Scheduling Conflict

I will never say I have been the perfect sister, but I feel as though the relationship Piper and I have is a strong one. Piper and I grew up with parents who really only liked to keep us around for the inhouse servitude. After I turned 18 I was basically told to pack my bags and not come back. I kept close with Piper because she was now all alone with our parents for two more years. But God that wonderful day when she turned 18 and got to come live with me in my apartment was one I’ll never forget. She’d already had her things boxed up and at 7am sharp on her birthday I came and picked her up. We went out for breakfast and I let her order all the pancakes and sausage she wanted. Afterwards we got to work on lugging all of her belongings up to my second floor apartment and getting her settled in. She didn’t have much, her bed and a few boxes of clothes and knick-knacks. 

She hadn’t been allowed to come visit me and this was her first time seeing my place and meeting my boyfriend, Dylan, who right off the bat wished her a happy birthday and gave her a big bear hug. The three of us got her things squared away and I let her pick where she wanted to go for dinner. We rarely ate out when we were younger but birthday dinners were a tradition, even in our own messed up family. We ended up at a small Chinese restaurant which had the most amazing orange chicken, and afterwards came home where I gave her her birthday present. It was a picture of us when we were just little playing on a tire swing we used to have in the backyard. I had put it in an old Winnie the Pooh picture frame I found in a thrift store a few months back. Winnie the Pooh was one of her favorite cartoons when she was little. I also wrote a long winded letter about how happy I was to have her with us and how much fun we were going to have. 

I’ll admit we both cried a bit at it and she started crying even more when Dylan gave her an envelope with $100 and told her that this would help get a bank account started since he knew our parents wouldn’t let us have one. 

All in all it was an amazing day and while yes, having your little sister be forced to move in with you isn’t ideal, I wouldn't have had it any other way. Our parents have kept to their word in saying we can’t come back and aside from the silent run-ins my mother and I have every now and then at the grocery store, I haven’t heard from them. Piper is all I have at this point and she’s worked her tail off making horrible pay for even worse hours. I’m fortunate enough to be a secretary in an office and make rather good money for the work I do. Poor Piper works the graveyard shifts at a 24/7 convenience store just to make the slightly bigger buck than the day shifters do. I feel as though I never see her anymore because of it. Dylan is similar though he actually works as a night guard in a hospital and has odd hours. He often is coming to cuddle up next to me to go to bed as I am about to wake up for the day. 

It’s a little lonely but we get the bills paid and honestly I’d rather it be me who feels left out than Piper. Dylan is a sweetheart and there’s been talk of getting Piper and Dylan’s friend Zach together, though I have yet to meet Zach. 

Right now though I’m in a bit of a bind. They don’t know that I know what they’re hiding from me. They don’t know that I came home early from work last week to see them on top of each other on Piper’s bed. They don’t know that I saw the picture I had given to Piper of us knocked off of her nightstand along with her lamp and a jar of pens. They don’t know that I quietly walked out of the apartment and went to go cry in my car. 

I am completely shattered but don’t know what to do. I obviously don’t want to live with either of them but it’s my name on the lease and it’s too expensive for me to break it. I’m furious with Dylan and of course with Piper too but still, that’s my baby sister. She just got kicked out of our parents’ house and has nowhere else to go. I was the breadwinner between Dylan and I already and paid more rent than he did, I know for a fact that he and Piper couldn’t make it on their own. I am just so sick to my stomach. My sister. Of all the damn people in the world it was my sister he chose. And of all the people in the world she chose to sleep with him? I just feel so stupid. How long has it been going on? I mean she’s lived with us for nearly eight months now and got the convenience store job nearly immediately after moving in. Did they even wait for all of the moving boxes to be collapsed and thrown away? God… 

I just don’t know what to do. A part of me wants to be petty and move all of Dylan’s belongings into Piper’s room and bake them a congratulatory cake, and another part of me wants to throw them out completely. But like I said, Piper couldn’t afford to live on her own unless she found somewhere way cheaper. Speaking selfishly, honestly I can’t afford to live on my own unless I find somewhere way cheaper which isn’t likely. I feel so broken. I’m scared to confront them, I’m just so angry and sad and out of all the people in the world, I didn’t think Piper would be capable of hurting me like this. She didn’t even have the decency to actually put our photo face down, no, they were so excited they just knocked everything over. I can’t… I can’t think straight. They’ve both asked me if I’m alright in the small window we see each other every day and I don’t know how much longer I can keep saying I’m fine, just tired. 

I need advice but who do you talk to when the person you want to ask the most is having sex behind your back with the person you also want to be talking to?