“The Kids Aren’t Alright”

It all started with Kyle.

Not everything, obviously. First there was the big bang and all that, Dinosaurs, Roman Empire, Grunge. But then there was Kyle and Kyle’s the one who kicked off this story.

I guess you could start it with Anastasia Borgia and SchadowFreud, but realy they were just given circumstances. Kyle’s the one who brought them all up. He was the one who knew stuff.

My sister was in love with him. She wasn’t the only one, either. I think Declan’s brother, Tommy, might’ve been a little in love with him, too, I think maybe that’s why they started their band. And Mickey? He was probably just along for the ride.

Kyle was the one with the plans. Before Declan and my brother Jasper took off, took up the mantle, before Caspar June “discovered” Raven, before the ill-fated concert and Calvin’s plans for the school, there was Kyle sitting at a piano accidentally playing a false note and wondering how much less that would matter in rock’n’roll. Before Jasper started shooting up, Kyle breathed in the smell that wafted out of the hole in this brand-new acoustic guitar. Before dad went missing and mom went nuts, Kyle was grounded for trying to sneak out to go watch Acid Monsoon in concert, before they got big. Years before they found Mickey swinging in the garage, Kyle hung wind-chimes from those same rafters and tried to mimic on his instruments the melodies they made.

Is it any wonder my sister got herself knocked up on account of him? We were always broken. He didn’t make us that way. We all had our own beginnings. But I think what Kyle did is he saw we were broken and he found all the pieces and he fit us all together, a piece of Aly in a piece of Mickey, a piece of Tommy in a piece of Raven, a piece of Declan in a piece of me. But not in a weird way. He just brought us together.

(To Be Continued…)