NOT FOR A SECOND! ALL YOU’RE DOING IS HURTING US BY NOT LETTING US BE TOGETHER! YOU DON’T HAVE TO LIKE THAT WE’RE TOGETHER BUT YOU CAN AT LEAST ACCEPT IT! THAT’S ALL WE ASK!”

Mom and Aunt Lisa found their way to our room courtesy of my impromptu yelling session at dad. They both had the same look on their face from earlier, the one that said they know they had little control over the situation, but I’ll be damned if it gets outta hand. They took position on either side of dad and I stood in front of Rita, if he lunged at me I wanted to be in a good spot to push her outta the way so she didn’t get caught in the crossfire by accident.

“Dad can you really not tell this is doing more harm than good?” Rita asked from behind me.

“I don’t know what you two are on, but you must be smoking a hell of a lot of it if you think I’ll ever be ok with this. Can you believe this Anna!” dad said turning to mom.

Mom paused. Something she never does. The way she was looking at dad I already knew what was about to happen. I didn’t want her throwing herself under the bus to try to help us but it looked like that’s exactly what was about to happen. She looked at me and I shook my head back at her trying to discourage her from saying anything, but she didn’t listen.

“Mike, Lisa and I, we both know about Rita and Randy. If fact, we’ve known for a while.”

Dad just stared at mom. He had a look of disbelief on his face and didn’t know what to say next. He looked at Aunt Lisa as a means to confirm what mom just said was true, and she nodded that it was. His face then changed from disbelief to shock.

“Wait a minute wait a minute WAIT A MINUTE, so you’re telling me you two not only knew about this, but you’re ok with it? Am I missing something here? HOW CAN YOU THINK THIS IS OK? SHE’S SLEEPING WITH HER BROTHER AND EVERYBODY’S FINE WITH IT!” dad yelled.

“Mike keep your voice down before the neighbors hear you!”

“EVERYBODY ELSE KNOWS, APPARENTLY, WHY NOT THE NEIGHBORS!”

“That’s not fair Mike, they didn’t tell you because they knew you were gonna act like this.”

“You mean how I’m supposed to act! You should be on my side!”

“Mike it’s not like they planned this, it just happened. All this arguing and anger and frustration isn’t doing anything to help the situation,” Aunt Lisa jumped in.

“You sound like you rehearsed that. If these were your kids I guarantee you wouldn’t be all Mary Poppins ‘spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down’ happy about it, you’d be just as pissed off about it as I am, which makes me wonder why you’re ok with this Anna…”

“Because women are a lot more understanding towards other peoples feelings maybe?”

“So you’re telling me you’re completely ok with what’s going on with them?”

“It’s their life Mike, if they wanna live it that way who are we to tell them otherwise?”

“WE’RE THEIR PARENTS! We’re supposed to let them know just how wrong it is, how illegal it is, how they’ll be shunned by society and all that, is that what you want for them?”

“They know the risks, if they wanna keep moving forward with this then let them.”

Dad grabbed the back of his head with both hands in shock and paced around the spot he was standing in. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. I seriously can’t be the only one in this room that has a problem with this. Lisa please tell me you think the same way I do.”

Aunt Lisa stood her ground just like mom did. “I can’t do that Mike. Like Anna said this is what they want, illegal or not, they know the consequences and they’re willing to deal with them. They’re in love Mike, nothing we say is gonna change that, plus it won’t be the first time somebody went against the law. It’s out of our hands at this point.”

“Bullshit it’s out of our hands. I won’t have this. I can’t believe I’m being made out to be the enemy here, what they’re doing is ILLEGAL! How can you not have a problem with that! If they were out selling drugs and robbing banks would you be ok with that too!”

“Ok Mike now you’re starting to get a little dramatic,” mom said.

“No you’re not getting dramatic enough! You’re carrying on like this is normal and it’s not! How can you still be calm when you know your kids are having sex! With each other! It’s like it doesn’t even phase you, or you Lisa, it’s like…”

Dad didn’t finish his sentence, he just looked back and forth between mom and Aunt Lisa. If I could see inside his head I would no doubt see an illustration of a bunch of puzzle pieces fitting together. He’d figured it out. As if we didn’t have enough to deal with, now he figured out the whole truth. I saw no possible way of trying to explain how to make sleeping with your mother seem like a normal everyday thing. One thing I learned though as time passed, is never be the first one to say something, let dad come out with whatever he had to say, then go from there. It was a long awkward silence as we all waited for dad to say something, anything, but for what seemed like hours he just stood there, trying to process what he just found out.

“Ok. Let me ask this, and please don’t lie to me Anna. I’m gonna be specific so there’s no confusion, are you now, or have at any point in your life had sex with Lisa?”

Mom paused, looked him in the eye, and came out with it. “It was a long time ago Mike, we were teenagers, and we were just experimenting. It was before you and I met.”

Two things. Dad didn’t figure out everything I thought he did, so good job on my part keeping my mouth shut, and mom told him a half truth, which was real enough for him to believe and not question, but she no less still just outed herself and Aunt Lisa to dad.

“Oh my god I don’t believe this,” dad said as he sat down in the computer chair. “I feel like I just stepped onto the set of R. Kelly’s ‘Trapped in the Closet’ video.”

“Mike, it’s not the big deal you’re making it out to be,” Aunt Lisa said.

“My entire family is having sex with each other, how it that not a big deal?”

“Well first our life is nowhere as interesting as that video,” Aunt Lisa laughed, trying to lighten the mood and failing. “Yeah, um not funny, ok, but really Mike, who is it hurting? At least you know they’re with each other, you can trust you kids can’t you? And with me and Anna, like mostly all stories start, we were bored, so we got drunk, and stuff happened, so what. I don’t regret anything that happened and neither does Anna, if anything it made us closer.”

“Yeah well messing around with your sister tends to make you closer to each other.”

“You’re not really mad are you Mike, you’re just confused right?”

“Oh no, I’m mad. I’m mad that my wife and her sister did stuff with her sister, it rubbed off on our kids and now they’re doing stuff with each other, and everybody
here thinks it’s ok! Not to mention you all hid this from me for… what did you say, ten months? Yeah, you’re right, I’m not mad, I’m pissed off beyond belief!”

“Being pissed off isn’t gonna make this situation better or make you feel better,” mom said.

“Well I’m sorry, but in my current state I can’t register any other emotions right now.”

“Dad,” Rita said as she came from behind me. “We understand you feel betrayed, but we did this because we didn’t know how to tell you, we didn’t know how you’d act. We didn’t tell mom or Aunt Lisa, they caught us, and we were scared to death of what they were gonna do, but they were there for us. It’s not like we were never gonna tell you, we dropped little hints around you to see what you’d think, and every time you were against it, so we had to figure out a way to tell you, but then you saw the picture, and well…”

“What she’s trying to say dad,” I jumped in. “Is that we were trying to find the perfect way to tell you. Knowing your father is 100% against what you’re doing is nerve-wracking, but we were still gonna tell you. We weren’t gonna hide this from you our entire lives.”

He stood up, and I braced myself for whatever was about to come, but it appeared he’d run out most of his anger, and it was time for the calm, disheartening discussion.

“That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t change the fact that what you did, and what you two are doing, is morally wrong and illegal. Randy you still need to go back to Chris’ house for a few days, and Lisa you should go back to your house for a few days too, Anna and I have a lot, and I mean it when I say a LOT we need to talk about, I don’t want any distractions.”

“Ok, I can respect that, I actually need to go check on things there anyway,” Aunt Lisa said. “Maybe an empty house would do some good here. I just hope you don’t hate me, I’d hate for this to put a damper on our relationship.”

“I don’t hate you, or my kids, this is just more than I was ready for when I woke up today.”

“If you wanna talk with mom then I should leave too, I’ll be a distraction here if you’re constantly trying to watch me throughout the day,” Rita said.

“No, you’re staying here, you two still need to be separated right now.”

“But dad why? What’s point? It’s causing more harm than good.”

“Maybe, but I’ll know that nothing’s going on if you aren’t in the same house.”

“But dad…”

“Rita let’s just go with it. It’s only for a few days, your father needs time to process this, and whatever conditions he has we should try to abide by them,” mom said.

She looked down at her feet, knowing she was defeated. “Ok. Three days, fine. Do I at least get to say goodbye to Randy this time before he gets kicked out again?”

“With us still here. I don’t want you trying anything. Make it quick,” dad said.

I turned and gave Rita a hug and she pulled herself up onto me and wrapped her legs around my waist. Dad started to say something but mom put her hand on his shoulder and stopped him. I held her up as she held onto me like she wasn’t gonna let go and planted a few kisses on my cheek before she buried her face in my neck and just stayed like that.

“Ok that’s enough, stop being so dramatic, it’s only three days damnit,” dad said irritated.

“That’s a long time for someone in their situation Mike, remember us?” mom asked.

“Not now Anna, we have plenty of other stuff to talk about.”

“I’m gonna go pack a bag, I’ll leave in an hour or so. I’ll be back in a few days or so once I straighten out some details with my house. That ok with you Mike?” Aunt Lisa asked.

“Yeah that’s fine, thank you. By then I should have a better handle on the situation, but for now, I just wanna deal with my wife and daughter,” dad responded.

“That’s fine, I understand, no pressure. Come on Randy, I’ll walk you outside.”

I reluctantly put Rita down and gave mom a hug on my way out the door. Dad stayed stiff so I didn’t even attempt to try anything with him. I took the long walk down the stairs with Aunt Lisa and headed out the front door unready to head back to Chris’ house.

“He’s not gonna come around is he? He’s never gonna accept us,” I said.

“Yes he will. You’re his kids, that makes a big difference. He needs time, that’s why we have to agree with whatever conditions he makes, it helps in the end. If he sees that you made the effort then he’ll have no choice but to make an effort. All you can do now is wait.”

“That’s the hard part, not knowing what you’re waiting for.”

“It’s out of our hands now, all we can do is hope for the best. I’m pulling for you two.”

“Me too, hearing about you and mom might make him act different towards you too.”

“He thinks it was a long time ago, we’ll be fine, I’m more concerned about you two. It’d be a real shame for all this to come crashing down after everything you’ve been through.”

“If he doesn’t come around, you know we’ll have to…”

“I know, but let’s try not to think about that. Just focus on the next few days. If I hear anything before I come back and let you guys know, and vice versa.”

I agreed and gave her a hug. “See you in a few days Aunt Lisa.”

She hugged me back and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “I know it’s stupid of me to say, but try not to worry yourself too much. It’ll work itself out. See you in a few days.”

I watched her go back into the house and I just stared up at it. I was temporarily banned from the house I’d called home all my life, and not only the house, but the people inside it too.we had to play by dad’s rules for the time being, and I hope it wasn’t for nothing, because ultimately if he couldn’t accept us, we would have to leave and stand on our own two feet, no matter how hard it would be. I reached into my pocket and pulled out Chris’ car keys, ready to leave, took one last look, and got in the car and drove off. This was make or break time, our last obstacle, at least our last major obstacle, we would either come out on top, or come crawling out of the bottom, but whichever it was, if there was only one thing I was sure of, it’s that I knew we’d be finishing it the same way we started out, together.

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