What Happened

What happened? Does family mean anything to you? To either of you?

If I asked you either of these questions, could you even give me an answer? Would you? I mean neither of you answer your phones, whether it’s a text or call…

I’m going to talk to my cousin now, so stop whispering in his ear and giving Side-Eye, and let the grown man think for himself for the first time in… Well, who knows how long, really? Probably only you.

You are my cousin -practically my brother- and growing up, we were best friends: inseparable. I would come over to your house on Friday after school, stay the whole weekend, and go back to school on your bus on Monday… We’re adults with our own lives now, but up until a few months ago, I would still come over to your house to watch movies or Pay-Per-Views, and stay the night, because making one of you drive me home at 2 AM was ridiculous. Even at 26, with my own life, I would never let anything -or anyone- get between me, and our family.

June 1st, 2024

You and your girlfriend of almost 4 years moved out of your family home with no warning, without any word to anyone, except telling your parents and little sister that you were moving in to an apartment somewhere, with two tabletop game friends. No one else in the family knew, until your dad said something to my grandpa, then the five of us knew. That was a week later.

June 14th, 2024

Your sister came over after I got off work, and I told her about the practically one-sided texting argument I had with you, about you giving up on our family. You tried to blame everything on your parents, and then said that you fell out of touch with the friend you ended up moving in with… I told you that I wasn’t talking about the game group, I was talking about the family, and how you never come to any of the cookouts, or family dinners anymore; you always blame it on work and being too tired, but everyone works different shifts, and they still come. It’s not just us that hope you’ll realize what’s happening and fix it, before it’s too late. Your grandparents -my great-grandparents-, I hate to say it, but they might not have as long as we want them too… Pop bruises too easy and gets black eyes if he rubs them too hard… and Noni… she doesn’t show it -well, she thinks she doesn’t- but she’s so upset that your girlfriend has come between you and our family.

Your sister told me that your girlfriend talks about us behind our backs, like she’s in middle school. To you mostly, of course, but I can imagine she’s at least attempted to add your roommates to the list… Or maybe she talks about them behind their backs, as well? Maybe she talks about you behind your back, to her sister, or her father? After all, she tried to talk about your sister and me, to your dad… You can imagine just how well that worked for her, considering he’s always had a bad feeling about her… I guess we should’ve listened to him.

If she has an issue with me having an affectionate personality and needing physical touch to feel more grounded in a space, and your sister’s outgoing and happy nature, and need to be around the people she loves… Then honestly, she’s not meant to be part of this family, because that’s how just about every member of this family is. This is going to sound harsh, but you need some tough love: You should rethink who you want to spend your life with, and who you want to have kids with.

I know your mom told you that if you left with her, to move in with your game buddies, you couldn’t come back to you old house… I have only one question left, and an order, since you like taking them so much…

Do you remember Nicole?

Call Justin….