AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I scrolled through opportunities curated on an app provided by a headhunter I’d contracted with. She sent the listing over this morning. I took a break when Scott returned to our table with food.
“Hey, Scott,” a young girl with bone straight, dark brown hair called out to him from the other side of the dining room ofB-Way Burgeron Capital Blvd. “Heather and I are sitting over there. You wanna come?”
Scott and I turned to look across the half-filled room at the same time. I knew the table she spoke of because the giddy girls sitting there were giggling shyly when she pointed them out.
“Anna-Bell, don’t you see me with family?” Scott hissed, swinging his blond tresses from his face, whipping his neck.
Little Anna-Bell’s face blanched. She peered my way then mumbled to him, “Oh. I’m sorry.” The girl took off across the restaurant.
I leaned into the table as he took a seat. “That was kind of harsh. Wasn’t it?”
Then I began unloading my food from the tray he’d carried from the counter.
“Naw, it ain’t.” Scott’s eyes were low, on task as he spoke. “They’re getting annoying.”
My forehead wrinkled. “Anna-Bell and Heather?”
Scott bit into hisB-Waydeluxe with bacon then chewed a bit before he answered, “Them and all girls.”
“Hey! What’s wrong with girls?”
He shrugged, attention going out of the window our booth was against. “Girlfriends don’t work for the dudes in my family.”
“Dudes? Like who?”
His volume was measured when he advised, “Uncle Kel…my dad.” Scott coolly tossed fries into his mouth.
“Why don’t you think girlfriends work for them.”
He leaned into the table, chin low. “Look at where my father is now.” His brows peaked. “Unalive. And why? His girlfriend. Look at what my uncle was doing last night. You ask him why, and he’d say because of his wife.”
My head jerked back, but I immediately reigned in my emotions. “Did he tell you that?” Scott nodded while taking a bite of his burger. “Do you believe that?”
For a while, Scott didn’t reply. I patiently nibbled on a fry. They were better thanMcDonald’s. Scott had boxing and soccer today. I was looking forward to this fast food meal with him in between sports. It was the only occasion I’d get to pry his heart and mind open, understanding the toxic environment he’d been living in that was my home.
A few years ago, when I thought to enroll him into extra-curricular activities, I arranged for his mother’s relatives to commit to taking him. Typically, between his grandmother, aunt, and cousin, someone would transport him. However, today, no one was available. One of the two house vehicles was down, so I filled in. While it may have sounded burdensome to make that request of them, to me it guaranteed Scott spent time with family on both sides. As a kid, coming up, I hated that I didn’t know many relatives on my mother’s side. I would ask my grandmother to reach out to them, but she wasn’t passionate about it. It shrunk my social pool and made me feel lonely. I didn’t want that for Scott. I didn’t want it for any child.
“At first, I did when I was little. And then…”
I tried pouring dressing over my salad to bide my time.But… “Then what?”
“He started to say weird stuff. Like calling you ugly and skinny and fat.” He shook his head. “That didn’t make sense to me. You’re really pretty and super nice. So, when I got bigger, I saw he was kinda mean to you sometimes, and…” He shook his head again.
Talking to a teenager—even a new one—could be exhausting.
“Well, yes. Your uncle can be very mean to me. Nonetheless, that has nothing to do with you. If you want to somehow use that energy, recycle it. Make sure when you deal with girls, you show respect.” I went about cutting my salad leaves with the plastic utensils. “And as far as your parents go: have you ever talked to your mother about what happened? Like…get her side of the story?” Without the benefit of his gorgeous hazel-green eyes, Scott shook his head again. “Okay. I think that needs to happen before you can begin to establish limitations about the opposite sex.”
“I already know what happened. I saw her court paperwork.”
“For her trial?” He nodded. “How?”
He gave me the dry shrug again. “Aunt Patty had it out when I came over a while ago—I was small. And me and my cousins…” The shrug. “…we read it.”
I was stunned, recalling the nightmare of a time.
“What did you read?”
“That he liked to fight her. A lot.” He stuffed four fries into his mouth. “See. Us guys don’t need girlfriends.” And yet another shrug.
