"The Farron Sisters"

"All right, here it comes. Just don't breathe for like two seconds."
Lightning did her best. In three seconds she felt the needle and in four she winced.
"Done."
"Whoa, looking cute!" Serah gazed down at her, her bright blue eyes gleaming with delight. "Silver was definitely the right color!"
Lightning frowned at her sister. "Cannot believe this is what you wanted for your birthday." She sat up to take a look at what the damage was. Her belly button was completely gone now, replaced with a dangling chain. She nodded at the man holding the needle, a nervous expression on his face.
"It's uh, fifty."
Lightning handed him an extra five.
The Farron sisters stepped outside into the cool breeze of their ocean town. The sun was beginning to make its way down, leaving its imprint in the clouds as it went - a spectrum of auburn and copper colors.
"So now," Serah tugged at her older sister, Lightning's sleeve. "We gotta go pick you out a swimsuit."
Lightning couldn't help but laugh. The fact that Serah had wanted to spend her own present for her seventeenth birthday on a belly button piercing for her older sister was odd enough.
"Okayyy, two things – one, you know I wouldn't be caught dead wearing a swimsuit, and two, that gift you made me buy for me was expensive enough."
The smell of beach wood wafted into the air as the Farron sisters continued across the boardwalk towards the intersection leading to the suburbs.
The houses were mostly still now as the sidewalk lamps began to light up as the sun continued its way down. Already the cicadas had begun singing their somber chorus along with the whirring melodies of the moths.
Suddenly, Serah jumped in front of Lightning. "This one's on me! Let's go to that boutique in the mall. I'm paying this time!"
Lightning frowned again. "With what, the money you have saved up from Christmas?" She sighed after she realized that that was exactly what her sister planned on using. "You realize that Aunt and Uncle Stewart probably aren't heading out this way any time soon again, right?"
"I don't care. It's my money, and this is what I want to use it for." Serah's eyes shone with defiance in the beams of the setting sun.
"But you've been saving it for nearly three years now!" Lightning paused, frustrated with herself for yelling at her sister. It just felt hollow, agreeing to allow her sister to buy her gifts on her birthday. Of course it had been Serah's choice, but as her older sister, Lightning still felt at odds. She would have figured that she'd be the one buying gifts for Serah.
If she had been able to afford them, of course. "Let's just…go," she said finally.
They walked in silence for a while, until Lightning turned to see her sister's eyes glistening.
"Now what?"
Serah refused to look back at her. "You just have to ruin moments like these, too."
"I'm not –" Lightning stepped in front of her sister. "I'm not saying I don't appreciate it. You just….you know you can't spend it on something like this."
Serah continued to look at the ground.
Lightning let out a long sigh. "Why is it that you want to buy me a swimsuit – for your birthday, anyway?"
"Forget it." Serah said as she continued walking.
Cars hissed past the sidewalk, evening workers eager to get home.
"No, tell me."
"Well," Serah quickly brushed a few fingers past her eyes. "I wanted us to go to the beach again. Together. And you don't really have anything cute to wear."
"I don't?" Lightning asked, a faint smile finding its way onto her face.
"Yeah, you don't. Nothing to help you show off."
"Help me…show off?" Lightning elbowed her sister playfully. "Come on, let's head home. There's still some ice cream left over in the fridge."
Serah nodded, finally able to smile again.

There was just something about evening shifts that Lightning really hated.
Maybe it was the fact that she was the only officer correctly doing her job. Or maybe it was the fact that she was the only officer attempting to correctly do her job while simultaneously running up walls.
She examined her reflection in the restaurant's mirror.
Her short, rose colored hair had been pulled back into a tight ponytail, and her uniform was straightened out completely without any creases in sight. Serah would always playfully chide her when she saw her older sister this way. She'd say that Lightning looked 'too strict' - as if she incapable of enjoying herself. Lightning found herself smiling at the recollection of her younger sister's sentiment. But she was an officer on duty, not someone out looking for thrills. She had a job to do.
She paused to take a deep breath in and out before opening the door back into the restaurant, The Tiki Cove.
This had been the third time she had visited the place tonight, always catching her fellow officers on duty pulling back drinks and reveling in sloshy, drunken delight. Somehow, the sight of a fellow uniform on patrol did nothing to remind her coworkers that they were still on duty, wearing their badges.
She shrugged it off, as she did so many other things, and decided it was finally time to head on into the beach.
The dark ocean waves lapped up against the sand, misting foam along the shore. The sky above was lit by a pearlescent moon enshrouded in pale and blue frosty clouds. The night was still, save for the ruckus a nearby group of party goers were storming up.
A few of the party goers gaped at Lightning as she approached them.
"It's a free country, officer!" One of the girls shouted out.
"Good evening. Do you folks know what time it is?" Lightning placed her hands on her hips, putting on her best scowl.
"Whoa…." One of the men grinned at her, staggering to stand still. "Dammmmn, I didn't know they made cops this hot."
His friends all laughed with him.
"You folks are making –" Lightning struggled to talk loudly without shouting over their continuing laughter – "you're making a little too much noise for this time of the day."
"Ask her when she goes off duty, Drew!" One of the men urged the staggering drunk.
"I'll ask – I'll ask! Hey, so you should, you should totally join us, officer." 'Drew' said in between hiccups. "I would love to get you drunk enough…" More laughter.
"Come party with us!"
"Take that suit off!"
Lightning frowned. "Keep the noise down." And then she continued on. She was irritated, beyond a doubt, but this had become an occupational regularity. And there wasn't a whole lot she could do about it, either. The law permitted rich college kids the chance to party it up at the beach for as long as they were rich and their parents able to make generous donations to fundraising events.
It was something that Lightning had become all too used to by now, both on duty and off duty.
She found herself wondering if that was the reason she rejected all of her sister's proposed beach dates.
A little ways from the party goers, she came across a couple laid out onto a beach blanket. They both seemed asleep, but Lightning knew better. She leaned in close to see their veins and how their breath palpated.
She stepped into the Tiki Cove once more, finally requesting some formal help. Her fellow officers rolled their eyes as they ran out towards the beach.
Sergeant Juarez requested that she stay back and offered her a drink. She declined, as she always did.
"Why didn't you cuff them, Farron?" the Sergeant's eyes had been wobbly a few moments before, but now they narrowed to focus on Lightning.
"I, well sir, I –"
"You can't keep doing this, Farron," the Sergeant interjected. "You're going to have to cuff someone eventually. It's just one of the many things that we cops do, you know?"
Lightning nodded, her gaze fixated on the floor. "I know."

~

"And that's all I have for you this morning," Captain Amodar concluded, folding back files into his folder.
Lightning stifled a sigh, knowing fully well that the meeting wasn't over. And she was right. It was a full hour and a half later of her coworkers asking trivial questions to feign interest before they were let out.
Lightning walked sullenly to the elevator, her body still arguing with her for losing a full night of sleep. She couldn't wait to fall into her bed when she got home.
Just when she taught that she'd have the elevator to herself, Mark came staggering in. "Heyyy Lightning! Morning!"
"Morning."
If there was one person she could do with significantly less of a presence in her life, it was Lieutenant Mark. He had that grin on his face; the creepy one that he thought came across as flirty. He waited for Lightning to press the button leading to the parking lot before forcing a laugh and stating that he was headed the same way.
This was the fourth time this week. The fourth time he tried, in a not so subtle way, to follow her home. He'd start with bringing up something trivial about the morning meeting, followed by complaining about how he was tired of being single, only to end up boasting that he just hadn't met anyone who deserved him.
Deserved him.
It only took five seconds of silence before he started this time.
"So…what Captain Amodar said about those –"
Lightning stared at the elevator doors with a stony glaze, letting the self-proclaimed 'party animal's' words drift over her head. She could feel him eyeing her up from the side of her eye. He liked to do that quite a bit.
Finally, the elevator doors opened.
"So, so Lightning –"He grabbed her shoulder.
She felt like punching him. "We're all going to Mahalo's tonight. It's–"
"I work." She continued walking, leaving him to continue ponder ways with how much slicker he could appear.

Serah was waiting for her on the sole couch in the living room when she got home.
"I'm not going to college."
Lightning closed the door behind her, her gaze now fixated completely on her sister.
"Yeah? And when did you decide this? Right now, when I finally come home from a hellish shift?"
"I already decided on it a while ago." Serah stood up, her eyes returning Lightning's gaze. "I just…couldn't figure out how to tell you."
Lightning pressed her hand against her forehead. "So you decide that now, when – well, never mind that." She moved her hand away from her face. "Do you even realize what you're saying?"
"I do. I do, and I'm not going. It's what I decided and it's final."
"Serah…" Lightning grimaced. "You realize that this is what mom and dad wanted, right? That the little bit of money they had, they left in the will for your education? So you could be the first person in this family to go to college?"
Serah stood silently for all of three seconds. "I don't care. It's not what I wanted."
Lightning glared at her sister, who continued to stand before her, unflinching. She then turned back towards the door.
"Wait, where are you going?" Serah asked after her.
Lightning slammed the door shut in response.

The evening sun was obnoxiously bright.
Lightning kept her sunglasses on while she patrolled the boardwalk.
Most of the shops had had their doors thrown open, welcoming the cool summer breeze in along with customers.
Soft jazz music drifted out of the nearby tavern. Lightning peeked inside as she walked by, spotting a bartender standing motionlessly behind the counter.
She continued on, passing by all sorts of people. There were a few locals, people who had integrated an evening walk around the boardwalk into their daily routines. Lightning recognized a few of them, and she nodded at them as they passed by.
A stumpy white terrier raced past her, his fur brushing against her leg. A boy soon followed, laughing in between shouting his dog's name. "Winston!"
Lightning smiled. She had always been fond of dogs. There was a scotty dog at the local shelter she would have given up anything to adopt, but her mother had been allergic.
Lightning's smile faded at this recollection.
There were very few times were she could remember her parents while maintaining a smile. And even less when remembering her mother.
She had to stop in her tracks momentarily. Why had she allowed herself to dwell so much?
She was usually able to cut herself short before her memories of that time dug too deep.
Perhaps it was the lack of sleep. Or the spat with Serah.
She continued walking, a shop's outside stall drawing her eye. There was a pair of peacock earrings on sale. Serah could never seem to own enough of those.
Lightning allowed herself the brief break before she continued on.

"What I'd like for all of us to focus on this week –". Captain Amodar finished his meeting a good hour later. A new record.
"Oh, and Officer Farron, I'd like for you to remain behind. The rest of you are dismissed."
That was new. Lightning stayed in her seat as everyone save for Lieutenant Mark and the Captain left.
The Captain waited a good six seconds before speaking.
"Officer Farron. As of this moment, we are letting you go."
Four seconds before Lightning realized what had been said.
"E-excuse me?"
"You're discharged from duty."
"No, I understand that, but – but, why?"
Amodar's eyes left Lightning's. "We just don't feel that this job is the right fit for you."
"Not the right, but….I don't understand, I –"
"We think its best we go our separate ways," Mark chimed in.
Lightning looked up at him. There was a sort of malice in his eyes. It seemed to almost be tinged with a hint of glee.
"I've been a badge carrying officer of this department for almost a full year now. How is it that –"
"And that's more than enough time for us to decide that you would be better suited elsewhere."
Lightning's lip began to quiver. "So you – you plan on transferring me?"
Amodar opened his mouth and left it open a good second before speaking.
"As of right now, no. We simply want you turn in your badge and allow us to part ways."
Lightning remained seated.
"I knew this would happen." Mark decided to chime in again. "She's become hysterical." Lightning's hand curled into a fist. She most certainly was not becoming hysterical. Just really, really fed up.
"We should have had security in her beforehand to escort her. Hopefully they can get here quickly –"
Lightning stood up, tossing her badge on the table. Then, without another second to spare, she walked out.

Serah was waiting for her again when she got home.
"I made you some of that orange tea you really like."
Lightning took a seat at the table, an aging mahogany piece. She had planned on it being one of the first things in the house that she would have replaced. When she could afford it.
"I got fired today."
Serah turned towards Lightning as she poured her sister a cup, shock showing in her face but her mouth remaining closed.
She placed the cup before her sister and then took a seat beside her. "Do you know why it is that I decided against college?"
"Why?"
"I knew….I knew we wouldn't be able to afford it."
Lightning allowed several seconds to pass before speaking. "The whole reason why I took those evening shifts."
"R-really?"
"Yup."
"What did they say?"
"Doesn't matter. I just wasn't a good enough cop."
Serah placed her hand on her sister's shoulder. "That's not…"
"I wasn't a good enough cop, I wasn't a good enough student, I wasn't a good enough daughter. And I'm definitely not a good enough sister."
Serah put her head on Lightning's shoulder, tears streaming down her face.
"I like you….I like you better as a sister than all of those things."
Lightning glanced up at the bouquet of withered petals hanging from the wall above the kitchen. She clasped her sister's hand in her own.
For once she was no longer counting the seconds between moments.