Defensively

“I... I’m planning on going with some friends of mine. Why? You got a problem with that?” Sarah spat out before looking a little guilty at her own reaction.

“No honey I was just curious. All I want is to make sure you enjoy yourself” Mom reassured, placing one of her hands on top of one of Sarah’s to show sincerity.

You were also curious as to whether Sarah was really planning on just going with her cheerleader friends but even with everything she had revealed to you in secret, she hadn’t mentioned any potential boyfriend/girlfriend. In either case, now wasn’t the time to ask her with three other people in the room and her aggressive response had cut that topic of conversation short a lot sooner than you had expected. You had a topic in mind that you hoped to fill the void and you had already been struggling to fit it in smoothly so now felt like your best shot.

“Oh by the way, I was thinking of maybe going to see some of Emma's relatives later this week. Might end up being a weekend trip if you’re alright with us doing that?” You asked, seeing Emma momentarily confused before she realised what the ‘weekend trip’ would actually be.

“Y-yeah I haven’t had a proper visit in a while and they’ve been asking me to stay over whenever I visit with my Mom. Plus they wanted to see Max as it's been a while” Emma explained, quickly pulling out an excuse that almost made you believe they had actually asked for you to go round.

The quick back-up from Emma seemed to convince Mom that your story was credible but she still seemed to have some doubts.

“Well I’m happy with you going but… I’m not sure if it's a good idea for the two of you to go up there on your own…” Mom commented, looking at you with a slight frown as if she worried you would react badly.

“Oh we were gonna get Grace to come along with us if you're worried about us being on our own. I didn’t expect you to agree to us being on our own so we’d already planned on asking her” you added, seeing Mom look relieved that you had already thought about this.

“Oh good. Well hmmm… I don’t see why not. I’ll let Grace know I’m okay with it later on once she’s finished work” Mom answered, putting a wrench in your plans considering Grace was completely oblivious to the trip at the moment.

You knew you couldn’t tell her not to, otherwise the two of you would look guilty. Mom didn’t notice your internal dilemma and continued the conversation.

“Oh! We can have a girls weekend! How about it you two?” Mom excitedly asked your sisters, getting nods of approval from the both of them as they continued to eat their dinner.

The expression on Mom’s face told you that this dinner had gone as well as she wanted it to and she somehow managed to finish the food on her plate and bring out dessert for you all while continuing to make plans for the weekend. Conversations continued as the meal started winding down and Emma was also sporting a smile given that nothing close to what she imagined as her worst-case scenario had happened.

Eventually, Lucy decided to be the first to leave the table and that seemed to be the cue for everyone to start wrapping up. Sarah also seemed to appreciate you letting her talk with Emma earlier so she headed off to the kitchen to start working on the dishes in your stead, leaving just you, Emma and Mom still sat at the table.

Mom was the first to speak up again but she looked to see if your sisters were out of earshot before she spoke in hushed tones.

“Have either of you seen Sarah hanging out with any boys at school? It's just that I worry about her a little bit. I’m sure you’ll remember that Lucy was a bit more… straightforward when it came to this sort of stuff and you’ve been obsessed with Emma since you first met so that was easy to spot” Mom started explaining, causing you to slightly blush at her admission and a quick look to Emma showed that she was trying not to laugh as Mom continued.

“But Sarah is a bit of a closed book to me at the moment.” Mom ended with a small frown, wanting to know more about her daughter without being considered a busybody.

“I’ve seen her with her cheerleader friends and sometimes they have their boyfriends hang around in their group but most of the times I’ve seen them it's just Sarah and the other girls” you responded.

“Yeah pretty much the same as what I’ve seen as well” Emma added.

Mom still seemed to be a bit nervous about it but you couldn’t do anything about it if Sarah didn’t want anyone to know about what she kept hidden. She had already told you about being bisexual but you didn’t want to start telling Mom any lies about who Sarah hung around with when the truth was believable enough on its own. Any meddling on your part was bound to backfire so you decided to stay out of it for now and wait until either Mom or Sarah decided they wanted to talk.

Mom was still deep in thought about what she could do with Sarah but you felt that it was time for you and Emma to now head upstairs.

“Is it okay for me and Emma to head up to my room?… I’ll keep the door open” you asked, thinking that even though you were now 18, Mom would still get worried if the two of you were behind closed doors.

“No, it's fine, I’m gonna trust you with the door closed. That’s not permission to do anything drastic or anything Grace would be horrified that I let happen under my roof. The same goes for you as well Emma. Just try to make sure that my trust in the two of you isn’t misplaced, got it?” Mom firmly replied, making you surprised at her belief in you.

You quickly nodded to her question and although Emma had a blush on her face after the topic had taken a less than innocent turn, you both got up out of your chairs and headed out towards the stairs.

“Well, I didn’t expect that” you admitted, letting Emma know your thoughts as you made it to the top of the stairs.

“Neither did I. I know we aren’t planning on doing anything tonight with the meeting and all but… at least it's something for the future I guess” replied Emma, not quite sure how to put her feelings into words.

You felt the exact same as you entered your room. Something between embarrassment at knowing Mom was aware of what you were doing and excitement that you could finally have a place you and Emma could go unsupervised without needing everyone out of the house. You knew it was stupid given that Mom was one of your subjects but it made you understand what it probably felt like to have a normal teenage relationship, minus the all-seeing, all-knowing app that had uprooted your life.

For now, you invited Emma inside your room and the both of you sat down on the bed facing the door. With Sarah still downstairs doing the dishes the both of you still had a few minutes to prepare before the time came for Emma to make her decision. You had planned this for what felt like hours by this point but you still felt the need to hold her hand as the seconds ticked by.