I was walking home from a miserable day of school when it happened. And by it I mean getting randomly sent to a COMPLETELY foreign world of talking, multicolored ponies. But nooo. Not just ANY ponies. There are 3 types of poni-wait, shouldn’t you guys know this by now?
Alright where was I? Oh yeah. I Walking home when I saw it. A weird looking star shaped gem that was glowing. “Where did this thing come from?”I asked myself. So doing what everybody else would do, I picked it up and put it into my back pack and kept walking. It was about the size of a baseball and didn’t look heavy, but I was wrong! After I struggled to get into my back pack I quickly forgot about the worst day of school and the massive pile of homework that followed. My mind was asking loads of questions. Where did this thing come from? Why is it glowing? Why does it weigh a lot? I better calm down before my head explodes.
Alright, I should start answering questions before someone gets angry shouldn’t I? Okay, here goes, my name is Nico Angelo And I am NOT a brony. In fact I have never heard of my little pony ever in my life. never ever ever ever EVER!!!!! Ok…. now that that’s over with I can answer real questions. I am 14 years old and I live in Cedar Park, Texas. I have lived here for about 3 months. I moved here from Harlingen, Texas Which is about right on the border to Mexico. I am an athlete who also plays guitar. I played Football for 3 years, but switched to basketball because I felt like I was better at it, oh and I am 5:11. I play acoustic guitar for the local church on Sundays, and I play background guitar for kids who want to sing songs (like Jumper by Third Eye Blind). My mom recently got killed in a car accident and it’s been hard on me. But my dad…. Oh man he’s a train wreck. Ever since it happened he hasn’t been the same, and I don’t think he will ever be. One day after walking home from school he was sitting on his knees in the corner of the back yard staring at the fence, for 3 hours he sat there, inanimate like a mannequin in a glass display box. I guess I haven’t been the same either have I? I have had restless nights crying, watching YouTube videos to stop crying, and then get into bed and start crying again. I talk less, A LOT less than last year. And sometimes I spill my emotions into my guitar. I used to have an Ibanez performance acoustic guitar, but one day I was playing it like a madman and broke the high e string. It snapped on my arm and, after howling louder than a pack of wolfs on a full moon, I grabbed the neck of the guitar with a very angry grip and smashed the living hell out of it. After that I’ve been quiet ever since.
I unlocked the rusty doorknob with my key mom gave before she-sorry. When I walked in it was quiet. Rarely did I ever walk in to the 2 man household only for it to be quiet. ‘Dad must be taking a nap‘I thought to myself. Usually he would be watching ESPN or something sporty. I don’t know, he might spend his entire day staring blankly at the TV. But today was different; I could tell something wasn’t right. I walked slowly to the living room trying to block out the silence by turning on the 42 inch flat screen TV mounted on a small table with a DVD player and a DIRECTV cable box. My house wasn’t too big. We only had three rooms, one master bedroom, and two regular rooms, one bedroom mine and one a guest bedroom. But dad was thinking about taking everything out of the guest room and turning it into a media room. I always urged him to try to start the project every time he brought up the subject, but something tells me he’s all talk. We also had a small kitchen, 2 bathrooms, and a good sized backyard. Dad never tends to the yard as much he used to. In fact, it used to be his main priority. Jeez, why am I talking about dad so much? Suddenly I had the urge to see him. To just..just.. give him a hug. Just regular father son love. I left the TV on Tosh.0 and went to the kitchen to make myself a sandwich. Hunger wins over seeing my dad I guess. After cramming a piece of ham and cheese on a piece of bread and roughly squirting mayonnaise on the other with the “Choking annoying person” grip, I stuffed the sandwich in my mouth and headed to my dad’s room.
“Knock Knock” No answer
“Knock Knock” Still no answer
I knocked a few more times which only led to the same amount of unanswered replies. “Is he even here?” I asked myself. “No, his car is in the driveway so he has to be here”. After coming to the conclusion he was listening to music I decided to try to speak up. “Hey Dad” I said a little louder than I meant to. “Hey dad, answer me. If you don’t wanna see me that’s fine but at least say something.” I slightly spoke up, about the same volume you use when you try to talk to somebody when they’re taking a shower. After a few more attempts at talking I was quickly aggravated and in no time shouting “YOU BETTER ANSWER THE DAMN DOOR BEFORE I BREAK IT DOWN!” after no reply I was going berserk. “FINE!”
“BANG!” I got a running start and banged my left shoulder against the door. I repeated until every “BANG” was followed by a “CRACK”. Each time the crack was getting louder. On the 7th try my left shoulder hurt, but that wasn’t keeping me from giving up. I got an extra head start this time. I started pumping my arms and moving my legs. I was running towards the door at what seemed insane speeds. This is probably the fastest I have ever ran in my entire life, all just to break down a door.
“BANG” The door flipped forwards as I slammed against it with what felt like a now dislocated left shoulder.
What lay beyond the door was beyond horrifying and life changing.
My dad, Greg Angelo, Had hung himself.
It felt like a dream, A very demented dream. It didn’t feel real. I began to hyperventilate but quickly stopped myself from having a panic attack. I didn’t realize I was facing away from my now dead dad who was only 34 years old. So much life left. He could have turned his depression into happiness. He Could have prevented it…… I could have prevented it. I slowly turned around and found him again. Hanging from a thick roped that had one side tied around his neck and the other side tied around the base of the ceiling fan. Thank goodness he had a bag over his head. I don’t think I could have lived any longer if I saw his face like that. I instantly felt my legs give out underneath me and was resting on both knees with my head in my hands sobbing my eyes out. I didn’t even feel the pain in my shoulder as I got up and punched the wall with all my might creating a really big hole. I finally uttered the first word since I broke the door down. “Why would he do this?” I said while weeping.
“He didn’t even leave a note” I barely managed to get the words out of my mouth.
Who was I even talking to? I guess it doesn’t matter now does it? “I’m alone” I said finally after what seemed like an hour of bawling.
“Why do I deserve this?” I asked myself
But something caught me off guard….. I got an answer.
“You don’t” said a mysterious voice who was behind me. I Was frozen with fear, but her voice sounded somewhat…soothing.
Something tells me she's not here to rob me.