In a world where everything seems perfectly logical and pragmatic. The thought of anything existing outside of the realm of what one already knows seems impractical.
That is how Melinda Morrison sees life.
The very life where she has shared nearly e...
"Do you really have to smoke so much weed? If Ms. Jannie smells that stuff on you, she's gonna kick your ass, Markis."
Beside me, my brother with glossy and red stoned eyes remained nonchalant at my insistence for him to stop smoking and get his life together. I knew he could care less, his body language very much told me so but I felt as if it was my absolute duty to at least get something through his head. Mel and I were only here for the winter break to see our family after a long semester of studying and activities at Dartmouth so I worried about Ms. Jannie having to deal with my younger brother's antics while I was too far away to do anything about it myself.
Mark was really downward spiraling, even more so since I left for school and football. Ever since getting that injury back when he was sixteen, he hasn't been the same. Unable to play basketball at his fullest potential he fell into the wrong crowd—or rather they were always there lurking waiting for moments of weakness in his life to reel him in.
He had been skipping school, drinking, and driving while also doing said drinking, shoplifting, scamming, whatever it was, he probably has done it.
Markis had done enough to get caught, arrested, and even kicked off the basketball team when he wasn't showing much progress. But it seemed the very thing he had a passion for and wished to absolutely succeed in, he no longer had the will to continue for. It only got worse when one of those days, he stole his uncle's car and drove around recklessly with some of his "friends" and ended up crashing the vehicle into a then-pregnant woman who ended up giving birth to a pre-term child as a result of the bad crash.
Markis and his friends came out of the accident relatively unscathed as most of them were drunk and or smoking.
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My heart had dropped that day I got the call from my seething Uncle Ed who told me about the whole ordeal. Mel and I ended up making a quick trip back to Massachusetts to see the damage that had been done.
Melinda's mother was far beyond angry, since she was responsible for my brothers she felt as if she had failed because of this situation unfolding. Either way, the damage had been done and someone had to clean up the pieces.
Uncle Ed ended up helping Markis get probation and house arrest for what he did and also assisted in paying the medical and legal fees of the woman who sued us and the other kids involved in the crash. My brother got expelled from high school and had to finish the rest of it online as part of the court-ordered deal, but he never took the time to actually do the work needed in order to graduate, so he never did.
Now he spent most of his days either smoking until he didn't know what planet he was on anymore, playing video games, or out re-selling sneakers and drugs. No matter how many times I spoke with him, called him, and reached out to him, he refused to at least make something decent of himself.
