Ace of Hearts - All We Are Series [NaNoWriMo 2014] [#JustWriteIt]

Chapter Twenty Five [Edited]

I groaned as I collapsed on Shelly and Jack’s couch. Now that they were married, they had officially moved in together, though they were practically living together previously. They only kept Shelly’s old apartment to satisfy their parents.

“What’s wrong?” Shelly asked me, bringing over some cups of coffee. “It has to be bad if it has you collapsing on my couch at eight on a Sunday morning. I’m the one who’s up when the rooster crows normally.”

“Margaret and Velisa had a huge fight yesterday. You know I missed yoga yesterday to go hang out with them and help them get settled in, right? Well Dave took Kaleb with him and Kory to the park, and Margaret was just being her normal matchmaker self. She must’ve pushed Velisa too far, though. I didn’t want to get involved, but I ended up having to in the end. They were just so cruel to each other. How can sisters do that?”

“You don’t have a sibling, so you don’t fully understand sibling dynamics. Shawn is my best friend at times, but he’s also my worst oldest brother at others. We got into so many fights as kids. We used to go wrestle out in the corn fields. We’d punch each other, kicking and screaming, until our parents split us apart.”

“You’re not like that now, though,” I argued.

“No, but we only see each other a few times a year. When you don’t see someone you love for that long, you can’t fight with them. We still jest with each other. I tell him stupid jokes and he emails me riddles occasionally. But we’re a lot closer now that we’re apart.”

“How are Velisa and Will that close if they’ve been practically living together for so long?”

“My guess is they’re similar enough that they understand each other. Margaret is much more wild than Velisa or Will. You know that.”

I groaned, putting my head in my hands. “Why can’t they just all get along?”

“Sometimes people just fight, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Hopefully they’ll resolve this quickly, especially for Kaleb’s sake. He needs both his mother and aunt looking out for him right now.”

“Yeah, that’s what I told them. I got frustrated with them and walked out of the apartment, leaving Will to try and resolve the situation. Will texted me a few hours later, telling me to just come back with the boys. Margaret had left the apartment, and Velisa was sulking. She put on a brave face for Kaleb, though.”

“That poor woman. She’s been through so much, with losing her husband to war and dealing with a teenage boy.”

“Kaleb’s twelve, so not quite a teenager yet. He’s a momma’s boy, though. I can’t imagine having to explain to your son that his daddy wasn’t coming home. It’d be hard enough to deal with the fact that your husband wasn’t coming home. How would you even manage to sit your son down and tell him about his soldier daddy, who’s now gone?”

Shelly just shook her head in response. “It’s absolutely horrible. She’s been through too much pain already to have to deal with her sister fighting with her and criticizing her.”

“That’s actually one of the things Margaret said. She mentioned something about Velisa not having a husband, and you could just see the pain in Velisa’s eyes.”

“That’s just low,” Sheila frowned. “Maybe I should talk to Margaret.”

“It’s probably a good idea. I’m upset with and disappointed in both of them; they were both stabbing each other in the back, hurling knives of insults. It was disgusting. I really hope that if I have kids one day, they won’t treat each other like that.”

“Yeah, Shawn and I never got that bad. We still had some respect for each other, even when we were tearing the house down. He’d never stoop so low. It’d be really sad if the two of them weren’t able to recover from this.”