——————————————————————————–
And so, off to the pharmacy I went. I came back and she took the pill.
“What am I going to do if this doesn’t work?” she asked.
“Get an abortion?”
“…I guess.”
“You should probably go to the doctor and get on birth control. Just hide them or something.”
“Why would I need to hide them?”
“Because they’ll want to know why you need birth control?”
“That medication isn’t just prescribed as birth control. It’s also used to help with periods and hormone issues. I won’t need to hide it. I’ll just lie about why I got it.”
“Oh, cool. You’re so smart.”
“I know,” she said with pride.
We got dressed and decided to hang out upstairs. We heard a car door outside. I got up to check.
“It’s mom and dad,” I said.
“They’re really early.”
“Dad looks pissed.”
“Open the door for them,” she said.
I opened the door and was immediately decked. I hit the floor and looked up at our dad.
“What the fuck?!” I screamed.
“Daddy!” screamed Nicole at the same time.
“You wanna know what the fuck? What the fuck have you been doing to your sister?”
“Huh? Did he know?” I thought.
I got up off the floor and took a step back. My hands went up ready. Dad stepped forward, but Nicole got between us. My mom was behind my dad too, holding him back.
“What is this about?” cried Nicole.
“You know what this about. This is about HIM doing… those things to you!”
“How’d you know about that?” I asked.
“You did it in the fucking living room! That busybody across the street saw you and called your mother. The whole goddamn neighborhood probably knows by now!”
We were silent. It hadn’t occurred to us that someone might be spying.
“Well?! Nothing to say?! You get the fuck out of my house right now!”
“Daddy, calm down,” begged Nicole.
“Calm down?! He forced himself on you!”
“What!? No he didn’t!” she shouted back.
“What are you saying!? You…”
“*I* asked *him* for it.”
He was speechless. For the first time mom spoke:
“Nicole, honey, why would you do that?”
“Th-That’s none of your business,” she said, trying to maintain *some* dignity.
“You’re my daughter and this is my house!” shouted dad, “That makes it my business, now answer your mother!”
“Calm down!” mom told him, “Let me talk, okay?”
He stepped back and let her talk directly to Nicole.
“I’m not trying to hurt you, I just need to be sure you’re okay? Now can we sit down and talk and you can tell me what this is all about?” mom offered.
Nicole took my hand and brought me to the couch to sit down. Mom sat down across from us in a recliner. Dad went and stood by mom. Nicole breathed out, collecting herself. I considered speaking since she was having trouble, but was thankfully smart enough to know I was too dumb to have that conversation. Plus they’d actually believe it coming from her. She still had my hand in hers as she started speaking.
“I haven’t had any luck with guys. You know that mom.”
“So you fucked your brother?!” shouted dad.
She would later tell me that she held back the urge to scream “YES!” at him.
“Let her speak!” demanded mom.
“Nate and I have always been close… I was venting to him. I told him I didn’t feel attractive, but he told me I was. That he thought I was beautiful. I’ve always had a crush on him and I wanted to feel desirable… I asked him to do it with me.”
“And you just went along with that?” dad asked me.
“Well, I-”
“No, he didn’t,” Nicole interrupted him, “He asked me a hundred times if I was sure and every time he did I told him yes.”
“He still did it!” he shouted.
“So did I!” she shouted back.
“You’re younger-”
“I’m still a fucking adult! I can make my own decisions! You don’t get to treat me like a child forever! I’m not one!”
“Calm down, both of you,” begged mom.
Dad remained silent. Nicole, who had stood up, sat back down and breathed deeply to relax.
“Okay. I believe you, okay? I don’t think Nate hurt you… But this has to stop. You need to find other people to do… *that* with.”
I looked at her and she looked at me. We weren’t going to stop. She gripped my hand tighter for support before she answered.
“It’s not just about *that*. I **love** Nate and he loves me too. We’re together now.”
“No. We’re done here. You go to your room,” dad said pointing at Nicole, “And *you* get the fuck out of my house,” he said pointing first at me then to the door.
Nicole was perfectly calm, “If Nate goes, so do I.”
Neither of them spoke.
“I’m serious. I love him. We’re going to be together. The only question is whether you’re going to support us or not. Are you going to kick us out? Leave us on the streets, because we found love with each other?”
Dad’s face twisted in anger, but he couldn’t say anything. Mom tried to talk some sense into her.
“Honey, you can’t have that kind of relationship.”
“We can, actually. It’s legal here.”
She was taken aback, “I’m sure it is, but… What will people say? I mean, how are you going to deal with that?”
“Dad said Ms. Ruth saw us. He’s right, the whole street probably knows already. And frankly, I don’t care what they think. You’re not actually worried about us though, are you?”
“And what does *that* mean?” she asked, offended.
“You’re talking about *your* reputation.”
“I guess I am. Is that so much to ask? Do you know how humiliating this is?”
“Are you kidding me? Do you know how humiliating *this* is?”
“Look, let’s move on from that. It won’t be a normal relationship. You can’t get married, or have kids.”
“I don’t care if we can’t get legally married. As for kids, we might be able to. They can do genetic screening to make sure we aren’t passing on any genetic issues. We might even be able to adopt.”
“Really, you think they’ll let an incestuous couple adopt?”
“No, but they might let a single woman adopt.”
She sighed, tired of Nicole’s answers.
“And you feel the same way about all this, Nathan? You haven’t said much.”
“Yeah, I love her. I want to be with her forever. I just thought it’d be better to let sis talk. She’s smarter.”
“You two go downstairs. Your father and I need to talk about this.”
We went downstairs to my room and they went upstairs to their own bedroom. We couldn’t make out what was being said, but we could hear the screaming even with two floors between us. They must have gotten tired of it, because it eventually got quieter. Two hours later they came downstairs and called us up. We all sat as we were before.
“So your father and I have discussed it.”
“And?” asked Nicole.
“Well first, nobody is getting kicked out. Second, we’ll tolerate your relationship. I can’t say that we approve of it, but clearly this is important to you and I’m not going to lose my kids over it.”
“Thanks mom,” said Nicole.
“Don’t thank me yet, we have rules too.”
“Which is?”
“No more doing that in the house.”
Nicole rolled her eyes, “And where are we supposed to do it? In the back of a car? We’ll get arrested. In a hotel? The only hotels we could afford to do that at are the kind where you get stabbed in the parking lot. Let us do it here. We’ll be safe.”
“Honey… We just don’t want-”
“To know about it. I get it. We’ll be discrete. We won’t do it while you’re home and we’ll only do it in Nate’s room. No windows to be seen from. I promise.”