I was watching a movie in bed with my boyfriend when I heard the rambunctious running of my younger brother, Casey, climbing up the stairs. I looked at my boyfriend and held my breath as I dreaded and hoped in my head that he wouldn’t come into my room for the third time that day. But nonetheless, my door swung wide open and there he stood in the direct middle of the doorway with a cheeky little grin on his face. I stared at him waiting for potential reasoning as to why he had interrupted my sacred alone time and after a couple of seconds I blurted out rather snappily “What do you want?” He looked a little taken aback at what I said and I started to regret my stereotypical moody teenager tone when he replied: “I just wanted to see what you guys were watching”. A simple enough request, yet I wanted him gone. I tried dismissing him and saying that we were busy, but before I could even finish my sentence, my boyfriend, Rey was asking him if he wanted to join us and watch the movie. Casey was overjoyed and started climbing into bed with us and I wanted none of it! I sat there basically pouting and throwing the teenage equivalent of a temper tantrum all because my little brother wanted to spend time with us.

 I only realized how ridiculous I was when I looked at Casey, wedged in between Rey and I on the bed, and saw his freckled face smiling with adoration as he looked up at the TV screen. After gazing at him, I couldn’t help but smile as Rey started explaining to Casey the movie’s plot. I immediately mellowed out and snuggled up to the both of them as we all cuddled under the blankets watching Coco. After a little while, and a little tickle fight amongst the three of us, we decided to take our movie night to the next level and make it a spa night. We put on goopy, blue facemasks and matching headbands while we went downstairs and heated up leftover pizza from the night before. And as I sat there, eating bites of Rey’s pizza, I found myself trying so hard not to smile and ruin the facemask but I ultimately failed and matched the grins of Rey and Casey as we all ate our food together. 

Growing up, and especially during high school, we focus so much on becoming mature and independent beings that we forget just how wonderful it can be to spend time with our family no matter how “uncool” it may seem. Now when I find myself participating in stereotypical teenager activities or even writing the occasional English paper, I can’t help but crack a smile the second I hear those footsteps coming up the stairs. I’ll never forget all the little moments when Casey and Rey reminded me what it’s like to quit being so serious and just have fun.