And then the phone rang

the long version

Have you ever had your entire world fall apart within five short years? Do your relatives often find themselves saying, zIf only we could turn the clock back, just for a dayy at your family functions? Welcome to my life. Until I turned seventeen, my life was pretty average. Well, maybe above average. My family went on two lavish vacations a year; we lived in a nice home, and we had a large family whom we saw at least once a week, if not more. I was looking forward to graduating and leaving behind the hellhole otherwise known as high school and while it was the last year of everything I had ever known, I was eagerly gearing up for the chance to see what awaited me at a place where everything was fresh and unfamiliar. But all that changed on one cold November evening. In a matter of seconds, my life would never be the same, and years later my family would whisper in hushed tones, zWhy? How did this happen to us?y And to think that it all started with a phone call.