When I was little, I’d listen to my peers complain about how annoying their siblings were. They would go on and on how they would fight about the most stupid things. As I would listen, I remember I’d think, “I wish I had someone to fight with.”
My family consists of my mother, my father, and me. We’ve always been a small, kind of secluded family. My parents never had a lot of family friends and most of our relatives are unmarried, which meant no cousins to fight with. But that’s just my biological family. This story is about my other family.
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By the time I was in elementary school, I already had some close girlfriends. I was a little bit shy as a kid but never antisocial. Still, my parents only allowed me to go out and play in the neighborhood and my school friends didn’t live that close. There weren’t a lot of kids my age in the neighborhood so the long summer days sometimes seemed boring. Then one day a boy moved in next door with his mother and older sister. I didn’t know him and he didn’t come to introduce himself. He seemed very shy and he would always go out and play by himself. A month went by and he still hadn’t said a word to me. I was so curious to talk to him but I was too shy to approach him.
However, little by little, with the help of an older friend who started talking to him, he began to hang out and play with us. His name was Alex and his parents just got divorced. He was quite different – he was a very energetic, intriguing boy. I was fascinated. I’d wait all day for it to get dark and all the other kids to go home. My parents allowed me to stay out late and so did his.
[aesop_audio title=”Crickets” src=”http://jolineblais.net/nmd343/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Night_Sounds_-_Crickets-Lisa_Redfern-591005346.mp3″ loop=”on” viewstart=”off” viewend=”off” hidden=”off”]The summer heat was gone and was replaced by a cool relaxing summer breeze. We could hear the crickets in the bushes calmly singing their night song. The playground was lit only by a single lamp. It was just me and him in the comfort of the starry summer night. Тhe two of us would just swing and talk until my parents came to get me home. We instantly became close friends and would spend all of our days together.
As time went by, the other shy kid in the neighborhood joined us in our games. I also brought in my two closest school girlfriends. The five of us grew extremely close. We would play, fight, sing, and dance together. They were my family. The siblings I never had. The people I cared about the most.
[aesop_gallery id=”3863″ revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]Year after year, we never grew distant. In what seemed the blink of an eye, we went from childhood play to going to parties. We learned so much from each other. We shaped each other and how we saw the world.
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“I wish we could get a house like this one day and all live together, ” I said.
“Nobody’s going to put up with your mess, ” Rachel joked.
“We’ll grow distant after we graduate from high school. Everyone is going to take their own path and we won’t talk to each other anymore. You’ll see, Simona, it’s inevitable. It’s just how life works, ” said Victor.
How negative he is, I thought. Why is he being so cynical? We’ll never grow distant. We grew up together. It’s just not possible.
“Let’s all promise each other to make everything possible to keep in touch. No matter what happens with our lives, we’ll always be there for each other when one of us needs help,” I said.
There and then we made a promise to each other. Life may be uncertain but our friendship was not.
Years came and went by fast and before we even knew it, the time for going to college had come. Each of us was eager to go to college and move to a different city, except for Alex. He simply didn’t want to go to college. He was an intelligent guy who was also very handy. His dream was to open his own auto repair shop one day. Cars were his passion and often the reason why he was in trouble. He would race other cars, always speed up, and push the vehicle to the edge. “The rush, the adrenaline, the recklessness – they make me feel alive, ” he told me once.
[aesop_audio title=”Tokyo Drift” src=”http://jolineblais.net/nmd343/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Tokyo-Drift-Teriyaki-Boyz-MUSIC-VIDEO-HD.mp3″ loop=”on” viewstart=”off” viewend=”off” hidden=”off”]Besides cars, his other weakness was his good heart. He was willing to do anything for his friends. Alex was the one to pick me up from school, share his chocolate with me, or carry my groceries. He would mess around and tease me but from the moment we met, I could tell he was a good person. Others could see it too and take advantage of him.
We all left for college and he was the only one who stayed in our hometown. He got a job at a storage facility where he met some new people. We were the type of friends that wouldn’t call or text each other often so we didn’t really know what was happening in each others’ lives.
People associate Christmas with spending time with their families, eating delicious food, and singing festive songs. I associate Christmas with seeing my friends. It is the only time we get to spend together, reconnect and catch up with our lives. However, something was different this last Christmas.
The night is freezing cold and Stella, Rachel, and I are waiting for Alex to pick us up at the usual bus stop, which is lit by a single street lamp. Rachel is smoking a cigarette and is pacing around because of the cold but she also seems nervous.
“What’s the matter with you tonight?” I ask.
“I probably shouldn’t tell you this but I don’t want to hang out with Alex anymore. He’s changed and I heard some things about what he’s doing. He got involved with the wrong people. I think he’s selling drugs,” Rachel says.
I don’t feel the cold anymore. My mind is still processing the possibility of my best friend being a drug dealer.
“You can’t be serious. Those must be just stupid rumors. You know how it is in our small town, everyone likes to talk,” I say.
We hear a car speeding up our way and then the screeching of its tires. That’s Alex’s way of a dramatic movie-like show up. All three of us get into the car and the first thing that greets me is his sincere smile and kind eyes. I chase away the ridiculous doubts Rachel put into my mind. There is no way the person standing in front of me is a criminal.
He starts driving to our usual hangout spot – the TV tower. We all love this place because we can see the whole city from up there. It’s just us, the city lights, and the music in the car. Sometimes we talk when we feel like it but silence is also a comfortable companion.
The night is so cold that nobody else was crazy enough to come up here so we are the only car in the parking lot. He turns off the car and we start talking but he seems distracted. He’s checking his phone every few minutes almost as if he’s expecting a call. He’s changing the song when we see a car approaching the parking lot. It’s close enough to see that it is a police car. I freeze but my mind is racing with thoughts. The policemen get out of the car and start walking towards us.
“I need all of you to give me your ID’s and the driver should step out of the car,” the policeman says.
Alex goes out of the car and I can see the two policemen talking to him. He is looking down at the ground. They search him and find a small plastic bag with something green in it. It’s weed – a drug that is punishable with hefty fines and even prison time according to the law.
I can’t believe what is happening. It almost feels surreal. They give us our IDs back and tell us all of us should come to the police station for routine questioning. I’ve never spoken to a police officer before, let alone go to the police station. Once we’re there, they start questioning us one by one. “Did you know your friend was dealing drugs?”, “How long have you known him?”, “Do you know he can go to prison for this?”
I’m really frightened but I tell them nothing. “I’m a straight-A student, I come home once a year, I have no idea what he is doing. He’s been my friend for many years, I know him, he is a good person. There must be a reasonable explanation for this,” I say.
Eventually, they let us all go and write it off as just possession. He’ll probably have to do some community service, they tell us. We get into the car but nobody is saying anything. Alex can’t even look us in the eyes. He is so ashamed but I can’t keep quiet anymore.
“Are you crazy? What were you thinking? Do you think dealing drugs is cool?” I ask angrily.
He keeps his silence. Everyone else is silent too. Alex takes a right turn and stops the car at a lonely quiet street.
“I’m so sorry guys. You shouldn’t have been a part of this. It is all my fault,” he says.
“I want to know the whole story. How did you get involved in this?” Rachel says.
He takes in a deep breath and starts telling us. One of his new friends from work told him he needed help with something and Alex was excited to help as usual. However, what his friend needed was for someone to take over dealing drugs for a month because he was going away. “It’s not a big deal, you just run things in my place, and you can take all the money. It’s good and easy money,” the guy assured him. Since Alex always went with the flow, he agreed to do it. Helping a friend out and making some money in the process, sure, why not?
“The one month went by smooth and he came back but it was really hard to get out of it once you start doing it. I wanted to stop but he’s my friend and it was easy money. It’s kind of addictive just like speeding up,” he says.
“You did one thing wrong and it’s not dealing drugs. It’s wrong of you to think of that person as your friend. If he was your friend he would’ve never put you in a position like that. People take advantage of your kindness and you should know that. We are the ones that care about you no matter what happens. Always remember that. We promised each other something back in the days and we’ll do everything to keep that promise. Even if it means going to the police station on a cold winter night,” I say as he finally looks me in the eyes. A shy smile is forming on his face.
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