Aljoša Rodinger, pen name AL Rodinger, is a 21-year-old writer and amateur boxer currently studying history and English literature at the University of Maribor. He was born on 1.7.1999 in Maribor, Slovenia and attended the Rada Robič Elementary School in Limbuš. He began to take interest in the English language from a very early age and by the beginning of his 6th grade was already a fluent speaker of the language. After finishing his elementary school education, he attended the First Grammar School in Maribor as a student of the classics, where he was exposed to a lot of in-depth history, as well as both Latin and ancient Greek. It is there where he began and later on finished writing his book, Killjoys. It is also around this time where he began practicing boxing. After graduating, he enrolled in the University of Maribor as a student of both history and English literature. Currently, he is also employed at the Marbior Slovene National Theatre as an usher. 

“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same. Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, and - which is more - you'll be a man, my son.”

These are the words that start our tale of four friends, their deep and personal friendship and their own coming of ages, where they finally come to terms with their own flaws and manage to find perfection in being imperfect and broken. It is a story about accepting yourself with all of your strengths and weakness, living life with all of its ups and downs, experiencing pain and joy, confronting both your inner demons as well as the people closest to you. 

Our character’s lives are entwined with discrimination, hatred, addiction and death, yet it always seems that there is some resemblance of light, of contempt at the end of the dark and long tunnel before us. We just simply have to find a way to get to it and make our own path.

Killjoys

A little baby was kicking and screaming in her crib. 


She cried and cried as loud as her little lung allowed her to an empty, dusty and unkempt living room. 


No one came thought, so she cried even more. 


A shadow blocked the sun as she opened her teary eyes. 


"Why, hello there!" greeted a tall, slender man warmly. He had short, curly, black hair and a black, bushy moustache. His blue eyes were friendly and kind as a warm smile crept on his face. 


He picked up the baby, which made her cry and scream again. 


"My, my. Aren't you loud? You're just like your mother..." he cradled her and began to rock her back and forth. 


"My name is Antonio. Antonio Caglione. You can call me Uncle Antonio. I'm a close friend of you father-" 


He looked at one of the closed doors and frowned. 


"Your papa is going through a really tough time you know. But don't worry, I'll be here to keep you company, little one." 


He kept cradling her, yet she just wouldn't stop screaming to which he laughed softly. 


"Boy, you sure have a good pair of lungs on you. Maybe one day you'll be a singer."


He pondered as he sat down on the dusty couch. "You know, I used to be a singer once. Worked as a part-time singer in a small cafe in Naples, where I meet the love of my life," he smiled and looked out the window with a distant look in his ocean blue eyes. 


"You remind of my little boy Arnaldo. He too can't seem to stop screaming and crying. The only way to get him to stop is to sing him an old lullaby that my mama used to sing."


He stood up and began to rock her back and forth. 


"Go to sleep, go to sleep-in the arms of your mother-go to sleep, lovely child-go to sleepy, child so lovely-go to sleep, go to sleep-in the arms of your mother."


As he stopped singing, he noticed that the crying had stopped. He looked at the little baby in his arm only to find her sleeping peacefully, with one finger in her mouth. 


He smiled, kissed her forehead and laid her back down into the crib.


Sunlight invaded her eyes and slowly and begrudgingly she opened them. She groaned and sat up on the bed, stretching her arms until she heard a satisfying popping noise. 


She rubbed her eyes and grabbed her phone, her half-open eyes suddenly going wide upon seeing the time.


"11:00 am already?! Jesus! How long did I sleep?" she scrambled out of her bed, nearly falling over as she grabbed her regular clothes and ran into the bathroom. 


She quickly got changed and began to run through the living room, electing a groan of annoyance from her father, who was sleeping on the couch. 


"Let's see what that dumbass came up with."


Chapter 9