BEFORE THE MORNING CAME

prologue

the reyes house was not always known as the "crackhead wasteland." located deep in the cut, past winding gravel roads and spanish moss-covered trees, a single-wide trailer could be found, sporting a clean coat of white paint, a vibrant yellow stripe, and a small garden in front of newest addition to the structure, a covered porch. maria reyes often kept a watchful eye on her son, barry, from that porch, observing as he collected sticks from the marshy ground and forged them into different structures. she would beam at him when he would announce his newest invention, acting amused each time the young boy paraded his engineering work to his mother.

he begged for a sibling, a brother to play with, as early as he could find his voice. his mother did not grant him his desires for years, but finally did a few months after his sixth birthday. except—barry had asked for a brother, so you could only imagine his confusion when a bundle of pink blankets was delivered to his arms. with a cocked brow, he looked from the sleeping baby in his arms, to his mother, who balanced a look of exhaustion and endearment across her face.

"what's this?" he asked, looking back to the babe in his arms.

"that's your sister." his mother whispered, moving to sit beside him on the couch. "her name is michelle."

again, barry was confused. to his understanding, his mother had left him with his aunt for three days, came back with her belly not nearly as round, and a sister?! the young boy had never felt more betrayed in his six years. he made sure his mother knew that.

when barry was eight, he had finally grown accustomed to his little sister. she wasn't nearly as bad as he had predicted; she was excited to do anything he wanted to do! as they grew, barry found himself loving the little girl with his whole heart.

the two reyes children spent more time with their aunt than with their mother as time passed. eventually, though, maria did come back, only, she was accompanied by david, whom was now taking on the role of the two children's stepfather. michelle, only four at the time, was just happy to have her mother home. barry, now ten, was starting to see his world crumble. david was not a perfect man. barry would go as far to say that he was not even a good man. he spent many nights awake, listening to the drunken arguments between the two adults, then, would be lulled to sleep by the sounds on snorting, choking, and the occasional gagging outside their home.

barry was twelve when he sold his first eight-ball. david has pressed the wadded up saran wrap into his palm before he went to school, and was told to deliver it to a luke maybank upon his arrival at the elementary school, where barry walked to meet his baby sister after he left his middle school every day. david even offered him a cut of the money, a whopping twenty dollars. to the twelve year old, that was all he needed to hear. twenty dollars would offer him just about anything he could have wanted at that age.

the drugs nearly burned a hole in his backpack for the entire school day. at every opportunity, barry would peek inside the pencil pouch to make sure that the baggie had not been punctured, and the white powder remained intact. once the final bell rang and the students who walked home were dismissed, barry did everything but run away from the brick building, navigating down the familiar path that would take him to the elementary school just a few blocks away.

luke maybank had been around before, barry had seen him interacting with david outside of their home. that being said, barry was able to pin point the young man towards the back of the crowd, and immediately approached him. the deal took less than thirty seconds, and it was perfect timing, as the doors to the school opened, and children of all ages as sizes can rushing out, each towards their guardian. barry stepped away from luke, pocketing the money that had been scrunched in his hand, and made his way towards the front of the crowd. he was still just a child, and knew that his even younger sister would not be able to find him unless he was visible. barry, on the other hand, was able to see the pigtails atop his sister's head from a mile away. the six year old girl bounced with each step, her thumbs hooked into the purple straps of her backpack, while her head was facing two young boys to her left. upon seeing her brother, michelle offered a cheeky grin, bid goodbye to the boys, then rushed to barry, who eagerly awaited her squeaky voice to tell him all about her day.

"i don't know why you keep hanging out with all these boys." barry said, his voice playing between the lines of amusement and concern.

"it's just john and jj." michelle insisted with an eye roll.

"yeah, but you just said that one of them pushed you!" he rebutted, his backpack swinging as it hung loosely over his shoulder. the two continued to walk home, as they did five days a week from school.

"we were playing!" michelle said back, dramatically throwing her hands into the air. "it's called freeze-tag. duh." her hands moved from the air to her hips. "and i didn't even get hurt. john picked me up and unfroze me."

"man, whatever." barry scoffed. "i don't want to hear about little boys knocking you over, mitch. don't let them do that. you stand up for yourself." he told his younger sister sternly, which only earned another eye roll.

barry thought back to just minutes before. his little sister was just that: little. her jeans pooled at her ankles, her backpack covered her entire torso, and her hand barely fit in barry's palm as they crossed a busy street. the two boys that she had exited the school with looked to be the size of an average first grader, the blonde one possibly being a hair bigger than the brunette, but either way, they were both bigger than his baby sister.

as they grew up, barry learned to relax, partially because he knew that his sister would tell him if he needed to handle anything, and also because he had begun working along side david more frequently. by the time he was 16, barry had his own clientele around the island. he would split the money with david, who would provide the products for him, and stash the rest of it in a box in his closet.

he didn't know that he would never see him mother and david again, but after two months of them being absent, barry moved from the bedroom he shared with his ten-year-old sister, into the master bedroom. michelle had asked, and he expected her to wonder where her parents were, but he did not have an answer for her. she grew to stop asking questions that she did not want to know the answer to, and barry appreciated it. he hoped that she knew that he would do anything to keep them afloat.

"anything" came in the form of rafe cameron. the boy was fourteen when he began inquiring about the powder that barry had managed to obtain. the blonde boy was young and naïve, and willing to pay the inflated price that barry offered for the drug, which kept him coming back.

as their once beautiful home transitioned into the "crackhead wasteland" it came to be, michelle transitioned with it. throughout middle school, while barry had dropped out to run a full-time trap house, the once innocent girl dropped her tight pigtails and iridescent backpack for a low braid trailing down her back and barry's old black jansport bag to carry her books in. she remained close with the two boys, john b. routledge and jj maybank, and rarely branched out of their trio. if she was not with them, she was at home, learning from her older brother how to roll a perfectly packed joint.

the promise of high school brought excitement for the youngest reyes, because despite her home life, she remained a dedicated student. at the eighth grade dance and banquet, which she attended with john b. as her "date," (they both agreed that the term would be used loosely) she was one of the only students to receive the perfect attendance award. jj had clapped his hand on her shoulder, offering a proud smile at one of his oldest friends, after she accepted the award.

jj's date, the reason that michelle and john had decided to adorn their friendship with a label for that night, offered to host an "after-party" at her house. the girl, delilah montesquieu, lived on the northern part of the cut, in one of the nicer neighborhoods inside the school district. the four were the only ones in attendance, aside from delilah's parents, and spent their night in her furnished basement sipping on wine coolers and twirling around each other. after each of them had consumed enough alcohol to make their twelve and thirteen-year-old brains hazy, jj proposed a game of spin the bottle. john, not wanting the risk of having to kiss his best friends, graciously bowed out. michelle eagerly did the same, which left jj and delilah in a storage closet, while michelle and john dozed off on the couch, the sounds of south park lulling them to sleep.

if michelle knew that would be the last time she would spend with the boys, her two closest friends, before her life changed, she would have done things differently.