Riding a horse with Brianna was probably the most awkward and uncomfortable situation Evelyn had ever been in. Evelyn and Brianna could barely stand to be in the same room together. Under normal circumstances, Evelyn wouldn’t be caught dead sitting this close to the blond girl.

They were standing before a pair of large doors, preparing themselves for what they were about to do. Evelyn shifted in place on the saddle. It was hard to keep her and Brianna’s bodies from touching. And there was no place to put her hands on, either.

“Stop wriggling,” Brianna complained, keeping her voice low so that she wouldn’t be heard by the guards outside. “You’re confusing Antares.”

Evelyn smirked contemptuously. “Then tell me how I am supposed to sit, princess.”

Brianna sighed. “Lean onto me,” she said.

“What?!”

“Look, I don’t like this either, okay?” Brianna explained. “But sitting like that, you’re gonna fall off way before we make it to the forest. So just this once... do as I tell you.”

Eve frowned, and started to regret never having taken horse-riding classes in the past. The way things were at that moment, she had no choice but to comply. Eve begrudgingly moved her hips closer to Brianna’s.

“Good, now wrap your arms around me.”

“Oh, come on!” said Eve, in a whispered wail.

Brianna scoffed. “Evelyn, if you fall off this horse, I’m not gonna go back for you. So either you listen to me, or get off the horse and walk.”

That... was definitely the angriest whisper Evelyn had ever heard, and she had no arguments against this. Eve wanted to believe that Brianna was exaggerating, and that she wouldn’t leave her stepsister behind to fend for herself, but chances are that she would.

“Ugh, fine,” she relented, and wrapped her arms around the blonde’s waist.

“Ready?” Cat asked.

Brianna nodded. Cat threw the gates open, and both horses broke into a fast trot, out of the stables and into the night. Suddenly, it became clear to Evelyn that Brianna hadn’t been lying, before: Evelyn really would have fallen off if she weren’t holding onto Brianna like this.

They heard shouting, muffled by the sounds of hooves on the cobblestone streets, but Evelyn never once saw their pursuers. Brianna rode fast. As soon as they had left the city, she sped Antares into a gallop, trying to put as much distance as possible between them and their pursuers. At first, it scared the wits out of Eve. But, as they continued to ride through the open plains, the fear began to subside.

The sun was starting to rise on the horizon, slowly changing the color of the sky from dark-blue to cerulean. Eve glanced over Brianna’s shoulder, trying to see if she could spot Cat anywhere around them, but girl and horse were nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Cat?” she asked.

“Ahead, somewhere,” Brianna replied. “She’s faster than us.”

They kept on for about half-an-hour, before they finally managed to reach the edge of the forest. Brianna slowed Antares down as they started riding between the trees. She pressed on forward, and when Eve saw that Brianna wasn’t going to do as Cat had instructed them, she decided to intervene.

“Go East!” Eve told her.

“I am going East,” Brianna retorted.

“No you’re not,” Eve argued. “You never turned to the right.”

“Of course I did!”

“Where’s the compass?”

“Evelyn, can you please stop?”

Brianna turned her head to stare into the other girl’s eyes. She looked decidedly angry. Eve was just about to ask her for the compass again, when something solid and completely unexpected hit them both.

It was a branch. They both fell, hitting the forest ground hard a couple of times before they came to a stop. Evelyn grimaced. It had been a painful fall. Somewhere in the back of her mind she also registered the sound of Antares’ hooves as she trotted away from them.

“Oh, fuck!” Brianna cursed.

“Antares is gone,” Eve pointed out. There was no trace of the mare anywhere around them.

“Well, thank you, Captain Obvious,” said Brianna, gritting her teeth. She got up on her feet. “Bloody pain.”

Eve rolled her eyes. “You know this wouldn’t have happened if you had been following the compass, right?”

“Excuse me?!” exclaimed Brianna, outraged. “So this is my fault now?”

“Isn’t it always?” Eve asked. After all, the whole reason they were lost in the first place was because Brianna messed up a spell.

Evelyn had expected Brianna to blow up at her. She didn’t. Instead, Brianna looked at Evelyn with saddened eyes, almost as if she was about to cry, and spoke in a quiet tone.

“Could you stop this, please?”

It caught Evelyn by surprise.

“Stop what?” Eve asked.

“Being mean,” Brianna explained, letting out a breath of anguish. “Tell me, why are you always being mean to me? Did I do something to make you hate me?”

Eve furrowed her brow, confused.

“I don’t... hate you,” she replied, hesitantly. Did she?

“Yes, Evelyn, you do,” said Brianna, in a very matter-of-fact sort of way. “Ever since I met you, it’s always been either sarcasm or the cold treatment. And I don’t understand why. I tried, Evelyn, heaven knows I did. I wanted to reach out to you. But the truth is that you never gave me the time of day.”

Evelyn wrinkled her forehead, a little shocked that she was hearing that. Because, first, she had no idea that all of this had been going through Brianna’s head. And then, some of it was, she believed, undeserved. So Eve gave her the cold treatment? Well, Brianna did the same in return. Up until then, Evelyn thought that her stepsister didn’t even care about any of that.

“Look, this is hard on both of us,” said Eve. “I never wanted a sister, and I know you didn’t want one either, so—”

“I did,” Brianna interrupted her.

Eve blinked, twice.

“Come again?”

Brianna sighed. “I did want a sister,” she repeated. “When dad told me that he was remarrying, and that I would be getting a sister, I was happy. I really was. I thought that it would be nice to have someone to share things with, for a change. But then you came, and you started treating me like trash, and that really hurt, you know. I did try, Evelyn, to be a good sister, but there’s just so much hate you can take before you start thinking that you’d better give up.”

Brianna’s revelation stirred something inside Evelyn. So, all this time, when Eve thought that she had been nothing but a nuisance to her stepsister... she was wrong? And moreover…

“I... treated you like trash?” Eve asked, feeling angsty.

Brianna pursed her lips. “Remember the monkey doll?” she asked. “The one I put on your bed, the day I knew you were moving in with us?” Eve nodded, slowly. “Well,” she continued, “it’s kind of my favorite animal, you know? And it also happens to be both of our Chinese Zodiac signs. I bought it for you because I thought it would be a nice welcome gift. But you didn’t like it, did you?” Brianna seemed like she was on the verge of tears again. “I mean, because you threw it on my bed, and left a note threatening to destroy it.”

Crap. I really did that, didn’t I? Eve realized.

I’m such an asshole.

“I... just don’t like plushies much,” she tried to explain.

“Couldn’t you have said that, instead?” Brianna asked, almost in a tone of supplication.

Evelyn thought back to the first few days after she’d had moved in with Brianna. Now that she knew about Brianna’s feelings, she could look back on several occasions and realize that Brianna really did try to reach out to her. Not once, or twice, but many times. And there was her birthday, too... Brianna hadn’t been crying because she couldn’t go out for pizza. She’d been crying because Eve had shut her out so much that for a moment Eve even forgot her stepsister existed.

Evelyn hadn’t just ruined Brianna’s birthday. She had completely destroyed Brianna’s dreams of a sister.

“I’m... sorry,” said Evelyn. She felt like shit. She didn’t know that realizing you’re a horrible person was such a nasty feeling. “I’m really so sorry. For everything. I always thought you didn’t like me. Because we’re, you know, opposites in pretty much everything. And I really liked being a single child, so when mom told me about Mr. Phil, and about you... well, I think I might have taken out my frustration on you. I’m an assholle. I... can’t do this over, can I?” she asked, though it was more wishful thinking than an actual question.

“Well...” said Brianna, “this is the first time I’ve heard a sincere apology from you. It’s a start.” She looked around at their surroundings. “I think we should go look for Antares,” she said. “It’s fifteen days to Sol Kingdom without a horse, isn’t it?”

She began to walk down the trail Antares had left behind. When she noticed that Eve wasn’t coming with, Brianna turned around and stared at her, puzzled.

“Evelyn? Something wrong?”

Eve pursed her lips. Maybe this would be a mistake. But considering everything else she’d done in those past two months, it would definitely not be her worst one.

She took a few steps toward Brianna, stopped, and offered her a handshake.

“Hi, I’m Evelyn,” she said.

Brianna looked at Evelyn as if she’d just gone insane.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I know I can’t do this over,” Evelyn explained, looking the other girl in the eyes. “And I’m not asking you to forgive me, or to forget all the horrible things I did. I just... thought that we could make a fresh start. Like, get to know each other. For real, this time. I promise I’ll do it right. So...” she offered her the handshake one more time. “Hi, I’m Evelyn.”

Brianna gaped at Evelyn in disbelief. Eve could tell that she had never anticipated something like this happening, and now probably had no idea how to react. But she wasn’t about to back down, and Brianna must have realized it, too. She looked the other girl in the eyes, with a warm smile on her lips.

“Brianna,” she introduced herself, shaking Evelyn’s hand.

Eve smiled back. “Nice to meet you, Brianna... Bree? Can I call you that?”

Brianna chuckled. “So long as you don’t call me ‘princess’ anymore.” Eve chortled when she heard that. “I mean it!” said the girl. “It sounds really condescending, the way you say it. And I know that you anarchists hate the monarchy, so...”

“Hold on,” Eve interrupted her, “you know about that? About me being an anarchist?”

Bree shrugged. “Sure. I mean, you did hang up a flag in our room.”

“Oh, of course. Makes sense,” Eve concluded. Then a realization occurred to her. She’d hanged two flags, not one. And the second flag... it was a lesbian pride flag.

Eve cleared her throat. “So... does that mean you know about the other flag, too?” she asked.

Eve saw Bree fiddle nervously with a lock of her golden hair. “I... do,” she admitted. “I mean... I wasn’t sure at first, but a took a photo of the flag with my phone, and asked a classmate about it, so... yeah.”

For a moment, neither girl knew what to say.

“Oh...” was all that Evelyn managed.

Bree took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “Look, I meant to tell you all of this sooner. It’s just that it was kind of hard since you were, you know, ignoring me and everything. But I wanted to tell you that I think it’s cool, and you have my support, so, if anything ever happens, I’m on your side.”

Eve gave Bree a heartfelt smile. And to think she’d had such a poor opinion of her until a few minutes ago. Eve had her stepsister pegged wrong all along.

“Thank you,” she told her sister. “I’m really glad that you could tell me this, now.”

Bree smiled again, and looked her in the eyes with kindness. “Yeah, me too.”

“Hey, you know what?”

“Huh?”

“That was a lot easier than coming out to my mom.”

Bree laughed, and shook her head. “Come on, Eve, let’s go find Antares.”