“Ike...” Jessie called from the stairs.
“Yeah, I’m up in our room.” He called.
Jessie hurried up to his room. She noticed that he was packing. “Where are you going?”
“LA.”
“Why?” She asked hanging on the doorframe.
“We were invited to Skywalker ranch.”
“As in Luke Skywalker?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?” She asked confused.
“MTV invited us to a private screening of the new Star Wars movie.”
Jessie felt her eyes sting. “I thought that we were going to go together.” She said hurt. Isaac stopped packing and looked at her. “Forget it…pretend like I didn’t say anything.” She said leaving the doorway.
Isaac went after her. “Jess, we’ll all still go when we get home.”
“Yeah, sure. Have fun.” She went down the stairs and tried not to cry and act like she was happy.
She sat across the table from Isaac at dinner. He tried several times to say he was sorry and that he would make it up to her. They would go see a movie together or something. She accepted the apology, however it didn’t make her feel any better.
The boys caught their flight after dinner. Jessie didn’t want to go with her parents and they agreed to let her stay home.
Dear journal,
Well my brothers lied to me. They told me that I would go and see Star Wars with them. I was so excited. I was going to get to spend time with them. But no them stupid MTV people had to invite them to go see it first! Now I don’t want to go and see it anymore. See how they like that. Ha! I’m so mad. I’m not sure why I am so mad but I am. Oh well.
“Jess, come on come with us.” Ike pleaded with his little sister the day after the MTV Star Wars thing.
“No Ike, you’ve already seen it. I don’t want to go with people who have seen it.”
“Jess, that makes no sense.”
“Yes, it does.”
“Jess.”
“Ike, go without me. You guys don’t seem to have a problem doing that when the mood strikes you so go.” She said.
“Jessica, that is not fair.”
“Yes, it is. It’s fair that you went yesterday and got to go and see Skywalker ranch; got to meet George Lucas, it’s fair that you got to see the movie first, it’s fair that you got all of that cool stuff. But it’s not fair that I don’t want to go and watch it with people that have already seen it. Sure Ike, that makes sense.” She fumed.
“You’re jealous.” He said.
Jessie was never more hurt by any one statement in her life. “No, I’m not jealous.” She said slowly. “How can you think of me like that?” Tears trickled down her face. “I just want to spend time with you and I thought that we all were going to see the movie together.” She said wiping the tears from her eyes.
“Jess, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t, Isaac. Just leave me alone for a while.” She said and went up the stairs.
“What was that about, Ike?” Zac asked.
“A lot.” He said quietly and slumped down into the couch and wiped his hand over his mouth and chin. Zac joined him on the couch. “She’s mad that we went and saw the movie yesterday. She isn’t going with us tonight.”
“She’ll get over it, Ike. Just let her fume.”
Isaac looked at Zac from the corner of his eye. “I don’t know about that, Zac.”
“Why? Why can’t you just accept that someone is mad and they will get over it?”
“I’ve lived with all of you too long to be able to think that.” He said getting up and heading up the stairs.
He was upset with himself. He didn’t know what to think anymore. Why was Jessie so mad? Didn’t they spend enough time with her anymore? He realized that these were questions that he needed the answers to. It wasn’t like Jessie to get mad very easily. She really must have been upset about this.
He sat down at his desk and began rooting through his drawer for a pen when he came across a letter. He opened it again. The date was four years ago. Jessie had given him this for his birthday.
Ikey,
You are the best big brother in the world. I love you. Thank you for spending time with me. Most big brothers don’t like their little sisters enough to take them to the movies. But you did thank you. Happy birthday. I love you a lot.
Jessie
“Oh God.” He said aloud. Right there was what was wrong with her. Every time he had allotted time in his busy schedule for his little sister some way or other it was destroyed. This time he hadn’t even realized it. Now that he knew what was wrong he was left with an even bigger problem. What was he going to do about it?
Ike went to the movie that night with Taylor and Zac. However, he felt bad the entire night. Was this Jesse’s revenge? He wondered to himself. She knew that it irked him when someone was angry with him.
The movie wasn’t as good as it had been the night previous. He pretended to Tay and Zac that he was still as excited as he had been that morning. But he was lying. He wasn’t happy at all.
He lay in bed that night and thought about everything that had happened recently. An event stuck out in his mind.
“Ike do you have a second to play Soccer with me?”
“Jess, I really am busy right now.” He said watching the computer screen trying to perfect the MOE symbol.
“Come on Ike, you need a break. You’ve been sitting there for hours. Come on, play.”
“Jess, I really don’t have the time.”
“You won’t have the time when you all record the album. You have the time now. Come on, please.”
“Jess.”
“I understand.” She said reluctantly and left the room.
Isaac turned that day over in his mind. There were countless other times where she had tried to get him out and do things. She wouldn’t because he didn’t have the time. Because he wouldn’t make the time. He thought grimly.
He tried to go to sleep. All he managed to do was fall into a restless sleep thinking about his baby sister and how he had managed not to find the time for her anymore.
The next morning he got dressed and took a shower and pulled his hair back into a tail and grabbed a soccer ball and found Jessie in the computer room working on something.
“Hey, Jess.”
She barely even turned to him. “What?” she asked coldly.
“Do you want to go outside and play some soccer? I’ll teach you that move that you’ve been wanting me to teach you.”
She spun in the computer chair. Her expression was cold and hard. “Why should I do anything with you? Have you finally found some time to set aside for me? How long? Twenty minutes? What?”
“I don’t know…whenever you and I get to tired to keep going.”
“Wow, maybe an hour. I feel so honored.”
“Fine, Jess.” He turned and began to leave.
“Ike, no, no wait…” She couldn’t let the opportunity pass to spend a little time with her brother. If not the whole day she’d settle for an hour. “Yeah, I wanna play.” He smiled.
“Cool. Come on let’s play.” Jessie got up and they played soccer outside until the both of them fell over from exhaustion.
“Jess, you have to start talking to me again.”
“I can’t.” She said reluctantly.
“Why not?” He asked disturbed by his sister's words.
“It started that you were too busy. Well no really. It started when I felt like I was being pushed away when you three recorded MON then it got to the point where you were too busy. Now we don’t know each other anymore. I’m becoming a young woman and you are now a rock star. You would rather talk with Tay and Zac. Not that I blame you. You three share the same experiences and you want to discuss those experiences with each other. I can’t exactly do that with you. I don’t know what it’s like to stand on that stage and sing for thousands of people. And you don’t know what it’s like to start your period for the first time.”
Isaac’s eyes widened. “You’ve started…your…your…you know?”
She tried not to laugh. “Yes, Isaac. Right when you weren’t looking.”
He turned his head he heard the grass crunch under his head. “We really need do this more often.”
“I know. But there aren’t enough hours in the day.”
“No, there aren’t.”
“I love you, Ike.”
“I love you too.” They both got up and looked at one another. Isaac grabbed her in a huge hug.
