24 BLAKE JONES
October 25
It was mid Saturday morning when I woke up from the unusual sound of laughter coming from the kitchen. Still groggy from sleep, I c****d my head to one side to hear what was going on downstairs, and when I recognized Jay’s voice, I jumped out of bed. The last time I’d seen my older cousin in person was at my dad’s funeral. We used to be pretty close when we were younger. Our mothers are sisters, and me, my brother Mike, and Jay would get to hang out all the time when we all lived in the same town. Then everything changed overnight. Jay’s dad took a job in the big city, and they moved away to Atlanta. It crushed me and Mike when he left. We both looked up to him as the older kid who knew all about everything. Music, video games, cars, girls (not that I was intere
