Z- Zebra Factor #AtoZChallenge

‘I cover for you all the time and you couldn’t help me just this once? The first time I asked you to do something for me and you didn’t even try. I hate you. You are the worst sister ever.’

‘If you had prepared me then I would’ve said something. You never did. I still have no idea why you’re even blaming me!’

We screamed at each other a bit more. She slammed her door a little while later and I started watching TV, nothing in particular, just flipping through the channels.

‘Sisters fight all the time, don’t you think you’re over reacting?’ asked my mom.

Maybe fighting is alright, but accusing me of something I still didn’t know. After a while, my mom asked me to call her down for dinner.

‘I don’t care if she eats. She won’t starve if she skips food this one day. Let her eat if she’s hungry. Why should I call her? ’

She said, ‘Your sister was projecting her misery in a different way by directing it towards you in the form of anger. Why are you letting her emotions control yours?’

What she said didn’t make any sense. Why should I bear her dissatisfaction? How could my mom support my sister instead of me? I never even took her help. I just asked her to shut up and that’s all she did, till now. I argued about her being ungrateful. My mom said sisters shouldn’t hate each other, little quarrels are common but forgiveness is what’s important. 

‘If I ever spoke to you the same way she does, you will be alright with me doing that?’

She said yes. When I tried to imitate my sister, she asked me to stop behaving in a childish manner.

My dad heard us arguing and asked my mom to leave us alone. He asked me to behave like a good civilised person and listen to whatever my mom was saying.

‘I thought this was my life!’

Then, for hours I was told about how they never even thought of raising their voices against their parents or other elders when young. After an hour or so I had enough.

‘With generation gap, also the thinking process has changed. Now it’s no longer a crime to point out flaws in whoever it is; elders can be wrong too.’ I said.

He asked me to start respecting elders. I didn’t answer, went to my room and slept.

Next day at college, my friend saw me upset. 

When she asked why, I said, ‘Don’t parents always love to control their children, even if they knew they were wrong they can’t accept it.’

‘I don’t think I completely agree with you. They do know what’s best for their kids,’ she said.

I disagreed. She didn’t back off of either. That day, we had a biggest fight ever. I bunked the second half of the college and went to watch some movie with my cousin. She is the one person with whom I could share anything without the fear of being judged. She would understand me, like no one else did.

When I said my best friend had fought with me and I was waiting for her to apologise, she suggested me to let go of my ego and apologise first. It wasn’t even my mistake in the first place. I didn’t understand why I had to even apologise if didn’t commit a mistake. I asked her to get back into senses. She asked me to do the same. I said I wouldn’t and she said she’d complain to my boyfriend, that I was being unreasonable. And she did.

He asked me what our argument was about.

‘She thought I was wrong when I wasn’t because she hates me,’ I said.

‘You always said she’s the person who knows you the best?’

‘Not anymore!’

‘You’re just looking too much into the details. It’s not like you think, she still cares for you and that’s the reason she’s against you when you say something stupid. You shouldn’t react so much to every little bit of criticism. I thought you were stronger,’ he said.

‘I have some work at home, deadline… tomorrow… I forgot about it. I’ll talk to you later, bye.’  

I made it all up. I couldn’t stay there any longer. Why was the whole world against me? When I went home, sister was there watching TV. I was upset already so I threw the TV remote away when the batteries were dead and it wasn’t working anymore.

She said, ‘You don’t have to take your frustration on inanimate objects.’

I asked her to shut up and mind her own business. She brought me a glass of cold water instead. Now, that was weird. Before I could ask her to stop pretending being nice to me, she apologised.

‘I’m so sorry for last night. The message I sent you wasn’t delivered. Unnecessarily I had screamed at you. Sorry.’

The event that began the domino fall happen was a misunderstanding? If that didn’t happen, I wouldn’t have had such a bad day. But it wasn’t her fault. She was so dependent on me all the time and was upset when she thought I wasn’t. I forgave her and then started telling her all about my arguments with others since last night. We were back to being the best sisters. She didn’t find any fault in my arguments with everyone.

In fact, she had said, ‘If they truly care about you, they should stay by your side always.’

I think she was right, so the fight with them all was still on. Also, I thought, ‘If only someone had agreed with everything I said or did, my day could’ve been a happier one!’