Just you and I

I

(POV Saylor)

I wake up to a tiny human jumping next to me on the mattress of my bed while yelling my name over and over again. I open my eyes to meet her ocean blue eyes staring directly at me.
She puts on the biggest smile when she notices I'm finally awake.

"Good morning to you too, Sofia"

She makes one last jump directly on to my chest. I groan in pain, but look at her with a very familiar grin. Her eyes get big, but before she can spurt away, I'm already returning her action by tickling her. Her infectious little laugh fills the room while she's trying to get out of my grip.

Her arms and legs are flailing and when she finally catches her breath, and manages to ask me to stop,  I turn the tickles into a big morning hug.

Sofia is my little sister, she turned 6 in the beginning of the year and is the most precious little thing. She has the admired wavy blonde hair, and ocean blue eyes you can get lost in, which are very cheesy words, but i don't care when it comes to my little sister. I, on the other hand, have dark blonde hair and the not so admired boring hazel eyes. No honestly, they look like overcooked walnuts if anything.

Sofia and I moved from one side of Maine to the ocean side after my parents had yet another drunk fight.

I got used to the fights over the years, I managed to just ignore them and not let their words hurt me, so I'd go up to my room and put my headphones on. But after Sofia was born, things changed.

Their fights weren't like any other fight they'd ever had.

I came home one day after picking up my little sister from daycare, which had become an everyday routine. I could already smell the familiar disgusting scent of alcohol lingering when I opened the door. I put Sofia in her room upstairs, and told her to do what we had been practicing: "put on your noise cancelling headphones, and hit play". I made sure it automatically played some of her favorite songs.
She was young, she didn't understand what was going on. To some extent maybe, but I think she was more confused if anything else.

Then I did what had become the same routine: quietly tiptoeing  back downstairs to the living room, because being too loud would make them notice me, which naturally would cause the usual screaming of how much of a disappointment I am. So I stood behind the wall that separated the two rooms and listened to their conversation in case anything happened and I had to step in.

"You don't think I know?"
"Know what?"
"That you cheated on me, and Sofia isn't actually mine. Yeah, I heard in the bar from that disgusting bastard. Congratulations Jessica, it's a girl."
"Kyle. I-"
"Save it."

After that fight, my dad left. He walked right past me heading for the door and looked me straight in the face. I wasn't supposed to be down here, I ran upstairs scared he would hit me, which he's done before. But he didn't this time.

He left and slammed the door shut. He didn't come home all night. By the time I came downstairs later that evening to get some food for Sofia and I, my mom was already passed out on the couch. I cleaned up the mess they made, got rid of the empty bottles and got some food for us.

It took a few days for my dad to come home, and they "talked". Talking as in pretending like nothing happened. They got back together, said they would 'try again', and 'maybe go to therapy'. But big surprise, they fought again a few days later, it was a never ending cycle. Spoiler alert: therapy never happened.

They were neglecting both Sofia and me, so I took care of her. The last week of May, I came home like every other night after picking Sofia up. My parents were waiting when we walked in, obviously drunk, their pupils were small and constricted, the alcohol was radiating off of them.