My little sister and I had always been extremely close, but lately we were spending almost every waking moment together. I think she was feeling a little lonely since she was at the age where all her friends were starting to get boyfriends, but she had yet to find anyone she was even interested in.
"You want to spend another Saturday together?"
"Why, you too busy with your girlfriend?"
I hated how easy it was for her to get under my skin. Lizzie knew full well that I hadn't had a girlfriend for over a year now and never missed a chance to remind me of it. "What about you? I haven't seen any of your classmates sniffing around here lately."
It was only when I heard the tremble in Lizzie's response that I realized my mistake. "D-Do you wanna do something or not!" she managed to get out, suddenly very interested in the pattern of a couch pillow.
"Of course I do, Lizzie. You want to go see a movie or something?"
She must have noticed the softer tone I instinctively assumed, because her eyes flicked up to mine and she scowled. "Who said anything about looking for a boyfriend? Maybe I just want to spend time with my dumb big brother!" she exclaimed, clutching the small beige pillow tight to her chest.
"You're only fourteen, there's still plenty of time to find someone."
"Shut up," came her muffled response, the pillow now fully blocking my view of her face. When she got like this, there was nothing to do but leave her alone to cool down. I was halfway out of the living room when I heard Lizzie call after me. "Hey, ${Name}?"
"Yeah?"
"What movie?"
***
After my blunder this morning it was only natural that I let Lizzie pick the movie, a fact that she took full advantage of. I had no one but myself to blame for us currently standing in line to get tickets to a popular teen drama. Normally, we had a pretty similar taste in movies, so it was clear to me that Lizzie had made this choice just to spite me—she would never spend her Saturday afternoon watching a generic romance flick thinking it would be fun.
It felt like we were in that line for hours, but after about fifteen minutes we finally made it to the ticket window. "Two for 'Endless Nights'" I told the attendant. Just saying the sickly sweet name put me in a foul mood; this was the sort of movie Lizzie and I would normally mock her friends for seeing behind their backs.
"You'll want the couples' discount then?" he asked with disinterest, giving the two of us a cursory glance.
"The what?"
"We're doing a special promotion where you get twenty percent off your tickets for bringing your significant other to see..." he trailed off. There was a short pause as the attendant glanced over at a nearby poster before concluding his monotone spiel. "'Endless Nights.'"
It hadn't occurred to me what we looked like to other people. No matter how you spun it, two teens going to see a movie like this alone could hardly be anything other than a couple. Just as I opened my mouth to correct his mistake, Lizzie took a step forward and cut me off. "Yes please!" she said with a wide smile, her hand slipping into mine and squeezing it as if daring me to challenge her. The attendant nodded and gave us the tickets after I paid.
"Lizzie," I whispered to my all-too-pleased little sister while we made our way to the concession stand, hands still joined. "Why did you tell him we're a couple?"
"'Cause it let us get a discount," she said matter-of-factly, seemingly unconcerned with either our locked hands or her deception.
"Yeah, but we're not—Oh, whatever. Just pick your snacks and let's get this over with."
Luckily the concession lines were much better than the ones to get our tickets, and soon we were placing our orders. "What do you want?" I asked, snapping Lizzie's attention away from the large wall of candy behind the register.
"M&M's!" she squealed, looking much younger than her fourteen years. Although she was acting pretty childish, I enjoyed seeing Lizzie happy like this, especially after how she'd been feeling lately.
"No popcorn or a drink?"
"I'll share yours. We're a couple now after all." She lifted our hands to show off to the cashier, who merely smirked at her antics. I couldn't very well refuse her after that, so I ordered a large popcorn and soda as well as her candy, and we made our way down the hall to find our seats.
"How about over here?" I asked, pointing to the middle of an unoccupied row. It was what most people would agree to be prime real estate. After puzzling for a moment, I realized that most of the other guests (all couples) had opted for the back rows, presumably to do "couple things." I shuddered at the thought.
"Okay." Lizzie seemed uninterested in our seating choice and was currently trying to snag a mouthful of popcorn from the bucket in my arms.
"Cut that out! We have to share this, and I don't want your spit all over the place."
"My handsh are full!" she retorted after succeeding in her task, holding up the soda and candy as proof of her words. I rolled my eyes and directed her to our chosen seats where we sat down and got set up while the previews rolled.
It wasn't long before Lizzie began creating a great deal of noise opening her candy, the careless crinkling of plastic making me wince. I glanced over at her to tell her to stop and froze; my eyes widened in horror when I realized what Lizzie intended to do.
"Lizzie, don't you dare—" It was too late, in one swift tilt of her wrist the popcorn had been tainted by an entire container of M&M's. All I could do was sigh and look over at my supposed "date" who wrinkled her nose at me and stuck out her tongue. "How many times have I told you that dumping an entire box of candy into popcorn ruins it?"
"Doesn't," she insisted, covering the large bucket with both hands and shaking it up and down to properly distribute the M&M's.
Despite my annoyance, we continued eating the popcorn as the lights dimmed, and the movie finally began, taking turns sipping from the large soda when the salty popcorn became too much to bear.
"You know, that's kinda like an indirect kiss," Lizzie whispered when I picked up the cup directly after her, causing me to sputter and nearly choke.
"Be quiet and eat your Diabetes popcorn." We watched a bit more of the movie in silence until our hands brushed as we both reached for popcorn simultaneously. What surprised me wasn't the warmth of her hand under mine, but the nervous giggle that escaped her throat when our hands met. I'd never heard that kind of sound from Lizzie before, and it sent an unexpected tingling down my spine. We both pulled away at the same time, nearly capsizing the popcorn and making Lizzie giggle again; this one was a much more familiar and safe laugh, but it did nothing to alleviate a strange aching that had taken root in my chest.
"Sharing food and sitting in the dark like this really does feel kinda like we're a couple..."
"Yeah."
"${Name}?
"What?" I murmured, trying to ignore the sudden and unexplainable tightness in my chest.
"Wanna hold hands for a bit?" I was sure my voice would crack if I tried to respond, so instead I simply let my hand drift over the armrest dividing us and slip beneath hers. We stayed like that for a while, neither wanting to ruin the unnameable feeling lingering between us with something as silly as words.
The next time we spoke, the movie was more than halfway over and all the couples in the back had abandoned any pretense of watching it and were engaged in varying degrees of intimacy. "Feels kinda weird that everyone else is kissing and stuff," Lizzie said softly, careful to avoid meeting my eyes.
"What, you want to kiss?" I joked, the question sounding far more earnest than I intended it to. When she didn't respond, I glanced over at my little sister, heart skipping a beat when her eyes locked with mine.
"I dunno..." she whispered, the flush on her cheeks visible even in the darkened theater.
"Just a little one?" I whispered back, my hand reaching over to brush a strand of hair from her face.
"Yeah. A little one."
Somehow we moved in perfect sync, slowly leaning forward over that meager plastic and fabric divider to allow our lips to meet. Lizzie and I had kissed many times when we were little, but not in years and never like this. When we finally connected, her eyes drifted closed and my hands cupped her chin. There was no rush at all, no heat behind the kiss, but it was no less intimate for it. We simply tasted each other, the initial kiss giving way to a series of soft and short, almost childish pecks that left Lizzie breathless and giggling.
"No more," I finally managed to say after we broke away one more time.
"No more, Lizzie repeated, giggling again and pulling at my wrist until I draped my arm around her shoulders.
"We're siblings, Lizzie."
"I know. But today we're a couple too."