Excerpt from the Short Story - Fighting Destiny
An excerpt from:
Fighting Destiny
A short story by Janie St. Clair
Fighting Destiny
A short story by Janie St. Clair
“Hey,
do you guys know why Helen Keller couldn’t drive?” Reuben joked on their way
out of school one day. “Because she was a woman!”
Jeremy, Reuben, and Scott all laughed.
They were in their first year of high
school and had been friends ever since junior high. A lot changed over the
years, but these guys had always had his back.
Then a vision of golden hair caught his
attention. There she was, standing in line for her bus. Jeremy couldn’t help
but stare. He always had fantasies that they would end up together, but just a
little over a week ago, she had started dating Peter and it tore his heart in
two.
Now, whenever Jeremy saw her, he felt like
there was a wild animal clawing his chest from the inside.
“Hey dude, there’s Alicia,” Scott pointed.
“And no Peter in sight. You might have a chance to talk to her.”
“Dude, they’re dating now,” Jeremy
complained.
“So?” Reuben challenged him. “Don’t tell
me you’re going to let that stop you.”
He was right. He and Alicia were supposed
to be together. She just didn’t see it yet. He would help her. He gathered all
his courage, though knowing the guys were watching, he played up his swagger as
he strutted over to her.
Jeremy got as far from the guys’ earshot
as he could, but he kept his back straight and his chest out.
“Hey Ali,” he called her attention. She
didn’t look happy to see him. But he would change that. “Do you have a band
aid?” he asked innocently.
Her face softened. “I think so. Let me
see.” She started rummaging through her backpack.
“Great,” Jeremy said nonchalantly. Then he
grinned. “’Cause I scraped my knee pretty bad when I fell for you.”
She looked up at him. He could see the
moment realization settled as her face melted into a sneer.
“Grow up, Jeremy,” she growled. “And
anyway, I’m dating Peter now. So go find someone weak and stupid enough to fall
for your dumb lines.”
He pulled her by her elbow away from the
waiting bus. “Ali. Please listen. You’re the only girl I want. I mean it!” he
protested when she rolled her eyes. “Ever since middle school, I always knew
you were the girl for me.”
“You’ve liked me since then?” she asked,
disbelieving.
“Well duh.” He tried to imitate a bashful
smile. “That’s why I’m always flirting with you.”
“Flirting?” she asked dryly. “That’s what
you call what you’ve been doing?”
He met her eyes and tried not to blink.
“The truth is, I’d do just about anything to see you smile at me.”
“Really?”
Her face softened. He could tell he had
put a chink in her armor. He was taking a play from his dad’s book. Mr.
Matthews would always say things like that to calm his mom’s sensitive
emotions.
Knowing his tactic was working, he gushed,
“Can’t you tell? I fall apart whenever you reject me. It’s like I go weak and
can’t think when I see you or hear your voice. Everything I do, I do just to
get you to look at me.”
Her eyes widened and her pupils dilated as
she gazed up at him. “Do you really mean that?” she whispered.
“I do. Alicia, you’re amazing. You’re like
a light in the darkness. If I can’t be with you, I think the darkness would
swallow me up.”
Jeremy threw all his strength into the
puppy dog eyes he was giving her.
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear
and say, “Um, Jeremy, I don’t know what to say. That’s super sweet, but I’m
still dating Peter.”
He felt his face twist in frustration and
his breaths came out in short bursts. He had used all his dad’s best lines and
it wasn’t working. It always worked when his dad got sappy and poetic with his
mom.
“Why are you being so stupid about this?”
he yelled. “What does Peter have that I don’t?”
She rested a hand on her hip. “Well,
manners, for starters.”
He scoffed.
“He always treats me with respect,” she
continued passionately. “He’s kind and patient and he never yells. He helps
people instead of beating them up all the time.”
“I could be all that and more!”
“Oh yeah?” she matched his volume and
tone. “You’re doing a great job selling it! You’re always yelling and bullying
people and laughing at horrible jokes. Open your eyes, Jeremy. You’re a jerk
and everyone knows it.”
His fists clenched at his sides. “Shut
up!”
“You’re the kind of guy that only a mother
love. No, you know what? I take it back. I bet even your own mother doesn’t
want to be around you.”
He felt the blood drain from his head. His
breaths stilled. She didn’t know. There was no way she could know that his mom
had abandoned their family. Abandoned him. Even Reuben and Scott didn’t know.
Her words were a dagger, twisted, in his
heart. “Take it back!” Jeremy warned through gritted teeth. He felt all his
rage coiling tighter and tighter, like a spring mere moments away from
snapping.
“Why?” she challenged him. “It’s the
truth.”
The coil snapped. “You’re nothing!” he
exploded. “You understand? You’re just some stupid bimbo who thinks she’s
better than everyone else!”
“Jeremy!” a familiar voice barked from
behind him.
Jeremy turned slowly to see his older
brother standing inside the open door of his idling car. “What do you think
you’re doing?” Tommy demanded.
Tommy looked like the skinnier, taller,
dorkier version of Jeremy. Jeremy had never heard Tommy so much as raise his
voice, but now his brother glared at him with a look of fierce anger behind his
nerdy glasses.
“Stay out of this, Tommy,” Jeremy
returned.
“Wanna walk home?” Tommy threatened with
narrowed eyes.
Jeremy weighed his options. The bus to his
area had already left. And Alicia had run off while he was distracted.
“Fine,” he grumbled.
“Get in,” Tommy said sternly. He slipped
in the car and closed the door before Jeremy could argue.
Jeremy cursed his brother under his breath
as he slumped into the passenger seat and slammed the door. Tommy didn’t say
anything, but Jeremy could see his lips and eyes crinkle as he kept his gaze
fixed ahead.
Finally, as they drove out of the parking
lot, his brother asked, “Do you talk to that girl like that often?”
Jeremy grunted. He was not ready to be
lectured. Especially not by a dork like Tommy.
“She’s a stuck-up snob!” he retaliated.
“She knows she likes me, but she’s playing all these games and dating this
other guy, Peter, even though I’ve made it clear that I like her.”
“Peter?” Tommy asked, thrown by the
revelation. “The one who lets you borrow his comics?”
Jeremy’s eyes darted to the side in a
moment. “Yeah,” he lied.
Tommy kept opening his mouth like he was
going to say something, but changed his mind. Until he finally settled on a
thought. “Jeremy, let me ask you a question. How does Peter talk to that girl?”
“I don’t know,” he shrugged sharply.
“They’re always smiling and laughing at each other,” he admitted with a sneer
of disgust. “Like idiots.”
“I blame myself for this,” Tommy said in a
half-whisper. “Well, I blame dad first, but I should’ve been talking to you.”
“About what?” Jeremy asked with a roll of
his eyes.
“You do know why mom left, don’t you?” his
brother asked in a very older-brother, know-it-all type tone.
“She was just sensitive…”
“No,” Tommy stopped him. “That’s dad’s
line. And – even though there’s nothing wrong with being sensitive – it’s not
even true. She was normal.”
“Dad’s the normal one,” he spat back. “Mom
was the one that was always crying over stupid stuff.”
Tommy’s next question surprised him: “Have
you ever felt like running away?”
“Of course,” Jeremy said with a sharp
laugh. “Hasn’t everyone?”
“Maybe,” Tommy conceded. “But can you
remember why you wanted to run away?”
“Well sure. Dad was yelling and said some
stupid stuff. What’s your point?”
“Are you sensitive?”
Jeremy felt his blood heating. “I’m not
sensitive!” he growled. “Dad was being a jerk.”
“And you didn’t want to be around him
anymore, right?” Tommy said poignantly.
“Duh!”
“See? That’s not sensitive. That’s normal.
When someone yells at you and insults you, you want to get away from them.”
“Are you saying you think it’s right that
mom left us?” Jeremy challenged with a raised voice. “You think it’s okay that
she abandoned her marriage?”
“Yeah, I do,” Tommy nodded. His voice
didn’t match Jeremy’s in anger or volume, but carried a quiet intensity. “I
just wish I had been strong enough to help her.”
Jeremy was seconds away from smashing his
fist through the window. “She abandoned us!” he yelled. “How is that right?”
Tommy flinched instantaneously at his
outburst, but then locked his shoulders and said softly, “She taught us more in
leaving than she ever would’ve if she stayed. Look at you, Jeremy.” He dared to
flash a momentary glance at Jeremy before looking back at the road. “Look at
how you yelled at that girl then wondered why she didn’t fall head over heels
in love with you. If you don’t open your eyes soon, you’ll end up just like
dad, unloving and unloved. Is that what you want?”
The threat settled like a pile of rocks in
his belly. But he would never admit that Tommy made a good point.
“What do you know?” he mumbled.
Tommy let out a confident laugh. “What do
I know?” he repeated with a smile. He chucked his phone in Jeremy’s lap. “Check
out the first picture on my phone. But if you tell dad, you’re dead,” he
warned.
Jeremy obeyed out of curiosity and found a
selfie of his brother with an arm around a beautiful dark-haired, dark-eyed
girl with a warm and genuine smile. He was planting a kiss on her cheek.
“Who is this?” Jeremy asked, completely
shocked that his dorky brother could have attracted such a beautiful girl.
Tommy let a smile escape. “That is Julia.
And she’s wonderful. And if you get your act together, maybe I’ll let you meet
her someday.”
Jeremy held up the phone, still not
believing the evidence. “You?” he asked. “You’re dating this chick?”
“First of all, she’s not a chick,” Tommy
said sternly. “She’s Julia. And second, dad can never know about her. Got it?”
“You’re ashamed of him?”
Tommy laughed bitterly. “Of course I am.
There’s no telling what he would say to her – or about her. And I don’t want
her to ever think – even for a moment – that I’d let anyone hurt her. See what
I’m saying here, Jer? If you really want that girl at school to pay attention
to you or want to be around you, you have to be the opposite of dad. You have
to respect their boundaries and be calm and kind. You have to be like that kid
Peter.”
Jeremy realized that he didn’t have a good
comeback. He didn’t have to admit that, however. So he slumped in his seat and
stared out the window.
“Dork,” he said just loud enough for Tommy
to hear.
Check out the other short stories from Book 1.5:
Or buy the book here!
© 2017 Janie St. Clair. All Rights Reserved
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