I was standing outside, adjusting one of the lights that kept sagging, when I heard the shouting from inside. Not loud at first, but enough to tell something was wrong. My sister’s voice broke through it—sharp, emotional, spiraling.
“I can’t believe you canceled it!” she yelled. “Do you even care how this looks for me?”
I didn’t need to ask what she was talking about. Her Cancun Spring Break trip had been canceled the day before. Something about safety concerns, bad timing, money—it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that, in her world, it was a disaster.
And in my house, her disasters always came first.
I walked inside slowly, already feeling the shift before anyone said anything to me directly. My mom was trying to calm her down, my dad pacing slightly, both of them focused entirely on her like I wasn’t even in the room.
“She’s just upset,” my mom said, glancing at me briefly. “We’re trying to figure this out.”
“Figure what out?” I asked, even though I already knew.
