Brotherly Troubles

As an older brother, I try to help my younger brother, even if to my detriment sometimes, like helping him with homework or forcing him to clean something which did not always end well unfortunately, sometimes getting into an argument, but always ending the argument with apologies though I am trying to make sure he does not have the same mistakes that I have made when I was his age.

The story begins on a winter day like any other–my brother invited a guest for a sleepover a day after my brother’s birthday, and so all three of us played Mario Maker 2 for most of the day. Quick note, I hate Mario Maker 2. For most of the day I was told, “you’re’ terrible at Mario” or “get killed noob”, so after a long while supper was ready we ate spaghetti and unfortunately played a bit more Mario Maker and went upstair after my dad wanted to go to bed so my brother and the guest went upstairs.

Though I did stay downstairs for a bit to get a glass of water and went upstairs, where I heard the guest yelling and crying, so I went to see what was happening where the guest was crying and threatening to call their mom and leave and saying “are we really friends” and “say something” and because my brother does not deal with these types of things very well he was quiet, not knowing what to do about the situation I went in the room though he did not stop talking so I just listened to what he was saying and eventually I got an idea and I faked a laugh the guest confused asked “why are you laughing” and I talked about how their argument reminded me of a reality tv show and as I went into detail changing my voice to go along with the example making both of them laugh finally breaking the tension in the room and saving the rest of the night. Letting the guest see how silly their words were and ending the conflict.

Being patient helped me think of a way to defuse the conflict that somehow brewed while I was downstairs and that started because of the guest’s false fear and my brother’s inability to talk only further angering the guest and saved the rest of the night, even if I was confused at first about why the argument started I ended it with a good joke.

“we all have our days” by Rob! is licensed under CC BY 2.0.