Life Lesson I've Learned from Glee

16. You Can Choose Your Friends, But Not Your Family
        The Only Common Ground Between Us: Parents

All I wanted was a sister.

Ryan and I share nothing. In grade school, he snuck out of eighth period to smoke with friends. I went to youth group. Ryan barely graduated high school. I couldn't wait to go to college. I realized we would never get along on my 13th birthday, when my grandma got me my first bottle of perfume. I stashed it on my dresser, brainstorming when I could wear it for the first time. One day after school, the shiny crystal bottle was gone.
"Mom, did you take my perfume?" I asked.
"No. It was on your dresser last night. Check again," she said.
I searched. It was gone.
"Ryan, did you take my perfume?" I asked. I held my breath. I didn't want to know the truth. I felt the fury build up in my face, bracing for the worst.
"Yeah," he said. That was it. The most prized posession in my 13 year old life was gone. I exhaled.
"Why. What would you want with it?"
"Trust me, you don't want to know."

Now it was time for mom to intervene. Things were going to get bad.

"Give it back to her, Ryan. Now," mom said.
"I would. Except that I don't have it anymore," Ryan said.
"Where is it?" Mom asked.
"I made a bomb out of it," he said. "Used some lighter fluid. Worked real well."

The tears dripped down my face. I wanted to charge at him, punch him in the face. I never even got to use it.


Nine years later, and I still get angry when I think about that bottle of perfume being lit on fire and tossed around in the forest by Ryan and his buddies.
But why fight it? Family is family. I may not have the traditional relationship with my brother, but I'll never have another one.