I woke up this morning and the birds were chirping. I knew it would be a good day. I proceeded to get dressed as I put a smile on my face. Energetically I jumped in my car and I headed down to Markham courthouse. When I arrived, I met my family as we were there to support my cousin, who was being charged with stealing the inner tubes from the ride n share bikes in Chicago; nonetheless, he assured me it wasn’t him, and they had the wrong guy on camera.

We all proceeded to walk into the courtroom to wait until they called his case. Everything was seeming to go well as the judge said my cousin didn’t have any prior convictions and right before he handed out his sentence, he asked my cousin if there was anything he wanted to say… At that exact moment is where things went wrong. My cousin said, “Thank you, your majesty,” it was at that very moment I knew his ass was going to jail. My entire family just sighed as we all palmed our faces in disbelief as this ignorant fool just called the judge your majesty. Next thing I knew he was sentenced to two years and could be out in one year on good behavior.

We watched as they took my cousin away to serve his time. It wasn’t the first time someone in my family was sent to prison, so we all said our goodbyes and I proceeded back to my car. I headed for the train station on 87 th and the Dan Ryan so I could go make my coin.

After leaving the courthouse I was on the train headed to work and was minding my business as usual. I typically just keep my head down while riding the train because when you look up you typically see something you wish you wouldn’t have. On this particular day, I decided to not follow my own advice and glanced up.

When I did this beautiful woman was sitting a few seats down. We locked eyes and she smiled at me, so I smiled back. I looked down at my feet to gather myself because she was so beautiful, I needed to gain my composure before I looked back up again. When I looked up, she was still looking at me and her smile was just as warming as before. But before I knew it, she started to wave at me. Could this be my lucky day? Could I have finally found the one for me? So, I awkwardly waved back. Then what happened next was unprecedented as she waved me to come sit with her.

My heart began to race as my palms began to sweat. I took a huge swallow as I proceeded to make my way towards my future wife. It was at this instance that it all went south. As I got up, I felt someone on my back pushing me to the side to get past me. I turned and looked over my shoulder as this guy was furiously trying to get past me blocking me from my new bae. I gave him a look of repulsion as I turned back to my love to let her know I was on my way but was being held up by this thug.

It was then that I noticed her eyes were no longer focused on me but on this rude gentleman who pushed me out the way. My mind was working a mile a minute as I watched this guy smiling walking up to my bride to be as they embraced in a long passionate hug. That’s when it dawned on me that she was never waving at me but at the dude who was sitting behind me the whole time. I slowly sat back in my seat heartbroken with my head down. I was quiet for the rest of the train ride to work.

So, after my cousin got sentenced for calling the judge “your majesty” he decided to give me a call from prison. At first, I was reluctant to answer because I was going to have to pay for the call and I knew he wanted something. Being the good cousin that I am I accepted his call.

We were talking for a few minutes and I heard someone in the background whispering to him. I asked him if everything was ok and he said yeah but I could hear the fear in his voice. I knew my cousin and I could tell when something wasn’t right. His voice began to shake as the conversation went on.

It was about five minutes in when he came at me. “A cuz,” he said “they got me jammed up. I could use something on my books to get some extra commissary.” I knew it! I knew there was a specific reason this sneaky motherfucker was calling me. That’s when I paused from eating and looked at the phone with a side-eye and then responded: “Stop calling me from jail I’m out here eating noodles too shit.” Then I hung up the phone.

He knew I was struggling myself. Before he went to prison, he knew I was living check to check barely getting by myself. Hell, I barely had enough money for gas to go to his sentencing. I had too much going on to let this get to me. I was thinking to myself what the landlord was going to say when I was one hundred dollars short this month on rent.

I had just punched out and was ready to get in bed and get intimate with my pillow and sheets. I put my coat on and headed out of the building to jump on the train. Today there seemed to be more people than usual waiting to board the train. I wasn’t in the mood to be bothered so I grabbed my earbuds and put my music on blast.

As I mellowed out, I noticed out the corner of my eye this older woman was rocking back and forth. She was slightly down from me, so I was cautious but not alarmed. I continued to mind my business while listening to my music. It wasn’t until I noticed again the older lady had taken off her coat and had on a pair of shorts with holes in them, one sock, and her shoes seemed to be on the wrong feet.

I could see she was muttering something because her lips were moving. Letting my curiosity get the best of me I decided to take out my earbuds to see what this inquisitive woman was saying. Turns out she was a crackhead yelling “Bust down Rockianna.”

Swiftly I placed my earbuds back in and turned the volume up. I should’ve known better, but I let my curiosity get the best of me. That’s ok it was a lesson learned and I wouldn’t fall victim to this circumstance again.

I finally got home and was starving. I couldn’t wait to throw down and max some food. Once I got in the crib, I took my coat off and went to the kitchen. I proceeded to open my refrigerator and to my surprise it was empty. I was exhausted and didn’t feel like cooking anything but opened my freezer to check that as well. Again, I was met with the same thing it was also bare.

I had been so busy the last few weeks I didn’t have time to go grocery shopping. I went to my cabinets and they were also a ghost town. I thought to myself it was going to be a long night. Then it dawned on me I had hidden a pack of noodles from myself a while back. My memory wasn’t the best anymore due to age, stress, and drinking so I had created a map of sorts to lead me to my treasure if ever needed. Following the sketchy map, I proceeded to my buried treasure and found a single pack of noodles.

After a few minutes, my dinner was ready to eat. I brought my noodles to the sink in the pot to pour out the noodle water so I could eat. As I slowly poured the water out there was a loud bang at my door that scared the shit out of me. It caused me to jump like a cat. But that wasn’t the bad part. When I jumped, I had the pot in my hands which caused my noodles to fall in the sink. My heart skipped a beat and a tear began to form in the corner of my eye. I was heartbroken. This shit was worse than being cheated on.

I had just arrived at my aunt’s house. She had called and asked everyone to come to her house because there was something important she wanted to discuss. When I walked in almost everyone was there. I started wondering if something bad had happened or maybe someone might have passed away.

I immediately started to scan the room and found both my grandparents alive and well. I was standing next to my mother, brother, and sister so they were all alive and kicking as well. Those were my main concerns but everyone else was there besides a cousin or two. My aunt then said she wanted my two cousins to hear the news. She said my cousins would be joining us on social media.

Trying to cut her phone on and failing my aunt asked for my help. I logged onto her account and told…