Gangland II.

Chapter 18 - Memory Lane.

The minute I left Schaefer, I got my act together. Immediately.

I winded up getting back into college, but I attended a different college back in Washington. I was slacking a little in the beginning, but my grades winded up skyrocketing back to A's and B's. I guess I had no choice since I barely had any friends in Washington from high school. I needed concentration. I was so busy partying and fucking around with Isaiah and his clique that I wasn't focusing enough on my grades. Now that I was back in my peaceful residence and area, I was able to fuel myself up and get myself back on track.

I stayed in college all the way up until I turned 19. While in college, I worked at a plant for 5 hours out of the day, mostly after I got out of my classes. A month later, I graduated received my journalism degree and started searching for jobs that would let me work in the newspaper field and magazine area. My parents were so proud. Even though I hated them for taking me out of Schaefer, they did it for the best.

And the best, actually worked.

Soon enough, I saved up enough to afford a nice apartment in Washington. I was still looking, but I wanted to find the apartment that was perfect for me. Lord was it difficult. One apartment I came by was a place that had two bedrooms, a bath, a kitchen, and a living room, but no entertainment area. The second apartment was an apartment that was right next to a railroad, an the third was the perfect place, but the lady up above me had like 5 kids so they were noisy as shit. They were even noisy when they were showing me the place.

When I left Cali, I stayed in contact with Isaiah for the first month. Calls each day shifted into calls every week, then every month, then eventually no calls at all. We grew distant. There was only so much you could talk about when you were so far away from a person, so that made it ten times difficult to remain close.

I winded up picking a small place, but I only picked it to save up enough money to get a better one with the money I had left. I was comfortable. Here, I winded up meeting a girl named Kathy. She was my same age and we met in college. We started dating and after the first year, we moved into my apartment together. We also got a small Yorker as a pup so that just in case one of us got lonely, we would have someone there. No, we don't and didn't have any kids at the moment. We were just happy and trying to figure ourselves out before I decided to have any children with anyone yet. I wasn't quite ready to be a father yet.

I was now 22 years old.

*RING RING*

"Josh!" Kathy called out. "The phones ringing!"

Kathy was a caramel skinned girl with short black and sharp cut hair. She was my girlfriend. I always joked around with her and told her that she looked like Kyla Pratt. Haha. She hated that. Anyway, I answered the phone and walked into the kitchen to get a snack.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Did you pack your bags?" My mother asked me.

"No?" I said, scrunching my eyebrows. "For what?"

"They're having a family reunion in California tomorrow!" My mother cheered. "All of your cousins, aunts, and uncles will be there!"

I wasn't looking forward to it. Had it been 4 years ago, I would've been happy. Now that I was older and a little more mature, I wasn't trying to go back and visit Schaefer. I hadn't seen Aunt Shay, Isaiah, Noah, or Kayson in 4 years, so I was really nervous to see them again.

"I was never informed." I said in a bummed tone.

"Well aren't you excited?" My mother chanted. "You finally get to see Isaiah! You guys used to be so close."