Finally, we made it!

Me and the bros have officially ran a successful food truck business in our hometown just 9 months after graduating from high school.

Customers lined up to order the best tacos and sweet aguas frescas. Majority of them were college students. Some of them were people we used to go to high school with. As they were in line complaining about how difficult their general ed courses are, we are making money by doing what we love, cooking and serving authentic Mexican food to everyone in college campuses.

Then one day, socal called our names. They wanted us to promote our businesses to colleges in LA and San Diego. Excited as we are my bros and I got ready that day. Food truck cleaned, utensils and food stored in the food truck kitchen in their place, car gas filled out, essentials needed for a road trip in our trunk, suitcases packed. We were all ready for takeoff. Well, almost.

Me and the bros got ready, usually wearing our typical outfits, the white t shirt, baggy jeans, and black kicks, with gold chains and diamond earrings, with our hair combed. We all hopped into our Nissan rouge, played my playlist consisting of a mix of corridos and rap, and I drove off, driving as safe on the freeways as we could. Bye Bay Area. Hello SoCal.

In the middle of the freeway it was a chill ride. Up until…

BOOM! CRASH car and truck spins CRASH again

Shit! What in the fuck was that!? I immediately stopped the vehicle and so did the rest of my bros. We all fucking cried and panicked. Luckily me and the bros were fine. We all had a whiplash and a few scabs, but the taco truck was not. It was completely fucked up and destroyed. Food and utensils were lying on the highway. The suitcases were open, and some of our things were also lying on the highway. Although me and the whole gang turned out fine in the car crash, the truck did not. The crash was still really bad. Its time to find that asshole that crashed our car and the food truck. Oh shit, ambulance and cops came. The asshole that crashed the car was taken to paramedics!? Who the fuck cares!? That asshole still crashed our car and truck! That asshole ruined our small business! That asshole potentially ended our whole career! We still have the right to confront the asshole and tell him “what the hell!” Come on boys, let’s get ready to… “Sorry, the other party is too traumatized to talk. We can’t let y’all see him.” said the sheriff. I’m sorry what!? He’s too traumatized to let us see him for the trauma he caused himself and all of us!? Fine, can we at least get his first and last name!? “Sorry, that’s private information.” said the sheriff. Me and the bros spent that whole damn night fucking furious and waiting for my parents to bring us home and take care of this whole car crash report.

Never imagined our road trip to promote our small business in SoCal would bring all of us some trauma, stress, anxiety, depression, grief, PTSD, and overthinking. Guess we’re just better off staying in the Bay Area, even though shit like this can happen anywhere.

Ever since the pandemic, this city has gotten a bit more dangerous. Rent is far more expensive than it used to. People are getting shot. Karens are being ruder. Trump supporters are still wearing their MAGA hats and driving their trucks with “Trump 2024” flags waving and “Fuck Joe Biden” stickers. The amount of car crashes increases. The people I used to go to K-12 with don’t talk to me no more. I say it’s time to leave this city and go to a much better city in California. Maybe it’s Visalia. Maybe it’s Tracy. Maybe it’s Clovis. Maybe it’s a city in LA county. Wherever it is, it will definitely be far more affordable than San Jose.

You are invited to a carne asada at a park. Please be there.

I was driving home from college, about a 30 minute commute. As I was driving to a really sketchy neighborhood on the east side of San Jose, I drove as careful as I can. I made a stop in the intersection, waited 3 seconds, and looked left and right to make sure it was safe to make a left turn. It was safe so I made the left turn to the street where my house was, until a Karen high on meth/crack/heroin ignored the stop in her intersection, went 40 miles above the speed limit and almost crashed into me. Then she drove behind me honking at me for the driving mistake she made. She then followed me to my house. I parked, quickly entered my house, and locked my door. But Karen climbed the gate to my backyard, banged on my window, and entered to my house with a gun pointed at me. She screamed, “WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU! YOU ALMOST CRASHED INTO ME! YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN CAREFUL DRIVING!” 4 of my pets (a Maltese named Horchata, a chihuahua named Concha, a bulldog named Cookies, and a cat named Whiskers) all found out about the Karen being aggressive and they all started running to the rescue. As Horchata and Conchas were aggressively barking at Karen, Cookies bit Karen’s leg hard, causing her to scream awfully in pain and drop the gun, as Whiskers deeply scratched Karen, cutting her other leg open, with blood oozing out. I called 911 to explain what the Karen did, and how the Karen broke into my house. There were police, ambulance, and firefighters outside the house, along with neighbors who have witnessed the Karen almost crashing into me. The Karen gets arrested for her actions, and as the emergency team left, I told my pets that “we gotta install more security and prevent crazy people from coming to our house.”

It was a sunny breezy Friday morning in March, and I was walking to my English class with my adidas backpack, adidas hoodie, black jeans, and white Nikes thinking everything is okay. Until some student enters the classroom and gives my teacher a blue slip from the principal requesting to see me in her office. As the teacher hands me the blue slip, I saw the word “immediately” and left the class as students started oohing me.

I went to the principal’s office, and the principal showed me a bag of weed that fell out of my backpack with my initials. The principal has decided to expel me from school. I was devastated and shocked, because I was so close to graduating and had these chances blown.

As I was walking out of school, I saw flyers of a classmate Emiliano’s 18th birthday house party. My friends ran up to me and were begging me to go to the party. “Come on Marcos, it’s gonna be lit” said my friend Jonathan. “Sorry guys, Im not in the mood. I just got expelled from this shit school.” I told them. “Damn bro, what did you do?” said my other friend Mark. Some random freshman who overheard our conversation passed by and shouted “He got caught selling drugs!” “Shhh!” I yelled at the freshman. “So, are you coming?” asked Mark. “What’s in it for me if I say yes?” I asked. “Well, we can get rid of your expulsion record.” said Jonathan. “Or we can get you that new bong you’ve always wanted.” said Mark. “Fine.” I said. “I’m going to the party.”

As nighttime approaches, where we could see the moonlight, we went to the house party. There was already loud music playing, guests playing drinking games outside, and the house was already trashed on the outside and inside. As we got into the house party, I found a bunch of weed carts and took all of them with me. I started smoking one by one up to the point where I fainted. Of course my friends were too busy playing drinking games to notice. As I passed out, I could not remember what happened at the party other than hearing cop cars and the paramedics crashing the party.

I woke up in the hospital room grateful I am alive and have survived a short term coma from all the exotic weed carts I smoked. However, the cops still arrested me in the hospital room. As I walked out of the hospital room handcuffed and escorted by the cops, it was still pitch dark outside, and I could still see the moonlight getting brighter and brighter.

As I entered the cop car, I realized what a big mistake it was to go to that house party.

It was a Monday morning and my coffee machine broke. So I invited my friends Jonathan and Mark to go get some coffee at a nearby coffee shop right before school.

We arrived at the coffee shop, and ordered the usual which is the iced caramel macchiato with almond milk. “Unfortunately we are out of almond milk. Is regular milk okay?” asked the cashier. “Yeah it’s fine.” I said. And so the baristas were making the macchiatos for me and my friends. As we got our macchiatos, we started heading to school. We took a sip of the iced caramel macchiato and turned out fine. Nothing really happened until we went to our economics class.

“Alright class. We will be having a pop quiz.” said our economics teacher. “And it’s worth 40% of your grade. Hopefully you took very well notes on this.” As he passed out the quizzes, I started to shake and started to feel funny. My mind was blurry, my heart was pounding, my stomach was feeling gassy, and I felt like I was about to pass out and faint. And I did. I don’t remember what happened other than the other classmates looking concerned at me.

I woke up in the nurse’s office, not remembering what happened, just that I got sick from the coffee. “Do you remember what you had this morning?” asked the nurse. “I didn’t eat. All I had was an iced caramel macchiato. They didn’t have almond milk so I don’t know what milk they used.” I said. Then my friends Mark and Jonathan came to visit me. “Marcos, you are not going to believe this. Look what we found in our coffee.” said Jonathan, holding chunks of crystal meth covered in iced coffee. “They even added molly on the iced coffee.” said Mark, holding pieces of molly also covered in iced coffee. “It had nothing to do with the milk and everything to do with the drugs.” “Oh shit, I didn’t know this shit had drugs in it.” I said. And I started to throw up.

This got me sent home from school. I spent the rest of the afternoon getting some sleep and also thinking about getting to the bottom of why there were drugs in the coffee. Later that afternoon, I got a message from Mark saying that the coffee shop is now hiring, and he sent me all the info. I decided to immediately apply for the job and work on weekends.

A few days later I ended up getting the job and started working as soon as I got better. It was a Saturday morning and my first day working at the cafe. I got the barista position so I started making lattes, macchiatos, and coffee for the customers. During my break, I overheard some employees talking about how bad they feel about accidentally pouring drugs in the milk gallon, and how scared they are of getting fired from their job. Then security guards and police officers came with a service dog and the dog smelled drugs in the baristas who messed up the orders on Monday. Not only those baristas ended up getting fired from their job, but they also got arrested from the job.

“Thank you officers.” I said. “I actually got sick from the iced caramel macchiato last time I ordered here.” “Hey, you’re not the only one who got sick from their orders in the past week.” said the security guard. “My son recently got hospitalized from the coffee with the drugs.” “I’m so sorry to hear that.” I said. “Don’t worry about it. I’m glad you decided to work here. And I have to thank you for making these orders safe.” said the security guard. “Take care kid.”

It was a cold sunny Friday afternoon. My friends Mark, Jonathan, and I just came home from school making plans for the Valentine’s Dance at our high school, looking good for our dates. We took the Uber to the school dance, and as we arrived we waited at the long line counting up how much cash we got in our pockets. My friends and I got 40 dollars each. I had 2 twenty dollar bills, Jonathan had 8 fives and Mark had 4 tens. As we were in the long line, the annoying teachers pet was asking for our money. “I know you idiots got money. Should’ve hidden it better. Give me the money or else…” said the teachers pet. “Or else what?” confronted Jonathan. “I will tell the teacher that you cheated on the math test. And I will ruin your chances into getting in college.” said the teachers pet. “Nice try. We are not giving you your money.” said Mark. “I will tell your coach that you were vaping in campus.” said the teachers pet. “You know what fine. Take my money if you want, but don’t take my friends money.” I said throwing him the only 2 twenty dollar bills I’ve got. “Nice. Have fun at the dance.” said the teacher’s pet.

Then we finally entered the school dance and we saw our dates. My date is Isabel. Jonathan’s date is Sally. And Mark’s date is Valeria. I don’t know how to dance, but when Isabel’s favorite song “Tell me You Luv Me” by juice wrld and trippie redd started playing, she insisted that I danced, so I moved a bit as she started twerking on me. Later throughout the dance, someone snuck Hennessy into the dance and everyone started taking a sip. And so did I but not enough to get intoxicated.

A while later, I saw Sally and Valeria passed out drunk at the dance but then I saw some guy try to take advantage of the two other girls, but I punched him and started to beat the shit out of him before he had the chance. His face was all fucked up covered in blood, and his arms and legs were broken, but I turned out fine despite having some of his blood on my jeans and on my fists.

I eventually got kicked out of the dance and texted Mark and Jonathan. As I waited for them to come out of the dance, Isabel came up to me and scolded me for beating her boyfriend up. It turned out to be a big misunderstanding. “Marcos, how dare you beat the shit out of Victor!?” yelled Isabel. “He was not trying to take advantage of these girls. I called the girls an Uber and told him to take the girls to the Uber ride. Agreeing to go out with you was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. Don’t talk to me again.” And so she left me in tears.

Then, the phone rings and it’s the last person you’d expect. My weed plug. I was hesitant to answer the phone call, so I waited for him to leave him a voicemail or a text message. He texted, saying that he’s in town and is still selling weed. Considering the fact that I had the worst Valentine’s dance ever, I agreed to go see him, and told Jonathan and Mark.

Jonathan, Mark, and I met our weed plug Miguel at a nearby park. As we smoked some joints of forbidden fruit strain, we spoke about how bad the Valentine’s dance was and how it was a huge mistake going there. I lost $40, my date, and the rest of the night at the dance. “Bro you really thought your Valentine’s was bad?” Miguel said shockingly. “My girlfriend broke up with me at a fancy restaurant and left me, making pay for my food. And my brother got killed in a DUI car crash that same night. I’ve had it way worse.”

Then a group of cops showed up and handcuffed me, saying, “You’re under arrest for assaulting a high school student at a dance.”

It was a typical Thursday afternoon in a community college, and I just got out of my biology lab lecture. It was a really exhausting week, and I’m glad to say to start the weekend. I drove my way home listening to music.

As I arrived home at the dinner table, my little brother OP was telling the whole family about a back to school game night at his high school, ironically the school I just graduated from and the school our cousins Jasper, Lupe, and Feliz are currently attending. My older brother Nicolas and my other cousin Thomas were unable to make it because of work, and my little sister Olivia is at cheerleading practice in her middle school.

Back to school night is different in most years. As the parents and guardians meet with our teachers in each of their child’s classes, the students and the rest of the family members (in other words us) have to stay in the school cafeteria for a barbecue and a game. There was bingo, monopoly, uno, jenga, sorry, etc.

OP and Jasper’s annoying chemistry classmate Teacher’s Pet comes over to play bingo with us. So we played bingo. We played 4 rounds of bingo, and the Teacher’s Pet kept losing each round of bingo. In the first round Jasper got a bingo. In the second round Lupe got a bingo. In the third round, OP got a bingo. And in the fourth Felix got a bingo.

As we were all playing the fifth round of bingo, I finally got a bingo and announced it. When the teacher’s pet saw my bingo card, he cleared all of my bingo checkers by dumping them and saying, “nope this was not a bingo.” The whole family saw that it was an actual bingo, and this pisses Jasper off.

This started a fight when Jasper threw the first punch at the teacher’s fight which lead to OP and Felix joining in. Everyone in the cafeteria stopped what they were doing to watch my family beat up the teacher’s pet. Then the principal came along and kicked all of us out of the cafeteria, and assigned my brother, my cousins, and the teachers pet one week of lunch detention including Lupe, even though Lupe didn’t even do anything. The whole family was so disappointed and we were all so embarrassed.

I went to visit my cousins and my brother in detention and bring them lunch from McDonald’s. “Thanks Nephrite.” said OP. “Next time back to school night happens, we’re staying home or literally doing anything other attend family game night.” “That’s a good idea.” said Lupe. “I agree.” said Jasper. “Same here.” said Felix. “Of course.” I said.

Ever since covid started, a high schooler name Marc spent quarantine in a small one bathroom and 2 bedroom apartment with his mom, his dad (but he works as a nurse and is unable to come home), two of his aunts on his mom’s side, and 8 cousins, 3 from one aunt and 5 from another. Marc and his cousins all share a room while his aunts shares a room with his mom. For this reason, Marc struggles to pay attention to his zoom classrooms and even find privacy.

One Friday, after the last zoom meeting, Marc gets bored and invites some of his friends for a drive. Not knowing where to hang out, Marc and his friends decided to stop by at a park. As they were walking around at the park and talking about how boring online classes are, they saw an empty and abandoned treehouse.

Although the treehouse was still in good condition, the gang decided to clean out the treehouse, and decorate the treehouse as well with a table, some bean bags, and some entertainment including books, video games, sports, a television, and even a desk. One of Marc’s friends Nick brought some vape pens, a bong, some weed, blunt paper, a few pre rolled joints, a grinder, a lighter, a pipe, and a rolling tray to the tree house. Another friend of Marc named Louis ordered some pizza, wings, fries, and some soda so that he and the gang can enjoy their time at the chill tree house

The food finally arrives, and Marc, Nick, and Louis got comfortable in their cozy new treehouse, relaxing and chilling, and saying how chilling in a treehouse with the boys is better than being stuck home where privacy is impossible.

Half past 12pm, eyes awake Insomnia, messed up sleep, Overthinking, lockdown, Quarantine, 2020 elections, and many other stressors.

One day, I was bored in my biology zoom meeting, and nearly fell asleep throughout the day. I scrolled through TikTok and each video on my for you page I see are people around my age promoting a melatonin diffuser from Cloudy.

Cloudy, a personal diffuser with three main ingredients: chamomile, lavender, and melatonin. Drug free, promotes calm and relaxation, and reduces stress and anxiety.

I knew I had to get the all rest and relax kit, which contains three diffusers, a sleep mask, a cloudy mist, and cloudy lotion. Add to cart, place my order. Thanks for confirming.

I waited day after day and week after week for my order to be shipped even though they posted it on their website warning us about their shipping delays. I didn’t expect so many people buying the cloudy rest and relax kit.

Fall semester is ending soon, and my order finally shipped. Now the USPS is experiencing delays with delivery because of the holidays. But again I waited patiently.

Kept checking the shop app, emails, order number, and tracking number to see when it will arrive. Then finally it arrived.

I couldn’t wait to try it. The night I used it I was able to sleep peacefully, quietly, and restfully. Goodbye late night overthinking and random thoughts and scrolling through the phone.

I’m an 18 year old from California in the South Bay Area. I graduated high school in 2020, and I was bummed that I didn’t get a traditional high school graduation just like every other high school graduate. Well, we all didn’t. But hey at least we graduated. In my town, although some places have recently reopened it’s still a dangerous area. Many of my neighbors don’t obey guidelines and they still throw parties. Sometimes there’s gun violence. Because of what a cruel police officer did to George Floyd, there has been many protests in my town.

As I drove home from work one day, I saw a beautiful girl, her parents, her siblings, and their puppy move in to an apartment next to mine. I started wondering, why would anyone want to move here. In the middle of a pandemic and in an area that isn’t safe. I tried figuring out whether meeting her would or wouldn’t be worth it.

The next day, I went to work. I work at Starbucks on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:30am-4:30pm, and on Fridays from 9am-12pm. Since we’re in a pandemic, there weren’t much employees, and we are required to wear face masks. The same girl who moved in eventually got hired to work at Starbucks. As we got out of work early, we eventually started speaking. “So this is the Bay Area.” she said. “Yeah, and you just moved in?” I told her. “It may not seem safe here in this town, but trust me. I lived in a much worse place before I moved here. I’m from Florida.” she said. “Damn, I feel sorry.” I told her. “Yeah, well at least I got out of this town. There are too many fake friends, and too many covid cases too. Also, we mainly moved here because of my dad’s job offering and because I’m entering community college here I took a gap year.” she said. “You must be lucky to have a traditional graduation.” I said. “Ugh, I’d rather have a zoom high school graduation alone or with real friends than a traditional one with fake friends.” she said. “I’m Amelia by the way.” “Cool, I’m John.” I told her. “When do you work?” “Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9am-12pm.” she said. “Hey, you got TikTok?” “Yeah.” I said and gave her my TikTok.

It was the Fourth of July, and not many people are celebrating for two reasons, COVID and how unsatisfied they are with the American government. Also there are too many illegal fireworks so there wasn’t a point in celebrating. My parents are still having a grill outside. I decided to have my friends over Teddy, Kenny, and Berry. We all socially distanced and had our masks on and drank some Hennessy. When I suggested to make a TikTok video, Teddy and Berry were arguing about the drama that happened before shelter in place, and this lead to Teddy and Berry stop being friends with them. Since all of us were drunk we couldn’t give them a ride home so I had to call an Uber for the whole group to go home. All I gotta say is that this was the worst Fourth of July ever.

I sat down outside the house looking at the fireworks through the neighborhood. Amelia also joined me outside. “Fireworks are pointless this year. 100% of them are illegal.” she told me. She sparked up a blunt and took a hit. She rolled up another blunt, sparked that one up, and passed it to me. I took a hit of the blunt. The weed strain was so good.

We were stoned as hell, and she took me in her house without getting caught by her parents and the rest of her family. We ordered some pizza, some soda, and some hot Cheetos to binge watch Elite on Netflix, which is a really good show. It was a night we couldn’t forget. She was really there for me when I was in my hardest times and I’m grateful for that.

So most of our summer was spent socially distanced, making TikToks, at work together, smoking weed, and going on late night car rides. We even started college together in the fall, even if that meant taking biology and history together through zoom and the whole first year online.