Before the Always, Part IV

The Warriors made a small comeback and won the game 10 to 3.  Jimmy trotted towards the locker room to get cleaned up.

“I made it,” Dale Brown said.  He was standing at the edge of the wall of bleachers.  Anita was standing next to him with a nervous smile on her face.  She hoped this encounter wasn’t going to be like the last time her son and husband talked about football.

“Not my greatest moments,” Jimmy grumbled.

“I noticed.”

Jimmy threw his helmet on the ground.  “Geez, Dad, just once I’d like a good game.  Nice try.  Something that would actually raise my self esteem a bit.  You got any of that in you?”

“I got out of the house, didn’t I?”

Jimmy scooped his helmet off the ground.  “Yeah, congratulations on that major achievement,” he snapped.

“Change the tone, young man.”

“I don’t have time for this.  I’ve got something I have to do.”

“What is that?  Practice more?”

“Dale-“ Anita chimed in.  “Stop.”

“Just look the other way, Dad.”  Jimmy met his Dad’s eyes.  “Look the other way.”

Jimmy ran into the locker room and looked around for Brett.  He wasn’t anywhere in plain sight.

“He left.  Grabbed his clothes and ran,” Stokes said when he noticed Jimmy looking around.  “Didn’t even shower.”

“Good.  I’ll track him by his smell then.”  Jimmy showered and changed into a pair of jeans and T-shirt.  He told Stokes to come with him and they walked out to his truck.

“Where would he go?” Jimmy asked.

Stokes threw his hands in the air.  “Ya got me, Brown.  Maybe at the pizza place.  Maybe at Jenni’s.  She’s having a party tonight.  Her parents are out of town.”

“Nah, that’s too obvious.  He’s probably lurking around here somewhere, just waiting.”

“Or he’s trying to score with some other cheerleader,” Stokes thought aloud.

Jimmy’s face twitched at the thought of that.  He pushed on the gas pedal and headed down the street to Jenni’s.  He got out and waited for Stokes to follow.

“I’m not going in there.  Jenni’s on the prowl and I don’t want any part of that.”

“Still?  Man, hasn’t she figured it out, yet?”

“Apparently not, Brown.”

Jimmy shut the door.  “Fine, you wait here.  I’m gonna go find him and throw him in the bed of the truck.”

“Don’t kill ‘em, Brown.  We still have two more games this season.”

“Not makin any promises, Stokes.”

Lydia sat on her bed in her room.  She hadn’t gone anywhere or done anything for a week.  The only place she felt comfortable was in her room with the door locked.  She had moved on from eating and getting angry to not eating at all and getting sick everytime she flashed back to what happened last Friday.  Her parents worried she’d never leave the house.

“Lydia?” her dad called from the otherside of the door.  “Can I come in?”

“Sure, Daddy.”  Lydia scooted herself up on her bed so she was leaning against the headboard and waited for her dad to open the door.

“You didn’t come down for dinner, sweetheart.”  Lt. Baker sat in the desk chair across from the bed.

“I wasn’t hungry.”

“Lydia, you need to eat.  Your mom and I are worried about you.”

Lydia crossed her arms.  “Would you want to eat if every time you thought about being attacked, you threw up?”

“Well, I probably wouldn’t have been a Marine if I did that.”

“Daddy, I’m serious!  I’m so angry about it, it makes me sick!.”

“Why?”

“Because.”  Lydia swallowed so her dad wouldn’t  hear the crack in her voice.  “Because I’m mad at myself for not doing anything sooner.”  She looked away and out the window.  “I couldn’t remember anything.  I felt stupid.”

“You were scared, Lydia.  You couldn’t think straight.”

“But, I just laid there and cried, Daddy.  I didn’t even think to do what you told me until he hit me.”

Anger flashed in Lt. Baker’s eyes.  “He hit you?  Why didn’t you tell me that?”

“I don’t know.  I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

Lt. Baker blew out a deep breath.  “What kind of boy would do that?”

Lydia shrugged and looked out her window.  Tears sat in her eyes.  “Not a very nice one.”

“Lydia, look at me.”

“No, Daddy.  You taught me to stand up for myself and I just layed there and cried. I let you down.”

Lt. Baker got up from the chair and walked over to the bedside.“Lydia Marie, you look at your Daddy  right now, young lady.”

Lydia slowly turned her body so she was sitting in front of her dad.  Her eyes met his.  “You did not let me down, sweetheart.You are a very smart girl and sometimes it takes a few minutes to react to a situation.  I don’t think any less of you because you didn’t act earlier.  You’re a tough girl, right?”

Lydia nodded.

“Tough girls don’t sit around for a week and sulk.  Tough girls get back to their day to day lives and you stand up to that boy.  No fear.”

“He’s gonna be at school, Daddy, lurking the halls.  I know who he is if I see him.”

“I think I can take care of that.”

“How?”

“If I found out who he is, I might just have to burn off his pecker with the welding rod I have in the garage.”

“Daddy!”  Lydia blushed.

“Excuse me, sorry.” Lt. Baker cleared his throat.  “Your daddy still has a bit of a Marine mouth left in him.”

Lydia smiled.  “You kiss my mama with that mouth?”

Lt. Baker kissed his daughter’s forehead.  “Everyday.  How do you think you got here?”

“I prefer to think the stork dropped me off.”

Lt. Baker grinned and his eyes twinkled.  “It’s a good thing you’re pretty, little girl, because there’s not a lot going on up there is there?”  He tapped his temple still grinning.  He was playing around with her like he always did.  He’d never tell her she wasn’t smart.  She knew more than he did half the time.

Lydia threw her pillow at her dad.  He blocked it with his hands and it dropped to the floor.  “Not funny, Daddy!”

“See, you’ve still got some fight in you, Lydia.  Use it.”

Lydia crossed her arms.  “Fine.”

“Monday,sweetheart.  New week, new battle plan.”

Lydia mock saluted her dad as he walked out the door. “Yes, sir.”

Jimmy pulled into the Baker’s driveway and hopped out of his truck.  He looked in the back and saw Brett moaning with his head in his hands. “I think I’ve got a concussion, Brown,” he groaned.

“Good.”  Jimmy smiled at his handy work.  He found Brett at Jenni’s party hitting on Alexis, another cheerleader. Jimmy had gone up to Brett grabbed him by his neck and shoved him against the wall.  He had let his anger get the best of him. Brett’s head smacked the wall and he fell to the ground.  Jimmy pulled him up by his shirt and dragged him out to his truck.  Stokes got out of the truck and helped throw him in the bed of the truck.  Brett hadn’t made a sound until he spoke a moment ago.  

“When I can see only one of you, I’m gonna get you back.”

“Not waiting on that.”  Jimmy grabbed a tuft of hair and pulled Brett’s head up.  “Wait right here.  Don’t even think about getting out of the truck.  I’ll find you.”

“I feel like I’m gonna hurl.”

Jimmy sauntered toward the door.  “Not in my truck, you won’t,” he called back.  He knocked on the door and Lt. Baker answered.

“Lydia doesn’t feel like seeing anyone right now, Jimmy.”

“I’m not here to see her, sir.  I . . . uh. . . .” Mrs. Baker walked in the room and Jimmy struggled to come up with a  reason for Lt. Baker to follow him outside. “I think I may have someone you’d like to meet.”

Lt. Baker arched an eyebrow.  “Who would that be?”

Jimmy remembered what Lt. Baker had asked for a week earlier.  “Brett Warski, second string wide reciever.  His parents are Judith and Bill Warski.”

Lt. Baker turned to Michelle.  “Be right back, honey.”

He walked outside in his short sleeves and jeans.  It was bone chilling cold outside, but the heat of his anger kept him warm.  He walked towards the truck and saw a figure scooting towards the back window.

Brett looked over and saw the Semper Fi tattoo pulsing on Lt. Baker’s bicep.“Jesus, Brown, you didn’t tell me he could benchpress me.”

“Surprise.  Brett, meet Lieutenant Baker, United States Marine.  Retired.”

“Get out of the truck, son,” Lt. Baker ordered.

“No thanks.  I’ll take my punishment right here, sir.”

“Oh, that’s right, you’re second string.  Let me speak a little more slowly so you can understand.  Get-out-of-the-truck-now.  I’ve been giving orders for 20 years and I’m not about to have some low ranking scum be insubordinate towards me.”  He got in Brett’s face.  “Especially a teenage boy who can’t keep it in his pants when asked.”

Brett jumped over the tailgate and leaned up against the truck.  He wouldn’t make eye contact. “Look at me, son.  I want to see your eyes when you tell me what the heck you think you were doing when you attacked my daughter.”

Brett rubbed his forehead and smiled.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, sir.  She was very willing.” 

Lt. Baker clenched his teeth.  The boy obviously didn’t know who he was messing with.  Lydia was his little girl, his only child. You didn’t talk like that about her to her daddy.  The boys at the base tried it once and he had gotten a strict warning from the higher ranks about how he handled the situation.  His only reply to the higher ups were “You don’t mess with the Lieutenant’s daughter.” 

Lt. Baker glanced down at his side.  His clenched fist stayed against his leg.  It was taking every ounce of self-control not to wail on this boy standing in front of him.  The boy thought he was pretty funny.  Brett had messed with the Lieutenant’s daughter.  He’d messed with the wrong girl.  Maybe he could get a rise out of this kid with a few questions.  After all, he was good with questioning.  It was part of his training.

“Do you have  sister?” Lt. Baker asked.

Brett shook his head.

“A mom?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think she’d appreciate hearing that her son took advantage of a girl?”

“My mom wouldn’t give a rat’s right foot what I did as long as I stayed out of her hair.”

Lt. Baker looked over at Jimmy.  He still felt the urge to hit the kid.  He put a hand behind his head to keep his urges under control. “I can’t hit him, Jimmy.”

“I know that, sir.  I took care of that earlier tonight.”

Lt. Baker scratched his chin and looked at Brett.  “You’re going to go inside and call your parents.  Tell them to come over and we are going to have a talk.”

“You, you don’t n-n- need to talk to my parents.”  Brett stumbled to get the words out of his mouth.

“Go inside now!” Lt. Baker pointed toward the front door.  Brett dragged his feet as he slowly made his way to the door.   Lt. Baker looked over at Jimmy.  “Thanks, Jimmy.  You can go home now.”

“Is she going to be all right?”

“She’ll be fine, Jimmy.  She’ll be just fine once this is all over with.  Good night.”

Lt. Baker walked back inside while Jimmy drove away.  Michelle stood at the front door staring at her husband and Brett.

“What’s going on?  Who is this?”

“This is the guy who decided he wanted to force himself on our daughter.”

Michelle slapped Brett’s face before she even knew her hand had made that decision.  Brett rubbed his cheek. “Didn’t your Daddy ever teach you how to treat a girl?” she snapped.

“Shelly, I’ll handle it. Just keep Lydia upstairs.”  Michelle nodded and trotted up the steps.  Lt. Baker handed Brett the portable phone and waited for him to dial and ask his parents to meet him at the house.  When he was done relaying the address to his dad, he handed the phone back.

“Go back outside.”

“It’s cold, sir.”

“I don’t want you in my house.  My daughter is upstairs and quite frankly, I don’t trust you if I leave the room.”  Lt. Baker opened the door and shoved the kid outside.

A black car pulled into the drive and a man and a woman got out.  They were dressed in business clothes.  The man was talking on his cell phone and the woman clicked away on her PDA checking emails.  When they arrrived at the front door, they didn’t even stop what they were doing.

“I’d like to talk with you about your son,” Lt. Baker remarked.  “I’d appreciate it if you would listen.”

“We’re listening,” Judith Warski mumbled as her fingers furiously flew over the buttons on her PDA.

“Turn it off, Mom,” Brett asked.

Mrs. Warski looked up.  “I’m sorry.  When did you start telling me what to do?  I must’ve missed that memo.”

“I don’t see how you could?  You check your emails every two seconds.”

“For your information, young man, I’m working on a very important case.  I need to check my email from time to time.”

Brett looked from his mom to his dad.  “Get off the phone, Dad.”

Bill Warski held up his finger gesturing his son to hold on.

“Oh my gosh, this guy is about to kill me and all you two care about is your stupid cases!”

The Warskis looked up at the same time and stopped what they were doing.  “What?”

“Come inside, please,” Lt. Baker requested.  “We can talk about it inside if you’ll leave your work at the door.”

The Warskis turned off their phones and walked inside.  Lydia walked from the kitchen holding a glass of water in her hand.  When she saw Brett walk in, her face went pale and the water glass slipped from her hand and shattered on the floor.

“Daddy,”  her voice whispered.  “That’s, that’s-“

“I know, sweetheart.  Go upstairs.”

Lydia looked down at the mess she had made on the floor.  “I need to clean this up.”

“Don’t worry about it.  Just go upstairs, Lydia.”

Lydia nodded and stepped over the broken glass.  When she passed by Brett, he whispered something that was unintelligble to anyone out of earshot.  Lydia stiffened and then ran up the stairs.

Lt. Baker walked up closer to Brett.  “Don’t you dare say a word to her.  Don’t you even think about her and if I see those eyes follow her backside up those stairs any longer I’m going to poke them out with a pitchfork.  Is that clear?”

“Brett, what did you do?” Mrs. Warski asked.

Brett shrugged.  “I was just having a little fun.  I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Answer the question, Brett,” Mr. Warski ordered.  He crossed his arm waiting for his son’s answer.

“I may have uh, done something not very gentlemanly.”

“Don’t play the run around games with me, Brett.  I’m a lawyer.  Tell me what you did.”

“Okay, okay, I tried to have sex with her.”

Lt. Baker’s fists balled up at his sides.  “Tell them the rest.  I’m sure your parents the lawyers would love to hear what their law abiding son did.”

“Um, she didn’t want to?”

“And? Don’t leave out the part that makes me want to tear you apart limb by limb, young man.”

“I don’t remember.  I think I hit her.”

“You what?” Mr. Warski asked in disbelief.  “You think or you did.”

Brett scratched his head.  “Did. I did hit her.  She was screaming at me!”

“For  good reason, Brett Allen Warski.  You know better,” Mrs. Warski said.  She fell back onto the easy chair sitting behind her.  She rubbed her temples and closed her eyes.  “Brett, how far did you get?”

“I’d rather not say in front of you, Mother.”

“Fine.  I’ll rephrase.  At anytime were her or your clothes off?”

“No. Lord knows I tried.”

“Keep your mouth shut, Brett,” Mr. Warski warned.  “If her father hits you, I’m willing to look the other way.  Don’t get smart with us.”

Brett looked from his dad to his mom.  “Can we go now?  I confessed.”

“You didn’t apologize,” Mrs. Warski answered.

Lt. Baker looked at Brett’s mom.  “She doesn’t want an apology.  She hasn’t been to school in a week.  She’s sick to her stomach every time she thinks about what happened.  The only logical thing that seems reasonable to me is that this young man transfers to another school.”

“Not possible.  There’s scouts.  He’s got scholarship offers to think about.”

“He transfers to another school or I press charges.” Lt. Baker’s eyes bore into Mr. Warski.

Mr. Warski looked down at the floor.  “We’ll see what we can do,” he mumbled.

Lydia couldn’t stand the fact that he was actually sitting in her living room.  She had already thrown up twice just thinking about what would happen if everyone left the room and he snuck upstairs.  Before she came upstairs, he had told her that if he got in trouble with his parents for doing what he did, he’d be looking for her again.  And this time, he’d succeed.  Just the thought of that made her angry.  She was getting pretty tired of playing the victim and she knew she needed to do something to let him know that she wasn’t afraid of him.  She unlocked her bedroom door and made sure her mom didn’t see her before she barrelled down the stairs.  His parents and him were walking out the door.

“Wait!” Lydia yelled.  She stood halfway down the stairs.  Brett turned around and looked at her.  His parents kept walking.  She saw the evil grin from the other night and shuddered.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Lydia warned.

“What do you want?” Brett asked.  He stepped back inside and walked closer to Lydia.

“I want to know your name,” Lydia remarked.

“Brett.”  He stepped closer.  “Anything else you want?”  He ran his finger along the side of her face.  “I’d be happy to give you what you want.”

Lydia grabbed his finger and threw it away from her face.“Why?  Why did you think it was okay to do that?”

“I heard about you.”

“From where?”

“Around.  Not revealing my sources.”

She looked over at her dad.  His face was in an angry twitch.  She looked back at Brett.  “I’m not like that, okay?  I’ve never-I wouldn’t-.  Guys I go out with always want one thing from me and they get mad when they don’t get it.”

“You’re telling me.”

“For once, I’d just like a guy to be my friend and not want anything else from me.”

“Not the way you look.  That’s never gonna happen.”  Brett’s eyes gave her the once over.  She was wearing a tight fitting sweater and a pair of jeans.  Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail with a ribbon with the school colors on it.  Lydia wrapped her arms around her waist.  “Stop looking at me like that, Brett.”

“Stop dressing like that, Lydia.  Every guy on the team wants to know what’s under that sweater.”  He smiled.  “I almost was able to tell them.”

Lt. Baker took a few steps toward Brett until Lydia told him to stop.

“I’m not something you all just get to look at and lust over.  I have a brain and I have feelings.  If anyone on the football team was a real man, he’d step up and tell you all to leave me alone.  I’d appreciate it if you all would stop calling me names behind my back and leave me alone.  I didn’t do anything to deserve it.  And I didn’t do anything to deserve what you did to me.”  She walked a few steps closer to Brett.  “You hurt me.”

“Big deal. You don’t like any worse for wear, Lydia.”

Lydia’s hand flew across his face.  “I hate you!  You’re a stupid boy who doesn’t have any manners at all!”

“Fine with me.  I have to go to another school because of you.”

Lydia balled her fists at her sides.  “It’s not because of me, you idiot.  It’s because of you!  You thought it was okay to push me down on the ground and try to rip off my clothes.  You thought it was okay to slip your hand between my legs-“

“Lydia, that’s enough,” Lt. Baker tried to get his daughter to calm down.  Moreover, he didn’t want to hear the exact details of what happened to Lydia.  If he did, he might do unspeakable things to the teenage boy in his house.  He knew how to kill a man with his bare hands after all.    

“No, Daddy, it isn’t.  I want him to know that I’m not afraid of him. I don’t want him to go to another school.  I want him to have to go to the same school and I want everyone to hear what a distgusting excuse of a human being he is.”

“Jesus, Lydia, would  you like me to wear a big red A on my uniform, too?”

“Watch your mouth, young man,” Mr. Warski warned.

“No, I want you off the team like Jimmy wanted you in the first place.”

“Oh, I forgot your precious friend Jimmy.” Brett rolled his eyes.  “He wants what everyone else wants from you, Lydia.  Don’t think he’s any different.”

“You’re a jerk, Brett.  I’m glad your parents decided to stop having kids after you.  They probably took one look at you and decided you were going to be a screw up and didn’t need any more problem children.”

“Lydia Marie, apologize to the Warskis right now,” Lt. Baker’s voice boomed at his daughter.

“Oooh, somebody just got in trouble.”

“What are you? Five?”  Lydia sneered.  She looked over at Brett’s parents.  “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to bring you guys into this.”

“No harm done,” Mr. Warski said.  He looked at his wife.  “We need to get going.  I’ve got appointments in the morning.”

Brett walked back over to his parents.  “We’re not finished, Lydia.”

Lydia ran down the stairs and  yelled, “Yes, we are.” She slammed the door behind them and turned around to look at her dad.  His eyes were twinkling and the corners of his mouth fought back a smile.

 “You did good, sweetheart.”

She walked over and collapsed in her dad’s chest.  He wrapped his arms around her and held her.  He could feel her shaking.  “It’s all right, baby girl.  He’s gone now.”

“Why can’t I ever meet a guy like you, Daddy?”

Lt. Baker tipped up Lydia’s chin so he could see her face.  “You don’t know it, yet, but you all ready have.”

Part 3

“Dad, I need to talk to you!”  Jimmy yelled as he roamed the house looking for his dad.  He wasn’t in his usual post in the overstuffed recliner in the living room.  He took the stairs two at a time and pounded on his parent’s bedroom door.

“Dad! Now!”

The door flew open and Dale Brown stood leaned up against it in a pair of boxers.  His face was cross with a slight hint of red on his cheeks.  “What, son?”

“Is Mom in here?  I don’t think she would want to hear this.”

Dale nodded towards the closed bathroom door. 

“Come downstairs then.”

“Sheesh, Jimmy, didn’t I ever teach you how to be patient.”

“Just put some pants on and come downstairs.”

“Watch your attitude young man.”

“Why are you in your boxers anyway?  It’s not even eleven o’clock, yet.  You don’t go to bed this early.”

Dale rubbed the back of his reddening neck.  “Uh, your mother and I were kind of in the middle of something before you barged in.”

“Wow.  That was way too much information for me.”  He pivoted on his foot and headed down the stairs.  “Hurry up, I need to talk to you.”

Dale grabbed his jeans off the bed and pulled them on.  He met Jimmy in the kitchen.

“What’s so important that I had to come down here out of earshot from your mother?”

“It’s about a girl.”

Dale massaged the bridge of his nose.  “What did you do, Jimmy?  Do you need money?”

Jimmy gritted his teeth.  “No, Dad.  I don’t need money.  Yet, anyway.  Might want to save up for bail.”

“Good Lord, Jimmy.  What did you get yourself into?”

“A few of the guys have been hazing the new cheerleader and it went too far tonight.”

“And why do you care about the new cheerleader?  I thought football was your one true love.”

“She didn’t deserve it, Dad.  And I don’t know who it was, but I have this feeling like the next time I see anyone from the football team I’m going to go off on them.  Somebody’s going to get hurt.”

“Calm down, Jimmy.”

Jimmy smacked the back of the chair he was using to lean on.  “I can’t, Dad!  Some guy Lydia doesn’t even know thought he could get his rocks off freaking her out.  I want to kill him!”

“Who’s Lydia?”

“The girl, Dad.  The one that’s been helping me with my geometry.  Remember?”

“Can’t say I do.”

“Figures.  You don’t pay attention to anything that I do,” Jimmy mumbled.

“Do you want my help or not?’ Dale spat out.

“Nevermind.”  Jimmy walked toward the stairs.  His dad grabbed his arm and stopped him. “What’d the guy do?”

“She didn’t say in so many words, but it was bad, Dad.  Really bad.”

Dale narrowed his eyes and looked at his son.  “When a lady says no, she means no.  You got that, Jimmy?”

Jimmy nodded.

“I mean it.  No means no.”  He squeezed his son’s arm.

“Loud and clear, sir.”  He slipped his arm out of his dad’s grip and rubbed the red spot it left.  “Sheesh, Dad, what happened over there to make you like this?”

“Too much,” Dale grumbled.  Jimmy looked at his dad’s eyes. They had the far off look in them that happened everytime someone mentioned Vietnam to him. 

“Tell me.”

Dale blinked his eyes to get the haunting images to leave his eyes.  He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.  “About the girl, Jimmy.  You do what you gotta do.”

“What if it was Mom?”

Dale rested his hand on his son’s shoulder. “If someone gets hurt, I’ll look the other way.  That answer you question?”

Jimmy nodded.  Dale headed back upstairs.

Michelle Baker knocked on Lydia’s bedroom door.  When she didn’t answer, she walked in and saw her daughter sitting on her bed with silent tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Sweetheart, what happened?”

Lydia leaned her head against the wall and crossed her arms over her stomach. “Why didn’t you stay?  You never listen to me!  If you would’ve stayed, you would know!  You were too busy being mad at Daddy to even care about me!”

Michelle shook her head.  “No, Lydia.  That’s not it.  I just didn’t want to hear what you were going to say.  I can’t stand it when you’re hurting. I’ve seen how you are.  I knew I couldn’t help you, because you always want your daddy to rescue you.  He’s not a superhero, sweetheart.  Somethings you have to figure out by yourself.”

“A boy hurt me, Mama.  He did it on purpose.”

“What did he do, Lydia?” 

“Go ask Daddy.  I don’t want to say it again!”

Michelle backed out of the room and shut Lydia’s door.  She turned around,leaned against it and took a deep breath.  Lt. Baker stood next to the door.

“Did she tell you what I think she told you?” Michelle asked.

“Yes, Shelly, she did.”

Michelle closed her eyes.  “Why?  Why do the boys always do that stuff to her?  Everywhere we go.  Every GD base we’ve ever been on, they look at her and think she’s an easy mark.  I thought it would be different if we got out.”

“I thought so, too.  She doesn’t deserve to be treated this way.”

“She’s too pretty,” Michelle whispered.

Lt. Baker grabbed Michelle’s hand and pulled her close to him.  “She’s just like her mama.”  He kissed the top of his wife’s head.  “Beautiful on the outside, smart on the inside.”

The corner of Michelle’s mouth turned up. “If you’re trying to apologize-”

“I don’t want to fight anymore, Shelly. That’s all we’ve done since I retired from the service.  I want my wife to talk to me, to not be angry with me.  I’m sorry for the things that happened, but they were out of my control.” 

“Stop trying to fix things, Danny.  You can’t fix what I broke,” Michelle muttered.  She looked down at the ground.

Lt. Baker tipped her chin so he was looking into his wife’s eyes.“You used to let me do it all the time.  The dryer, the dishwasher, the car.  How many times have you broken that?”

Michelle pushed away from her husband.“Stop it!  Stop rubbing it in!” She turned to walk away, but Lt. Baker grabbed her arm and spun her around so she had nowhere to look but at him.  “I broke your heart, Danny Baker.  You can’t fix that.”

“I can try, Shelly Baker.”  Very slowly, he dragged the knuckles of his hand across the tearstained cheek of his wife and then  leaned in and kissed her.

The door to Lydia’s room opened and her dad took a step back from her mom. To Lydia, they looked like two teenagers that had just got caught by their parents.  “I don’t want to go to school tomorrow.”

“Okay, sweetheart,” Lt. Baker answered.  He grinned.  “It’s Saturday. Don’t think you’d get much done anway.”

“I don’t want to go back to that place ever!” Lydia screamed and slammed the door.

“What are we going to do, Danny?” Michelle sighed.

“I’ll take care of it.  Her friend and I have it handled.”

Lydia hadn’t been to school all week.  Jimmy couldn’t focus on anything.  His last geometry test had a bright red D- marked on it and his football season was about to go out the window if he didn’t fix it.  Right now, he was focused on what was possibly his last starting game of the season if things didn’t change soon.  At halftime, the Warriors were down 3 to 0.  After a five minute butt chewing from Coach Greyson, the team was sitting around talking.  Jimmy looked around for Stokes, but someone’s voice caught his attention.

“Yeah, I took her out to the field and had a good time with her.”

“I bet you did, Warski,” another voice added.

“She made these little noises.  I thought I was going to finish before I started.”

Jimmy’s face turned bright red.  He headed towards Brett Warski, the second string receiver.

“Oh, hey, Brown.  Couldn’t stand not hearing about your girl, Lydia?”

Jimmy grabbed Brett by the shirt collar and threw him up against a bank of lockers.  “Tell them the truth, Warski.”

“The truth?”  Brett smiled.  “She said she couldn’t get enough of me, boys.  Said she’d be waiting for me tonight after the game.”

Jimmy slammed Brett up against the locker again. “Liar.  What the heck do you get out of doing that to her?  She’s a person, she has feelings.  If you needed a lay so bad, why didn’t you find a blow up doll?”

“Lydia’s cheaper.”

Jimmy threw a punch and connected with Brett’s mouth.  He spat a string of curses at him while continuing to beat him and the rest of the football team hopped over the bench to try to separate the two.  Jimmy wouldn’t stop.  Stokes grabbed his best friend by the shoulders and threw him against an opposite bank of lockers.  Jimmy tried to get away, but Stokes had him pinned against the locker.

“Leave it, Brown,” Stokes snapped.  “Leave it.”  He looked at his friend’s eyes.  They were full of rage.

“Can’t.”

“You have to.  We get 24 more minutes out there.  Then, handle it off the field.  Away from Coach Greyson. Got it?”

“Yeah, Brown.  Why don’t you take your butt buddy’s advice,” Warski snapped rubbing his jaw.

“I’m gonna kill him.  You know that, right?” Jimmy said to Stokes.

“No doubt in my mind you aren’t, Brown.  Football first, though.  Got it?”

Jimmy nodded.

“Good.  You play better when you’re angry anyway.”  Stokes turned around and grabbed Warski’s neck. “You call me that again, you’ll be eating out of a straw, second string.  You can kiss your chances of making it to first string goodbye.”  He raised his eyebrows.  “Ya hear me, Warski?”

“Whatever, Stokes.”

Stokes let go of his neck and pushed Brett’s face away from him.  Brett lost his footing and fell onto the floor.  Jimmy smirked at his friend and then looked at Brett.  “Stay down there with the roaches where you belong, Warski.”  He followed Stokes out of the locker room and didn’t even apologize when he stepped on Brett on his way back to the field.

Before the Always, Part 2

“Lydia.”  Leiutenant Baker knocked on his daughter’s bedroom door.  “There’s a boy here to see you.”

“I’ll be right there, Daddy.  Give me two minutes.”

“I’ll tell him five.”

Lydia opened her door and smiled.  “Daddy, I’m your daughter.  When I say two minutes I mean two minutes.”  She wagged her finger.  “And not a minute more.”

“That’s my girl.”

“Who’s here?”

“Says his name is Jimmy.  You’re supposed to help him with some homework he has.”

“Oh, right.  I almost forgot.”  She grabbed her book bag and ran down the stairs.  Lt. Baker followed after her.  “And what do you mean who’s here?  Is there more than one boy I should know about?”

 Jimmy was sitting at the kitchen table drawing circles with his finger on the oak.  When he saw Lt. Baker walk in before Lydia he stood up.  Lydia’s face reddened.  She knew that Jimmy had heard the question.  She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked at Jimmy. “No, sir.  No one else.”  She hoped that Jimmy got the message that she didn’t want her daddy to know anything about the football game the other night.

“Okay, sweetheart, just checking.”  He walked by her and kissed the top of her head.  As he walked by Jimmy, he put his hand on his shoulder.  Jimmy could feel the warning in the Lieutenant’s strong grip.“At ease, Jimmy.  Just because I walk in the room doesn’t mean you have to stand up.  Although, it is nice to know I still hold that power over some people.”

“Yes, sir.”  Jimmy sat back down in the chair.  Lydia went to sit the chair across from him.  She’d move after her daddy left the room. Lt. Baker walked on and headed for the kitchen counter.

“Daddy, be nice.”

“What?  I was.”  He reached on the counter for a can of Coke and popped the top.  “I’ll let you two get to whatever it is you’re doing.”

“Homework, Daddy.  Just homework.”

Lt. Baker raised his eyebrows and looked over at Jimmy.  The tips of Jimmy’s ears reddened.  “Mmhmm.”  He looked back to Lydia.  “You know the rules, Lydia.  Gone by ten.”

“Yes, sir.”

“ And not a minute more.”

Lydia stood on her tip toes and kissed her dad on the cheek.  “I know, Daddy.”  Lt. Baker walked out of the room and Lydia moved into the seat next to Jimmy.

“So, you’re a daddy’s girl, aren’t you?”

“You’d be, too, if you met my mother.”

“Um, I don’t think I’d ever be a daddy’s girl.  I have the wrong equipment.”

Lydia burst out laughing. 

“My gosh, you’re so pretty when you smile.”  He forgot to keep that comment in his head.  Lydia looked down at the table and grabbed something out of her book bag.

“Friends, Jimmy.”

“C’mon, Lyddie, let me take you on a date.”

“Geometry, Jimmy.  That’s the deal.”

“Screw geometry.  I work on cars and play football. I don’t need geometry. I need a date with you!”  He pounded his fist on the table and Lydia jumped. Lydia’s cheeks turned bright red.  Jimmy rubbed his forehead.  He was totally out of line and he knew it.  Lydia wouldn’t go for his straight forwardness.  “I’m sorry, Lyddie.  I shouldn’t have said that.”

“My daddy would have a heart attack if he heard you talk like that to me,” Lydia remarked.

“Don’t tell him I said that, then.  I want to stay on his good side.”  He put a hand on top of Lydia’s.  “Yours, too.”  He winked.

“Geometry, Jimmy.”  She shoved her book towards him while slipping her hand out from underneath his.

“Yes, the wonderful world of geometry,” Jimmy grumbled.

“Pythagoreas and his theorem are waiting.”

Jimmy rubbed his hands together.  “We should all be so lucky,” he said not hiding the sarcasm from his voice. 

“Give it a chance,” Lydia remarked.

“When you give me a chance, I will.”

“You sure are hanging out a lot with Jimmy Brown,” Jenni noted as they walked to the sidelines of the football field.  “You dating, yet?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because we’re just friends.”

“Not from what I’ve heard.”  Lydia looked over at Jenni.  She knew that Jenni didn’t hear anything, she said what other people heard.  Jimmy told her that Jenni liked spreading rumors and making others look bad.  Lydia didn’t believe him at first, but the more she was at school, the more she noticed people whispering behind her back.  She hoped the rumors from her old school hadn’t followed her to the new one.

Those rumors were horrible rumors.  She went to school on a Marine base and most of the students at the school were boys.  The boys all wanted something from Lydia.  She’d gone on several dates with some of them, but the boys always tried something with her.  She wouldn’t go for it.  First, her parents would kill her if she did anything to disgrace their family.  Her family held morals and high values.  If Lydia did anything unacceptable, she would be in big trouble.  Second, she wasn’t ready to do anything with boys.  She just wanted to have fun and hang out.  Those boys tried everything they could to get her to do something with them.  When she refused, her dates made her out to be cold hearted or even worse, told lies that she did do something with them.  Because she had been on several dates with several different guys, the rumor was she couldn’t say no and she was easy.  She hoped that rumor stayed where it started and never made it to Riley.  She wanted to just be the new girl without any baggage with her.

Of course, there were still some things that were hidden from Jenni, like what happened on the football field the other night. Lydia watched the football players line up on the field for warm ups.  She still kept her eyes peeled for anyone suspicous.  When she didn’t see anyone, she excused herself and ran to the nearest bathroom.  This kept happening every home football game.  Before, she would make it to the game, she’d think about what happened a few weeks before which only made her angry.  When she was angry, she ate.  Her size eight figure couldn’t take all the food she would eat.  When she got to the football field and looked at the football players, she would go nauseous from all the food she ate and the nerves tightened her stomach and she would  have to find the nearest bathroom so she could throw up.  When she got done, she walked back to the sidelines.

“Are you sick, Lydia?”  Jenni asked.

Lydia shook her head.

“Oh, I get it.  That’s why you had to move.”  Jenni filled her cheeks with air and made a rounded motion with her hands over her belly.

“No!  Never!”

“Don’t worry.  Your secret’s safe with me.”  Jenni winked.

“I’m not-“

“Shh!  If Coach Jones finds out, she’ll kick you off the squad.”

“But, there’s no reason to.  I’m not having-“

“Ladies, we’re supposed to be cheering, not chatting.”

Jenni smiled.  “Sorry, Coach.  We’ll get back to it.”

“Good.”  The coach turned back to talk to one of the parents sitting in the bleachers.

“Are you going to keep it?”

“Jenni, stop.  I’m not pregnant.”

“Well, you’ve been throwing up every week.  What else could it be?”

“I don’t know.   Just leave me alone, okay.  I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Wow, way to show your team spirit,” Jenni mumbled.

“Yep, that’s me.  Go, fight win.  Rah, rah, rah,” Lydia remarked sarcastically.  She shook one of her pom poms in the air weakly.  The football coach gave orders for the team to get on the sidelines.  Lydia turned around and saw Jimmy come up next to her.

“Hey, QB1.  Gonna win tonight?”  She smiled waiting for his answer.

“That’s the plan.”  He smiled back.

“Good luck.”  She reached up and gave Jimmy a friendly hug from the side.

“Thanks.”

Coach Grayson blew his whistle to get the team huddled up before the game.

“Gotta go, but one more thing.”  Jimmy’s eyes twinkled.

“What?”

“Got my geometry test back yesterday.”

“Oh, yeah?”

He walked backward towards the team.  “Miracles happen, Lyddie.”  He raised his hands to the side.  “That’s all I’m saying.”

Lydia shook her head.  “Hopeless, Jimmy Brown.  Hopeless.”

“We’ll talk after the game,” he yelled at her as he turned around and got into the middle of the huddle.

The game went into OT that night.  They were playing cross town rivals and it was always a close game.  The game didn’t end until nine o’clock.  Lydia was walking in the dark by herself.  She knew she shouldn’t do that after what happened the last time, but she didn’t really feel like talking to anyone.  Jenni was still hung up on Nick Stokes and she told Lydia she was going to make her move on him tonight.  Lydia said she’d find a ride home and left Jenni to do whatever it was she was planning.  She was on her way to the fieldhouse to get her cell phone to call her dad, when she felt a hand slip around her waist and pull her into the darkness.

“Don’t scream.”  A voice she recognized from the other night warned her. “You thought you could get your friend, Jimmy to get me kicked off the team didn’t you?  Well, I’ve got news for you little girl.  Your plans didn’t work.”

The football player turned her around.  She was face to face with him now.  He had her backed up against the wall and his hands tightly gripped her arms so she couldn’t get out of them. “Let me go!  You’re hurting me!” she yelled.

“Now, we’re going to finish what we started the other night.”

“No!  You let me go.”  Lydia tried to wriggle her arms out of the football player’s grip, but didn’t have any luck.  “Please,” she pleaded.  The football player squeezed tighter around her arms so she couldn’t move.  “Let me go.”  Her voice faded.  She felt like giving up.  He was too strong for her.  She couldn’t give up, though.  She forced herself to try to think of something that would get the jerk of a football player to leave her alone.  What was it those Marines had told her?  Her thoughts jumbled in her head and she was having a hard time remembering anything.  She closed her eyes, so she wouldn’t have to look at the face in front of her.  Maybe that would help her to remember.

He leaned in closer and whispered in her ear.  “I like it when you play hard to get, Lydia.  Tell me no again.”  He shoved her to the ground and hovered on top of her.  “C’mon, girl, open those legs up for business.”  He slid his hand down between her legs and tried to pull them apart.  She kept her legs squeezed tightly together.  She reached down to push his hands away, but he grabbed her wrists again.  “This is my show now, Lydia.  You do what I say and it’ll be over before you know it.  It’ll only hurt, if you make it hurt.” 

“Stop it!” Lydia pleaded. “Please, stop.”  Tears slipped from the corner of her eyes and ran down the side of her face. Boys had never forced themselves on her like this.  She didn’t know what to do.  They were jerks all the time, but never like this.  She had to think of a way to get away from the guy. Twist your arms down to get out his grip. She finally remembered something, but the football player held tight.  She couldn’t get her wrists out of his hands.  She was frustrated.  She just wanted to go home.  Tears welled up in her eyes.

The football player looked at her and rubbed away the tears with his thumb.  “Ah, don’t cry,” he said in a sweet tone and then just as quickly turned into an evil tone,  “it ruins your pretty face.”

“Don’t do this.”  She shook her head.  “I don’t want to do this.”

The football player ran his hands along the side of her body.  She shuddered.  “I wouldn’t have to if you would’ve kept your mouth shut.”  His hand slid underneath her uniform and she whimpered.  Why couldn’t she remember all the things her daddy had taught her?

“Don’t worry.  It’ll be over in a few minutes.”

“Don’t touch me!” she screamed. “No one gets to touch me like that, you jerk!  Get your hands off me!”  She felt the back of her attackers hand across her face.  Her cheek stung.

“Shut up! Just stop talking!”  He leaned closer and she felt the hairs on her neck stand on end at the warmth of his breath close to her.  “No one can hear you now anyway.  They’re all gone.”  He tugged at her uniform to get it off.  He looked back into Lydia’s eyes and grinned an evil grin.  “Where’s your precious friend Jimmy now, Lydia?”

“I want to go home,” she whimpered.  At home, her daddy would be there.  At home her daddy would protect her from anyone or anything that even tried to hurt her.  She remembered now.  The elbow is the strongest part of your body.  Use it.  Of course!  She took her elbow and rammed it into her attacker’s face.  When he was hunched over on top of her, she brought her knee up and made contact with his groin.  He fell over to his side and she ran until she reached the girl’s locker room.  She pulled on the door until she got it to open and hurried inside after locking the door.  When she found a mirror, she looked at herself and bit her lip.  Her face was smeared with mascara, her clothes were torn, and there was a red handprint where he had hit her.  She looked around and made sure no one was in the room with her and headed for the shower.  She had to get the feel of his hands off  her.  She turned the shower on as hot as it would go and sudsed up until her skin felt raw.  She couldn’t tell where the tears ended and the shower began at some points.  When she was finished, she grabbed her cell phone out of her duffle bag and dialed the only person she trusted besides her daddy.

“Jimmy?”  her voice was quiet and she was still crying.  She could hear music playing and talking in the background.

“Lyddie?”  She knew it was hard for him to hear.  He probably had to cover one ear, so he could hear her.

“I need-“  she swallowed back the sobs.  “I need you to take me home.”

“Where are you?”

“At the fieldhouse.  Please hurry.”

“What’s wrong, Lyddie?”

“Not now.  Just please come get me. Please.”

“All right.  I’ll be there in five minutes.”  Jimmy hung up the phone, found Stokes to tell him to find a ride home, and sped back to the fieldhouse.  He found Lydia hugging her knees to her chest sitting beside the water fountain.  He knelt down in front of her.

“Are you all right?”

Lydia shook her head.  “You’re too late, Jimmy.  You’re too late.”

He cupped his hand around her arm.  A friendly gesture, he thought.  She was upset and he just wanted to see her smile. “What happened?”

“Don’t touch me!  I just spent an hour scrubbing his hands off me.  Don’t touch me!”

Jimmy pulled his hand away from her arm.  “Who, Lyddie?”

Lydia turned her head to the side so she wasn’t looking at Jimmy.  She couldn’t let him see how weak she was.  She was angry with herself for letting it happen and she didn’t want Jimmy to look at her.  “He did it again.”

Jimmy scrunched his face up. “Who?  Tell me what happened.”

Lydia bit her lip.  “Just take me home, please.  I want to go home.”

“Okay.”  Jimmy stood up and offered his hand to her to help her up.  She wouldn’t take it.  She stood up on her own and walked over to his truck.  She didn’t wait for him to open the door for her, but got in and slammed the door.  Jimmy grabbed the letter jacket sitting next to him and handed it to her. “Heat’s not fixed, yet.”

“Thanks.”  She wrapped herself up in the coat and stared out the window while Jimmy drove.  Every once in awhile, he heard a muffled sob Lydia was trying to swallow.  He wanted to reach over and hold her hand, but he knew that wouldn’t help her at all.  Those sobs ripped through his body and tore his heart into pieces.  He never wanted to hear her cry like that.  He banged his fist on the steering wheel before pulling in the driveway to her house.  Whoever or whatever did this to Lydia wasn’t going to get away with it easily.  Jimmy walked over to open Lydia’s door to let her out. She didn’t move.

“Lyddie, we’re here.”

“I can’t go in there.  My mama won’t listen to me and she’ll tell my daddy that-“

Jimmy leaned on the doorframe of the truck.  “What are you talking about, Lyddie?”

Lydia peeked around Jimmy and saw her mom coming towards them.  “Nevermind.”  Jimmy turned around and took a deep breath.  Staring back at him was what Lydia would look like in twenty years.  Her mom was beautiful.  Black  hair hung down to to just passed her shoulders.  Her high cheekbones accented her deepset brown eyes.  He could see why Lydia looked so striking.

“Mrs. Baker?”

“Yes.”

“She won’t get out of the truck.”  He stepped aside and let Mrs. Baker try to talk her daughter out of the vehicle.  Lydia wouldn’t say anything to her.

“Where’s Daddy?” she asked.

“He’s in the garage building something or changing the oil.  I don’t know exactly what.”

“You’re fighting again, aren’t you?”  Lydia crossed her arms and stared out the front window.

“No, sweetheart, we’re not fighting.”

Lydia narrowed her eyes and looked at her mama.  “Not talking is the same thing, Mama!  Why won’t you talk to him?”

Jimmy looked over at the garage and saw a disgruntled Lt. Baker coming towards the truck while wiping his hands with a shop rag.  He furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Jimmy, then Lydia.

“What’s going on?” he growled.

Lydia jumped out of the truck and ran to her dad.  She wrapped her arms around him. “Daddy, he hurt me.”

Lt. Baker looked at Jimmy.  Lydia saw the look of dismay on her dad’s face.  “Not, Jimmy, Daddy.  Somebody else.  He was big and strong, and he had an ugly face.  I don’t even know his name.”

Jimmy smirked for a moment.  She had just described the entire defensive line of the Riley Warriors football team.  His smirk turned into a frown quickly when he looked up and saw Lydia holding onto her dad for dear life. “What did he do?” Jimmy asked.

Lydia buried her face in her dad’s chest.  “I don’t want to go back.  Don’t make me go back there.”

Lt. Baker put a hand on either side of his daughter’s face and looked her in the eyes.  “Sweetheart, tell Daddy what happened.”

“He grabbed me and pushed me down on the ground and then he-“

“I don’t wan t to hear this,” Mrs. Baker interrupted. 

“Then, don’t listen, Shelly,” Lt. Baker snapped.  “You’re getting really good at not listening.  It should be a piece of cake for you to just walk away and not listen to anything.”  Mrs. Baker threw her hands in the air and turned to walk away.

“What else, baby girl?” Lt. Baker asked.

“He put his hands on me.”  Lydia closed her eyes and bit her lip.  She couldn’t find the words to tell her daddy what happened.  She didn’t want him to know how far the boy had got before she stopped it.  That would disappoint him and she knew it.

Jimmy’s face twitched and the muscles in his jaw flexed.  “Like the other night, Lyddie?”

“What other night?” Lt. Baker asked.  No one answered his question.

“Worse, Jimmy.”

Jimmy pounded his fist on the bed of his truck and cursed.  “I told them to leave you alone, Lyddie.  I swear I did.  I even told Coach.  I know you told me not to, but I couldn’t let them do that to you.”

“Lydia, what happened the other night?” Lt. Baker asked.

“I don’t want to stay here, Daddy!  Don’t make me stay here!”  She pounded on his chest with both of her fists and then ran inside. 

Jimmy didn’t move.  He kept his eyes straight ahead and spoke.  “A few of the guys from the football team haven’t been very nice to her.”

Lt. Baker bore his eyes into Jimmy and poked his finger into his chest.  “I want their names, I want their positions, I want their parents’ names.”  He slammed his hand against the doorframe of the truck.  “Nobody hurts my little girl and gets away with it.  Nobody.  Do you hear me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I want you to find the  guy who did this and bring him here.”  He cracked his knuckles, but what from what Jimmy saw, Lt. Baker didn’t even know he was doing it.  “ I don’t care what time it is or how you have to do it. I’d like to have a nice little chat with him.”

Jimmy stared at the door Lydia had ran into.  “You can have what’s left of him when I’m done, sir.”  He got in the truck and sped off before Lt. Baker could respond.