The Family Business

12:34

(This is a somewhat short fast moving book)

It's been 2 weeks since the cop showed up at my house, it was exactly 12:34 when they told me the worst news I've ever heard. My parents were killed in a mugging.

At first I couldn't breathe it felt like my heart was about to fall out of my chest and every time I swallowed it felt like fire was going down my throat and my tears were like lava burning my face. But then I was just filled with rage, how could someone kill my parents just for the 20 dollars they had in their wallets!

It happened all so fast, one minute they were going out to watch a rerun of the movie they went to watch on their first date, and the next they were dead on the streets.

It took me 4 days to eat anything and 8 days to talk to anyone. The first person I did talk to was Lucy James. She was my mom's best friend and always helped my family when we needed it.

Thankfully she already knew about my mom and dad. She was basically in tears when she called me.

We must have spent at least 2 hour talking, she told me stories about my mom and dad when they were teens and how they were always getting into some sort of trouble.

It was soon after that when she asked me if I wanted to move in with her family. I was shocked at first and didn't  know what to say, but as I thought about it I didn't really have any other option. I've never meet my moms family and she never talks about them, my dads family on the other hand were a big part of my childhood but now his brothers live in China and Russia. Grandpa and grandma live in the USA but in a nursing home with a strict policy on kids.

When I said yes to her offer she seemed so happy and excited to see me. Even though I haven't seen her in 10 years it still feels like I can trust her with anything.

Only one more day till I moved to California, it was hard to say goodbye to my friends but Sedona only had 9,500 people and I never had the chance to make new friends, so moving to a new place might be nice. At least I really hope so.

I packed all my things and I never released I had so much stuff, I always thought I was good at getting rid of things but I guess I was wrong.

Finally it's the day I'm moving. It's a
4 hour plane ride so I just threw on some sweat shorts and a hoodie.

Something I've released with having dead parents is that no one can judge you and if they do it doesn't seem like that big of a deal anymore, nothing does after your world falls apart.

The plane ride felt so long and boring. I just binged watched The Summer I Turned Pretty, wondering if my mom and Lucy had the type of friendship Susannah and Laurel had.

When I got off the plane I saw a old man in a suit holding up a sign with my name on it.

I walked towards him, Lucy told me she might send someone down to pick me up if she was busy.

"Hello" I said quitely, it took him a second to realize I said something

He cleared his throat before talking "Hello, Miss Archer I presume"

I didn't say anything until I realized he used my mothers last name instead of my fathers.

"Yes sir" I said in a joking way. I was scared I said something wrong until he smiled, it must have been one of the cutest smiles I've ever seen.

"I am Ronald and I'll be driving you around. Right this way" he said pointing to a beautiful black Tesla " Miss James is very excited to see you, she would of been here herself but she had some last-minute business to attend to that she couldn't put off"