Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
A month later, due to his family's collective efforts, they were able to put together a memorial service for Jospeh fairly quickly. They were on another flight for a weekend at his mother's, which would also be their final weekend there.
In addition to the overall heaviness of Joseph's passing, Armani had more unexpected stresses come his was that he wasn't at all prepared to deal with. Since his mother only worked part time at the salon down in South Carolina, there was no way they could afford to stay there without him. As he died of a sudden heart attack, attributed to stress, there wasn't much more than the emergency savings that Sofía had, and that was only really enough to last the girls for the last month and a half. They decided to uproot and move to Atlanta, to be closer to Armani.
The only thing that was stressful was him becoming the man of the house in a house that he didn't live in. He was suddenly responsible for making sure his mom and sister didn't go completely underwater. He was two months away from being responsible for making sure Nayeli was comfortable and taken care of, and he was beginning to feel overwhelmed.
He wouldn't say anything though, he felt as though this was simply something he had to deal with as part of growing up and being a man. He couldn't complain when there was pressure applied to him, and he couldn't fold. He just had to work, and make it work.
And that's what he'd been doing for the past month. He'd been picking up more shifts, working more hours, and sometimes on the weekends too. During the week, instead of his usual 8-9 hour days, he worked 10-12, daily. Although he was tired, he felt like that's what needed to be done until his mom was back at work permanently.
The biggest drawback was probably the amount of free time that was shaved from his schedule. He didn't see his friends as much, he got less and less sleep, and he saw Nayeli way less than normal.
On a good day, he woke up with her and they left for work together, but he wouldn't see her till 9 or 10 that evening, and by then he was so tired, he could barely keep his eyes open. He tried, but most days, he ended up falling asleep in Nayeli's lap while she toyed with his ears.
"Armani, baby," he heard from beside him on the plane. Nai was really the only thing keeping him afloat. He looked to her for motivation to continue to do what he was doing and she provided every single time with just a single look in her eyes.
"Yes, mi amor?" he asked. "You okay?"
"I'm fine, papí. Are you?" she replied. "I was just gonna check on you, today is gonna be hard on you, babe," she rubbed his arm affectionately.
"I've had better days, mamas. But I'm okay," he responded with a sigh. Coming to terms with his fathers death was a little harder than he thought. He had random days where the sadness would hit him like a ton of bricks, and he couldn't get out of it, and other days there'd just be a lingering thought of his dad. Like a dull and persistent ache.
