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Hi, I don't know how to start this especially since I still remember this memory like it was yesterday. But anyway, this happened one month after my family moved to this nice seaside community on an early summer night. I was young, just recently turned 7 years old during this memory. I was watching tv with my twin sister Rosemary and with all my cousins. I don't remember what we watch tbh. As we were watching, the adults of the family were going somewhere that night. But before my dad can open the door, the door opened to my older brother, River, who I think was in his late teens at that time. "River! You should have been watching your sisters and cousins two hours ago!" scolded my mom. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." groaned River as the adults left closing the door behind River's back. We all looked at him as River walked over to the living room and said "Hey, cousins, Raya and Rosemary." "River!" I giggled as River gave me a big hug. Rosemary just looked at us with an angry look. After our hug, River went over to the back of the tv and look through the wires which caught the attention of my oldest cousin, Heaven, who was I think was 12 years old during the time I am telling you, the reader this part of the story. "River, if you think that changing the wires change the ones of your desire, I will stop you," growled Heaven as she got up from the couch and went up to River who was glaring at her in response. "Whatever, Heaven!" River replied as he continued to add some of the wires into the plugs even though Heaven is grabbing his arm and trying to move him away from the wires. This cause River to shake Heaven off of his arm. This causes Heaven to fall onto the rug. Heaven looking defeated sat back on the couch. Once River was done with the wires, he got up and grabbed the remote, this caused some of my older cousins to give him hateful glares, which looking back now, I finally understand on why my older cousins were giving these glares at my brother. He then started switching the channels including this one channel where I can hear gunshots from the screen. One of my older cousins covered my ears while my other older cousins were yelling at River, who really didn't care. Then the house phone rang which prompted Sebastian to walk over to the phone. Once he got up, Heaven grabbed the remote and changed it back to what we were watching earlier. Even though I was only seven at the time, I did hear River talking to someone on the phone, I remembered on what he said: "Am I free tonight? Of course, Abby! We can have it at my house. Hey, don't worry, my parents, aunts, uncles, and my grandparents were off to some anti-pride protest earlier tonight or something like that. Ok, you guys can come by at 11:04 PM, I just had to get my cousins and my sisters to bed first and then you can come. Ok. Bye."
After he hanged up, he turned towards us and said "Alright, kids, time to go to bed. Good night." "Good night." we all said in different tones. I was in my room holding a romantic bedtime story waiting for River to check on me. I heard the door open to see River. "River!" I said happily as he sat down near my bed and tickled me before saying "So, Raya, what story do you want me to read?" "Another Life." I replied as I gave him the book so he can read it. "The End," said River finally ending the story. "Good night, Raya," said River as he kissed me on the head, but before he left, I spoke "River, I had a question." River turned around to face me and said "Yeah, what's up?" "How do I know when I will be loved or know that I love someone romantically?" I asked as I looked at my brother with my big hazel eyes. River came up to me and said "You will know one day, Raya, but I can assure you that you will be loved no matter what and you will find someone you love romantically someday." I remembered that to this day. "Okie, good night," I said as I lay down on my bed as Leo closed the door behind him, and then I fell asleep. Sooner or later, I woke up to a very loud sound crashing downstairs, now the thing is that my room is mostly soundproof, so it's odd to hear noises, especially something this loud. But I became curious, so I got out of my bed and quietly opened the door. As soon as I did, I heard a lot of muffled noises downstairs. I became even more curious as I quietly went down the stairs, as I went down, the more the noises were not muffled anymore, it sounds like yelling. I quickly stopped in my tracks as I got a clear view of what was going on. River arguing with all the adults, but it was so loud that I couldn't hear what they were saying. All the adults looked very angry and even though River looked angry, he also looked shocked as tears were coming out of his eyes. "Your dead to this family, you know that River!" yelled my dad as he was about to raise his arm at River. But River stopped him and threw his arm away while replying back "Your dead to me!" He then started walking up the stairs, I followed along asking him a bunch of questions like "What's going on?" and "Why are you and the adults yelling?" and so on. He ignored my questions as we into my room (yes, we shared the same room) and he went to his side of the room and started grabbing all of his things from the posters on the wall to his last pairs of shoes into multiple luggages. As he zipped up one of his bags, he came over to me and said "Whatever you do, don't listen to these motherfuckers, got it?" "But they're the adults." I wailed. "Look, Raya, you saw what happened, I don't want you to go through what I have been through." said River as he wiped my tears as I cried "Please, don't go, River." "I am sorry, Raya, but I am no longer welcomed in this family, you will understand when your older," replied River as he gave me a big hug. I cried into his hug. He then got up and grabbed all of his packed bags. I noticed that his blanket, pillow cover, and bed cover were all gone. I then started running after him crying as we went downstairs and I saw my grandfather opening the door. "River! River!" I cried as River turned to look at me and said "Goodbye, Raya." as he walked out the door, this caused me to run towards him again and while crying out his name. But then the door closed on my face. "RIVER!" I cried louder as I started sobbing on the floor. It's been eight years since River got kicked out of the family. The day after, his picture on the family tree got burned. And everything with River in it was put away in the basement. As I got older, I started to realize some things well the hard way. I now almost starting to understand of what River meant to me.