A Little Misunderstanding
Deep, deep down I love my older brother, I do. However, that doesn’t make me want to strangle him any less. If I had to put it into words it’s like a mom listening to her four-year-old child spout nonsense about what happened at daycare. Now let me tell you it’s a little too late into the night for me to be listening to nonsense, especially from a 23 year old.
“Repeat that one more time for me?” I say, still half asleep. I didn’t really listen to him the first time, but he won’t leave me alone and I’ve learned it’s sometimes better to play along.
“I saw dad with some ginger woman today!” he whispers loudly attempting to keep quiet enough to not wake up our parents. He parked himself on the right side of my bed hovering over me slightly.
“What are you talking about?” I ask a little more awake, smacking his phone out of my face. My eyes are squinting trying to adjust to the newfound light.
“I got off work early so I walked over to dad’s office to see if I could catch a ride,” he begins, “but when I got there, I saw him getting in the car with a tall ginger haired woman.”
I honestly don’t know where this is going. However, I’m debating on whether to just push him off the bed and go back to sleep. I can just imagine it like a cartoon playing in my head, but it would be too loud and our parents would definitely hear it.
I think he sees my confusion over his small but not very informational story. He looks me straight in the eyes and puts his hand on my shoulder as if to comfort me, “He might be cheating on mom.”
I don’t say anything. I’m dead silent, speechless. I really hope this is some weird dream, because otherwise I think mom and dad are going to end up waking after all.
“Cora, did you hear what I say?” he speaks up again after about a minute.
“Shhh, Yes,” I reply, “I just needed a minute to process so much stupid all at once.”
“I’m telling you the truth,” he says. His hands waved in the air dramatically along with the light shining over my room. His eyes are wide and he looks like he’s out of breath. However, I’m not surprised though, delusion can do that to you.
“Okay, I believe you saw something,” I say, “but let’s not jump to conclusions. Don’t start branding dad with the scarlett ‘A’ just yet.”
“The what?” he asks, “Why are you talking about letters when mom and dad’s marriage could be jeopardy.”
I’m going to ignore that first part even though we both had the same English teacher in high school who assigned us the same book. Then I’m going to focus on the second part, “Exactly, Aiden. Could be ruined.”
“I’m telling you I know what I saw,” he says.
“Let’s do this. We’ll wait till later when it’s actually day time and I’ll take a look into it myself.”
“Are you crazy?” he jumps slightly on the bed causing the bedpost to thump against the wall.
I shush him once again, he looks around sheepishly.
Am I crazy? I’m not the one out of the two of us who looks like they’re losing it.
“What if he is cheating? He can’t know that we know.”
“We know nothing,” I wave my finger between the both of us before just pointing it at him, “You are delusional.”
“You know what? I don’t think you even believe me,” he says getting up from the bed and heading towards the door, “I’m going to handle this myself.”
I turn on the lamp next to me and jump onto my knees pointing my finger at him as if I was scolding him, “Don’t you dare do anything. We will talk about this when we’ve both had some sleep.” Not that I think that will do anything.
He just leaves the room with no answer and does not close my door.
You know what? I say in my head to myself in my perfect impression of Aiden. I got the last word so I’ll take that as a win.
I get up from my bed to close the door, but locking it this time. Something I should have done before I went to sleep earlier. I go back under the warm covers and fall back asleep.
…
The next morning I wait at the table sipping my coffee tiredly and patiently waiting for my brother to arrive at the table. I really hope he listened to me last night and doesn’t start anything this morning. I don’t think he will, but better safe than sorry.
Aiden finally enters the room silently, but that only makes me more suspicious. He’s followed in by our dad.
“Where’s Morgan? I thought she was coming over for breakfast.” asks our mother.
Morgan is our dad’s old childhood friend and now business partner. She’s also our favorite aunt. She’s loads of fun to be around, always has the craziest stories and no filter. Though those stories are saved for when mom and dad leave the room.
“Oh, she’s coming. Probably running a little late.” he says. He looks like he’s holding back a smile but I could just be seeing things.
My brother sits there and mocks our dad, but he’s too busy looking at his phone to notice. I kick him under the table and he yelps covering it up with a cough. I glare at him signaling for him to stop.
A moment later we hear footsteps come from the front door and in comes Aunt Morgan. I look at my mom who also has the same wide eyes and jaw dropped expression as me. My dad laughing at our faces. However, this is the moment Aiden choses to not pay attention to us.
“Aiden,” I whisper over to my brother, ignoring me. I call out to him again and again, and he ignores me. Until finally I kicked him under the table. He was about to yell at me when he looked over at Morgan and saw what I was looking at.
His eyes widened at the same realization as me.
There stood Aunt Morgan who matched my brother’s description even though it was only a couple of words. Morgan was indeed tall, but she was also blonde. Though I guess that’s in the past, because there she stood tall with ginger hair.
“Morgan would be more interested in mom than dad,” I say without thinking and just like my Aunt Morgan my filter is sometimes completely gone.
“What?!” shouts my dad, mom, and Morgan at the same time.
Aiden stands up from his seat with his hands out in front of him stopping us and catching our attention, “This is all one little misunderstanding.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose and shake my head. I can't help but think that I put myself in this position.
I should have just pushed him off the bed.
Tiana Ibarra is a junior at California State University, San Marcos majoring literature and writing. She has rows of books she has yet to catch up to reading, but still she will try as well as buy more books. Next to her enjoyment of reading she loves to play with her pug, Paco.
