"Hey mushroom head." My dad said as I walked through the door.
"Daaaad. Why are you here and my hair doesn't look like a mushroom!!!"
"I can't come home? And yes it does, it looks like that thing off a Mario. You know that red and white-"
"Yes Dad I know." I rolled my eyes.
"I think he's red and orange sometimes too, blue too-"
"Dad you're supposed to be at work." I sat down on the couch with him.
"I knowwww I just wanted to see you. You know I don't get to see you as much..."
I hugged him. "I know. So what's going on?"
"Oh yeah! So your brother is coming down here."
"Brother..." I starred into space.
"Yeah your brother...Issa."
"OHHHHHH! Damn-dangggg."
"Watch yo-self and yeah, when was the last time you spoke to him Stephanie?"
I cringed. "The beginning of summer break..."
"Steph you know you hurt Issa's feelings?"
"I know, I know. He's gonna be mad, not hurt. I don't like bothering him so I didn't call."
"You're bad at communicating. You need to work on it." He turned the TV volume down. "That's not good."
"I know...so will he be here tomorrow or..."
"Tonight. It's gonna be late though. Around twelve or one o clock."
"Oh..." I scratched my head.
"I bet I can stay up longer than you Steph."
"Yeet, you're old. It's the beginning of the school year though. Why is he coming down here and he has to go to school? It's his last year right?"
"He said he has a little break and yeah. He's gonna graduate soon. Damn, both of my mushrooms 'bout to graduate next year."
"Dad hush. Issa doesn't even have a mushroom head though."
"You right. He got them-them god damn....them things in his head."
"Them things?"
"Mhm anyway, Issa said he's excited!"
"Issa ugly."
"Stop talking about your brother. Go to sleep. It's late."
"It's seven twenty and it's a Friday. What're you talking about?"
"Stephanie if you don't get!!"
• September 15, Saturday •
• 9:53 a.m •
"What's up Dad?!" I heard someone yell downstairs.
I groaned and covered my ears trying to go back to sleep.
"Nothing much Issa! How's college!?"
"It's pretty good. Where's my sister?"
"Oh she sleep. She just like you, sleep for hours."
Issa chuckled. "Nahhh. I bought you guys some stuff from New York."
"Really? Oh you didn't have to do that son." My dad insisted.
"Nah. Y'all the fam. I love you guys. You really took care of us when mom left..."
Because they were so, loud I just got up and brushed my teeth and put on my house clothes. I'm not even gonna try to go back to sleep. I'm a bit nervous about going downstairs but I sucked it up and went down. They were in the kitchen about to cook breakfast.
"Is that my beautiful sister?!?!?" Issa shrieked.
"Is that my dusty brother?!" I said jokingly. He hugged me tightly and we rocked back and forth as we embraced each other. Dad smiled as he started cutting tomatoes.
"Damn. Three years! And I'm sorry I haven't been video chatting with you. I've been hella busy."
"Same. Don't even worry about it. I missed you so much Issa! Finally seeing you in person. Three years video chatting. That's wild!"
We sat down. "Wow. You don't know how much I've missed you."