Give Them Hell

Dallas' Heart

Dakota not only miscarried that night but lost her bar, everything she worked her ass off to get she lost. I guess she hasn't lost it yet but unless she can pull twenty grand out of her ass the building will be auctioned the first week of October. I mean that's all she ever talked about, owning a bar and having a family. Even when we were kids that's all she wanted. I wanted to help her but I couldn't find a way, then I got a way in the mail.

I got a letter in the mail that saved any financial problems I might of had. It was a letter from the national rugby team. My rugby coach at NC State had sent them a bunch of footage of me playing over the last four years and they liked what they saw. The letter basically read that I had a position on the team if I wanted it.

I mean of course I wanted the position, I mean this has been my dream since I was small. I've always, always, always wanted to play rugby for a living and now I get the chance.

Then a way to help Dakota hit me. When I was fifteen I won a bonus at my part time job and I invested it. Seven years ago I invested about six thousand four hundred dollars with an interest rate of sixteen percent that's compounded monthly. If I did my math right there should be about nineteen thousand five hundred dollars in my band account.

I could give Dakota the money to by back the bar. Dakota would still have a job and she wouldn't have to worry about money for a while. I think I'd win little cousin of the year for that one.

"So Nikki, what do you think?" I ask my boyfriend after I explain my idea to save the bar to him and he smiles.

"I think that you're the nicest person I've ever met." Nikki says and kisses my cheek. "You seriously have no idea how much this will mean to Dakota."

"I just hope she accepts it. I mean our family is really stubborn and too proud for our own good. We don't like taking hand outs." I explain. "I hope she sees it as me trying to help."

"I'm sure she will, baby." Nikki promises me and tangles his fingers in my hair.

The next afternoon is the day of June's birthday and it's held in the condo that CC and Dakota are scared to lose. The party is being held in the basement that right now if I had to guess is over run with toddlers from June's ballet class.

Nikki and I walk into the front door and we hair small children squealing and laughing. Then we hear Tommy laughing and Nikki smiles before kissing my temple.

"I'm going to go help Tommy with damage control." He says quietly and I nod. "You're going to talk to CC and Dakota?"

"Yeah." I say quietly. "I have the cheque for them if they'll accept it." I say and he nods.

"Good luck, baby. I believe in you." Nikki says before walking downstairs.

Nikki

Dallas is the most selfless person I've ever met in my life. While she lived in Seattle she did so much volunteer work. Dallas used to go and read to the elderly and walk dogs at the animal shelter. She'd find little things that would help society in the smallest of ways.

This one time we were at the beach because Dallas has always has a thing about the beach on dreary overcast days. She said she loved that way the ocean made the air smell when it mixed with the possibility of rain. Dallas loved to squish her toes in wet sand. She loved the sound of the waves crashing onto the shore. Dallas just love the beach on rainy days.

Anyways, this one time specifically we were walking down the beach and Dallas saw something that broke her heart for lack of a better term. This little baby turtle was stuck in those plastic ring things that six packs come in.

"Frank, give me your knife." She had said and held out her hand.

"What are your going to do?" I wondered as I handed her the knife.

"I'm going to go help the turtle. I'm going to cut him out." Dallas explained.

I watch Dallas spend close to an hour carefully cut around the turtle's she'll before she'd freed it. Then she slipped off her Chuck Taylor's and her socks and took the turtle in her hands. Dallas walked the turtle back out into the ocean and gently placed it back in that water.

No matter how many times she tries to deny it or no matter how many times she says that she was a problem child who blackened the name of our fair city, Dallas has a really big heart. Every life matters to her, whether it's the old man that she used to play chess with or the turtle she cut out of place rings. Dallas cares a lot and has this beautiful heart that's made of pure gold.

Dallas

"--and this is for you and CC. I don't need it, I have a really good job now." I say as I hand over the envelope to my cousin. "Go buy back your bar."

Dakota opens the envelope and pulls out the cheque. She looks at it wide eyed for a while before she looks at me again.

"Dallas this is nearly twenty thousand dollars. I can't take it, it's too much."  She says and tries to hand it back to me. "It's your money."

"No it's yours. I know it's not exactly enough to buy back your bar but it's all my savings and you're only about five hundred short." I explain. "I don't want you to lose your house or your bar or June. You've lost enough this month." I say and she puts her hand on her stomach.

"Dallas--"

"Don't make this weird." I say and put my hands up in front of me.

"You saved my livelihood." Dakota says and tears well up him her eyes. "I can't thank you enough. We'll pay you back all the money."

"Hey, hey. Don't worry about that. Just get your bar back." I say and she hugs me tight, I reluctantly hug her back.

It feels really good to help my family. Dakota, CC, and June are my family and I don't want to see anything happen to them. We're a family and that means no one gets forgotten or left behind, we fight for our own.