The year was August 20, 1987. It was only 3:35 PM. 16-year-old me was with my 12-year-old brother Brian as we were sitting in the living room in their house. I was playing the video game titled "They Crawled From Uranus".
"Come on, CJ!" Brian cheered. "You almost got a million!"
"Quiet, B!" I hushed, trying to stay focused. "I gotta concentrate!"
I continued pressing on the buttons of the controller frantically as I played the game.
"Can I play?" Brian asked.
"In a minute, bro," I told him. "I'm getting close to getting the highest score!"
I continued destroying the aliens with the ship in the game, and after a while destroying the aliens, I finally reached the score 1,996,987,894 right before he lost his last life. It took so fucking long!
"Oh yeah!" I cheered. "I told you I reach a million!"
"I knew you could do it, CJ!" Brian cried in excitement.
After the game, I decided to put my initials on the high score list. This was a moment I was never gonna forget. Even if we finally reached the 21st century for the next 13 years, I don't think I would ever get rid of this game. I couldn't erase this high score off here. So I turned off the gaming system and the television and turned to Brian.
"Hey, Brian," I told him, "you want to go to the store on Idlewood?"
"I thought Moms said we weren't supposed to go there," Brian protested, sounding pretty uneasy because he knew what kind of trouble we would be in for.
"I know," I said. "But we just gonna grab some of those delicious Jovial Farmers candy. You like those, don't you?"
"Yeah, but what if Moms find out?" Brian asked.
"We ain't gonna tell her," I replied. "What she don't know won't upset her."
"Well, okay," Brian muttered. "I guess we can go inside the store and come out."
Moms told us to stay away from that store over at Idlewood. She said it was dangerous out there, and that we could get hurt. But me and Brian had been going to that store behind Moms' back since we was kids. So I'd figured that just one more time, we'd go for the Jovial Farmers. Those were delicious candy. My moms was asleep in her bedroom after a long, hard day at the grocery store.
I decided to have a little fun with Brian. "Yo Bri," I whispered to him, sliding behind the sofa pulling out a water pistol from underneath.
"What it is, CJ?" Brian asked me.
"You about to get blasted!" I cried, pulling out my pistol and aiming at him.
"Ah dang!" Brian yelled as the water hit him in the chest. He pretended to die and slowly fell to the ground. I walked up to him and saw that he was playing dead.
"Looks like my work is done," I said smugly. But then I was sprayed in the face by water and looked to see that Brian had a water pistol of his own.
"You can't kill me!" Brian cried out. "I'm the Super OG!"
"Well let's see how super you really are!" I told him.
Before we knew it, we both were soaking each other with our water pistols and just having a great time just laughing about all this shit. We were just fucking insane...and we enjoyed it. We had so much fun that we didn't notice Kendl walking down the stairs and we accidentally sprayed her with water. Whoops! My bad, sis!
"Stop it!" Kendl yelled. "What are you doing?! Carl! Brian! Stop it!"
"Sorry, Kendl!" Brian yelled.
"Quit it!" I told my little sister, not trying to wake up Moms. "Moms will hear!"
"Mom!" Kendl shouted upstairs. "They're up to something!"
"Kendl, please be quiet!" I told her. "Let Moms rest. We promise we gon' behave."
"Yeah," Brian added. "we was just playing."
"Well, you better not be getting into any trouble," Kendl said. We watched her enter the kitchen and on her way into the refrigerator.
"Yo B," I whispered to my brother. "Now it's our chance."
So we both made our way outside and went into the garage for our bikes. Moms had always told us that we should always keep our bikes inside the garage, because we live in the hood and thugs out here will steal our bikes. So Brian and I grabbed our bikes, walked them outside of the garage, and hopped on to ride.
I had a pistol strapped to my waist whenever I needed to protect myself. My brother Sweet gave it to me for my 16th birthday, which was eleven days ago. So we both rode our bikes to the store over at Idlewood and chained them to the bike rack.
As we walked inside the store, those same Asian people kept on looking at us funny, as if we was finna steal something. Motherfucker. We been coming here since we were children. How the fuck would they still not recognize us after so many trips here? I just didn't pay much attention to them. I just continued to walk around the candy aisle until we finally came across the Jovial Farmers.
We went to the counter and paid for the candy. Even after we purchased the candy, the owners STILL kept staring at us, as if we were plotting our next move.
"Dude, I already paid for the candy!" I told the owner, finally getting irritated. "Will you please stop breathing on my neck?!"
So Brian and I walked outside the store and saw a familiar looking car drive up ahead.
"Oh shit!" I cried out. "Brian, take cover! It's the Ballas' car!"
Yep! It was the Ballas alright! Their car came charging up ahead, and they started firing bullets at us! Shit! This was not what we planned. So Brian and I dodged the bullets and covered behind some trash cans.
"I'm scared, Carl!" Brian wailed, holding my waist.
"Just hang on, Brian," I told him. "Let me handled this."
I came from behind the trash can and fired at the gang with my pistol. But there were so many bullets that I had to duck behind the trash can once again.
"I want my Moms!" Brian cried. I saw tears rolling down his eyes. He was definitely scared to death, and I was fighting against a full gang. So I guided Brian to the side of the store.
"Just stay behind here," I told him. "I'll handle this."
I went back and used my pistol to shoot at the Ballas. Moms would kill me and Brian if she found out that we were hanging out here. The Ballas then exited the car and attempted to shoot at me. I decided to run away and got the Ballas to try the chase me. Big fucking mistake on their part! As soon as I got him next to where the gas was, I shot at the gas tanks and they were caught in the explosion. Perfect hit!
I went back to Brian, who was still trembling. "Are they gone?" Brian asked, tears still spilling down the poor kid's cheeks.
"Yeah, B," I told him. "Come on. Let's get home."
"Okay," Brian said. But before we were able to head home, we were all of a sudden ambushed by another Ballas' car, the leader of the gang, Tuckah, in the car. I immediately took cover and hid behind the store. It wasn't long until I finally figured out what I forgot: Brian! Fuck!
I was too late! After I popped my head out, I saw that Brian had been shot in the chest.
"Brian!" I shouted in horror. I looked to see my brother's car come around and Sweet in the driver's seat pulling up to the Ballas' car.
"Shit!" Tuckah shouted. Sweet managed to kill all of the Ballas gang members in the back seat while Tuckah was the only survivor inside the car and sped away. Sweet pulled up in front of me and Brian. Inside the car was also Big Smoke and Big Devil. I was kneeled by Brian, who was wheezing and coughing in pain.
"Ah shit!" Sweet shouted as he came to Brian's side. "What the hell happened here?!"
"Me and Brian," I started to say, "we were just going to go get some candy and then..."
"Nigga, didn't Moms tell you two to stay away from here?!" Sweet growled at me. We both stared down at our little brother, who was bleeding profusely.
"Brian, please hang on," I pleaded, trying to hold back my tears. "You can't die on us. You have to breath."
"Come on, Brian," Sweet told him. "Don't you die on me, bro! Please stay strong, bro! We can't lose you!"
But unfortunately, Brian continued to wheeze, unable to let out any words. "Mommy..." he uttered right before he finally tossed his head back, closed his eyes, and finally stopped breathing. Those were his last words! My little brother was now dead!
"No!" I cried, tears slightly falling down my face. I couldn't believe it! My little brother had been gunned down by some Ballas. And he wasn't even 18.
I looked up to see Sweet glaring at me. "This is all YOUR FAULT, CARL!"
"My fault?!" I asked.
"Moms told you to stay away from here!" Sweet snarled at me. "If you had listen to what the fuck she told you, Brian would still be alive! Now how the fuck are you gonna explain this to her?! Huh?!"
"I...I guess..." I stammered. I was so upset over what just happened I couldn't bear face my Moms after this. So I ran to my bike, unlocked the chain and hopped on.
"Where the fuck you thing you're going?" Sweet called.
"I'm gonna run away!" I shouted. "That way, I don't have to deal with this fucked-up neighborhood ever again!"
So I pedaled out of here and down the street. I didn't know where I should go. I knew I couldn't go back home, because when Moms found out, she was gonna bury two sons. So where exactly should I leave off to? The East Coast!
I couldn't spend another life in the hood of the West Coast any longer. So I rode my bike to the Los Santos International Airport and hopped off my bike. I pulled out my pistol and grabbed a pedestrian wearing a red coat and white pants.
"Give me your passport, motherfucker!" I told him.
The man slowly took out his wallet and pulled out a passport.
"Here," he uttered in fear. "Here's one to Liberty City. Take it. Just please don't hurt me."
I snatched the passport off his hands and pistol whipped him. Then I went inside the airport and used the passport to take a one-way trip to Liberty City.
As I finally boarded onto the plane, I still felt sad as hell. I had let my little brother Brian die, and what's worse, my brother found out and was probably telling everyone all about it. Not only had I let my family down, I let my homies down. I lost all respect from the homies. Now I was never gonna see them again. Not Moms. Not Sweet. Not Kendl, or Smoke, or Ryder, or Lisa, or T-Murder, or the Devil brothers, or even Jeffrey. It was a terrible day for me, and I was probably never going to show my face in LS ever again.
As the plane finally took off, I stared out the window sadly, and a few drops of tears ran down my cheeks. I was just 16 years old, and I was running away from home. It was a sad day for me.