Different ♤ Nate Maloley

•ONE•

〰Aaliyah Carters〰 

I woke up to the smell of pancakes.

That's awfully weird. I never wake up to anything but the smell of weed and alcohol.

Oh yeah. I moved in with my aunt, uncle, and cousins recently so things are different.

It's my first day of school and I have to go to some school called Ridge Wood High. I have a feeling it's gonna be a pretty preppy school. I don't care though. I get straight A's and focus on my basketball.

I rolled out of bed and changed into black leggings, a black and white Adidas sweatshirt, and Jordan Gamma Blue 11's since I honestly don't care what people think.

I grabbed my space grey iPhone 6 and headed downstairs.

Everyone was already wide awake and looking perfect as always and I'm just over here looking like a fucking dusty ass potato.

I sat down at the table and there was a stack of pancakes in front of me.

I'm not complaining but I miss the breakfasts with my dad.

I miss our conversations that wouldn't make any sense.

I miss eating cheap cereals with him. It was the best part of my day.

It was honestly perfect until he got accused of murdering someone.

My dad was a crazy, stupid man but I know he didn't kill anyone.

He's gone to jail a couple of times for selling drugs but that's it.

He did it because he needed to raise his family. He couldn't get a good job or get a lot of money but that doesn't matter to me. He's my dad and my best friend. He would never do anything to hurt me, and would do anything to keep me safe.

Black dads have a bad reputation when it comes to running a family, I know, I live with those stereotypes  everyday, whether it's from TV, to one of my peers, or social media.

It's pretty frustrating for people to ask where my dad is then assume he left when I was a young child, because he's the most loyal person I know.

He might not be at my basketball games or track meets because he has more important things to do like work or something, and as far as I'm concerned that's the most important thing. Or was.

I never went to a good school but I still manage to get good grades.

School and basketball are all I have- my ticket to college.

My mom and dad never had an opportunity to go to college, on the other hand my brother, Malcolm, did. He never got to though because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I don't know why in his right mind he wore a big red t-shirt in LA, but he did, and that got him killed.

Then there's my mom who got killed in a car crash.

My mother always told me I was put on this earth for a reason. Whether it was to make someone's day or make world peace happen. I think it was from the drugs she was on. I might have been really young, but I remember her saying that at some point.

It's like I don't even know the people sitting around me.

I don't know where I am.

I feel misplaced in this environment.

A perfect neighborhood full of perfect houses, full of perfect people who are all the same. Just one exception- Me

I'm from the hood. That's where I grew up. I'm used to knowing everyone on the street, junked up cars, Those crazy people that walk down the block screaming their lungs out about God knows what, and most of all, everyone on the street had open arms to me. We're a family.