February 24, 2013
The smell of molding laundry always filled the air at my cousin Rachel’s old Blue Island house. As we walked down the dark, narrow, creaking stairs, we all knew weren’t allowed down there but we somehow always stumbled down into the basement where my much older cousin Joey’s room and hang out was. He was rarely home when my sister Haley and I slept over, so all three of us would rummage through his things. We were always told not to even come close to touching his band equipment but we never really listened to that. We later found out about a man named Tony Lovato, my cousin’s semi-good friend with whom he jammed out with every once in a while. Many know of this man as the lead singer to the band Mest,