No time to mellow

 

Things were just really crazy lately. Mario felt as if he couldn't do anything right. Yes, he was mad at his sister. She'd taken up so much of his time and sleep too. He didn't even have a chance to tell Nic goodbye. It was devastating, he now thought.

Why hadn't they done more things together? And now Rico, being the brother that Sammie would call.

"I just don't get it," he knew he sounded mad. It was all so intense and Bren said it might give him a stomach ulcer. 

"Maybe you need to take a few days off," she told him.

"They don't give me a paid vacation," He winced hard and shook his head as he raced to get dressed for work. He then looked back at her in their little bedroom. "When's the last time you've had a vacation?"

"I don't really need one," she smiled as if it was true, but he didn't believe her. She looked warn out, but that might have been Sammie's fault. Yes, he liked to blame that on his little sister too.

Of course, he hadn't marched down to see her. They might be in the same building, but it didn't mean he had to see her. In fact, his dad even said it might be better that way.

"Give it some time, OK." His dad told him he'd talked to their mother about the Sammie situation. "She knows."

Of course, this made him so damn mad. He couldn't remember the last time he talked to his mother. He'd left her a voice message on Mother's Day, but she never got back to him. He was gonna send her a gift card to that place she liked so much with the soaps and lotions, but he didn't know where to send it. He was the worst son in the world, or was he? He hadn't exactly spent the holidays with his dad, either. He had to work.

He winced more thinking this was getting so old. Was he ever going to find that perfect job that he loved? Recently, he'd gotten on at the nearby air base in house maintenance. And he'd expected big things, like a bonus, but that hadn't happened either. It seemed he got the worst jobs to fix and he wasn't fixing them fast enough, but in the end, he guessed he would stick with it. Yes, he and Bren were going to get married. Soon.

"Maybe you could ask Tristan how we can contact Nic," Bren said as if she knew he did care about his friendships. "We'll make him a goodie box."

Oh, that sounded nice, but he knew it would be expensive. "I'll just call him." He nodded. Although, he had no idea when.