1 Don't need to read

Death.

A word that more than 8 billion creatures, on a planet called Earth, fear.

Obviously.

Who wouldn't?

It means the end of a life.

Everything that you have been working your whole life towards is over.

Everyone that you learned to care about is gone.

But, there are always the outliers, who feel that instead of death being the end…

It is only the start of a journey towards endless happiness!

"Aaaand done." I sighed as I leaned back in my chair and stretched.

My "inspiring" English essay was done. My topic was obviously death.

I don't particularly think that if you die you get endless happiness but I had to make sure that my teacher feels inspired.

Oh. Sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. For the last 16 years of my life my name has been Nicholas Athanasiou.

Yeah. I know. Weird name right.

Apparently, my grandparents were Greek and this is a common name there.

Anyway, as I got up out of my chair, I picked up my essay and put it back in my binder.

I decided that I would actually do my work today instead of blowing it off like usual.

It's not like I don't do my work at all. It's just that if I ain't able to finish my work in class, then I probably won't finish it.

And now that I'm finally done, I'm gonna lay down and take a na…

"NICHOLAS, COME DOWN HERE DINNER'S READY!" Said my kind mother.

"YES MA'AM!" I replied.

Welp, there goes that plan.

I guess it's fine. I was hungry anyway.

As I got down the stairs I saw my mother.

Well, she's not my actual mother. She's my adopted mother.

My actual parents were police officers and they died in the line of work when I was around 5.

I promised that I would make something of myself before I die. Or at least die protecting something I care about like they did.

Damn… it kinda got serious there.

Anyway, I got downstairs, saw my mom, and sat down at the dinner table.

I waited for a while and Mom came into the room with two plates of spaghetti.

"It looks delicioso, Mom," I said while staring at the plate,"I can't wait to tear this up."

"Boy, if you don't wait for me to say grace then, you gonna see what's gettin' tore up." My mom said with the sass of a fully grown up back woman.

"Ok, Mom." I sullenly said because of two different things.

One, my Mom takes way too long saying grace and two, I don't believe in Jesus.

It just seems like someone who is almighty wouldn't need to take a rest and also would make a bunch of people who go against your rules.

It's not anything against the religion (even I used to be christian) but I just feel like the kind of things that they say about God and the type of things people go through don't correlate in my mind.

As I was thinking about all of this, my mom finally finished saying grace.

"Alright baby, you can eat now." I heard my mother say.

She didn't have to tell me twice, as soon as I heard that I had my mouth full of noodles.

"Don't eat so fast, you're gonna choke!" My mom said distracting me from eating

"Sorry, mom" I said as I started eating slower.

"It's ok, sweetie" My mom reassured me," but other than that, I have something I need you to do for me."

"What is it?" I asked.

"The neighbor asked if you could mow his lawn tomorrow, and I said that you could do it since you are off tomorrow." She explained.

"Oh, ok then, that's fine." I accepted.

I mean it's not like I'm doing anything tomorrow. All my friends are at work. And I say "all" loosely because I have about 2 friends.

It's not like I can't get anymore. I've been told I'm a people person but I just don't really like being around a lot of people.

So, I accepted the request and we made some more conversation as we finished dinner.

"Nick!" As I was walking towards the stairs, I heard my mother calling me.

"Yes!" I replied.

"Can you walk down to the corner store and get some milk?" My mom asked me.

Kinda a weird request but, "Ok."

So, I put my shoes on, grabbed my jacket, put that on too, and then I headed to the store.

It's a quiet night but I like it. It feels tranquil. Almost like having no regrets.

Skrrrrt!

My peaceful moment was ruined when I heard something.

I turned around to see what it was and got a face full of ISUZU.

Welp.

I was shocked for a second and then realized what happened.

My last thoughts were,' Damn, I couldn't fulfill my promise