Sweet to Sour | Teen Ink

Sweet to Sour

January 18, 2024
By ManuelMontas26 BRONZE, Franklin Lakes, New Jersey
ManuelMontas26 BRONZE, Franklin Lakes, New Jersey
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Javier is a 16 year old boy living in a large city in Florida with a high crime rate. Javier’s older brother David is involved in the crime. Javier's parents kicked David out because they were worried that Javier was going to end up just like him if they kept spending time together. Before David got kicked out of the house, Javier would notice that he would be coming home after midnight smelling like booze but Javier wouldn’t tell their parents about it, yet it became obvious that he was doing things he shouldn’t have been doing, so they kicked him out of the house because he was a terrible influence.

“It's quick and easy money, and that's what you need these days,” David says. Javier is a good and innocent kid, but he also wants to help out his parents who work long hours every night just to be able to afford rent, so he tries to get part time jobs whether it be mowing lawns or babysitting which makes him think that he should join Davids group of friends and make quick money whether it's dirty or not, but deep down he knows that what David does is wrong and will lead to him ending up in a bad place.

The last time they saw each other David said “C’mon Javier, If you really wanted to help mom and dad out, then you would have been working with us for a while now.” 

“The last thing they need right now is another criminal for a son,” Javier exclaimed.

David used to try to give his parents some money yet they never took it because it was dirty money and they didn’t want to get involved. Even though Javier always rejects David’s offers, he still thinks about them and about how much weight he'd be able to take off of his parent’s shoulders with all the money he'd be getting. One night Javier overheard his parents arguing about how they were going to have to sell their car to be able to afford rent and that is when Javier decided that it was time to start spending more time with David and his friends. 

The next day was Friday and after school Javier sent David a text, saying he'd meet him at the park by the school. There he was introduced to David’s friends, Mike and Joel.

“You finally realized that you should join us?” David asked.

“Whatever,” Javier uttered, “Just tell me what we're gonna do”.

“There's this family I babysit for on the other side of town and they just left today for their trip to the Bahamas. Once when I was babysitting, I walked into the wrong room and noticed this big safe and I was curious, so I asked what was in there and the kid I babysit explained to me that there was over $100,000 stored in the safe for any emergencies. I was thinking we could head over there tonight and steal the money. It’ll be easy, trust me,” Joel explained.

“How would we get in without getting caught? If they got $100,000 laying around, they obviously have cameras surrounding the house. And even if we do get in, how would we get the money without the code?” Mike quizzed.

“Don't worry about that, there's going to be a big storm tonight so the power will most likely go out. As for the code, I have it. Once he told me about the money in the safe, I started searching the office that holds the safe, and after a while I found a slip of paper with the code,” Joel announced.

Everyone besides Javier had a huge smirk on their face because they knew that this was easy money, but Javier knew that it could go wrong easily, nevertheless, he went with it.

“This is it,” Joel pronounced once they arrived at the house,“The cameras will be useless soon ‘cause it's going to begin to storm and it will be dark, also the power will likely go out,” he added.

They were astonished by how big and nice the house looked, aside from the house they  were also excited for the amount of money they were going to make.

It was now 11:00 P.M. , all the neighbors had turned off their lights and it was now storming really hard.

“Let's move, now's the time. Javier, stay in the car and keep an eye out for anything and if you see something call us right away,” Joel stated.

“Why do I have to stay on the lookout?”Asked Javier in disappointment.

“Someone has to be on the lookout, plus you're a rookie,” Joel stated.

As Javier waited patiently, the others sneaked into the house through the back door. Joel led them to the safe which was located in the office. As he walked towards the office, he noticed a dog on the ground but fortunately it was sleeping.

“Hey, come here, it's this way,” He whispered so that the dog wouldn’t hear them. 

They got into the room and Joel started to crack the code. 

“Please work, please!” He kept saying.

“Hey yall I hear something,” Mike whispered “I think I hear sirens”.

Outside Javier realized that someone had called the cops once he saw that there were 3 cop cars speeding down the street and making their way into the driveway of the house they were breaking into.

“Hold up man, I'm almost done,”Joel uttered.

“Put all the money in the duffle bags quickly, we gotta go,”Joel shouted. The dog had suddenly awoken and started running into the office.

Crap, hold him off Mike, we’ll put the rest in,” David ordered in a low tone. Mike started petting the dog gently which ended up calming him down. David decided that he was going to call Javier to let him know that they were finishing up.

“David, I have bad news, there are three cops in the driveway, you guys need to leave quietly through the back and run away as fast as possible,” Javier yelled.

“Don't worry, we'll handle this. Just sit there patiently and I'll give you a call when we're ready to leave,” David declared. Javier wanted to tell him that there was no time to finish but David hung up. A few seconds later, the cops were knocking on the door causing the dog to go crazy.

“Open up, we know you're in there,'' ordered officer #1, “We’ll give you five seconds and if the door isn't open, we're busting in there”.

“Get your guns out and ready,” Joel whispered.

“Five . . .four . . . three . . . two . . .one. Okay, that's it, we're coming in,” shouted one of the officers. 

Back in the car, Javier heard a dozen gunshots and decided to leave the car and check out what's going on so he rushed out of the car and went inside. As soon as he went in, he saw three still bodies on the ground. He began to cry once he realized what had happened.

“Were you with them?” asked cop #2

Javier didn’t know what to say and just stood there weeping.

“Get him in the car,” ordered the cop.

And just like that, Mike, Joel and David were dead and Javier was being brought to the police station for questioning.


The author's comments:

Something that inspired me to write this piece is my friend Eduardo, who was almost arrested for his involvement in an attempted robbery, but was let off the hook due to his young age and the fact that nobody was hurt.


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