@aidenmally

Adolescence

   From then on there were zero complications with me. I was mature and discipline. And it wasn't too long after I got back that my family decided to adopt me into their family. And all it took was one heartbreaking realization of all the mistakes I've made and people I've hurt. And a resolution that'll put everything back into place. After that there is no more story to tell. I went on with my life leaving all of my past self behind. And became committed to the future. That was... until every part of me that I chose to disown came flooding back all at once.

   It all started with a letter. One that I got from my Mom-Mom some time before. She chose not to give it toe because I wasn't mature enough to handle it. But now that I've proven myself she handed it to me to keep. It was a letter from my mom. The purpose was to inform me about another brother I have. How many is that? That's five! I skimmed through it because it was pretty emotional and sentimental and I didn't want to get into all that again. I had already committed to change. But it wasn't until I had my first break up. It was the first Friday of my 9th grade/ freshman year of High School. It was a 7 month relationship with a girl named Jasmine. We started of fast and it was steady for some time. But it slowed down once I realized I wasn't getting homework done because I was spending so much time with her. And I started to focus on more of my school work and less of her. That was a mistake. Because I didn't know this at the time but girls need love and affection. It's what keeps them with you. If you don't show love they won't show it back. You not only treat your loved one with respect as a women, but also show her that you love her. You can't fall in love once and expect it to last forever. Relationships are built on love. You show each other that you love each other and that love binds you together. It's not until the love fades away that relationships dwindle and partners back away from each other. I showed that I started getting annoyed or that I started not feeling it anymore. Which wasn't entirely the case, I mean if I'm trying to do homework and you come up behind me and try to cuddle while I'm working you might get an annoyed type response. I'm sorry but I value my education above all. But it was never that I didn't love her. Eventually it came down to my choice: do I want to end it and be just friends or show more affection? So of course I needed to put my responsibilities above. I still had feelings at the time. But they faded away eventually. At the end of the day my concern with my grades falling was so great that I chose my grades over the only girl in the entire school who would've ever loved me the way she did. This mistake lead me into a very short and mild state of depression. My first and my last. It was here that I wanted words of encouragement. So I read the letter that my mom sent me about a year or two prior. It wasn't until I read it more closely that I realized that my mom listed contacts to reach my family again. I checked the date it was sent which was about four years prior. So I almost gave up thinking that they most likely changed their numbers or got new phones by then. But something told me to do it anyway. I call my mom first.... straight to voicemail. I called my step dad.... some random dude picked up. I called my aunt.... the number was disabled. I started feeling hopeless. But when I called my grandparents house the phone actually rang out... but nobody picked up. Then I realized that their probably away from the phone or just don't recognize the number. So I called again... and it rang out for about ten seconds. And just as I was about to give up hope someone picks up the phone...
"Hello this is Nancy Speaking."
"Nancy..? Nanny..?"
"Nanny? I'm sorry, who is this?"
"It's... umm... it's Aiden."
"Aiden..? AIDEN!? AIDEN FLOWERS!?"
"Yes... yes... It's me..."
"My little aidie-wadie..."
Tears fall from my eyes. I haven't cried this much in so long. It felt.. great.
She asked how I got her number and I told her the situation. She said that she almost walked away from the phone because she didn't recognize the number and assumed it was a spam caller. But "something drew her back..." She said. Something told her that it was important. We cried and cried as I talked to all my old family members. Excluding my mom, who just got out of rehab but my step dad said he can easily contact her so he did. And they got back together again. And my older brother was eventually contacted as well. The family was connected again. I had brought the family together again.

   But I'm not gonna say there wasn't problems. For instance now I had two moms. Both of them equally wanted to take care of me. So if my Mom-Mom couldn't buy me something I would ask my mom. But then my Mom-Mom would go on and say, "You don't need them to help you. Your just making it look like we don't give you enough. Like we've been just barely getting by." This made me hesitant to ask my mom for stuff because I knew my Mom-Mom didn't like when I did that. And my mom felt like she had to make up for all that she did to me. Which she didn't because I stopped paying thought to that and wasn't angry at all at anybody. I don't hold grudges and I already moved on. But she insisted that if I ever needed something she she would do it for me. So when I needed something that my Mom-Mom couldn't get that I actually needed. I was hesitant to ask my mom and as result I never got what I needed. Which made me a bit upset that this barrier is holding me back but I chose to keep quiet and not cause any unnecessary complications. People tend to take things the wrong way. And whenever I wanted something that I found that was completely affordable or at a really low cost but my Mom-Mom couldn't get me it I wouldn't ask my mom. And as a result I barely ever got what I wanted. But I chose to not be a spoiled brat and pay more attention to the things I have. Which kinda upsets me more because at this point this family barrier is just holding me back from everything. But also it put a lot on my plate. Everything that I wanted to forget is suddenly back. Everything that I decided to disown to become a better me. Now I had to stop myself from going backwards. Not to mention I'm in high school and grades drop like Myrtle Beach salaries in the winter. And so it was hard to make time to see or to talk to everyone. So I decided to focus on me for a bit.

  The summer after my freshman year of high school we went to go down to Myrtle Beach to visit our Uncle Jack. Him and his wife moved down there years ago and got a brand new house built from the ground up. Uncle Jack had it done just for his wife and let her choose what she wanted. Sadly she died and didn't get to live in the house for long. Since then Uncle Jack has been living there by himself using retirement funds to keep his house. But he still worked two jobs to get stuff like food and gas which were the only things he needed to pay for. But Uncle Jack was a very, very nice guy. He's so empathetic and selfless it makes you almost want to cry. So during that summer he invited us to stay at his house. Which is in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We lived in Philadelphia. He gave us a Sunoco card that we could use freely to get gas because we decided to drive down there... DRIVE from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We got there at midnight. We got situated and went to bed. And that entire week and a seventh we stayed there was just absolute fun. Myrtle Beach is a resort and stuff so it's for vacations. It has a beach, all these fancy restaurants, a water park, a boardwalk, a theme park/amusement park, and this thing called "Broadway At The Beach." It's absolutely wonderful. And all the girls down there were in swimming suits and bikinis all day. There were so many cute girls. But my favorite experience was Pirates Voyage. It was a dinner show live performed in front of us while we were served food. It was like a musical. They sang and danced with some props. It was pirate themed so they were sword fighting a lot. There was a forbidden romance happening, ghosts appearing, Blackbeard be totally over powered... It was great. And they had these cannons that shot made real sparks fly with realistic sound effects. Oh and it was choreographed. They had acrobats doing flips and somersaults while singing, mermaids, zombies... Oh my Godd it was the best thing I've ever seen. But the worst thing that happened is when I went zip lining for the first time. There was this really cute girl behind me who kept having trouble with the harness part that they hook on the line. So of course, me being the gentleman I am, helped her out with it and she replied with a big cute smile and a thanks. And then when I was going back to the start so I can leave. I started to slow down and got stuck right in the middle. Over all this water too. I'm not afraid of heights so I wasn't freaking out I was just embarrassed because the girl I was trying to impress was cracking up, and I had a whole crowd of people watching to see how I would get back. They threw me a rope that I pulled to get back and it was fine but I didn't get any digits from that experience. Thanks gravity.

  After that I had to join my high school football team 3 weeks late. And boy was I physical unprepared. I was convinced they were trying to murder me with all that running. Like if you gonna have me run, have me run routes. I'm a receiver. I only need to know how to catch and what routes to run on which plays. And our team was booty cheaks by by the way. We won a single game the entire season. All we had to do was beat one team to make the playoffs. Kipp. We beat them last year though. We won our first game and lost all the rest. And not no, 6-8 or 14-18.. NO that shit was like 0-34, 14-36, 6-36.. THESE ARE ACTUALLY OUR SCORES BY THE WAY. And all the good players are seniors. So not only did they have a record breaking horrible high school football career but they'll never be able to have another chance. Go Prep Charter Huskies... The homecoming pep rally was tuff though. I got so popular.