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“Mandy, I have seen you in school plays, and you are amazing. But that’s not Hollywood, that’s not a stepping stone for more. Your mom is a pretty woman, but that’s it. You know that! She probably wouldn’t have made it in New York. She just had all those people telling her shit. It’s not realistic!”
And I was the asshole.
“You don’t think I have what it takes! You are holding me back, Brett, and it will slowly kill me if I let you continue to do it!”
“I am not! I want you to see that it is almost impossible what you want and you are throwing us away on a pipe dream!”
The sting on my cheek let me know I went way too far. I didn’t even see her hand touch me, but I sure did feel it. She was in my face yelling right back at me, and then she slowly pulled back after she realized what she did.
Her mouth fell open and in that moment I knew it was over. We were done and she was going to California.
“Brett, you… you want to be an MMA star. You haven’t said it but you do, and I hope you are. But like you, I don’t think you will make it either.”
She opened the door and quietly got out of the car. There was no sobbing, no screaming then.
Just the absolute fucking dead silence.
&nbs
p; It was absolutely deafening. I could barely even notice her gently shutting the car door.
I saw her walk away from me.
Silence.
I blinked and I was no longer in front of her house. I was at the light across from the dojo.
Mandy
I walked away from Brett. Somehow I did it. It took everything I had but I made it to my front door without running back to him. Gunning his engine, he pulled out with a squeal. I walked into my house, slammed the door behind me and let what just happened sink in.
He was gone, I had succeeded.
He probably hated me. I deserved his hate. I leaned back against the door and slid down to the floor, my knees weakening.
No one was around to see me break into pieces.
I had to remind myself over and over that I was doing it for him. I was doing it for myself. I was doing it for us, dammit. We were too young, and we were getting in way over our heads. We still had our entire lives ahead of us. If I stayed, within a year I knew I’d end up pregnant.
Yet, all I wanted to do was spend every waking moment I could with him. I loved him, I loved him desperately. I loved him so much sometimes it hurt to breathe.
I didn’t plan on leaving him but I didn’t plan on any of this happening. Maybe… maybe if my parents didn’t split or if I didn’t miss my period, I would have decided to stay. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so afraid to jump into it so young because I wouldn’t have seen the consequences playing out in front of me.
Maybe if I hadn’t been so scared shitless of turning into my mother I wouldn’t have ruined the best thing to ever happen to me.
Chapter Seventeen
Brett
“Hey, Brett! How’s it going?” Chase called out. The fucking monster was in the ring and starting up something called Next.
Next is a fucked up version of King of the Hill, but only in the cage. A guy stands in the middle and calls out “Next!” then he waits for someone to come in and get him out of the open door of the cage. Then, whoever is left standing calls out, “Next!” This goes on until everyone who wants to jump in is either eliminated or too tired to go again.
It was fun and absolutely crazy because you could face up to five to ten different guys of all sorts of talent levels, or just one guy.
Some guy jumped on the chance and dived into the cage, going after a laughing Chase. It was supposed to be fun and games, but I wanted a shot at the big fucker myself. Chase could last a pretty long time so I went and got dressed.
Taking a turn at the long punching and kicking bag, I slowly warmed up my body. My brain was empty inside, I just punched and kicked.
