Back To Black

Low Blow

"Where is he?!" The sound of my fathers booming voice echoed through the house, shaking everything in its path. I sat on the edge of my bed, gazing out into the hallway. My body, anticipating his presence. I couldn't allow this to happen.

Rising to my feet, I ran out of my room, holding out my arms, so that when my father reached the top of the stairs he couldn't go pass. "Dad, no!"

"Bryan, just leave him alone! He won't do any harm!" My mother pleaded with my father, even pulling on his sleeve, but yet my father just still managed to make it to the top of the stairs, stopping at me.

"Move out of the way, Jessa." My eyes tried to pled with him, but his stare was so intense and cold.

"Dad, what are you going to do with him?"

"Move out of the way, Jessa." This time my father's voice was stern and you could hear the stress behind it.

"Dad! I'm pretty sure whatever Jessie did was really bad, but dad he's human! Humans are allowed to make mistakes, right? That's what you and mom have always taught us." My father acted as if he was disregarding me, trying to move past me, but I knew he was listening to me. "Just give him another chance, please!"

My mother stood behind him, silent. As my father's face relaxed a little, I noticed her grip on his arm loosened and I held my breath a moment longer than intended. My father glanced down at me, then towards the direction of Jessie's room, where Jessie was watching the madness unfold through his cracked door. His uneasiness was clear as day.

"Fine. One last chance.....but that's it. I'm sick of dealing with his attitude." My eyes closed and a sigh of relief escaped my lips.

"Thank you, dad." Glancing back at the door, my father slowly turned, heading back downstairs. When he and my mother were out of sight, I headed towards Jessie's room, my eyes locked on him, my feet almost stomping.

"Alright, Jessie, what did you do?!"

"I don't know what you're talking about?" I pushed his shoulder.

"Of course you do, don't act stupid. What did you do to get dad all upset? I'm tired of sticking my neck out for you all the time. He's not going to keep forgiving you all the time, Jessie and you know it!"

I watched him as he bit his lip, nervously and in a split second, he went back to his nonchalant attitude. "So....I ruined Ms. Henderson's flowers. Big whoop." He shrugged his shoulders, and turned his back to me, walking over to his night stand.

"You what?! Jessie those were the flowers her and her husband planted together before he died. How could you?! So, what, you were walking and decided to step on her whole garden of flowers?" He picked up the baseball from his dresser and tossed it in one hand, refusing to make eye contact with me.

"That's the thing......I didn't step on them."

"Well, if you didn't step on them, then how on earth did you kill all of her flowers, Jessie?" Jessie bit his lip again and his eyes widened just a bit as if what he was about to tell me, could potentially kill him.

"I uh....." My eyebrows rose and I looked at him intently, waiting for him to finish his sentence, once he caught sight of my state, he cracked. "I stole a motorcycle, okay! I stole a motorcycle and I trampled Ms. Henderson's flowers.

My mouth dropped and my eyes were so wide, I could've sworn they'd fall out of their sockets. "What? No wonder dad is ready to kill you....... Where'd you steal the motorcycle from?"