younger sister and kind of like mine, too. I remembered her watching us and barging in whenever the two of us were hanging out, demanding to be included. I had always humored her because, as an only child, I found her behavior hilarious. It was like she was a little duckling that had imprinted on me and now trailed behind me like a shadow. What I hadn’t realized at the time was that I was only encouraging her crush on me by allowing her to follow us around, but perhaps there was no way to prevent that. After all, at the time of her crush, she had been in the prepubescent years at the start of middle school and had only just begun to realize what dating actually was. She must have projected her feelings and curiosities onto me then, which was understandable.
But obviously, she had been eleven and I was seventeen, let alone the fact that I had never seen her as anything but a little sister. Of course I rejected her—as gently as I could—and my family moved away soon after that. I hadn’t seen her since, or thought about her much either, but I always remembered her as quite a fun little girl to hang out around.
Now she was a fully-grown woman, by society’s standards at least. I tried to imagine her now, but the two images that bounced in my mind were of her as an eleven-year-old child and Sebastian in a wig.
What would she be like now? Would I even recognize her? These were questions I had not even stopped to consider before now and I almost felt bad about it. Why hadn’t I thought more about her before now? She’d been such a big part of my life before my family moved to New York.
“She’s excited to see you,” Sebastian repeated. “She’s been a little down lately, and I knew that you coming over would cheer her up. It’ll be just like old times.”
“Like old times,” I agreed, but my mind was still on Serenity. Sometimes when we were younger and Serenity was sick or feeling sad, Sebastian would invite me over just because he knew that seeing me would make her happy. He was such a caring brother in that way and I knew he loved her deeply, even though he never would have admitted it when he was younger.
“I’ve gotta go now,” Sebastian said. “My mom is calling me.”
“Tell Mrs. Allen hi from my side and inform her that I’ll be there soon,” I said instinctively.
“I will, don’t worry.”
He hung up, and I set my phone down, taking a deep breath. I hadn’t even thought to think of Serenity or seeing her until Sebastian brought her up. What new layer would this add to my visit? And did she still have that childish little crush on me?
I smiled at just the thought of it. Her chubby little face had gotten so red and she’d stumbled over her words when she confessed it to me. It had taken a great effort not to laugh at how cute and small she was, but I knew that she would have taken that completely the wrong way. At her age, I would have been devastated if my crush laughed in my face and I did my best to let her down gently and carefully. After all, she was the little sister I’d never had.
It wasn’t much longer before the plane landed, and then I was walking the short distance from the runway to the luxury car that I had rented for the trip. I got into the passenger seat, breathing in the scent of leather. I never got tired of driving these types of cars. There was just something about them, in the way that they smelled and the way that the interior felt against your skin. They were on a whole different level of luxury and speed.
I’d always wanted to drive sports cars or something fancy like that when I was younger. And now here I was, behind the wheel of the newest model of Porsche, ready to be outfitted with snow tires should the need for them arise.
I took a deep breath and turned the key, waving goodbye to my pilot and co-pilot as I pulled out of the private airport that we’d been given clearance to land in. My prediction had been exactly right. With the weather, the danger of ice, and the small curving roads, it took me a full half hour