The States

What Are Siblings For? (Camping, Apparently)

The incessant knocking on the front door finally drives Jake out of bed. 

He plasters on a polite smile in case it's another evangelist.

It isn't. He almost wishes it was when he sees Helena. 

Jake groans. "Why are you here?"

Helena beams, rocking on her heels. "We're going camping! Kinda."

~~~~~

What Helena means by 'kinda' camping is setting up a tent in the backyard. 

It doesn't take long. Either of them could set up or repack a tent in fifteen minutes, and working together it's done in half that. Plus, Helena brought her big pop-up one, which helps. 

Jake isn't quite sure why he let her do this, or why he's helping her take the mattress off the guest bed to stick in the tent. Helena puts the dog beds in it when he isn't looking, which Jake would have done too so he doesn't argue.

Jake sits down on the mattress to take a break, because as easy as it was to set up the tent, it's summer and he's sweating. Parma's already sprawled in her bed, taking up all of the room in it so her brother and sister won't take it over. 

Hazel sets her head on his shoulder, and Jake looks at her. "Do you want something?"

She licks his neck. "Can you maybe not be a sweater right now?"

Helena laughs at him. She always ducks when she comes into the tent, even though she's nowhere near hitting it. 

She chucks his sleeping bag at him, dropping hers onto the other side. 

Soda, the traitor, is following Helena around with his tail wagging. Parma, at least, doesn't like Helena much, but that might just be because Helena calls her Parmasean half the time and it confuses her. 

"You two love me best, don't you?" He mumbles to Hazel and Parma. Hazel licks his knuckles. Jake wipes them off on his shorts. "Yeah, you two are my favorite girls."

Helena sits beside him, rubbing Soda's back, smoothing the fur down and ruffling it back up. "Gem isn't your favorite girl?" Helena sounds bemused. 

Soda whines when she stops petting him. 

Jake looks toward the mew. Gem flaps her wings like she knows she's being discussed. "Gemma nipped me. She's on probation from the favorite girls list."

Helena smiles. "Gem's kind of a diva."

"Yeah," Jake replies. 

"Want to make s'mores?" Helena asks abruptly, and Jake laughs. 

~~~~~

They set a small fire and eat s'mores and hot dogs, and Jake pretends he doesn't notice Helena feeding the dogs small pieces of hot dog. 

They're both roasting more marshmallows when Jake addresses the elephant in the room. "Why are you doing this?"

"Um, because you're my brother and I like spending time with you?" 

Jake looks at her. "Helena."

Helena looks back. "Jake."

Jake shakes his head, pulling the marshmallow out of the fire and blowing it out before he puts graham crackers on it. "You don't do stuff like this. You don't just show up."

Helena doesn't bother with graham crackers, just smushes the marshmallow between two pieces of chocolate. She chews for a minute before she responds. "It's September. I don't know what day, but I know you met that asshole in September and you've probably been beating yourself up for not seeing the signs and being an idiot or whatever. Someone needs to do something to get you to stop thinking about it."

She's a week off, but she isn't wrong. Helena takes another bite, chewing angrily. "You are an idiot, but not for that."

Jake is a little touched. "Don't chew and speak at the same time."

Helena sticks out her tongue, showing half-chewed marshmallow and chocolate, and Jake throws a marshmallow at her head. 

(Hazel and Soda fight over the marshmallow, and then Parma eats it while they're growling at each other.)

~~~~~

It's been a long time since Jake's been in a sleeping bag. 

Helena sets up her laptop between them, scrolling through Netflix. 

"Thank you." Jake mumbles. 

Helena keeps scrolling, pausing for a minute on a movie. "You do know it wasn't your fault, right? You took the same psych courses I did. Abusers know how to be charming."

Jake wants to say it is, it is, he should have known better, that at the very least he shouldn't have let it get as bad as it did. Instead, he says, "I know."

Maybe if he says it enough, he'll start to believe it. 

Helena pushes the laptop away. "Sit up for a second."

Jake does, even though he generally makes it a rule not to listen to Helena when she makes cryptic demands. 

Helena hugs him, almost too tight to be comfortable. 

It takes a moment before Jake wraps his arms around her, reciprocating the hug, but he does.

Helena doesn't say anything mushy because neither of them are that kind of people, but the sentiment is there. 

Helena lets go, and Jake does the same a few seconds later. 

She settles the laptop back in between them. "Look, this one's got Nicholas Cage in it."

Jake smiles. "It's either going to be great or horrible."

Helena clicks play, tucking her arms back into her sleeping bag so she can zip it up more. 

"You know, we should do this again sometime," Jake says as the opening credits play. Helena's sleeping bag rustles as she turns to look at him. "For real. We could go camping up in the Rockies or something."

Helena smiles. "That would be nice."

a mew is an enclosure for trained falcons

this was inspired by a Jenna Marbles video, so idk what that says about me.