Note to self: never—never—come out to your extremely drunk dad. Seriously. If I ever start thinking that’s a good idea again, someone should whack me upside the head with a Bible or something.

Anyway. Let me explain how I ended up here, sitting in some group home like I’m a rejected character from a sad TV drama.

I’m Aaron. Or, as some people say when they forget my name, “Ronny,” like I’m a golden retriever. Whatever. My life is… how do I put this nicely? Garbage dipped in toilet water.

I live—well… lived—in this crusty, miserable slice of NYC where the street smells like hot trash and broken dreams. The kind of place where you see needles on the sidewalk and think, “Aw, someone dropped their breakfast.” Kids disappear for a bit, then show up a few weeks later in the news and everyone pretends to be shocked, even though we all saw it coming.

People here love to say “Everyone’s dad is an asshole,” like it’s some shared community hobby. But trust me—mine took the gold medal.

After Mom died, it was like someone unplugged whatever tiny piece of humanity he had left. He spiraled hard—drinking, screaming, hitting… the standard Greatest Hits of Terrible Parenting. There were nights I was sure he was going to kill me. Maybe part of me thought he already was, just slower.

But then I did something so stupid, so galaxy-level idiotic, NASA probably felt a disturbance in the force. I came out to him. While he was drunk. Like blackout, slurring, “I love you man” drunk.

Spoiler: it did not go well.

I woke up in the hospital. He woke up in jail. He’s still there, waiting for his trial, and I’m apparently a “ward of the state” now. Which sounds fancy, but really just means: Congrats! Here’s your starter pack for the Troubled Kids With Shitty Parents Lifestyle™.

So now I’m sitting in the living room of this group home. It’s called something like New Horizons Youth Residential Care—which is such a nice way of saying “house for messed-up minors.” The “care person”—Tony—is reading me the rules like he’s narrating a college brochure. He hands me this giant sheet of paper with curfews, chores, therapy schedules, “community expectations”… a whole lot of blah blah blah.

“Is this all..?” I ask, because if there were more rules I might’ve set myself on fire.

“Oh yeah,” Tony says, super cheerful like he’s on a game show. “Your room is upstairs, number 3. You’ll be sharing with Kenji.”

A roommate. Great. Amazing. Because if there’s anything I’m good at, it’s being around other humans without making it awkward. (Lies. Obviously.)

But I try to psych myself up on the way up the stairs. Maybe it won’t be awful. Maybe we’ll trauma-bond or something. Maybe he won’t hate me immediately. That’d be neat.

I reach the room, turn the knob, open the door—

And holy shit.

The place looks like a punk concert exploded in it. Posters, patches, black clothes, stuff with spikes… it’s like Hot Topic had a baby with a dumpster and somehow it works.

Kenji, whatever his name is, is laying on one of the beds on his side of the room. He looks completely at home in this chaos.

Shit, maybe being friends with trauma victims might not be so bad.

“Hey..umm, roomate?” I ask.