Living with Kara

My name is Kevin and I turned eighteen years old a few months ago, shortly before graduating high school. I am preparing to go to college on the other side of the country and will leaving home today. I will not be living on campus though, instead I will be moving in with my sister Kara, who has an apartment five miles from the school. She is twenty and will be starting her sophomore year.


From the time we were little, Kara and I were always close. We shared a bedroom until it came time for a growing preteen girl to have her privacy. Even though we had separate rooms, we still spent almost all of our time together. It was a combination of a pure sibling love but also comfort for our living conditions.


You see, our parents were not the nicest people on the planet, especially to each other. A stretch of two days without arguing was like Christmas to Kara and I, or at least what Christmas was supposed to be. We never had a fun Christmas, not a single one. More often than not, a toy that one of us got ended up smashed in anger because my mother said the wrong thing at the wrong time to my father.


When they were heated at each other, Kara and I locked ourselves in her room and played video games, listened to music or just hugged each other. We both hated living there. Even though we grew older and our bodies began to develop further, the hugging and holding never stopped and it bred a bit of an odd relationship to the outside world. She started to kiss me on the lips to show that someone actually cared and I did the same to her. It never went farther than that but it certainly was not anything that was ever talked about outside of the room.


When she left for college, I was devastated. I was now alone for two years, unable to leave. I started smoking marijuana when I would get home to cope with the pain but it never affected my grades. I was determined to get a scholarship, like Kara did, because I knew that my parents would never spend money to further my education. They never went to her graduation and they did not go to mine, not that I wanted them to.


I called my sister a week before my graduation and set up a date to move as soon as possible. I had to wait for her roommate to leave, which was agony. I spent almost every night in the summer so far in the woods, listening to music. Now, finally, today is the day. The day I say goodbye to my useless parents and say hello to my first happy household with my best friend.


My parents did not care when I said I was leaving and made sure to hold up a stiff middle finger as I pushed the broken screen door open. I threw my suitcase in the taxi and went on my way. The travel was not too bad, the taxi missed all traffic, the plane took off on time and arrived five minutes early. I stepped off the plane and felt like a new man. The weight of my shitty upbringing was lifted off my shoulders.


After going through security, I spotted Kara sitting down a few hundred feet away. She had a huge smile on her face as she looked around, hoping to spot me. It took a few seconds but once I was in her line of sight, my short, brunette sister jumped up and ran towards me. I could see the tears streaming down her thin face as she got closer. Being tall and in decent shape, I knew that she was going to try and jump into my arms so I prepared myself. My prediction was correct as Kara leaped up and gave me a big hug, kissing my cheek over and over again. She held onto my short brown hair as tight as she could, seeming to never want to let go.


“I missed you, Kev,” she said as wrapped her arms around my neck, her perky little breasts flattened against me.


I wanted to hold her up but I was not about to grab my sister’s butt, especially in public, so she had to let go and got back onto her feet.


“I’m so sorry you couldn’t come sooner,” she said, sliding under my arm and hugging my torso.


“All that matters is that we are both free of that hell hole,” I said, hugging her back.


Kara held my hand as I grabbed my bag and followed her out of the airport and into her car. I loaded my bag in the trunk and got in, sharing a smile. Luckily, the apartment was pretty close to the airport as tears continued to fill my sister’s blue eyes. I had never seen her this happy before and it made me equally happy. We arrived at the apartment as the sun was beginning to set. She led me inside, grabbing my bag before I had the chance to and tossing it on the couch.


“Welcome home, Kev,” she said as she hugged me and gave me a quick peck on the lips. “I don’t ever want to spend that much time apart again.”


“I’m here until you kick me out,” I told her, wiping yet another tear from her eye.


“Let’s get you settled in,” she said as she walked me to my room.


When I walked in, I was surprised to see the room decorated in some of my favorite things. There was a steering wheel from a racecar over my bed, the very PS3 that we played together with so much plugged into a big screen television and a box of random crap that I always kept next to my bed. She also had bought bedding that looked identical to what I had in hell.


“You like?” she asked.


“Absolutely!” I exclaimed as I lay down on the bed.


Kara got on the bed with me and hugged me like she used to, cradling my head in her chest and playing with my hair.


“I missed you so much,” she said. “I’m glad we can spend time together and not because we need to.”


“The last two years were hell,” I said. “Not having you there was painful but I know you had to leave.”


“It’ll never happen again,” she said, kissing the top of my head.


We were both tired but we did not want to separate.