Let's live a little bit longer [SET IT OFF]

4

The cold mood in the car fond his heights and the argument had been even more pleasant. Both parties grandmother and granddaughter were silent on the drive to the restaurant. The only good thing was that the ride was at least brief, but still it was unbearable.

In the restaurant, the mood wasn't better. So I sat sipping on my Jamaican pumpkin soup with chicken skewer and watched Maria as she sat at the other end of the table with her mobilephone.

"Soo ... What kind of music do you hear expect Green Day?" she looked at me briefly and was obviously surprised that I could speak.

"You know Green Day?" mockingly it came from her and she raised an eyebrow.
 "Of course I know those ... How old do you think I am?"
 "Mid-thirties.". What?! I'm in my mid-twenties! That's ten years! Something I'm doing wrong with my life.

Coughing, I glared at her as she grinned and stared back at her cell phone: "Wrong I'm 26." "Really? Hard to believe ..." she said bored  and I could understand Gabrijela slowly.

"And you've never heard of manners? No phone on the table." the motherly voice said, though I'm the farthest person away from the term mother. 

With an arrogance that only a teenager can have, she looked at me and snapped: "If we're already in manners, I think it's even worse to eat by strangers than sitting on a cell phone." Somewhere she's right, but as my mother used to say, with courtesy and decency you don't get far. Only this behavior seemed so familiar to me.

Chuckling, I looked at her and held my hand over my mouth so that the soup that had just been taken didn't make an exit again. Her snippy expression immediately changed to total confusion.

"What's so funny about that?"
 "Nothing ...", I really struggled to fight the laughter and could just suppress myself to a smile. "You only really remind me of my little sister." and how she did it. Just as stubborn and sneaky as my sister was. Perplexed, she looked and blinked at me more often, but then somewhere on the back of her face, I caught a small fine smile for a moment.

When she asked if I found this really so funny, I just nodded convincingly and tried to swallow the soup. It's not that it didn't taste good, but while you laughing is it difficult to sip soup.

"She's just as bad-tempered as you are, maybe it is theage."
"That's not true!", she laughed and leaned lightly against the table. Still smiling honestly, I looked at her with my hand over my mouth: " You have a beautiful laugh, much better than that sneaky number."  she looked surprised at me and smiled briefly warmhearted. Thank God she isn't as bad-tempered as she pretends to be. But why is she like that? 

"Unfortunately, this is my talent." she admitted and stole some of my orange juice. 

"What a pity, why?"

 "Why is your sister like that too?". Oh, we've been wondering since puberty started. It can't be the hormones anymore, I think that's just her character, at least to me. To my parents of course an angel. I should have dropped her as a baby, when the opportunity presented itself.

"A big mystery, believe me, but she shows it often to me ... mostly.". If she tries that with my mother, that never goes well. My brother and I also had to learn that painfully. 

"Well you provoke pretty much with your appearance." she smiled at me. I like to break through walls, or take any conceivable faux pas. 

"I can imagine that she is trying to stay out of the line of fire, or Doesn't want that her annoying sister sniffs into her life, maybe to protect herself or to hide pain." Maria philosophized to herself and I think she had just told me her sore point independently.