Oh, Dakota

2- Why Don't You Love Me?

“Owen, you’re such a jerk.” I huffed.

“You are like, the bestest sister ever.” He slurred, leaning almost his whole body weight on my left shoulder as I practically carried him into the house.

Their designated driver tonight, Todd, had helped him out of the car and I thanked Todd before dragging my stupidly drunk twin brother up the yard and into the house as silently as I could.

It was four in the morning and if we woke up our dad, we’d both be dead. Sure, our dad was super cool, but he wasn’t cool enough to be okay with Owen coming home at four in the morning drunk as a hobo and smelling like one too. His clothes reeked of weed, although he doesn’t smoke. At least, he always told me that he doesn’t smoke, and I have no reason not to believe him.

“You need to shut up.” I hissed at him. “Or you’ll be sleeping on the couch.”

“No, I want my bed.” He whined. “Can you give me that?”

I let out a long sigh. “You have to climb up the stairs, and you have to be silent. Like a ninja.”

He nodded very dramatically. “I like ninjas.”

“Can you be a ninja?”

He nodded again. “A really good ninja.”

“Good.” I mumbled, wrapping my arms tightly around him right under his arms as I practically dragged him all the way up the stairs. I had to give him credit though, he was pretty quiet the whole way up.

As I tossed him into his room, he called out for me. “Dakota!”

I turned around with raised eyebrows. “What?”

“Was I a good ninja?”

I nodded. “Yeah, sure. Now, you gotta go to sleep.”

“Yeah,” He yawned. “This ninja is tired.”

He was still sitting on the edge of his bed so I went over to him and pushed his shoulder hard so he toppled over onto his bed, actually laying down. “Then sleep, dumbass.”

“You’re such a good sister.” He grumbled just before passing out.

I let out a long breath of relief before leaving his room and quietly tiptoeing down the small hallway into my room. I was so tired because being woken up at four in the morning by Todd to come take care of my drunk brother is just not ideal to me. I hate being woken up, especially for this purpose, but the last time that Owen came home drunk and dad caught him, he lost his phone for two months and was basically on house arrest. It was during summer break too, so he literally was not allowed to leave the house and I felt so bad for him. I can’t imagine what our dad would do if that happened again.

I barely made it to my bed before I was out like a light once again, probably snoring fairly loudly as well, but I didn’t really care because I was pretty tired.

The next time I woke up, it was noon on Saturday, and I wasn’t as exhausted as when I woke up at four in the morning. I knew that on Saturdays, my dad went out golfing or to the batting cages or whatever it is that old dudes like to do and he goes with his old friends from college and he’s gone almost all day. I thought it was nice that he still had friends from college that he talks to, so I don’t really mind him going out every Saturday.

“KOTA!” I heard Owen call from his room, very groggily.

I figured that he was hungover and wanted me to nurse him back to health, which I would do just because I’m such a pushover for family, which is super annoying if you ask me.