“Ronnie, I thought that you said we shouldn’t argue with each other? We should get along like we always do? Why are you doing this?” Robert asks Ronnie.
“You don’t understand…” Ronnie looks down.
“Tell me what the problem is. If you continue to do this you will hurt yourself. Now tell me, what the problem is.” Robert wanted to know what was going on with Ronnie. He just seemed to be a bit different. He didn’t understand why Ronnie would want to take drugs in the first place. Why would he want to get hooked on something? There had to be a reason.
“I don’t have to tell you!” Ronnie glares at Robert. “Just because you’re older than me doesn’t mean I have to tell you everything!” Robert grabbed the bag from Ronnie again and threw it. “WHY DID YOU DO THAT?! YOU ASSHOLE!” Ronnie yelled. Robert slapped him.
“Stop acting this way right now! Stop it!” Robert said to Ronnie. He was furious with him. “Let’s go home and talk about this there.” Ronnie held the side of his face and didn’t respond. Robert began to walk and Ronnie started to follow him.
“I…I really… I didn’t want to… But I… I…” Ronnie seemed upset. Robert didn’t look behind him. “I keep feeling… feeling like Lacy loves you more than me… I don’t hate you… I don’t… I didn’t want to fight… I feel like I don’t know what to do lately… I want to be with Lacy but I feel…”
“She likes us both.” Robert tells Ronnie. “She tells me she loves you too. Sometimes when I am alone with her she brings you up. She brings you up a lot. Says she doesn’t want to not include you in whatever we were doing. She likes telling you everything. She doesn’t want to lie to you. She cares for you.”
“Am I stupid?” Ronnie asks.
“No, I won’t tell Lacy about this event. I don’t want it making her feel like it’s her fault. You shouldn’t tell her either.”
“I… I am sorry.” Ronnie said feeling bad for what he was about to do.
“Let’s just put this behind us and go home to rest.” Robert suggested. He didn’t want to bring up the incident anymore. He was upset with Ronnie for what he was trying to do, but now that he stopped him, he just hoped he wouldn’t do it again. If Lacy found about Ronnie’s actions, it probably would make her upset and feel like it was her fault that he tried to do such a thing. Robert didn’t want to get Lacy upset and depressed over what Ronnie misunderstood. Robert was hoping that Ronnie wouldn’t think such things about Lacy. Robert was curious if Lacy really likes one of them more than the other, but at the same time, he felt like maybe he didn’t really want to know. Ronnie wanted to know whom she liked more as well but felt like a part of him didn’t want to know as well. It was confusing.
It was just a couple days later. Alana wanted to go to Max’s home but knew he was too busy. It was complicated and Alana felt like she needed someone to talk to. Alana was walking in town.
“It probably isn’t any of my business but… my dad. I don’t like seeing him so upset.” Alana thought to herself. “Things seem like it’s getting worse and I am scared of what could happen.” Alana stopped and looked at a window of a shop. They had some clothes on display. Alana wasn’t interested in the clothes and continued to walk on. “I could talk to Lacy, but she has a lot of problems. I don’t know if she would feel comfortable talking to me?” Alana sat down on a bench and pulled her cell phone out of her purse. “I could call…”
Alana dialed on the cell phone the house phone to Lacy’s home. James picks up the phone. “Hello?” James asks. “Who is this?”
“I am Lacy’s friend, Alana. Can you put her on the phone?” Alana asked.
“Certainly, I will go and get her now. Please hold.” James sat the phone down and went to his sister’s bedroom. “There’s a call for you on the phone. It’s a friend named ‘Alana’.” James tells Lacy and then left her bedroom to go into his bedroom. Lacy left her bedroom and went into the living room and picked up the phone.
“What is it?” Lacy asked.
“I need to talk to you about something.”
“You can come right over.” Lacy tells her friend. It didn’t take long for Alana to make it to Lacy’s home. Lacy lets her in and they both were sitting on the sofa. “What did you wanted to talk about?” Lacy asked Alana.
“It’s my family. My dad is getting sick again and there’s the wedding that him and Calluna were going to have. My mother and father have been having arguments and are stressed out as well. Because… well… my older half brother Tj. He has been doing bad things and dad caught him. He’s trying to get him cleaned up and it’s hard because Tj’s illness has been messing with him. Then there’s the issue with Lionel. He’s been having his on and off relationship with that Paige girl. The two keep arguing and Paige tries to get my dad to side with her, while Lionel tries to get his mom to side with him. It’s so complicated. I feel like I can’t go home.”
“That seems rough. Your family going through all that. If your father is sick then he needs to try to get better and not strain himself too hard. Calluna should not strain him so much if he is sick. And really I think it’s Paige and Lionel that needs to solve their love problems themselves. They need to leave your parents out of that. And now Tj, it’s good that your father is trying to get him help but he also needs to not strain him. Tj shouldn’t do bad things if he’s ill.” Lacy was trying to come up with the best advice for Alana. “You shouldn’t worry about all that.”
“I know… “Alana looks down. “I also have been worrying about Max. I know it looks like his family is winning. His parents. But at the same time I am worried.”
“I am sure everything will be okay. Sometimes we have to go through the rough times to appreciate the good times, but usually after the storm something good happens from it.” Lacy stood up from the sofa.
“I want to believe that… I felt upset when my father was in the hospital a lot as I was growing up. I tried to visit him all I could. I didn’t want to lose him. Then at home, my mother was mean to me and kept saying she didn’t like me because I didn’t look like her or act like her. She was angry that I looked more like my father.” Alana admits. “My mother really doesn’t like my father. She didn’t love him. Her family pretended to have all this money and when my dad’s family was struggling a little before, they made him marry her. But dad managed to bring the money back in and my mother kept trying to take it all for herself. Dad divorced her, but now he wants to marry his true love. Calluna. But they just keep arguing.”
“I don’t understand why they keep fighting? I understand some arguments here and there but that shouldn’t be the main focus in the relationship. Are they sure they want to spend their life together?” Lacy asks Alana.
“I am sure they do. It’s just I think they both are stressed out. I want them to be happy together. I also don’t want my father to get sicker where he will end up in the hospital again.” Alana felt bad for her father. He seem to get sick very easily and was always in the hospital. She didn’t want him to go back there again. She liked when he was happy and not sick.
“I was going to spend some time with Robert and Ronnie today but my plans changed.” Lacy admits and left the living room. She went to get a soda out of the kitchen and came back. She sat down on the sofa again.
“You aren’t mad at me are you?” Alana asked. Lacy shook her head.
“No. I am not mad at you.” Lacy tells the truth. “Robert and Ronnie aren’t either. They wanted to come over and play a video game with me.”
“They did?” Alana asked.
“Yes, we don’t always make out.” Lacy laughed and opened her soda. She took a sip of it and sat it down on the coffee table.
“Uhh… well… Thanks for your advice. I wish I can talk to Max. I don’t want to bother him with my problems though… He has so much to go through right now too. I don’t want to bother him with my silly problems.”
“Sometimes it’s nice hanging out with someone you love when you feel upset. It makes you feel better. Do you feel that way too?” Lacy asks.
“Yes.” Alana admits. “But I don’t know if Max would want to hang with me today.”
“If you two are dating, you need to talk to each other! Don’t go without talking to him for days!” Lacy said to Alana.
“You’re right! I really shouldn’t.” Alana pulled her cell phone out of her purse. Alana started at the cell phone. “I want to call Max. I really do.”
“Then do it. Call him up and hang with him today. I am sure hanging with him will make you feel better than hanging with me.” Lacy suggested to Alana.
“I am sorry for bothering you at this time.” Alana stares at Lacy. “Do you think I should just let my family solve their problems and not get into it?”
“I think that would be the best solution. None of it actually concerns you. Don’t worry about it. I am sure your dad will stop fighting with Calluna. I am sure everything will be settled soon. You just have to give it some time.”
“I hope you’re right.” Alana stood up. “I am going to go now. I don’t want to keep you from Robert or Ronnie. Are they on their way?” Alana asked.
“They might be. I told them that after I hung you up to give it about twenty minutes before they start to walk to my home.”
“Oh. Well I hope things will be okay for me. Thanks. Bye.” Alana went to the door. Lacy got up and walked by the door. Alana opened the door and left.
“Sometimes people have problems. It’s natural and the way of life. That’s how things are.” Lacy thought to herself as she watched Alana leave. It didn’t take long for Robert and Ronnie to show up at the door.
“Did you wait long?” Robert asks her.
“Is Alana here?” Ronnie asked.
“No.” Lacy answered both of their questions. “She left and I didn’t wait long.” Lacy lets them in and shuts the door. Locking it. Robert and Ronnie sat down on the sofa.
“What game can I play?” Ronnie asked.
“Just pick on that shelf.” Lacy points at a shelf near the TV stand and TV. “I’ll go get us some snacks.” Lacy left to the kitchen.
“Ooh! Pop!” Ronnie picked up the soda that Lacy was drinking on the coffee table. He took a sip out of it.
“You don’t even know who’s that was.” Robert said grossed out from Ronnie. He went over to the shelf and picked a game off the shelf.
“I don’t care. I am thirsty.” Ronnie laughs a little. Lacy came into the living room again with a bag of potato chips and two cans of soda.
“What the? Ronnie why do you have my drink?” Lacy asked and sits the bag of potato chips and 2 cans of soda on the coffee table.
“He just takes anyone’s drinks without asking.” Robert replied and puts the game on that he picked out. He sits down on the sofa. Ronnie sat down and Lacy sat between the both of them. Ronnie picked up one of the controllers that was sat on the coffee table. Robert and Ronnie started to play a game and Lacy watched them both.
“I really love both of them.” Lacy thought to herself.