Making our Future in History

Day seventy: After school

     "Should I?"
     Mr. Hanes shrugged his shoulders.
     "What is your problem?" I asked him, "are you okay?"
     "No, I'm not, and why are you asking me about him? I don't care. Be his 'mat maid'. You have been for the past three years."
     "But..."
I was going to defend myself but he started to pack his shoulder bag.
     "Is there something that you're not telling me?"
      He stopped, looked at me, and sighed.
     "Kate. I am an adult. You are two months away from being an adult. Don't talk to me like I'm Bennett or Kyle. Don't just stand there and ask me if something is wrong."
     What is going on with him?
     "You are confusing me."
    He finished packing his bag and put it over his shoulder.
     "Bye Kate and tell him yes."
     He left and I just stood there in his room.
Why does he do that?
*****Mr. Hanes*****
"What do you want?" I called harshly at the door.
"Just hear me out."
     Devon...
I closed my laptop and opened the door to my apartment.
"You have... Four minutes." I said looking at my watch, "maybe."
     "I'm sorry that I ruined your engagement."
     I went to close the door, and he put his foot in the door to stop it. He opened the door and walked in.
     "Ray, stop." He said, "we have been friends since before she even came into the picture..."
"You took her from me, Devon. You stole her."
"She liked me before she liked you."
"Then why did she date me for two years?"
"Because she always knew you were the better one." He said, "and I was the fun one."
I held every urge in my body not to beat the shit out of him right then and there.
"You fucked in my bed in our dorm room! With your bed right next to it!"
He stood there shocked.
"Who told you that?"
"She did. The day I got the ring back."
     He looked upset and like he had backed himself into a corner.
"Look, Ray..."
"Get out of my house before something happens to you." I said, "and it won't be pretty."
     Then he fought back.
"You're a hypocrite. You don't think I don't know about your child girlfriend who is dating someone else at the same time."
     "How do you know that? And Kate is not a child."
     "I'm a police officer. I know people."
     I shoved him against the wall and knocked his head hard on the wall. He looked like he was going to kill me. He shoved me and then tackled me to the ground.
     We knew how to fight. His father owns a gym and we would spar together. Of course when we fought then we didn't actually want to hurt each other. This time we were both out for blood.
     He punched me a few times before I rolled him over and started to beat him. Sure I punched him about Joanna, but this was different. This was everything.
     He finally got the upper hand, and used his knees as leverage to flip me over onto my back. My head hit the floor with a thud. It was silent except for our heavy breathing and the birds chirping outside the open door.
      The blood from his face dripped onto mine, and I felt blood run by my ear into my hair and onto the hardwood floor.
     I looked him dead in the eyes. I knew by the look on his face and how soft his eyes looked that he was sorry. There was nothing else that needed to be said. That was it.
     He moved and sat down beside me and wiped his face with his shirt. It just made it worse. I wiped my face with my shirt. I didn't want to know what I looked like.
     "So? You actually got excepted into the police academy?"
     "Yeah, I did."
     "When did that happen?"
     "The week before you left."
     "Yeah, a lot happened in that one week."
     "No kidding."
     I was a military brat until high school where my dad was stationed in Savannah, GA. for the Navy. I stayed there for my junior and senior year, and I made friends with Devon quickly. We even went to the same college, but everything changed after we met Joanna in college. She was pretty and smart. Too bad she blind sided both of us.
     And here we are now. Trying to understand and maybe fix it. I was hoping we could.
     "So, are you going to be a lacrosse coach?"
      "Yes and I'm a teacher, so I'm ruining young minds one step at a time."
    "Amen to that."
     My apartment door was open and I got up to close it.
     "I should go." He said standing up, "I'm in town until the weekend. I'm applying to move to this police station. If I get moved then I'm going to move here permanently."
     "So you really did come down here to make admins."
     "Of course. We were best friends."
     "Yeah, we were."
      He stood there in the doorway for a second then left. I closed the door behind him and looked at the blood that was pooling on the floor.
     I'm so glad that I don't have carpet.
*****Kate*****
     Wrestling was fun to watch... Sort of. I mean sure it was vulgar, but it's still pretty cool.
     I looked down at Bennett. Then I looked at the patches on his jacket, well, the ones I could see. He was so accomplished and that was one of my favorite things about him.
I loved his jacket, and I was so happy that I got all of the mud off. I'm even happier that he never found out about it.
"Kate!" He called, "can you come here?"
"Sure." I said looking at the coach.
Coach Whitney doesn't like me that much. That got complicated sophomore year, and I don't like to go into details.
     I walked down to the gym floor. The only reason why the coach let me is because Bennett called me. I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him.
"What did you need?" I asked him.
It wasn't as harsh as it sounded.
"Nothing."
"You are very strange."
"I know." He said, "and practice is over. Let's go to Fred's."
Oh great.
"I would love to."
******
We got there and sat in our regular booth. I ordered a hamburger and so did he. We started eating then some man walked in. He looked like had had just taken a beating from Hell.
"That's the new guy that my dad got a transfer request from." He said randomly, "I think he wants to add him.
"Really? Who is he?"
"I don't know. My dad said that his name was Devon."
I stopped eating.
"What is it?" He asked.
"Nothing." I said taking a bite out of my hamburger.
Out of such a small town I only knew one Devon, and that was not him. That meant that he was the Devon that Joanna cheated with. Mr. Hanes never said that he was a police officer.
"What is it?" Bennett asked looking at him too, "is there something that I should know?"
"What?" I asked looking back to Bennett, "no, he's a good man."
"Okay, that is good to know. I'll tell my father that you can vouch for him."
"Funny... Your father doesn't take too kindly to me anyway. I doubt that my word is good to him."
     "My father will listen to me at least, so if you say he is good then he will be okay with that."
     "Whatever you say, Bennett."
      I kept looking at Devon. I didn't know him personally or why he was here in this place, but I really hoped that Mr. Hanes was not the one that beat him up.