It was a deal gone bad. One of the biggest mistakes I ever made in my life.

It all began with my mom. I lived with her and my sister Perla. We live in a small broke down house. The house is a mess with old clothes and trash all over the floor and walls were white but are now dirty white. It was just enough to get us by through the days. My mom worked two jobs which explains the messy house.

Well my dad, he was out of the picture. My parents divorced when I was 7. Me being young I thought he would come back, but he never did. I don’t care about him any more I had better things to worry about.

Then there was me, 16 year old George. I didn’t  do much just stay home and  take care of my sister since my mom is always working. I didn’t pay attention nor care enough for school. Nobody really did as not many even graduate. You either went to school and tried to do something or you drop and work or something else because there aren’t any opportunities. That leaves many others to do other things like violence or drugs. There was always someone new who either was killed or arrested by the cops. It happened so often that nobody even bothers to care about, neither did I.

Everyday was the same. Go to school, pick my sister up, go home and repeat. We eat anything fancy or big usually fast food or anything we had at the house. It was rare to eat with mom since she comes home late from working. Of course she too tired to do anything. She had bags under her eyes and her hair was always a mess. After lots of time of this it became normal. But then one day she seemed a little off than usual. My whole day was off. When she came home she looked very ill but not like the common cold but something worse. It worried me.

“Hey mom,” I asked, “are you okay, you seem sick”.
“Yes, why you ask?” She replied.

She was lying not wanting to me and my sister but I knew she couldn’t go like this or else she was gonna get even worse. I sat with her for almost an hour just trying to convince her to go to the hospital to get herself checked out. She was always like this claiming she never needed help. She finally agreed to go to the hospital but insisted on going by herself. That was good enough for me.

What felt like days she came back and told us that the results would take a couple days to come back, which made me more impatient. I couldn’t stand seeing her like that as she got even worse and looked like a body with no soul. After a couple days we finally got a call on our old home phone. She was sitting in the small living room, no bigger than my room, quietly listening nodding her head. Then out of nowhere her facial expression completely changed to shock and fear. It was a sign telling me whatever she heard was really bad. She said something but I wasn’t able to hear it.

All was quiet for a couple of minutes. Then she started crying.
“What’s wrong mom!” I asked concerned, “what did they tell you”.

She didn’t respond to me she just shook her head.
I yelled, “Tell me!”

She sat again in silence until she told me that she was diagnosed with cancer. I didn’t believe what she said. I couldn’t believe it.
“Then what about treatment or medicine?” I asked panicky
She replied, “It’s fine I don’t need it and it’s not like we can afford it anyway.”

She left in a hurry saying she had to go to work. I was left there with many emotions of anxiety, sadness, mad, and scared. It was always money holding us back. I started thinking of ways to come up with money I had to for my mom. I was looking for any jobs I could get but I had no luck after two weeks of searching. I was running out of time and became desperate.

I went to school and met up with a guy I talked from time to time. His name was John and he sold drugs to people in school and outside of school. I never messed with him or drugs because I already knew what drugs lead to. I talked with him and asked him I needed to make money and fast. It was dumb but there was no other choice. He agreed and told me he had a job for me already and I quickly took it.

It seemed simple, meet a guy somewhere, give him the drugs and take the money. After school I went to a  alley behind a restaurant  about 10 minutes from my house. There was trash everywhere with rats everywhere and it smelled like a dump. I waited five minutes when a guy came up to me wearing a big coat. He looked just like my mom, dead and no life. I was nervous and started sweating. He took the package from me and checked it out and opened it to check that I wasn’t robbing him. It was empty. John was gonna cross this guy and I was caught in the middle. He got real mad and pulled out a gun on me and I started panicking. He yelled at me to explain this but I was to scared as I opened my mouth but nothing came out.

The owner from the restaurant came out hearing all the conflict. He saw us both and saw the guy with the gun and pulled out his phone to call the police but was shot down by the guy. He glanced at me and ran. I froze for a minute looking at the restaurant owner laying on the floor when reality came back and I ran for my life not trying to get caught by the police. I didn’t return home fearing the cops would be there waiting for me. I was on the run for a day until John snitched me out and I was caught.

My sister was taken by child services since my mom was unfit to take care of her. I was trialed as a juvenile and was forced into programs for helping teens with crimes. Which is where I am today. My mom was given treatment but it was too late. The day she passed away was the day that changed into what I am today. I ended up as another kid who was talked about in school, the one who sold drugs and mom died. It was just another story of a pitiful 16 year old.