"I have a favor." my sister texted to me.
I ignored it and just kept driving. I did that partly because she never contacts me unless she's planning to screw me over but also because I'm just an asshole in general. Don't judge, I was born this way.
I was on my way to pick up my surround sound system and I had been saving up for it for months. Crystal already owed me about four thousand from when I had helped her with a loan and then she skipped out on it and I ended up having to pay it off. No way she was getting her hands on this money. I didn't know how she must have found out about it but no fucking way was I going to help her by giving her any more money.
"I really need you to reply. It's life or deth."
"Learn to spell!" I texted back as I was waiting for the cute girl at the audio video store to go get the boxes of equipment for me so I could check out.
"Please.!!"
"Please, what? I replied to you. There, now you can live. And learn how to punctuate for crying out loud. You did graduate high school, didn't you?"
"I need a favor."
"No."
"It's life or death."
"Get Dad to do it."
I went back to ignoring her so I could ask for my receipt which the store staff had forgotten to give me. For the next two hours after arriving back home I was busy unboxing and connecting everything up while dodging all of Sally's attempts to get me to come to bed and fuck her. At the same time my phone pinged again and again with the distinctive tone I set up just for Crystal.
"Aren't you going to answer her?" Sally asked.
I tested my new system out and ... nothing. A small part of myself started to panic knowing that I'd just spent over three thousand on this and what if it didn't work. But no, let me back up. I went over the steps and checked everything.
"Is it this?" Sally pointed out to me.
Oh, yeah, I'm so dumb. I had to flip the main switch on to sent power to the ...
Knock, knock.
I tried to ignore it as I saw the system lights come to life.
Knock, knock.
I grit my teeth as I forced myself to put the remote for the system down and go to the door.
"What do you want?" I said as I did the opposite of slamming the door.
"This bitch is going to kill me." my sister said as she stood there with a seemingly sincere look of worry on her Latina face. She had obviously taken after mom and had the darker skin and darker hair compared to me. Growing up a lot of people had even questioned if we really were siblings or not.
"I don't care."
"You have to help me."
"No. Go get a loan on your own."
"It's not about money."
"Oh, well that clinches it. You are still in high school because out here in adult land everything is about money."
"No this."
"Get Dad to help you."
"I can't."
"Get mom to help you."
"How would that even work."
"You ask her for help and she ..."
"You don't understand."
"Nope, sure don't. Don't want to either."
"Can I just explain this to you?"
I thought for a moment and I noticed Sally giving me a look from the corner of my eye so I relented. "I'll listen and maybe give advice but that is it."
"Thank you. Can we talk in private, though?" she asked.
I didn't need to say anything Sally picked up on the hint and exited.
I went back to the living room area and just as my sister was about to launch into her explanation I pressed play on the surround sound test movie and then I smiled from ear to ear as I enjoyed the full three D sound saturating my body. Oh, if only it could have lasted but my less than sweet sister went over and turned the dial all the way down.
"Listen to me!"
"Fine. Let's get this over with. But no long winded bullshit, please. I have an entire night of movies scheduled."
"By yourself?"
"Yeah, by myself. 90% of the time when I watch a movie it is by myself."
"You're weird."
"The door is right back the way you came."
"Can you just listen to me please?"
"I would but you're not telling me anything."
"Cause you're not listening."
"You said someone was going to kill you? How much money did you steal from them?"
"None. Not yet."
"Yet?"
"At all. You're so picky. Shut up and listen."
"I'm going to start a timer." I said as I got out my phone.
She came over to me and put her hands on mine to stop me. "This woman is going to give me ten thousand dollars if I can get her pregnant but if I can't I'm worried she's going to flake out on me and probably cut me into small pieces."
"What the hell kind of friends are you hanging out with?"
"She's not me friend. She's ..."
"So neither you nor her passed high school biology to be able to know that this plan is impossible."
"Let me start from the beginning."
"Life on earth is divided into single celled and multi celled organisms."
"Please just let me say this."
In the interest of moving her along and then hopefully getting back to my brand new surround sound system I decided to be quiet and just gestured for her to continue.
"Ok. Here it goes. I met this woman who wants to get pregnant."
I tried to hold in a laugh as I again imagined some woman out there too stupid to understand that women with women was not how a girl got pregnant.
"Are you listening?"
"Yep."
"It really seems like you're not."
"No, go ahead. Floor is yours."
"Ok. So I met this woman and she really wants to have a baby but she's all uptight about sex and super selective when it comes to guys."
"You're saying she's crazy."
"No, she's totally normal. But she really wants to have a baby."
"Let me guess, she's like 35, just hit the wall, childless and realizes that now is her last chance to have a baby."
"She's 24."
"Allegedly."
"No, really."
"Fine, call the courthouse and get her committed."