Story About Us

Prologue

Vincent

I've always lived a sheltered life, you could say I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I never lacked anything, money, car, women heck men and friends. I've always had all that but my parents love, it's wasn't because they didn't love me no. It was due to circumstances.

When I was 8, Craig 12 and Levi 5 an unfortunate incident occurred. We had visited the park with my parents when Craig got kidnapped, it took about a week to get him back and when he did finally come home he wasn't the older brother i used to know. Due to the trauma he had experienced he became something else, no someone else. So my parents focused on him the most, Levi always clung to me so naturally we bonded over the love we didn't get after that.

I never resented my brother, I knew it wasn't his choice or fault. I actually pitied him cause he barely step a foot out of the house after the whole thing. So In a way Levi and I raised ourselves, we lived in the same house and ate on the same table but they were like strangers to us. They did try to start up a conversation but most times it always goes back to Craig so we stopped trying. Fortunately even though I wasn't close to my parents we did have a good relationship with my older brother, he was good to us and while my parents only focused on him his was on us. I think he felt guilty which he didn't have to, so our bond as brothers was solid while with our parents it was nonexistent.

When I was young, at the hospital Craig was while he was recovering I had met a boy there. He was there after getting into a car accident with his parents, luckily he and his dad survived but his mom was a different story. I noticed the sad look in his eyes, the loneliness I also posses was the same as his. I walked up to him and introduced myself, he told me his name which was Kevin. We ended up becoming friends.

Everyday we visited the hospital I'll sneak to see Kevin and we'd play until it was time for me to leave, the second week I brought my cousin Josh with me. Josh was my paternal cousin and we grew up together, he was like a brother to me. He, his parents and younger brother were on a family trip when the incident with Craig happened so he wasn't there for a while.

We quickly became close and were called the three musketeers, after graduating we decided to join the same school for our junior High. We were popular, not that we cared about the attention we just wanted to have fun. On the first day we met another guy, he didn't talk much more like at all. The students were scared of him and he seemed to like all he wanted to do was join and have fun like anyone else, he caught my attention immediately.

I wasn't attracted to him no, I just noticed the same loneliness in him I once had. Well we once had, unlike me and Lavi, Josh did have both parents with no accidents. His parents however were too busy, his mom put work first and the little time they had as a family she spent on the phone so like me he and his brother Paris found comfort in us and each other. And for some reason this boy had the same aura, so I went up to him and tried striking a conversation.

After trying a month straight I had given up completely until he walked up to us one day during break, he said he had heard us talking about a bike that belonged to my dad being delivered and he wanted to come see it with us. We agreed naturally and after school he followed us home. My dad was a sucker for bikes, it was his comfort and i on the other hand never seemed to care about them. My dad was there inspecting it when we got to the garage, I watch him marvel at it In a child like manner while dad laughed, he had tried to explain to him how it worked and he looked so entranced with it. That's when he introduced himself to my dad, Alex was his name.

To say he and my dad clicked was an understatement, he was over at mine every chance he got and spent time with my dad (when he had time) fixing bikes and setting them up, my dad took comfort in the fact that he had someone who wanted to learn from him and that made him smile. Eventually he warmed up to us and we became close as well, we soon found out how mischievous and goofy he was, he teased everyone and was always the life of the room when he walked in. My mom and dad loved him a lot because every time he came over for dinner we always end up having a good laugh and heartily conversations together.

Forward it to the holiday before we started high school we were inseparable and because of that so we're our parents, my dad was celebrating his birthday and as usual a big party was held. Everyone was there dressed fancy us included in our suits looking like penguins. An hour in we ditched the party, stole a bottle of wine and sneaked to the back of the building where we popped it and shared it among ourselves. We were buzzed and full of energy when a guy crashed it, he had a bottle In His hand and looked puzzled just like we did fearing he got caught.

We stared at each for a bit before Levi went ahead to ask him why he was there, he explained that he came with his parents and siblings and got bored so he decided to skip and get drunk. We welcomed him and accepted his Invite to share the drink, he was called Xavi and we clicked as well. He did smile a lot but the underlined sadness was obvious. He finally gathered the courage and told us he had been struggling with a secret for the longest, we were drunk and part of me feels like he had no one to talk to so that was a good excuse. Xavi came out to us as gay, he cried his eyes out and we were there to tell him it was okay. We didn't know him but we gave him a shoulder to cry on so the next morning we woke up with a killer headache he was nothing but free and happy to spend the day with us. Like us at a time he was a loner and was made fun of In school because he preferred guys than girls.

After the party Xavi came to visit, and it's safe to say by the time break was over we got so close he transferred to our school to be with us. It felt good being a group, we all knew each other's secrets and stood together. Brothers were the right term actually, and not a day goes by I didn't thank god for bringing my boys into my life.

But even after all that, that loneliness still clung to us like a second skin. We didn't feel alone but we were hungry for love and longed for it.

My name is Victor Arkadi and this is my story about finding happiness, no our story.