A few months later, literally a week after my 18 th birthday I received a message from Brandon Rodriguez. We caught up for an hour or so on instant messenger. I told him how I was selling weed and making tons of money. He was in town; he now had his own van and offered to come pick me up to hang out at some girl’s house. If I had been in school like a normal high school senior I would not have been able to go but I was in Independent study. Brandon pulled up outside my house