Lasting Love Part 2

I need a break

I run the vacuum over the living room floor, trying to block out the noise of the girls fighting upstairs.  Every few minutes a door slams shut and I hear something being yelled at by the other one.  Ben joins in eventually, yelling at both of them because their fighting is interrupting his video game.  He then yells down for me to get them to stop.

"Mom! Kay took my clothes again!" Lexie runs down the stairs "She won't give them back!"

I try not to flip out, knowing they've had this fight too many times.  It seems like an every day thing at this point.

Ben follows, looking angry "Make them stop fighting!  I can't concentrate on my video games!"

"Kayleigh!!  Get down here!  Right freaking now!" I yell up the stairs, and seconds later hear her door open "And bring your sisters clothes!"

I look over at Alexia, who is smirking, obviously happy with her sister being in trouble. "Stop it.  You obviously had something to do with this too.  You're both in trouble for whatever happened."

"So they're both in trouble?" Ben's eyes light up "Awesome!"

"Just go to your room, Ben.  I don't need you making this any worse."

He tries to fight it, but can tell that I'm getting mad and finally walks up to his room.  I hear his door slam of defeat a few seconds later.

Kayleigh walks down, just as Justin walks in the house, and throws the clothes on the floor.  I look through it all finding 2 shirts, pants and a bra.  All of which won't fit Kay anyway.

"What's going on now?" He asks walking up to us "Who did what?"

"Kayleigh took my clothes!" Lexie answers him.  Kayleigh just shrugs not saying anything to defend herself.

"Seriously?"  I look up at Kay "You know none of this will fit you, why do you have to keep taking it?"

"She took my phone charger!"  Kayleigh protests "It's payback."

"That doesn't mean you take her clothes,"  Justin tries to help "You come get one of us.  You guys gotta stop fighting so much.  You're going to make us go crazy."

"Make you go crazy?!? You don't think you have been for the past 11 years since she was born?"

"No, actually, I think we've been crazy since you were born." I respond, just to piss her off even more "Now shut up and apologize to your sister."

"I don't want to." She crosses her arms "She can apologize first for taking my charger."

"Well I'm not apologizing." Lexie responds looking away from Kay "I needed the charger."

"Girls, either you both apologize right now or you're both grownded." Justin tries to end this "I'm serious."

Silence.

"Oh my God.  Why do you two have to fight so much?!?!?" I try to not lose my mind completely "I can't even work on cleaning one day without you two ruining it."

"Well maybe if she wasn't such a bitch we wouldn't fight as much." Kay adds "She gets away with everything just because she's the youngest!  It's not fair!"

"Don't talk about your sister like that!" I yell back at her "You know that's not true!  We punish her just as much as you and your brother when she does something bad."

"Yeah," Lexie mumbles "I don't get everything handed to me like you do.  I'm not the favorite."

"You think I'm the favorite?" Kay laughs "It's always been you and Ben.  Just because he's the only boy and you're the youngest."

"Lex, just take all the clothes and go to your room."  Justin hands her the pile "And Kay, stop taking her stuff.  Next time either of you takes the others things you're both loosing whatever was taken."

We wait until we hear both of their doors slam shut to talk.

"Why is our 11 year old wearing a bra?" He asks confused.

"Because she has boobs and needs it." I answer "There's more important problems than that right now.  That should be the leat of your worries."

"What do we do with them?  Why can they not get along at all?" He falls onto the couch "I miss it when they used to get along all the time."

"Yeah, me too." I sit next to him "I guess we just let them fight until they get along.  They can't stay mad at each other forever.  They're sisters, they love each other even when they hate each other."

"You sure?" He asks, sounding hopeless "They've been like this a few hours now."

"No, I'm just hoping." I reply laughing "All I know is that it can't get much worse than this.  They gotta give up eventually."

"You're such a bitch! Just leave me alone!" Kay yells, slamming her door shut.

"Yeah, well I obviously got that from you!  Maybe if you weren't one I wouldn't be!  You're so mean!" Lexie yells before running to her room and slamming the door.

Ben opens his door, stands between the rooms, yells at both of them to shut up, and goes back into his room where we hear him start to play his games again.

"Yeah, this is really getting alot better." Justin sighs "I never thought about this part of parenting."

"Me neither.  I tried not to." I laugh thinking back to when I thought it would be easy "I always thought of the cute moments when they're little,  or when they're helpful.  Never the times like these."

"Times like these make me wonder why we wanted kids," He gets quiet for a while "Is that bad?"

"No.  It just means we need a break from all the drama and fighting." I lean in closer to him "We need some time off."

"Yeah," He laughs "Like that'll actually happen."