3 Years

48 - Fights

"Too bad!" She could practically hear the smile in his voice.

Nia sighed in annoyed defeat. "Fine!"

"Why do you guys fight over the shower?" Noah asked.

"It's not real fighting," Nia chuckled. "It's one of those things you do with your friends where you pretend to be mad yet it's truly not a big deal."

"So... joke fighting?"

"Yeah."

"How is that different from real fighting?"

"Well..." Nia came over to sit next to him on the couch. "First off, the name. Joke versus real. When Dad and I shout over who gets to take the first shower, we take each other's words with a grain of salt. Like, once it's all said and done, I don't actually resent him for taking a shower first and vice versa. Another thing is that you can hear it in the person's tone that they're kidding or being sarcastic. Does that make sense?"

Noah nodded. "Mhm. So what's a real fight?"

"Real fighting is much... harsher. Whether that be someone has done something wrong, or the parties involved are just... mad. True fights are much more personal and harder to get over. Now, they don't always have to be screaming matches. There was this one time where my best friend and I were upset with each other. We didn't yell or make a scene, but it was still a fight. The words spoken were genuinely offensive, and the topic couldn't just be water under a bridge. That's something else: if the topic doesn't seem serious, and that depends on age, then it's probably a joke."

Noah nodded along again. "Ok, I get it."

"Why the question?"

He blew a deep breath out his nose. He debated on admitting this or not. "I was thinking about-" A phone started to ring, cutting him off.

"Oh, uh, hold that thought; I'll be right back," Nia said, going to the kitchen. She looked at her phone first, but there was nothing. On the other side of the counter was Ricky's phone.

She flipped it over, and Nini's name and picture were across the screen. She debated on whether or not to answer but remembered that it had been a while since Ricky had texted her in the first place. No harm, no foul.

Nia picked it up, and the first thing she heard was, "Hey, so, the kids are really-"

"Nini," Nia cut her off, "it's, um, Roni. He's in the shower."

"Oh." She didn't know what to say. "It's fine. Just have him call me when he's out."

"You sure? I can tell him whatever it is."

"Oh, no, don't worry about it. I don't want to bother you. He just asked if he could call and never answered my text back. Just tell him to call me when he's out," she repeated. "Bye."

Nini hung up quickly after that, not giving Nia much of a chance to say anything else. She shrugged. Whatever.

She went back to the living room with Noah. "Now, what were you going to say?"

"Oh, I... it's nothing."

"You sure?"

"Mhm."

Ricky came out of the bathroom a few minutes later in different clothes and holding a towel in his hair. "Did Mom beat you again?" Noah asked.

Ricky jokingly scoffed, and Nia tried to hold back her laughter. "What makes you ask that?" Ricky wondered.

"Because that seems to be the running theme," Noah said with an innocent smile.

Ricky laughed again and said, "No," patting Noah on the back.

"Mm, well..." Nia chimed in.

"What? You think you won?"

"Yeah, obviously. Why do you think you won?"

"Uh, because I wasn't the first one who tapped out."

"Tell that to your panting."

"Whatever," he scoffed. "Shouldn't you be doing homework?" he asked Noah. The boy groans a little before going to get his textbook.

Nia was technically his home school teacher. Noah's been homeschooled almost his entire life. His parents in New York couldn't afford public school, so this was just what he was used to. Nia took initiative to teach him when the papers were all finalized.

"Oh, Nini called," Nia added a few minutes after they had started.

"She did?" Ricky asked, immediately panicked.

"Yeah, something about not answering a text," she shrugged off. "I don't really know."

"What!? Where's my phone?"

"Kitchen."

Ricky speed walked over to the counter to where he left his phone. One missed call and a few ignored texts. Oh no. "Roni, did she say anything important?"

"No. I asked, but she didn't say. I don't think she trusts me," she said sadly.

"Roni," Ricky sighed, "this is a waiting game. Everything will get easier eventually," he assured. I hope so at least. "I'm gonna go call her."

He steps into their bedroom and closes the door, praying she's not mad at him.

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This was the first chapter in forever where I was writing so much to the point that I could split it into two chapters. Motivation has just been down the drain for the longest time, and I don't know how to describe how good it felt to have written that much without realizing it.

No, this chapter wasn't originally trillions of words long, but it felt good to keep going without stopping.