Deen placed her hand over her heart. “I promise I’m going to behave today while we tour the city. I’ll leave the ‘shenanigans,’ as you put it, for tonight, when we’re in the privacy of our room.”

“Our room?” I got irritated that Deen was claiming my sanctuary. She was merely a guest. And this was my room. “You’re already planning nasty things. I meant the entire day, morning to night, of next to no—

“I have an idea!” Deen played deaf to what I was saying. “I’ll think of you as my sister. Two sisters exploring Vegas, and shopping. That way, I won’t be tempted to do any, erm, shenanigans to you. Isn’t it brilliant?”

“Shenanigans is your new favorite word, huh?” I tilted my head. “I have a feeling that thinking of me as your sister won’t make you behave. Probably would make it worse, is my honest assessment, you kinky weirdo.”

“What’s kinky about it? It’s as innocent as can be. We’re family; your mom accepted me.”

“I’m not sure, but I think this is one of your fantasies.”

“Fantasy? You being my sister? Yes, I’d love you as my sister.”

Her genuineness in her statement made me pause. Then I remembered what happened last night. “I meant the sexual kind of fantasy.”

Deen placed a hand on her chest, looking me over while being obviously fake offended. “How dare you accuse me of such degeneracy? My mind is pure and—”

“Deen!” I cupped her cheeks and stared into her eerie gray eyes. “You and I both know that you should be in jail after what you did to me. I’m sure you have a lot of other shenanigans planned in your head. Be thankful that we can’t read each other’s minds.”

“I am very thankful for that,” Deen said straight. She leaned forward until the tip of our noses touched.

“There you go again,” I said. “No shenanigans today.”

“The whole day?”

“Fine, until, like, maybe ten in the evening. But Mom might stay up late preparing for her talk tomorrow, so keep it down… whatever it’ll be. If Mom finds out the shenanigans going on here—we need to find a better word—I swear to the Mother Core I’ll find a way to get around your Guardian Angel and kill you.”

Deen shook her head, rubbing our noses together. “Don’t be scary like that, Erind. And you won’t need to kill me if your mother finds out about our, um, trysts. I’d instantly die of embarrassment. Is tryst a better word than shenanigans?”

“That’s outright saying it’s going to be sexual. Back to shenanigans, it is. Also, good to know you still have some semblance of shame. I thought you wouldn’t get embarrassed by anything anymore, playing with yourself next to me and—”

Deen jolted back. “You were awake?”

I rolled my eyes. She was supposed to be smarter than me. “Dude, the bed was shaking as if there was a mini-earthquake going on. You know I’m a light sleeper.”

“I-I… I wasn’t doing anything! It was just—”

“Just scratching your back, let’s go with that. Bottom line, we don’t want to get embarrassed here, okay? Best behavior today. For both of us. Pinky promise.” I held out my little finger to her. I hadn’t done this before, so I didn’t know its actual cultural meaning, but I saw this in movies often enough.

Deen hooked her pinky with mine and we shook on it. “Speaking of hiding this from your mom, why did you kiss me by the kitchen counter? She was right there, at the dining table. You’re a worse offender than me! What if she saw us?”

Good that I still retained some advantage over her. “I was just messing with you. I know Mom’s habits—she wasn’t going to look up from her laptop unless we made a sound, which you did, after the kiss. We weren’t in any danger.”

“Fine, I believe you.” Deen didn’t let go of my pinky yet. “Anyway, that’s it. We’re sisters for today.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“That wasn’t what this pinky promise was about. Our promise was to behave for—”

“Can I get one last kiss first?” Deen interjected.

I made a face and retrieved my hand. I needed her to crave me. That was power. “Don’t be so needy, Deen. I already gave you a ‘good morning kiss’ or whatever it’s supposed to be called. That should last you the day. I’m taking a bath.” She gave me that look. “No, I’m not inviting you,” I said. “Go study there, sister.”

After finishing my shower, I dried off and changed my clothes inside the bathroom. I peeked out of the doorway, balancing the towel wrapped around the stacked hair on my head. Deen saw me.

She snorted. “Relax, Erind. Don’t look at me like some kind of criminal lying in wait to assault you.”

“You’re a criminal and you did choke me before,” I said. “Twice. Best be prudent and keep my guard up.”

“Whatever, sister. My turn to take a bath.”

It felt weird that Deen behaved normally. She came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her body but didn’t do anything to me. While I read the assigned cases and started a paper, she wore clothes behind me and fixed herself up on my bed, makeup and hair and all, using the big mirror she brought in. We chatted about schoolwork. Insanely rare to happen these days.

“Want me to put makeup on you?” Deen offered.

“I’m fine,” I replied, typing away on my laptop. “I prefer to be the vampire sister.”

The three of us rode the train even though Deen had a car because it’d be super hard to find parking space in the tourist areas. We’d still end up with a lot of walking, so might as well take the fast train, breezing above the traffic, and spare ourselves the hassle of parking. This was why I rode a bicycle when in La Esperanza. Rest in molten pieces, my bicycle.

If we were going to stay awhile here in Vegas, maybe I could buy a new bike? Perhaps that was my ticket to freedom. No way Deen would try to ride one to keep up with me. I could buy a foldable bike so it’d be easy to bring it on the train.

The railway system of Vegas was pretty good. Fast and sleek trains, efficient lines for passengers, and clean and futuristic stations. It looked like an alien civilization compared to the subway system of New York. However, tons of people were riding the train, so it could still get crowded. Getting packed like a sardine in a futuristic can wasn’t fun at all. But we rode toward the tail end of the morning rush, at a station toward the end of a line, so it wasn’t that crowded and we managed to get seats.

“We’re going to Fremont Street first,” I said, sitting between Mom to my left and Deen to my right. “Mom wants to check some vinyl records. That store opens pretty early. Then we’ll shop for clothes afterward. Mother, daughter, and daughter’s friend bonding time.”

“Daughter and daughter,” Deen whispered to me. Before I could respond, she loudly said, “Ms. Hartwell, do you collect old records?”

“In memory of my husband,” Mom replied. “He loves vinyl records. I keep his stash in my bedroom. On the rare occasion I returned to Las Vegas, I buy a couple or so to increase the collection.”

“That’s so sweet,” Deen said. She elbowed me. “Why have you never told me such a romantic story, Erind?”

To distract myself from the urge to throw Deen out of the train, I changed the topic. “What do we do after shopping?” I asked. “It’s not like I’m going to buy a lot of clothes. Mom, is it okay if we try the casinos?”

“Of course, honey. You are adults,” she said, patting my head and making me feel like a child. “Just put a limit on the spending. Although, you’re not very good at gambling, are you? I recall that you tried it when your uncle Robertsons and Aunt Jemma visited. You burned through your allowance quite quickly.”

“I have an ace up my sleeve.” I pointed at Deen. “She’s super good when it comes to gambling.”

Deen pinched my side. “What are you talking about?”

“Are you saying Deen is talented at counting cards and the like?” Mom asked.

“Not that,” I said. “Deen is just really, really lucky. It’s like she can see the future sometimes.”

“I’m not going to go gambling,” said Deen, frowning when she realized I wanted to use her Guardian Angel to beat the casinos. Such a killjoy.

“Oh, come on,” I said. Our banter continued until we pulled up to the next station.

Unlike the ones before, this had a lot of passengers waiting to get on. They weren’t employees going to work—it was nearly nine in the morning—but rather a huge group of elderly people. They must be in Vegas for medical tourism or something. That was becoming a huge thing here, with groups getting huge discounts for hip reinforcement or something.

“Mom, you stay there,” I said, standing up. Deen followed suit, and we gave our spots to two nice grannies. They graciously thanked us. I couldn’t believe I was such a good person.

Deen and I stood by the doors. I leaned against the corner made by the barrier at the end of the row of seats and the door. Deen stood in front of me. It wasn’t crowded much, so I was still fine. Deen probably sensed I was getting antsy about the situation, so she chatted about schoolwork.

In the next station, the real problem happened when a fucking great migration boarded the train.