The door opened, and neither of us heard.

I don’t know how much time passed by between Emily entering the room and Emily leaving. The kitchen door slammed hard in her wake and I was pushed away in an instant with a force I was not aware Connie possessed. There was no time for us to absorb, or to think—there was no time allowed for Emily’s appearance to sink in before Connie bolted after her, racing up the stairs to her sister’s room two steps at a time. And I followed them, of course. I followed in Connie’s footsteps because that was the only thing I really knew how to do.

There was already shouting by the time I reached them. Connie stood in the doorway of her sister’s room—just one of the many rooms of the house I had never seen—and Emily was several feet away from her. The tears were already formed, slipping from Connie’s eyes uncontrollably and I could hear the panic bubbling in her voice, the fear. She spoke with the ringing voice of someone who knew they had everything to lose—already lost. I stood behind them with numb arms and numb legs. There was nothing in my mind. I simply stood there, unable to move and unable to help. Perhaps if I had said something—

“You know it’s nothing, Emily, I swear it’s nothing…It’s just a joke, just a game…You know I’ve had boyfriends; you know the boys I’ve dated—it was just something silly we said we’d try, just to pass the time—”

She was crying harder, then, under the weight of Emily’s stare. Her whole body seemed to quiver under the weight of—well, of her whole world crashing down. Emily was shaking too. Her teeth gnashed down together as she stared ahead. I can’t conceive of anything worse than a moment like that one; a moment where all you can do is simply stand and watch as your entire life falls apart in front of you.

“I heard the rumors but—I didn’t think they were true.”

“They weren’t! They aren’t!” Connie took a step forward. “It was just this once, Emily, I swear! It was just—I just wanted to see. That’s all. It doesn’t mean anything, honestly, it’s nothing. You know me—you know I’m not like that.”

Neither of them looked my way. I doubted either of them even noticed I was there.

“I know you’re not,” Emily sniffled, “You’re my sister. You can’t be…”

“It’s not like that at all. Alex is—Alex is my friend—”

I think Connie would have done anything at that moment to keep her sister quiet. Anything at all. She would have begged, she would have pleaded, she would have implored. Luckily, she didn’t have to. Emily cleared her throat, still focused on Connie alone, and with a firm voice, she tugged away everything that ever mattered.

“You should leave,” she said, voice venomous, and her eyes briefly flickered to me. “We need to talk.”

I gulped. “I’ll wait—outside—” I replied, but neither of them seemed to care. And so, I headed back down the stairs and out into the front garden, but it wasn’t until I was sitting on the damp front porch, their voices shut off behind me, that I let the first tear fall.