I’ve always been jealous of my sister, Kristen. Kristen is a little younger than me and has always seemed to have all the luck in the world. That is until recently. We both decided to move in with each other. Our boyfriends didn’t want us anymore. I can understand why my man couldn’t put up with me. I’m a hard woman to please. I’m also very obsessive about certain things (such as putting the seat and lid down on the toilet). I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bitched to my male friends about that. Kristen moved in with me a little more than a month ago. Her boyfriend, Brian, was an abusive man and because of his temper, Kristen ended up in the hospital with a broken arm, two broken ribs and a broken nose. I basically didn’t give her any choice in the matter. I told her to press charges and move in with me. Our parents had long since gone, so it was just us.

Kristen came home from work one evening so angry and pissed off, I was afraid to say anything to her. She slammed the front door, began throwing things and screamed in a violent rage about some fucking asshole. I climbed out of bed, I had had a headache and tried to take a nap so it would go away. I went out into the living room where she was sitting on the couch breathing erratically and mumbling.

“What happened now?” I asked.

“That fucking jerk that I work with reported me for something I didn’t do. He claimed he saw me doing drugs in the break room. Now I’m out of a job!”

“You’re kidding me? What the hell?”

“That’s what I said. I told my boss if he didn’t believe me that I would go and take a drug test just to prove that I was telling the truth. You know what he said to that?”

“What?” I sat down beside her.

“He said there was no need for any drug testing. I’m not cut out to work for them anyway. He was going to let me go sooner, but needed a real reason to get rid of me!”

“Whoa, now wait a minute. He said that?”

Kristen nodded and took out her pack of cigarettes from her sweatshirt jacket.

“You know you can go to the labor board and report them.” I said.

“What’s the point?” She replied. “I haven’t worked there long enough to even collect unemployment.”

She was right about that, but I felt she should report them. But, after awhile, I figured, it would be her word against theirs and if the whole thing was over drugs, whether or not Kristen did any, they’d toss the case in the garbage without even checking into it.

“Well, now what are we gonna do?” I asked.

“How the fuck should I know. Rob a bank so we can have money?!”

“Sounds like an idea!” I said kidding around. I thought maybe if I could work my magic and get her to laugh, she’d cheer up and then we would talk about the whole bullshit later.

“Great! Let’s get my gun and fucking hold up some place. I have a ton of bills to pay!”

I looked at her questioningly. “You’re kidding, right?”

“No! I’ll go do it if you won’t go with me. Why should I play the good girl when everyone thinks I’m the bad girl?”

“Kristen, you’re not thinking clearly right now, you should take a bath with only a few candles glowing around the tub and then go to bed.”

“Oh, Karen, that’s not going to change my mind. If I don’t do it tonight, I’ll do it another night.”

I sighed. Why do I always have to deal with this shit? I’m always the one that people bitch at or bitch to or whatever. And then, people expect me to fix everything. Kristen butted her cigarette out and went off to her bedroom. Loud raging music started playing full blast. I got up off the couch and went into the kitchen to get a drink. I wasn’t fully awake and my mouth was all dry from mouth breathing.

“Mom, Dad, what am I going to do with her? Why’d you leave me with all this shit?”

*************************

I looked out Kristen’s bedroom window and watched her drive away. Oh God! What now? What should I do? Should I follow her? Should I just stay here? Maybe she won’t go through with it. Maybe she will. I ran down the stairs and hurried up and called my best friend, Silver. Of course...as usual...he wasn’t there.

I paced the living room floor and tried to think of what to do. Maybe she would chicken out and realize how wrong it was to steal. She should know that by now? We both got caught shoplifting when we were in our teens.

I sat down on the couch and began crying.