Author's note: Sisterly Love has been completely reloaded and edited a little for content. For the compete, uncut version, check out my homepage http://mine.at/thelair or http://mine.at/mblow0t5 Enjoy!

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"You would not believe the wonderful day I've had." Tristen said, bursting into Lara's room and flopping into the chair in front of her desk. Lara took off her read glasses and looked up from the Memoirs of Cleopatra.

"Do tell." She said, amused at her younger sister.

"Well, first when I got there all the kids were so happy to see me and we had a greet session and I got to talk with the kids and I told them that I was a singer and they all wanted me to sing to them and there was this little girl named Claire who was so adorable!" Tristen said, excited.

Lara pushed the book to the side of her desk, giving her sister her full attention. That morning when she had sent Tristen to the orphanage she felt like her mother the first day of school. Lara had refused to go and had even hid herself in the attic of the manor the night before in a protest of attending school. However, once Lara was actually in school she had a wonderful time and couldn't wait to go back.

"And then we all had lunch, which was really good. Then the girls had some lessons and since Claire was too young for lessons she stayed and helped me do some washing up. She is so adorable." Tristen beamed.

"That's lovely Tristen." Lara smiled. "How were the other ladies in the staff?"

"They were great! Very warm and friendly. I can't wait until tomorrow!" She said. "Oh, I'm going to go tell Bryce." Tristen rushed out of the room without another word in search of her friend. Lara leaned back in her chair and smiled. Something was finally going right for Tristen.

***

"Lara?" Hillary asked, poking his head in the room. "Are you free?"

"Of course." Lara said, putting her book down again. "What can I do for you, Hillary?" She asked.

"Well, I wanted to talk to you about Tristen." Hillary said, entering Lara's study and closing the door after him.

"What about her? She's not giving you a hard time, is she?" Lara asked, frowning.

"Oh no, nothing like that, Lara." Hillary assured her, taking a seat in front of her. "I was simply wondering if the continuation of her relationship with Alex West is going to be beneficiary to her." He said.

"What do you mean?" Lara asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"I saw the two together yesterday. Tristen went on and on about her new job, Alex was completely ignoring her and kept asking about you, then they had a fight and Alex left." He shook his head. "I don't understand them. Anyways, I don't think staying with Alex would be good for her. They seem to bring out the worst in each other."

"Well, there's not much I can do about her relationship with Mr. West." Lara admitted.

"Maybe you could have a little influence on her. Tristen seems so happy, it would be a shame to ruin all this over a grouchy man." Hillary said.

Lara smiled. "I'll see what I can do."

***

"So, how was work today?" Lara asked, sitting down beside her sister. Tristen was sprawled on the couch in the TV room cuddling a large pillow and nibbling on a bag of Twizzlers. "Tristen? How was work?" Lara repeated when her sister gave no answer.

Tristen wiped the tears from her cheeks and glanced at her sister. "This is my third bag of Twizzlers. How do you think my day went?" She asked.

"What happened? You seemed so happy?"

"It's Alex." Tristen said, miserably.

"What did he do now?"

"He was so rude last night and he didn't care about my job or anything." Tristen said, tears welling in her eyes again. "I thought he would be happy for me, and he didn't even care." She sobbed.

Lara wrapped her arms around her sister and held her. "It's okay, Tristen. Alex can be a prick at times, can't he?"

"Yes." Tristen muttered, hugging her sister back. "I don't even know why I'm dating him anymore."

"Then why continue to go out with him?"

"You mean, I should dump him?" Tristen asked, pulling back from the embrace.

"Well, if all he's doing is making you miserable then why should you stay with him?"

"I don't know, but I mean, maybe I should give him another chance. I don't think he's adjusted to living without me yet. And we haven't had sex in weeks." Tristen said, biting her lower lip. "Maybe that's what he's so grouchy."

"Are you withholding or something?"

"No, of course not. But with everyone else in the house I didn't think that we should. I mean, I don't want Hillary walking in on us or anything."

"Hillary doesn't barge into bedrooms when you're entertaining male company." Lara said.

"Personal experience?" Tristen winked.

"Well, sometimes. Although, Bryce hate my last boyfriend so I usually went over to his place. Have you been to Alex's new apartment?"

"No. He hasn't invited me over. And the weirdest thing, he smelled like cheap perfume last time I saw him."

Lara raised an eyebrow.

"Don't look at me like that, he would never cheat on me." Tristen smiled reassuringly.

"Well, if you say so. Oh, by the way, Bryce said something about seeing Lord Of The Rings tonight."

"Oh perfect! I've been dying to see that."

"Come on, let's go track him down." Lara lead her sister out of the TV room, hoping that this one hundred and eighty degree turn in her life wouldn't turn into a three hundred and sixty degree turn.

***