Jason Fuller was having some serious doubts about his life right now.
As he drove over to his mothers house, his girlfriend Amie in tow and her little sister in the backseat, he couldn't help but feel like a wedge was being created between himself and his family somehow. Lately, his sister, Ashley, had seemed to be a bit distant towards him. Perhaps it was because she was a new mother now, granted to a child that was technically his and his ex wifes, but still, he wasn't sure he could just chuck that all up to that reasoning. He sighed as they came to a red light and glanced over at Amie, who was scrolling through her phone. "What's up?" he asked, nodding at her. "Oh, my friend Cassie is in Rome and I'm just looking at her photos she's been sending me. It looks so beautiful. I've never been to Italy or anything in that region, but I'd love to go sometime," Amie said. "I'm sure it'd be nice, yeah," Jason said, "You okay back there?" he added, craning his neck to the backseat, grinning at Amies little sister, who glanced up and nodded, giving a little smile, before she turned back to her book. "I made kale chips for your mom last week," Amie said, "They came out pretty good. It was fun working with her." "Yeah, my mom is pretty fun," Jason said, smiling at the image of Betty and Amie working on something together and enjoying it, "Wish I'd been there to see it, or help." "Did you like cooking growing up?" Amie asked, touching his arm gently, and he winced as he thought back to the Home Ec incident. Flashes of Ashley screaming and sobbing, flashes of himself in the kitchen, flashes of destroyed food. He shook his head and shrugged. "You know, a little, but not a whole lot. I enjoy it more these days though," Jason said. He wanted to talk to Amie about it, he wanted to tell her about all the awful things that had happened between his sister and himself in the past, but he just couldn't allow himself to. Something was stopping him. He figured that, sometimes, some things were best kept between siblings. As they approached the house and parked, and Amie got out with her little sister, Jason sighed and looked at the light on in the kitchen window. He grimaced and shuddered. God that kitchen had seen some shit. *** Ashley couldn't bake. No matter what she did, she simply couldn't bake, and it killed her. This was in eighth grade, and she so desperately wanted to be able to bake, but she ruined everything she tried to make. It came out overdone or underdone, or simply inedible. Ashley had a lot of problems with the math related to baking; it was considered a science, and she wasn't very good at science either. At least, not in the kitchen sense. Watching from afar, however, Jason simply couldn't understand why this was so important to her. After all, it was just Home Ec. *** "Are you really trying to say that you don't want to replace all your body parts with bionic limbs?" Becca asked, "Come on, you get older and if anyone questions you, you could just crush them with your robot arm." "It sounds tempting, certainly, but think of the drawbacks," Ashley said, taking a swig of her beer on the porch, "You'd set off metal detectors EVERYWHERE, for one. Plus what if you end up around a large magnet and got stuck to it?" "Where are you that you're hanging around an enormous magnet?" Becca asked, pushing a cracker in their mouth. "I don't know! Maybe I get a job at a magnet factory, and they all actually are a cult and worship The One Almighty Magnet, and one night, while cleaning up-" "Cleaning up? You're the janitor?" "It's the only job I can get after the incident at my last job, where I high fived my coworker Daryl so hard I almost killed him." "He's alive?" Becca asked. "He'll be fine, but his family will never be the same. His child will now have to love to learn a man with only half a body. She's got a half dad now. Half dad can love and learn and live, but things will never go back to the way they were. But they'll manage. After all, his body may be half, but his heart is still whole," Ashley said, "Anyway, one night I'm cleaning and I get stuck to the Almighty Magnet and can't get down and they never find me and I starve up there." "That's ridiculous, Ashley, you wouldn't starve. You'd be more machine than human by that point. You'd simply become one with the Almighty Magnet and take over the cult," Becca said, just as Jason walked up to the porch with Amie and her little sister. "What're you guys talking about?" Jason asked. "Magnets and cyborgs," Becca said. "Of, well, of course. Why didn't I just figure as much," Jason said, shrugging, "Totally normal thing to discuss. I'm going in. Where's mom?" "She's doing laundry," Ashley said, getting up, "I'll go with you." "Why?" "Cause she's doing my laundry." "You have a machine!" Jason said, as Ashley opened the door and he followed her inside. "That doesn't negate how lazy I am," Ashley replied, the door shutting behind them. Becca looked at their phone, and after a moment, back up at Amie, still standing in front of them, their hands on their sisters shoulders. Becca looked from Amie to the kid, and then back up to Amie before raising their eyebrows, lowering their phone and clearing their throat. "You're not going inside? Cause I'm not that exciting," they said. "Becca, this is my little sister. I thought you might like to talk to her," Amie said, patting her sisters shoulder, "I'll leave you two alone," she added, before heading inside as well. Her sister, Katie, sat down on the porch swing beside Becca, neither one speaking. Becca continued looking at their phone while Katie continued reading their book, and then after a moment, Katie looked up and looked at Becca. "Are you really like me?" they asked, taking Becca by surprise, forcing them to look at her. "What?...a parasite that feeds on the remains of their enemies?" Becca asked, then, hushing their voice, added, "...it's so nice to no longer be the only one." Katie chuckled and shook her head before saying, "No, my sister says you're like me. Cause we're...different." That's when it hit Becca. Amie's sister WAS like Becca. It wasn't very blatantly obvious to Becca because they were a child, and children generally were indistinguishable in either gender, but now that they could see it, oh it made their heart swell with joy. Becca smiled and nodded. Katie smiled back. "Cool," she said, before looking back into her book, and the two of them sat, reading their own respective items. Inside, following Ashley first into the kitchen before heading to the laundry room, Jason couldn't shake this awful feeling he'd had in the car. He sat at the island as he watched his sister open the fridge, get out a bottle of soda, pour herself a glass and down the whole thing in seconds flat. She wiped her mouth on her arm and burped, looking at him. "What?" she asked. "Why aren't you doing your own laundry?" he asked. "Why is this so important to you?" she asked, shrugging, "I don't know. I don't care. It's just laundry." Jason scowled and looked at his hands on the island tabletop. *** Jason couldn't take it anymore, watching his sister cry. She'd been crying for what felt like hours, all because she couldn't remove a stain from something her Home Ec teacher had given her. He was standing outside her bedroom, in the upstairs hallway, just watching her from around the corner of the door as she sat on the bed and cried, clutching the pair of pants to her chest. He didn't understand why this upset her this deeply. He understood being frustrated, he understood being upset, he understood that this was, in fact, a school assignment, and thus something she would be graded on, and thus something that could affect her grade, but this level of sobbing? Over a grade? Especially when she was never one to care much about school to begin with. After all, it was just Home Ec. *** Jason followed Ashley into the living room where, much to his chagrin, the game Twister was laid out on the floor, ready and waiting to be played. He grimaced and looked from the floor back to his sister, who was now grinning at him eagerly. "PLEASE tell me we're not playing this," he said. "We're playing this," she said, "Nobody would play it with me when we were kids, and now you're gonna HAVE to play it with me, so suck it up and bend over." Jason sighed as the front door opened and Becca and Katie came inside, Amie rejoining them from the bathroom. They watched as Jason and Ashley stood over the game board on the floor and prepared to play. Ashley did some stretches, while Jason cracked his joints and removed his shoes. Ashley kicked her flip flops off, as Becca sat down on the couch with Katie, who pointed at them. "What are they doing?" she asked, leaning into Becca, whispering. "Don't worry, they're just embarrassing themselves. It's fine. They're used to it." "I am gonna kick your ass," Ashley said, smirking at Jason as she stepped onto the mat. "Not that hard, considering how often I'll be bent over," he replied, also stepping onto the mat. "You wanna join?" Ashley asked, shooting a glance at Becca. "What, and interrupt the battle of the ages? I think not," they replied, making Katie laugh. Ashley handed the spinner to Amie, who took it and spun, while Jason and Ashley glared at one another playfully. Amie looked at the spinner and then back up at them, before announcing, "Right hand on red." Jason and Ashley accepted this, and both put their right hands on red. Amie spun it again and read out a new verdict, "Left leg on green." They obliged to this one as well. Leaning over a bit now, Ashley smirked at her brother and cocked an eyebrow. "Feeling the heat yet?" she asked. "I'm feeling tendons I forgot existed, but that's about it," Jason replied, making her laugh, "Who invented this hellish game?! Some sort of demonic yoga instructor?" "You have a rip in your pants," Becca said from the couch. "I am aware of that!" Jason shouted back over his shoulder as Amie spun the spinner a third time, this time announcing "right leg on yellow", to which both sibling strained to achieve. Betty walked in, holding a basket of laundry and looked at Jason as she walked by. "Sweetheart, you have a rip in your pants," she said, continuing to the kitchen to fold the laundry. "I know, mom!" he yelled at her as she exited the room. Why was he always being twisted into situations like this. *** Jason knocked on Ashley's door and came in anyway, even without an answer. She was laying on the bed, covering her head with a pillow as he sat down on the bed near her feet and sighed. She sniffled and spoke, her voice muffled under the pillow. "What do you want?" she asked. "I, um...I baked your brownies and I got that stain out of your clothing for Home Ec," he said softly. Ashley sat up and pulled the pillow away from her face, hugging it to her chest as she looked at him, holding a tray of brownies and the folded piece of clothing slung over his shoulder. She looked from each thing to his face and then appeared confused as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "Why?" "Because you were having trouble, and it wasn't fair," Jason replied, "I didn't want you to fail. Are you okay?" Ashley pulled her legs to her chest, hugging them and shook her head, "No, not really, I...I should be able to do this sort of stuff. I'm a girl." "That's a sexist generalization." "I know, but still, I HAVE to be feminine in some way cause...I..." she looked away from her brother at the floor and sighed, "...I have to be feminine in some way because I'm not feminine in the one way that society counts, which is liking men." "...you don't like men?" Jason asked, and Ashley shrugged, as he continued, "Well, whatever. Who cares. You're cool, Ashley, so screw if you can do this stuff, you know? Besides, that's why we have bakeries and dry cleaners." Ashley laughed a little as Jason set the stuff on the bed and stood back up, putting his hands in his pants pockets as he looked down at her on the bed. "And for what it's worth, you're not alone. I too don't like men," he added, making her laugh more, "Good night," he added, before turning and heading out of her bedroom and to his own. Ashley picked up the pan of brownies and looked at them, and realizing he was right. It didn't matter. So she wasn't the most feminine person. Who gave a shit. She was cool, and that was far more interesting. Her sexuality had nothing to do with her femininity. And she shouldn't care that much to begin with anyway, it was just an extra credit class. After all, it was just Home Ec. *** "Why are you making this so hard?!" Jason shouted, his body now contorted completely on the game board, Ashley underneath him, her body just as twisted. Ashley groaned as Amie spun the spinner once again, and announced, "Right foot blue". Jason moved his foot to the blue and heard Ashley scream as he smashed her hand underneath it, making her fall, and he fell on top of her, both of them now laying crumpled on the game board on the floor. "God that hurt!" Ashley cried out, holding her hand. "This game is evil! Whoever made this game is evil and I will punch them in the face if I ever meet them!" Jason yelled, "Why did you wanna play this?!" "Because it matched my mood," Ashley said. "Oh, you're forced into uncomfortable positions too, wife stealer?!" Jason screamed as they crawled away from one another and sat on the floor, staring at one another. Ashley exhaled, and he could tell she was on the verge of tears; he immediately felt bad for going there. "You're one to talk, you put me into just as awkward a position, raising a child with YOUR ex wife, a child that's ACTUALLY yours. It's like some fucked up incestuous situation, it's creepy," Ashley said, "Maybe if you'd been a better husband things wouldn't have ended between you two." "That's not fair," Jason said, "That is NOT fair. You know I was not totally at fault. You of ALL people should know that people cannot decide their sexuality or who they're attracted to." "Forget it," Ashley said, getting up and storming off, crying. Jason sighed and rubbed his head as he looked around the room and saw Amie standing there, staring at him. He slowly stood up and walked to her, his head hung low. "I'd like to go home," he said softly. "I don't think you can. I think you have to apologize to your sister," Amie said. "...okay," Jason said softly before turning and heading up to Ashleys old room. When he opened the bedroom door, he found her window open. He leaned out it and looked around, until he saw one of her boots hanging down from the roof. Jason climbed out the window and up onto the roof, where he saw Ashley sitting, her knees pulled up to her chest. He sighed as he settled in next to her. "...I'm sorry," Jason said, "...things are weird, you're right, there's no denying that. Um...but I guess I...I just-" "I picked Twister because that's what this feels like, Jason. I feel like we're both constantly forcing ourselves into uncomfortable positions to make life work." "God, using a board game as a metaphor, who're you, dad?" he asked, smirking at her, as she smiled and pushed his shoulder playfully before he continued, "Ashley...I'm sorry. I think we're both pretending to be far more well adjusted than we actually are. I guess I'm still not totally over Anna, but I am trying so hard to become a better person and to be happy with Amie." "I know you are, I can tell. I'm happy for you for doing that, Jason," Ashley said. "...so like, for real though, fuck Twister, right?" Jason asked. "Seriously. Um...do you wanna borrow a pair of my pants?" Ashley asked, "Ya know, since yours are ripped?" "Well, you do have a whole basket of clean laundry downstairs," Jason replied, both of them laughing. Meanwhile, sitting in the living room still on the couch, Becca felt like they had to say something, anything, to Katie, after what they'd just witnessed. Becca cleared their throat and leaned in a bit closer, almost whispering. "Don't worry, not all families are like this," Becca said. "Did they accept you easily?" Katie asked, pushing hair behind her ear, her large brown eyes looking up at Becca. "...Y...yeah, I mean, ya know, there was a period of adjustment, obviously, but...but they certainly accepted me and none of them have given me any shit. But I recognize I'm lucky. I come from an educated, civilized family. Despite what you did just see, we are rather civilized, I swear," Becca said, making Katie laugh before they continued, "But, does your family not accept you?" "Amie's been great," Katie said, "But mom and dad, mom especially..." "Mothers have this strange adoration and obsession with their first born sons, so when their first born sons turn out to not be a first born son, yeah, it can screw with them I guess. That being said, that doesn't excuse any sort of grief they're giving you." "It's not so much grief as it is...disappointment. They won't say anything, but they also don't acknowledge it either. They're in denial," Katie said, looking at her shoes, "I think that's why Amie brought me here, cause she knew I'd be accepted and have someone to talk to about it. She's a pretty great sister." "She seems to be, yeah," Becca said, looking up at Amie and smiling; they cleared their throat and put their hand on Katies back, saying, "Don't worry too much about it all. In the grand scale of the universe, and I know this might seem weird coming from someone with such a tight knit family, but, parents are about the least influential people you will have in your life. Take it from me." *** Jason knocked on Ashleys door, and she opened it, her hair in curlers. He was standing in the hallway, holding his schoolbooks and backpack, looking rather unhappy. She opened the door a bit further and let him come in, where he sat on her bed. "What's up?" she asked. "You're good at english, right?" he asked. "Yeah," she said, "Why? You need some help?" He nodded, and she smiled, sitting beside him. Ashley took his books from him and opened them, helping him with his homework. He didn't mind, he needed the help and he wasn't too prideful to not accept it, and Ashley didn't mind helping, he'd helped her with Home Ec and she enjoyed spending time with her brother and she was good at english. Besides, she knew he'd pick it up. It wasn't that hard. After all, it was just english class.
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Family Game Night follows the Fuller family, a (possibly too) tight knit family who meet every Thursday night to play board games...and air their dirty laundry. Archives
March 2019
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