“Untitled”

The only girl I’ll ever like is my big sister, Rebecca. The girls at my school like to run around and scream and giggle and play with dolls. My sister will play catch with me and still help me practice soccer, and even watch Power Rangers with me! Sometimes, though, she gets really mushy, like the girls at school, especially when she’s with Patrick, her boyfriend. Lately, though, it seems like they aren’t having much fun at all, and she’s always cranky when she’s around him. It’s like they’re always fighting.

It all started last week after she got home from her soccer game.

“All I know is that Patrick is being WAY too nosy right now,” she was telling my mother.

After that day, Patrick stopped coming by so much (which was fine with me), but my sister seemed less than happy. One day, when we were outside playing catch, I asked her what was wrong.

“Nothing’s wrong, booger-brain, (that’s what she calls me when I ask too many questions) so don’t worry about it,” she said while tossing me the ball.

“Then why isn’t Patrick coming over?” I asked, even though I knew she didn’t want to talk to me about it.

My sister responded with her usual “grown up” retort, “When you get older, you will understand, but until then don’t be so nosy.”

After that remark, she walked inside, but I could tell she was upset because she wouldn’t come sit and watch afternoon cartoons with me. Instead, she went upstairs and called one of her friends. I, of course, only know this because I just happened to be walking by her room at the time and picked up a few words of her conversation. But from those few words I heard, I knew they were talking about Patrick.

“I guess he thinks that I haven’t been paying enough attention to him lately. It’s not intentional, but I’ve just been too busy to sit at his house and watch the World Series! I just don’t have enough time to do unimportant things. If he really wanted to spend time with me, he could come to one of my soccer practices or a volleyball match. Anyways, I’d better go, Patrick will be here soon.”

So that’s when I ran off. She’d be mad if she found out I was listening in.

A few minutes later the doorbell rang, and Rebecca took Patrick into the den. Pretty soon I heard Rebecca’s voice rising above the TV announcer’s.

“I’m ready to do something NOW. Why do you always have to bring up old arguments?”

Then Patrick seemed like he had had enough and fired back, “All I’m saying is that you want a perfect relationship, but then you never have time to spend with me!”

“I’m spending time with you now! Isn’t that good enough?”

Rebecca stormed out of the den and into the entry way where I was standing.

“Did you hear all of that?” she asked me.

“Yeah, I think the whole block did.” Her smile encouraged me, so I continued. “I kind of understand Patrick’s point of view, though.”

“Oh, so you’re on his side?”

“No, it’s just that I understand him because you never seem to have time for me outside of everything else you’re doing, so I can see how he might feel ne…neg…” “Neglected?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s what he was saying…”

I’m not sure if that was what did it, if I really have enough influence on her, but after that, she seemed less upset, and went in the den again. This time, though, she left the doors open, so I sat on the bottom of the steps to watch. Sometimes, fighting is kind of cool to listen to, but this time it really wasn’t, ‘cause I could tell Rebecca was feeling pretty hurt.

Patrick was sitting on the sofa with his head in his hands.

“I think we need to talk about this calmly, Patrick. Can you start?”

Patrick looked up, with kind of a half smile.

“I want to know what you need,” she continued, “so don’t worry. I’m not going to get angry.”

“What I need?” Patrick echoed. “Actually, it’s just you, that’s all I need. I need you to pay attention to me once in a while. What do you need?”

“Well, I just want you to support me in all the stuff I do. I need space now and then, too. So I guess you feel neglected?”

“Well, yeah, sort of. I feel like a second, or third, or even fourth priority in your life. I know you are an incredible person, dedicated to all the activities you are involved in, but when it comes down to the free time you have, I feel like I get tossed to the back burner.”

Rebecca thought for a minute, and then said that she did understand.

“I kind of feel, well, frustrated. It seems like you need me to be with you all the time, and you just don’t see how much time I actually don’t have. It’s really stressful, and I guess that’s probably why we’ve been fighting so much lately.

Patrick smiled, and said he understood. Rebecca walked over and sat on the cushion next to Patrick.

“So what can we do to fix this? I don’t want us to have this constant problem.”

Maybe we should take some time apart?”

After contemplating this for a moment, Patrick’s eyes brightened a little.

“How about we designate one night a week just for the two of us? Every Saturday night, we’ll make sure we have some quality time together.”

“That sounds good. And on Sunday nights, we’ll have the whole evening to ourselves, to do homework, or just relax and have some ‘me-time’!

“We’ll try it for a month and see how it helps. And now we know how to work it out the next time.”

With that, Rebecca leaned over to where she had a view out the doorway to where I was sitting.

“Thanks Christopher!” she called. She must have known I was sitting there the whole time.

They gave each other a long hug. That’s the mushy stuff I don’t like though, so that’s when I left.