We’re sitting across from each other at the mahogany table. Neither my sister or I are great cooks per se, but man, if she can’t boil a mean pasta. Rhea is twirling some of the noodles around a plastic fork and some episode of “I Love Lucy” is quietly on in the background (we stopped listening to the news a few weeks ago, it’s becoming too much) when I suddenly remember the other thing about today.

“Oh, uh, I guess something else happened.”

“What kind of something else?” She stops twirling and bites down on the knot of noodles.

“Er… Well, you know the… the one that comes in and just runs his mouth like a faucet?”

“Samson?” Sure.

“He asked me to go to the lake with him,” I almost muttered this, still not exactly excited at the notion. I thought she choked on the food as I said that with how wide her eyes got, and maybe she did.

“Whaaat? That’s totally awesome, Ever!”

I feel a sigh building up. “No, it totally blows. He really gets on my nerves.” I feel bad for saying that knowing what I know now, but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s just… a lot. I have no idea why I said yes, or how it’s gonna go. I still have a little time; I can probably think of an excuse by then. No, don’t do that, I know he doesn’t drive himself around. He’ll have taken the bus, probably show up ten minutes early because he’s so giddy to hang with someone that wasn’t paid to hang with him (sorry), and then wait the rest of the day away while I’m here at home doing fuck all with my life.

Ugh. May as well.

“Aw, Ever,” Rhea walks around the kitchen counter and puts a hand on my shoulder. “I know he gets on your nerves, but I think he just shares all that stuff with you and visits because he wants to be your friend.” Yeah, thanks for the reminder.

“Yyyeah, I… I know that,” I respond, unable to hide the slight melancholy inside of myself. “I just don’t think it makes sense to get too close to people right now.”

“I don’t think the ‘disease’ is contagious,” Rhea tries to assure me for the wrong reason.

“No, I mean…” I finally let out that sigh from earlier. “I mean like, what if he… you know. It just doesn’t make sense to get all close to someone when there’s a chance you could lose them at any moment.”

Rhea leans forward toward me from the other side of the table with a coy smile. “Are you saying you’d be sad to lose him?” Man, not her, too!

“What? N-no! I just mean, like, in general…”

Rhea chuckles softly, sitting back again and laying off me, finally. She takes her bowl and walks toward the sink, dropping the plastic fork in the trash and squeezing some soap onto the bowl. “Well, I’m not gonna get all sad again right now, but…”

For some reason, I was looking at her dark brown hair and wondered if I should let my roots grow out next time instead of coloring them again. Naturally, my hair's a single shade darker than hers, and I’m not getting sick of the green or anything, I just think maybe my hair might look a little better if it wasn’t fried from all the chemicals. Rhea’s hair got way better when she chopped off the rosy pink ends, which sucks because I thought that was a really cool look. She finally speaks up again.

“I just need you to know that even without our weird situation here, that’s the risk we run for every single person in our lives.” Her voice is earnest, the shade turns deeper. “Losing them, I mean. Even if something feels like it can, nothing ever lasts forever.”

I don’t like that much. She doesn’t look up from washing the bowl.

“It’s… It’s terrible, and it hurts,” she goes on, “and you and I both know that when that happens, it feels like you’ll never find your ground again if that person was close enough to you.” I don’t know if she’s specifically talking about mom or dad. Dad? No way. Not dad. Maybe her friend Hannah. Or mom. Could be mom. She turns off the sink, and even though it was this quiet before, I got used to the drone of the water, and now it feels extra quiet. “Like the end of the world sometimes.” She grabs a bottle of water from the pantry and walks back to the table, leaning forward on the back of her chair as she twists the cap off. “Regardless… don’t you think that it’s worth knowing someone else cares about you and just wants to know you’re having a good day? Share life together for a little bit?” She took a short sip of water. “I dunno about you, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

I just look away. I know she’s right, I know that. It’s just…

No, I really don’t want to think about that now. Not now, not ever. I don’t know what to say, and Rhea knows.

“Alright, I’ll stop lecturin’ ya.”

I can meet her eyes again. People have always said we have the same eyes, but I think they’re just being weirdly racist or something. Surprise, we both have Pinoy eyes; we’re related. Duh. Still, it was comforting to know that people see a little bit of her in my face, and vice versa. It’s undeniable evidence that I share blood with the coolest, most genuine, smartest, funniest, there-for-you, understanding…

You get the idea. Rhea. Just Rhea. I will always get to say Rhea Belmonte is my sister. No one can take that away, and I’ll never let that go.

“When do you gotta meet?” She goes ahead and takes a longer drink of water.

“Uhh-” I look at the clock behind and above me. It’s 6:01. “6:30?” Rhea’s eyes widen almost comically, and she almost chokes mid-drink.

“What? That’s like, right now!” It really isn’t, it takes like, 15 minutes to drive there… Okay, maybe a little longer on a bus, which was my plan. “Do you want me to drive you over?”

“Don’t you work kinda soon?”

Rhea waves my question away. “Nah, don’t worry about it. I mean, I do, but not til later. We may have lost Love Omission, may Ferris rest in peace-” That was his name, Ferris. “-but there’s a new up and coming band that wants to record with us. Their schedule’s a little weird, hence the later start time, but they really wanted me specifically to be their mixing engineer!” There was an aura of pride that suddenly radiated from Rhea. Even though this was no surprise, I couldn’t help but just be super excited for her as always. Anyone could tell you she takes her work seriously, and she’s been involved with all sorts of big names in different genres thanks to not just where she works, but her innate ability to really bring out the best in artists’ recordings. I have no idea where she got that from, she’s never played an instrument or anything like that, she’s just got a really good ear. Anyway, her being asked for specifically must mean she’s really making the rounds in the music world, and there are no words to describe how proud and happy I am for her!

“Oh my god, that’s awesome! Who’s the band?”

“That’s the thing… Ever heard of, oh, I don’t know, The Starry Lines?” Whoah. TSL is small right now, but Rhea and I have been listening to them since their first album, and we, and a bunch of music mags, really think they’re gonna start getting some serious traction soon. I can’t believe she kept that a secret for however long!

“No freaking way!”

“Uh, yes freaking way!”

“Rhea! That’s fucking amazing!” I can’t help but spring from the chair and throw my arms around her, and before I know it, the two of us are just squealing over this. Un–fucking-real! After some high-pitched shrieks of joy and jumping like we were trying to summon an ancient behemoth, we settled and Rhea grabbed her keys.

“Okayokayokay,” she says in an attempt to chill us both out. “Ready, then?”

“Yeah, yeah!” I catch up to her at the door and trot out with her. I’m telling you, she’s the best. The best.