The End of the End
July 2013
I’ve never worn a suit in my life. At least, I don’t ever remember wearing one. So, it was weird when my uncle, JJ, shoved a long plastic bag from JC Penney in my face.
“You’ll need to wear this.”
I kept my attention focused on my video game that I was playing. I had been shut up in my room for the past three days.
It had been three days since I found out that my dad wasn’t ever coming home again. He had stopped at the store on his way home from work to get some ice cream for me and my baby brother, Nicolas. Something he’d done hundreds of times. This time, the store was being robbed while he was in there. My dad got shot just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Once my dad had been identified, the police came over and an officer sat with us while they placed a call to a relative. I was only 14, so I had them call my uncle, Julian, in Miami. He drove the two hours to Lakeport, identified my dad’s body and he’s being staying with us ever since. He wasn’t the most reliable person, but he was honestly all the family we had that could take care of us. Our grandparents were in an assisted living facility. They weren’t going to be able to look after a 14-year old and an 11-year old. And our mom’s parents were just like her, out of our lives. She ran off when I was 5-years old. Guess she decided she didn’t want to be a mother anymore. That left just me, Nico, and Pops.
Now it was just me and Nico.
The funeral was tomorrow.
After that, we were packing up our entire lives and moving to Miami with my uncle.