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Boron sometimes wished that Potassium’s apartment had a guest room, or that Potassium would have at least let her borrow the main bedroom until she returned tomorrow. She stretched awkwardly on the small sofa, already feeling the cricks she’d have in her back the next morning. This wasn’t the first time she’d woken up here in the middle of the night, and probably would not be the last.
It was, however, the first time she’d heard someone sniffling on the far side of the room.
Boron slowly sat up, casting off the assortment of blankets she’d borrowed from Potassium’s closet. Across the room, a small girl hunched in the recliner yelped and leapt up. “W-w-” Boron flipped on the lamp next to her. Sitting in the chair across from her, suprise frozen on her face, was Sodium, Potassium’s younger sister. Well, that explained her lack of a bed. “Oh! Boron!” Sodium jumped to a seating position, a slight smile on her face doing nothing to hide her puffy red eyes.
“Are you alright?”
Sodium huffed. “I’m fine!”
Boron shook her head. “You don’t sound fine.” She patted the couch next to her. “Come on.” It might have been the light, but she thought Sodium blushed slightly as she stood and walked over to Boron, then sat next to her, slightly closer than Boron had thought. Boron reached an arm around Sodium to give a one-sided hug. Boron was beginning to suspect it wasn’t the light.
“It’s just...” Sodium grumbled. “I don’t know what’s going on now. Potassium’s always nice to me, and she lets me stay here when Mom’s out of town and she’s always giving me advice and she always seems so happy but-” Sodium gestured wildly. “But she always looks sad when she thinks I’m not looking. So does Mom, now.”
Boron nodded. “Yeah, she’s always been like that. She bottles things up.” Boron nudged Sodium with her knee. “Not unlike you, miss ‘I’m fine’. Trust me, there’s a lot of good things about your sister, but you don’t want to pick up that habit of hers.”
Sodium nodded, snuggling up against Boron. “She’s said the same thing.” She paused. “So if she knows I shouldn’t do it, why doesn’t she stop herself?”
“It’s easier to spot your mistakes when somebody else is making them.”
“Mmm.” Sodium rest her head against Boron’s shoulder. “I don’t really get it, but that sounds like your kind of answer. Do you always try and act all wise and knowing, or is that just with me?” Sodium was clinging… rather tightly to her arm, and looking up at her with… a not entirely friend’s-little-sisterly expression. Boron sputtered. “Just with me it is.” Sodium winked.
“I, er-”
Sodium laughed. “It’s okay. It’s like you said, O Wise One; I have to act all grown-up all the time as well, now, especially around Mom. She hasn’t asked me to, but I know she wants me to. She talks about the company so much now, ever since Potassium left.” Sodium sighed again, her face falling like a deflating balloon. “I don’t even know what anyone wants from me now.”
Boron gave her another squeeze. “It’s okay.” She smiled down at the younger girl huddled up next to her. “I’m not asking anything from you right now.” Well, that settles it. Definitely not the light. Boron felt Sodium’s left hand brushing up against her right, and in a moment Sodium had locked her fingers with Boron’s. “Um… Sod-” Sodium tugged Boron’s arm, and cleared her throat, then said something weakly. “Did you-”
Sodium cleared her throat again, louder. “What if I wanted something from you?”
Boron felt her own cheeks flush. Hopefully, her complexion would prove harder to read than Sodium’s. “What do you-”
Sodium squeezed Boron’s hand, now staring at the floor. “My sister always tells me I need to find time for myself, and find the people I want around me and do the things I want to do.” Boron heard Sodium gulp. “So, uh,” Sodium mumbled, “That is. Of those people. I would like, er,” Sodium huffed. “Oh damn it all.” She stood up, turned to face Boron, and pulled Boron halfway up by her arm; but before Boron could completely get on her feet, Sodium had grabbed her head with her other arm and pulled Boron towards her. Before Boron even really knew what was going on, she felt the pressure of soft, unfamiliar lips against her own.
Sodium pushed Boron back as she broke the kiss, leaving her sprawling on the couch as Sodium climbed into her lap, pulling both of them to lie on the couch. She was staring straight at Sodium now, a bright red blush on the younger girl’s face. “I, uh, like you. That way.” Sodium shrank back. “I want you as my girlfriend.”
Boron blinked. Well, she’d just been kissed by a girl three-quarters her age, who now had her half-pinned against a couch and probably definitely just said she had feelings for her. She couldn’t deny that Sodium was cute. Very cute, really, though that might be something other than her brain talking. Especially when Sodium was this close and definitely now kissing her again.
But Boron liked older women, just look at… okay, maybe her last few relationships hadn’t been the best examples of, well, anything. So maybe Sodium was a bit (a lot) smarter than her peers and was always hanging around Boron and Potassium like a peer. So maybe sometimes Boron sat next to Sodium on movie nights and fell asleep to the sound of her breathing, or felt a little warm and fuzzy when their eyes met across the room and they both looked away, or… lots of other maybes.
T he point was Boron wasn’t someone who just started kissing high schoolers. Or letting high schoolers kiss her, repeatedly. Especially not little sisters of friends. Cute little sisters with soft lips and just the right kind of cold hands and-wait, cold hands?
Boron snapped out of her thoughts and grabbed Sodium’s arm, slowly drawing it out from the back of her shirt. “We need to think about this!” she snapped, and then Sodium was pouting. At point-blank range, as it were. Tears welling up and everything. Shit. Boron wrapped her arms around Sodium and pulled her in. “It’s okay, it’s okay.”
“Do you hate me?”
“No!” Boron shouted. “I, um, this is just… well it’s very sudden, and you’re very fifteen.”
Sodium sniffled into Boron’s chest. “I knew I shouldn’t have said anything, I’m just...”
“I don’t...” Boron started, against every internal shriek of don’t say it don’t say it don’t say- “I don’t mind. I’m actually, uh, pretty flattered. And I’m not seeing anyone now, so...“ I’m going to say it. Shit. “if you’re serious, and you’ve thought about it, and we’ll need to set some boundaries, and oh your sister is going to murder me,” Boron took a deep breath, “then yes. I’ll, er,”
Sodium kissed her again before she could finish. Boron broke the kiss after a few long seconds, then slipped her arm between her and Sodium. “But we’ll talk tomorrow, okay? I, um...” Boron swallowed. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“Mmm.” Sodium murmured her acknowldgement, then wrapped her arms around Boron and ssuggled in tight. “See you tomorrow.”
Boron looked down at the smiling girl now wrapped firmly around her, and rolled her eyes. Sodium was already asleep, a big grin still plastered on her face. Boron wrapped an arm around Sodium, stretched out to take what space she could on the now much smaller sofa, and quickly fell asleep herself.
Boron slowly opened her eyes, blinking slightly in pain as she stirred on the couch. There was a strange weight on her arm, and pressure on her waist; she turned her eyes down, still half-open in the morning light, to stare at the still-slumbering girl who had apparently spent the night in her arms. The still-slumbeing girl who happened to be her best friend’s doted-upon baby sister, and also happened to be very, very fifteen. Boron slowly looked up from the couch, wincing again in the light, and noticed someone sitting in the recliner opposite her.
She slowly pulled her eyes up to meet the third person’s, and winced for a new reason. Boron could feel, hear, and taste the withering glare on Potassium’s face. She bit down on the inside of her cheeks and took a sharp breath. “Kal, I’m-” she started.
“How about I start with ‘damn lucky Mom’s flight was delayed.’ and we work down from there.” Potassium exhaled, her expression softening. “Look, you’re still fully clothed, so I can at least assume you’re not risking jail time yet.” It took a moment for the implication to register with Boron’s half-awake mind, but when it did it felt like she’d jumped a foot off the couch. As Boron began to stammer out every possible explanation, all at once, Potassium held out a hand. “Honestly, I’m not going to meddle too much. I generally trust you, both of you, not to do anything stupid, which is why I’m kind of surprised to come home to you passed out on my couch with my sister’s lipstick on half your face.” Potassium tossed a damp washcloth at Boron, which hit her face with a heavy ‘thwack’. “This might help.”
Boron sighed. “You’re mad.”
Potassium shook her head. “I’m not mad. If I was mad, I’d’ve gone for ice cubes, not a washcloth.” She sighed. “I’m just… concerned. For Sodium, mostly, but you too. She’s had a thing for you for years now; I probably knew before she did.” She shook her head again. “I never thought anything would come of it until, well...” She gestured to Sodium, who was now shifting such that she seemed to be nuzzling Boron’s chest. “That.”
“Well, in my defense, she was the one who kissed me.”
“Mmm.” someone mumbled. Boron and Potassium’s eyes snapped to Sodium, who was staring up at Boron with half-lidded eyes. Boron started to speak, but Sodium darted up and kissed her cheek. “Didn’t stop me.” Sodium’s arms slid along Boron’s back, pulling her body down against Boron’s. She smirked down at Boron’s suddenly flushed face and licked her lips, moving in towards Boron’s waiting mouth, only to freeze as Boron started jerking her head out towards Potassium. Sodium looked up briefly, mumbled “Oh, morning sis.”, then turned right back to Boron, grazing her lips softly against Boron’s beneath her, and then froze. “Er.”
“Quite.” said Potassium.
“In her defense, I was the one who kissed her.” Sodium grinned. “And it was-”
“Please don’t finish that sentence.” Sodium pouted, but fell silent. Potassium shook her head. “So, would one of you tell me what actually happened last night?” At Sodium’s expression, Potassium held up a hand. “On second thought, would Boron tell me what actually happened last night?” Sodium pouted again, then snuggled back against Boron.
Boron briefly recapped the prior night’s events, pausing occasionally for Sodium to interject. Potassium listened intently, tapping her fingers against her knee, and finally nodded to herself as Boron finished. “So. Sis, I know I’ve been cheering you on, but I was sort of planning this to be a three-years-from-now sort of conversation. I know you’re smart for your age and this isn’t a new thing, but six years-”
“Five and two months.” said Sodium confidenlty.
“Five years and two months is a big gap, especially at your age, and it doesn’t look… good. Especially for Boron. So, if you’re serious about this, at least think about where you are and who might see you. Especially Mom. Trust me, you don’t want Mom catching wind of this.” Boron and Sodium both nodded solemnly. “And please don’t get up to anything...” Potassium’s eyes were suddenly fascinated with the curtains. “Don’t get up to anything you shouldn’t until you’re eighteen. For both of your sakes.” Potassium turned to Boron. “As for you, if Sodium’s anything like I was at her age, I’m going to have to trust you to show a bit of restraint. Er, especially for that last bit.” Potassium was slightly flushed. “Oh, and if you break my sister’s heart I’ll come up with some horrible, unspeakable punishment and then I’ll hand you over to my mother.”
Boron nodded, slowly raising a single thumb.
Potassium took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “And now that I’m done being the responsible big sis,” she jumped over to the couch and pulled Boron and Sodium into a tight hug. “Congratulations! I ’m happy for you both and I hope everything goes fine and if Mom finds out and doesn’t approve I’ll come shout at her for you and-”
Sodium nudged Boron within her sister’s tight embrace and smiled as Boron met her eyes. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.