For me, family doesn’t come first in many situations and this is one of my many reasons why. On this particular day, I was in a bright, just jolly mood, so I had agreed to go grocery shopping with my stepmother and stepsister. My step-sister had wanted to make another one of her strawberry and cucumber waters, so we grabbed a couple of cucumbers, mint leaves, lemons, and were on our way home.

After pulling into the garage, I helped carry in the groceries while my dear step-sister just walked straight into the house. Slowly losing my patience, I walk through the door, put the groceries on the counter, and take my shoes off. I’m told to help my grandparents put the groceries away, so I do as told and start moving things from the counter, to the fridge. My grandfather asks me who the mint leaves belong to, and without even letting me answer, not a single word out of my mouth, he asks why I’m buying this when the last time I bought mint, nobody used it and he had to throw it out. This is where my self control starts to drive towards an abyss at 95 mph. I tell him that it’s not mine, and continue to put the vegetables into the drawer at the bottom of the fridge. He then sees the cucumbers and again, asks me if they’re mine. I say no, and as if he did not hear me at all, he tells me the same thing as before about me wasting food (hint: all of those times where food was bought and wasted, was not me, it was her).

Lastly, he starts to put away the strawberries, and oh god, the strawberries. About 10 seconds after he put the cucumbers in the fridge, my step-sister ran downstairs and had seated herself at the dinner table where she could clearly hear our conversation. He spots the strawberries and notices something as soon as he picks them up. Looking up from the counter, his eyes go straight to the fridge, where there is a half full pack of strawberries. As I predict what he’s going to say to me, I immediately attempt to keep my cool, but it’s all gone once his sentence is spoken.

My step-sister simply looks towards the strawberries and doesn’t even mutter a single word. My grandfather begins an entire speech about how we shouldn’t have bought the strawberries and that the strawberries from the place that he bought the other pack from are much sweeter. I take the peppers that I’m holding and drop them right into the fridge not caring where they land and say, “You know what? I’m just going to leave before I say something I regret.” I ran upstairs to my room, my mind bringing up past situations that have been much worse than this where I was blamed for something that she did. I throw my door open and slam it shut.

Once I’m sitting on my bed, thinking about how stupid this is, my inner voice brings up how unfair and unbalanced my family has become. I have to try to control my breathing once I think that ever since she arrived, she expects to be treated like a princess and has a tantrum for every time she doesn’t get something that she wants. I can’t go out with my friends anymore because she doesn’t want to be alone, yet she can go to her friends’ parties within the blink of an eye. She doesn’t ever clean up after herself and when I clean up her messes and everyone else’s around the house, she takes the credit.

I eventually go back downstairs and all of the groceries are put away. My grandpa asks why I’m such a bitter person and I shrug my shoulders in reply. I sit down at the table hoping to calm down, but realizing that my silent cry of help is obviously not good enough, I’m ignored, so I just go back upstairs into my bed and sleep it off like I always do.