Hi! It’s me! Lily!
Happy Valentine’s Day! I have chocolate for you! Well, I don’t. I ate all the chocolate. But I have a chocolate box for you! It… smells like chocolate! It’s something!!!
Hey! I have a flower for you too! I’m a Lily! I’m your flower! You can put me in a vase and make sure I get sunlight and water! I’ll be happy!
Or I’m a silly billy.
Maybe I’m a silly billy Lily! Like I’ve been saying! SILLY!!!
Okay okay okay. I’ll give you a chocolate. Here.
🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎
Today… was not a good day.
Oh, it started out that way. This morning Sabby and Dave made sure we had their telephone number and all that, packed up a few things, gave me some instructions and set me up to be able to order food, and then skedaddled. Beth was nice. She just went off and studied. She likes studying so it’s not a huge deal, she can study whether Sabby’s teaching her or not. Well, David decided that wasn’t gonna fly. He just went off to play games.
I told him that he had to study.
He said he wanted to play games.
I told him that he was my responsibility and that he was supposed to study.
He told me to pound sand.
I called Sabby. She told me to take his games.
So I did.
Oh, that did not go over well. Finally she said to put him on the phone, and I could hear her yelling across the room. She said that she and Dave didn’t get any time to themselves, that this was Valentine’s day, and if she had to come back home he wasn’t going to see his games or console until summer break. And she wasn’t kidding, either. She was cheesed. And I didn’t blame her. I was a little upset too. I was put in charge and the least he could do was let me do what Sabby told me to do.
He was still giving me lip. Well, you know me, people. I’m pretty easygoing. I don’t usually get angry, I just kind of go with the flow, you can count the times I’ve been angry, truly angry, on maybe one or two hands since I started this diary. I got angry.
I told David that I didn’t know what his problem was, that he had been treating me and his entire family like crap for as long as I could remember, that all he ever seemed to do was get in trouble, and I was tired of it. Just do what you want, I said, when Sabby comes back I’ll tell her everything he did, good or bad, and then I was done.
I don’t hate the kid, I really don’t, he’s my little brother, but I’m just sick of it.
He looked at me like I’d grown a second head. All he could say was “You don’t get mad.”
“Not usually,” I said. “But you’ve managed it.”
“Why are people always mad at me?”, he asked. There was actually a tear in his eye. Sigh.
“Because you don’t think about other people!”, I said. “I know you’re nine and I try to be understanding but… but… GRRRRR” and I stomped off to my room to study.
Things were quiet until lunchtime. Beth was studying, I was studying, and I honestly didn’t give a flying fig what David was doing.
Finally around lunch I called everyone down and asked them what they wanted for lunch. David and Beth wanted hamburgers, and you know what, why not. So I ordered some food, and while we were waiting for it to arrive, we just kind of sat around the kitchen table.
“Lily?”
“What?” I said. I was still a little cheesed.
“I’m sorry,” he said, and he gave me a kind of shy side-hug.
“For what?” I wasn’t letting him off that easy.
“For not letting you be in charge.”
“You know I’m only in charge because Sabby wanted me to be.”
“I know,” he said. “I just… I just don’t like it when people tell me what to do.”
“Well, no one does,” I said. “But sometimes you have to. Especially when you’re nine.”
“Can I have my games back tonight?”
“No,” I said. “Your mom wanted me to take them away, and I’m not giving them back until she gets home. We’re playing board games tonight. Just the three of us.”
“But =”
I just glared at him. He shut his mouth.
The food arrived, and he was quiet for the rest of the day.
True to my word, we played games. We played scrabble, and clue, and a few other games too. Beth made popcorn, and we ate popcorn and chocolate and I ordered Italian food for dinner. David calmed down and even seemed to enjoy himself a bit.
I called Sabby and told her how the day went. She told me I handled it well, and that David needs to grow up a little, and that it was good that the three of us played games. She kept telling Dave “stop! I’m on the phone!” while giggling – I wonder what that was about.
I put David to bed an hour ago. He’s not used to someone other than Sabby tucking him in, but I didn’t mind. He’s too old for a story, but he was out like a light shortly after I turned his light off.
I chatted with Jack for a bit before writing this. I told him how much I loved the chocolate. He said he would have thought there was something wrong with me if I didn’t. He’d be right.