I cannot believe she forgot again! This is the third time my sister, Sam has left me after practice in the past two weeks. This time, I’m telling mom.

This kind of think never happened until Sam met her new boyfriend, Jake. Jake, even his name is bad news. I remember when Sam first told me about Jake. She came in my room around three in the morning smelling of beer and cigarettes and giggling like a five year old. She began by telling me she just got back from a party as if it wasn’t obvious enough and she met a guy. I tried to keep my eyes open while trying to interpret what she was saying; along with breathing through my mouth so I didn’t have to smell her beer breath.

“He’s really great, Michael,” she told me then taking a seat on my bed. It was clear, she was going to be there awhile.

I mumbled under my breath hoping she would get the point and go away. But of course she didn’t and continued to mumble on. I dozed off missing everything she told me yet not really caring.

“Michael, are you even listening to me?” She asked before sighing loudly and walking out of the room running into the door on her way out.

“Ow!” She yelled then began to laugh hysterically at herself.

Ever since that night Sam was barely around. Every now and then I would hear her stumble into the house tripping over everything possible. It was easy for Sam to go out every night between mom working two jobs and never being home and me covering for her. We had a deal, I would cover for her if she picked me up from practice and took me home before she went out for the night. That is why, I repeat, I’m telling mom.



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So, it turns out I didn’t have to tell mom. As if, Sam sleeping until noon and the random cat gathered outside of our house that follow me home every day that Sam forgets me wasn’t obvious enough for mom, Sam coming home drunk at the same time mom arrived home from work really got mom’s attention. Sam was grounded for a month yeah mom, very effective when you’re never home and her only way to see Jake was to invite him over. I think that’s MY punishment.

Well, Jake came over for dinner last night and it turns out he has a lot more going for him than I thought. He is trying to beat the world record for the number of body tattoos, is there a record for that? he also has a large collection of skateboards of all different kinds trying to ignore the fact that that’s his only form of transportation the collection actually sounded quite interesting.

I barely talked at dinner; mom and Sam did most of the talking. Jake tried to talk to me I’m guessing because he felt just as awkward as I did but I decided if I heard him say “dude” or “rad” one more time I wouldn’t be able to hold my emotions in.

Jake left a couple hours later and I think it was pretty clear that mom and I were not impressed. surprise, surprise Apparently, Jake wasn’t so impressed with us either by the impression I got when Sam came back in the house crying after her long talk with Jake out on the porch.

Sam came into my room that night.

“So, if you didn’t already know, Jake broke up with me tonight, he said my family was too weird for him,” She began to tell me what had happened. I find it quite insulting for him to judge me so quickly, I didn’t even talk.

“I’m sorry, Sam” I said back as sympathetic as possible. Why should I be sorry? I didn’t even talk!

Sam and I finished our conversation BEFORE I went to bed that night and on a good note at that. She apologized for not picking me up from practice as promised and then went to bed.

Sam’s apology would be a lot more effective if I wasn’t walking home after practice today, AGAIN!