Embers (Ch. 3)

ZANDER

"So, Aunt Jesse, do you have a boyfriend?" Thea asked randomly as we continued to unpack all the boxes that arrived to our old farmhouse. Or should I say, newly renovated farmhouse. Mom made sure to have her team here in Pasadena make sure everything was up to code and to do any necessary adjustments to the bedrooms seeing as we were no longer a family of four. Thea Simone Carter, my baby sister, insisted on having the biggest bedroom downstairs and our parents had a hard time saying no to her.

Aunt Jesse, Dad's friend, who always sent us birthday cards filled with gift cards to our favorite stores, looked just as amused as Zach and I were when Thea began to stick her nose into her business. My sister liked to push people's buttons. In fact, I was sure she thoroughly enjoyed pissing people off. She was already a handful at ten. I couldn't imagine how many headaches she'd give Mom and Dad during her teen years.

"I've been seeing someone, yes. Why? What have you heard?" Jesse asked with a panicked edge to her voice as she continued to place the plates and kitchen utensils into the cabinets. She seemed to know her way around this place, and Dad trusted her enough to let her keep an eye on us. Mom on the other hand, seemed...hesitant? I don't know. She was weird about the whole thing but in the end, she decided to let Dad have this win.

"Is there something we should've heard?" Thea countered, allowing her sharpened grin to provoke the necessary reaction out of Aunt Jesse. She swallowed hard for a second and managed to regain her bearings long enough for her to shake off the uncomfortable intensity in my sister's penetrating gaze.

"You remind me so much of your mother. It's honestly frightening," Jesse claimed, a short laugh following the turn of her cheek and she resumed placing the mugs and pots into their perspective places. The older woman seemed to have a lot on her mind. Something began to poke at her when my sister began to pry into her private life. Dad had described Aunt Jesse to be an open book, a person he found himself confiding in throughout the years without judgment. She was one of the few closest friends he had left and the way he talked about her made Mom uncomfortable at times. They thought none of us would notice. We did. We read in between every single line they tried to gloss over for our sake.

I get it though. They were supposed to be the protectors. That was their role as parents. But sometimes, they overdid it. At least they did with me. My brother was the one with the dangerous sleeping disorder. I was fine. I felt nothing and that's all I needed to feel right now after what happened to...

I forgot I wasn't supposed to say her name. Or think about her. Or repeat the last words she ever said to me. My subconscious was an asshole these days. Maybe because it was getting closer and closer to the anniversary of the incident that had inevitably forced me to have to see a therapist. Mom and Dad saw the truth in my gaze that night I came home and I told them what had happened. They knew I was still broken to this day, and just as confused as I was before my entire world turned upside down. They held frustration in their demeanor at times while I was around. As if they were ultimately waiting for me to crack, to stop holding everything in so I can begin the healing process.

I didn't need to fall to know how fucked up I was inside.

"I'm sure whoever he is knows how cool you are, Aunt Jesse. Let us know if he decides to get out of line though," Zach offered his chivalrous nature on a plate and it made her smile instantly. My brother was everyone's favorite. And honestly, I couldn't blame them. He enjoyed talking to people. He enjoyed the company of strangers, liked to learn everything about them and what made them who they are today. We were opposites when it came to that. I didn't need to know someone's entire life story to understand them. All I had to ask was what was the most fucked up thing they've ever done and that will tell you what kind of person they truly were.

"Ah, there it is. Now that you got from your Dad," she pointed out Zach's ability to be both protective and charming and continued to flash her pretty smile as she reached for her phone in her back pocket and excused herself for a moment. It was weird to think of Aunt Jesse as attractive, but she most definitely was. She didn't look a day older than twenty eight, and the tattoos running along her right arm only added to her cool aunt vibe. The old me would've wanted to date someone like her. Someone who was confident in her own skin, who held the middle finger up to the world and to anyone else who didn't approve of the way she decided to live her life. Dad had shared some of the late night conversations he used to have with Aunt Jesse. Maybe he was hoping I would understand there was more than just one person who could give you that kind of security blanket. He'd found it in Mom eventually after their fiftieth break up. He found a friend he could turn to when not even Mom could crack him.

I never needed or wanted a friendship like that. Not until I met the person who's name I shouldn't say out loud. I had Zach, and Thea and my parents. They should've been enough. But it wasn't until the day this person died that I realized the only reason they spent the last six months of their life with me was because they knew exactly how those six months would come to an end, and that I was the only who would understand. The truth was I still had no clue why any of it happened. All I knew was I missed them. I missed the person they were for those six months. Not the person they turned into after.

How does that happen? How do you end up missing someone who caused so much harm to other people? Was I just as messed up as they were for loving them despite of what they'd done?

"I'm going for a run," I excused myself from my siblings, receiving concerned looks from both of them. They stopped rummaging through boxes while I grabbed my earphones and placed them into my ears as I shook myself out of my past and into the simmering Texas morning heat.

I could hear my sister keeping up behind me, but I never turned around to tell her to go back home. This was her way of looking after me, despite our differences, and who was I to take that away from her?

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After Aunt Jesse helped us unpack the first round of boxes by mid-afternoon, Uncle Freddy picked us up about two hours after, and took us straight to the DMV so we could take the driving permit test. It took us less than an hour to finish, since Zach and I studied that driver's manual from cover to cover every night for a month straight before flying out here. We both passed with a perfect score, and they issued our permits right then and there.

Exiting the stuffy old building, we fist bumped each other as we shoved our permits into our wallets and started heading down Main Street, where Uncle Freddy and Thea had been holed up at the jewelry store according to her text.

Thea wasn't into jewelry yet. I saw no other logical reason as to why they'd be there unless Uncle Freddy planned on buying something for this mysterious girlfriend of his he never wanted to talk about. I hoped whoever she was, she wouldn't do him as dirty as his ex-wife did before their divorce finalized. Another reason why the concept of vowing to love someone forever seemed ridiculous to me. Why promise something you know you won't be able to keep? It was stupid and cruel and a waste of time.

I was being cynical, I know. I wasn't always like this. I used to be...better. I wish I knew how to get back there. If not for me, then for my family. They'd gone through enough after Dad's heart attack. I didn't want them to worry about me too.

"That doesn't look good," my brother pointed out as we witnessed a dark sedan pull up by the curb of the jewelry store. It took less than five seconds for me to realize what was about to happen and that I needed to help. At least that's what I told myself as I ran across the street, my brother following suit just as the group in ski masks entered the jewelry store, with semi-automatic guns in their hands.

"Zander, don't!" I heard my brother's warning. This wasn't one of those scenarios where the adrenaline running through my veins forced me to ignore my surroundings, to block any and all noises long enough for me to focus. I could feel the tension in the air, the big mistake I was about to make, the sound of my mother's pleading cries bouncing off the walls inside my head. Thea was in that jewelry store. Uncle Freddy too. I had no other choice but to do this and I hoped everyone understood why.

I gave my brother one last look as he tried to pull me away from the store, his phone trapped between his ear and his fingers as he called the police. I shoved him hard enough to force him to let me go and I hurried inside the store before he could grab me again.

I spotted my uncle shielding my little sister, the rest of the hostages covering themselves with their hands and arms as the savages ransacked the place, dropping expensive pieces into their sacks. I noticed one of the robbers had lowered their firearm the moment he or she saw me. I also noticed the tattoo peaking through the slit between their black long sleeved shirt and their black leather gloves. I'd bet my life on the rest of them having the same tattoo on their wrists.

They belonged to the street gang called Diablos Rojos. A violent street crew who's ominous reputation spread across Texas, spilling into Mexico, and ultimately south america. I'd heard rumors about them in our old school in Colombia. I know how ruthless they could get. Which was why I had no choice but to stop this from turning into a blood bath.

The curious one, the one who's hand began to shake the moment they decided to point their gun at me, I got in their face first. One by one, I captured the rest of the crew's attention, forcing them to pause their chaos momentarily as they watched me place the barrel of the gun to my forehead. I kept my gaze on the robbers, never straying towards my uncle or my sister. I already knew I wouldn't be able to go through with this if I looked at them in the eyes.

"I expected more from the Diablos Rojos," I began my taunting, and tried my best to pull off a sinister smile as the barrel shook and pressed against my forehead. Whoever was holding that gun, was a new recruit. That's what I assumed at least. Why else would they hesitate in taking me out?

"Shoot him," one of the others demanded but still, they remained frozen until one of them decided to take matters into their own hands and shoved their own gun to my temple.

"You have about fifteen seconds before the cops come and your leader gets word about you fucking up this robbery in his name," I informed them, and they all shared looks before they turned to me.

"Is this kid serious?" one of them questioned.

"Tick, tock," I reminded them time was running out and they decided to split the moment they heard the alarm go off in the store and the police sirens heading this way. The leader of this excavation gathered up their bags full of all the jewelry they were able to obtain before I barged in and they flew out of the store without a second thought. Except for the one with the shaky hands. That one managed to take one last look at me before he or she ran after the others.

It wasn't until my uncle and my sister ran and wrapped their arms around me that I noticed the bracelet glistening against the other remnants of glass the robbers had broken into a million shards. I ignored their concerned words as I pulled away and bent down to retrieve the bracelet.

The second my thumb traced over the initials J and R, I knew exactly who those shaky hands, the same one's who had refused to end my life today, had belonged to. I couldn't say anything to the cops. Or my family. Not yet. I had to keep my mouth shut and only tell them the partial truth until I figured out why Josephine Reyes, a childhood friend of mine and my brother's, had joined the Diablos Rojos and why she couldn't manage to pull the trigger when they needed her to the most.