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Chapter Seven

Jesse Owens became Kelley’s only friend. He bartered a deal with the motel owner and Kelley got a room on the ground floor that had a small kitchen attached to it for a grand a month, payable upfront. The day after the incident Kelley withdrew another ten grand knowing that his cards would be cancelled the Monday.

His dead phone told him everything he needed to know.

His father had been serious about cutting him off and out of his life. He truly was on his own now. Jesse helped him to register a new phone and he saw Norah and Hanson’s relationship update on social media, one day after his fall from grace. He wasn't really surprised but it hurt that she could move on so quickly, without actually breaking up with him.

Norah's words spoken at her party came back to him in full force. She dated him for two years and pretended because it was what their fathers wanted. He wasn't a big enough asshole according to her. Kelley didn't understand it. How did you pretend to love someone for two years?

Kelley had just enough aggression to play quarterback in football but he wasn’t a fighter by nature. He’d never needed to fight before. Jesse changed all that. He was an ex-marine who specialized in mixed martial arts. Jesse was an enigma all on his own too. He gave Kelley space but he pushed just enough to get him out of his own head.

Kelley spent every day with Jesse at his dojo, training and helping out. Jesse never asked him for anything and what he had, he gave freely. Friendship and moral support. In the mornings they’d jog together and then work in the dojo all day where Jesse trained whoever wanted or needed it, sometimes for free.

Kelley grew another inch in that month with the added training that Jesse was giving him, a new training diet and regiment made him fill out even more. With the physical mentoring also came the psychological mentoring and Jesse was a good listener.

Kelley felt like he had no idea who he was anymore. Had he been living in a bubble this entire time? How had he not realized what his father was really like, sooner? He felt like an idiot, believing a girl loved him back. Sweat dripped from his forehead but all he could focus on were the sounds of the leather gloves hitting the leather of the punching bag.

“Kelley, stop.” Jesse grabbed the punching bag and he was forced to stop mid-punch.

“Is it time to close?”

“I closed an hour ago. What’s going on?” Jesse never completely hid his feelings with him and he could see the underlying worry in his eyes.

Kelley sat down on the mat and wiped his face with a towel. “I’m just working through some things.”

“No soldier fights alone, Kelley. We’re not built to be alone all the time. You’re a good kid, I can see that, but you’re going about this all wrong.”

“I’m not good a kid, Jesse. I left my mom there, all alone.”

“Tell me the story. I’m not an idiot. You’re hurting so much inside and your anger actually just makes you weaker.”

Kelley looked up at Jesse who lowered himself to the floor and sat next to him. “I realized my father is a sick asshole.”

Jesse waited for Kelley to continue but he didn’t. How did he tell this man what his father actually did? He couldn’t get himself to say the words out loud and he hung his head low with shame. His mother had practically begged him to stay away.

“Did you know that I used to work for your father?”

Kelley’s head snapped up. “What?”

“I had just returned from my third tour and I’d failed my psych eval so I was honorably discharged from the marines. I had some issues with PTSD, flinching at every small sound. I started looking for permanent work, trying to integrate myself back into society.”

“I’ve read stories online of how bad it is over there, of men coming back and never being the same again.” Kelley looked at Jesse and his eyes were filled with past horrors.

“Someone has to do it, Kelley. Anyway, I got recruited by this security firm, working mainly as bodyguards. This hotshot guy had a whole team of us doing his bidding, driving girls around, keeping tabs on them, gathering intelligence about his enemies.”

Kelley frowned then. “You make it sound like you worked for some kind of mafia.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. I realized too late what they really did behind closed doors. There was one night when I stood outside that door listening to this girl scream and beg for them to stop. Everything inside me told me to bust through that door and get her out.”

“What did you do?” Kelley had shifted to a more comfortable position.

“I barged through the door, pulled my gun out and got that girl out of there.” Jesse looked past him almost like he was reliving that incident, a movie reel playing off in his head.

“I’m guessing you didn’t keep your job.”

Jesse smiled sadly then. “You sign a non-disclosure agreement with your contract. Trust me, I tried. The cops are in so deep with him that they didn’t even listen to what I had to say. They basically raped that poor girl in that room, she was stoned out of her mind, but she still fought back.”

“Why did you help me, Jesse?”

“Sometimes the son turns out to be a bigger monster than the father. You got out, Kelley, you ran and it saved you. Your father never introduced you to that lifestyle because he could see that you weren’t like him. I helped you because you were a kid in need.”

“What happened to the girl you saved?”

“I took her home, nursed her back to health, she was skittish that one.” Jesse smiled as he relived his past again. “She learned to trust me and over time she opened up and confided in me. Two years later we got married and I loved her with everything in me.” Jesse didn't strike him as the type of man to settle down and live happily ever after. Sometimes, one person's darkness recognized it in someone else. Kelley knew that was the kinship he felt with Jesse.

“I’m sorry … you don’t have to talk about it.” Kelley could see the raw emotion in Jesse’s eyes and he knew that this story didn’t have a happy ending.

“She never really recovered, Kelley. It took her seeing one of those men and it triggered everything I’d built up within her. I found her in the bathroom, shot her brains out with my service pistol.”

Kelley was surprised to feel the wetness of tears on his cheeks as Jesse’s voice broke. He had never recovered from that either. “I’m so sorry, Jesse.”

“The point is, Kelley, there will always be bad people in this world but this world also needs people like you, strong and willing to not be a part of that evil. You have power even if you think you don’t.”

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