Introduction pt. 2

When we left off last I had just been shown the door at the group home in Oteen, North Carolina. At this point I was out of options on places to go. As luck would have it - at the last moment DSS signed off on a crazy idea for me to share an apartment with a friend from work. So I moved in with Elaina. Elaina had just graduated from a private high school called Carolina Day School so I had high hopes that things were going to start picking up for me. Boy was I wrong! What I didn't know was that Elaina was a bit on the wild side. After about three months of this I was exhausted. The endless drugs and partying was really starting to catch up to me. Add in the fact that I was working 50 hours a week and still trying to attend high school - something had to change. So yet again I found myself homeless. After some time, I convinced a guy I worked with to let me move in with him and his family. Finally I had gotten what I always wanted: a big brother, a little sister, and a mother. Unfortunately, Brandon was dead and gone. And in his place was a screwed up guy I like to call "B." I was so caught up in the drugs, booze, and girls that trying to live any kind of normal life was impossible.

Within six months of living with my new family I had just managed to avoid getting caught selling narcotics at school and had caught my first assault charge for a fight in the cafeteria that ended with me hitting a D.A.R.E officer. It's amazing that through all of this, I kept myself on the honor roll but school and my ultimate failure in College is a story for another day. After the whole assault-on-an-officer deal, I was sent to a juvenile detention center for a three month stay where my alter ego "B" really started shedding his light. Upon my release back into the free world, DSS pretty much told me that since I was so close to the age of 18, they were washing their hands with me and I was free to do as I pleased in life.This is where I packed my bags, moved to Leicester, North Carolina, and continued working at the local McDonald's.

If I can say one positive thing about myself, it's that I've always been successful in my career. I've worked hard at any job I've had and McDonald's was no exception. I was the first person under the age of eighteen to be put into McDonald's management in all of Western North Carolina. My work life was great, while my personal life was spiraling out of control faster than ever. I had made the wise decision to move into one of the biggest known drug houses in the county. (Nothing like waking up for work and seeing the FBI outside your house.) There are a lot of stories I could tell about experiences in this house but for the safety of myself and my family, I will not discuss it. Around this time I caught my second assault charge for beating a guy half to death on Patton Avenue. God must have been in my corner this time around, seeing as how I all but walked on the charges. At this point I decided it was time to get my shit together: finish school, go to college, and make something out of myself. Naturally I failed miserably and ended right back at the McDonald's in Leicester. While working there I met a girl, moved in with her, and spent the next four years in the most abusive relationship known to man. But, I'll save the details of that for part three of "Brandon Vs. B: A Jackal and Hyde Tale."