“That boy did this to you?” My father asked.
“Daddy, he wasn’t trying to hit me. He was aiming for AJ,” I explained.
“Who’s AJ?” Daddy asked with a look of confusion on his face.
I sighed. “It’s complicated. Can we just go home? I’ll explain it later, but my head is hurting right now.”
He exhaled a breath and then I saw concern fill his face and I knew that the doctor in him wanted to examine me himself for any serious damage. That was the only reason he didn’t protest and make me tell him everything right there in the office. “Yes, but we will be discussing it later.”
My mom helped me to my feet and we walked to her car. Daddy took my keys and drove my car home seeing as how I was still considerably groggy. When we pulled into the driveway, she came around to help me into the house. She walked me up the stairs and sat me down on my bed. I felt a little dizzy as I swung my legs around and lay down. Of course she sat down beside me. “Tell me what happened before your father gets up here.”
I sighed and then began. “AJ and I walked into the school together and Antonio lost it. He was trying to hit AJ, but I jumped in between them at the wrong time. Trust me, he feels really bad and I don’t want you and Daddy calling his house and making things worse.” Deep down I felt like this whole thing was totally and absolutely fair. Neither one of them deserved to be hurt again because of me. That was why I tried to shield AJ.
It didn’t look like she wanted to agree to what I’d asked. “I won’t make a fuss over it, but I don’t know how easy it’ll be to convince your father,” she replied hesitantly.
My father almost walked in on our conversation. Mom straightened up immediately and pretended like we weren’t talking about him. “Ok now, Samantha. What happened and I want the whole truth,” he said sternly.
My mom tensed up a little and that did nothing to help my nerves. “Daddy, Antonio wasn’t aiming for me, he was aiming for someone else.”
“I heard that part. He was going for this AJ character, but who is that and why would he be trying to hit him.”
“Well, that’s the thing.” I took a deep breath and just blurted it out. “Antonio and I broke up because of AJ.”
He looked confused. “But didn’t you just go to the movies with the boy the other night? When did all this happen?”
“Well……yeah, but at that point AJ was already in the picture. I just hadn’t made up my mind yet.” I hated explaining myself to my father. He made me nervous and I always got tangled up in my words and tripped on them. It was a gift of his.
“I see.” He nodded to himself with his eyes fixed on the ceiling above. “I knew you were too young to be dating. You got yourself in such a mess that you made this guy wanna punch your lights out!”
“That’s not what happened! It was an accident! And he only knocked me down on the ground. It’s not like there was major damage or anything,” I said defensively.
“This time,” he hissed. “Samantha, young men’s egos are a fragile thing. It only takes one careless girl to set them off!” He shouted “So, now I’m just some careless girl? “
“Yes, Samantha. You were careless. You created a mess! Jumping from boy to boy doesn’t look good. It’s my fault for letting you run around here with that boy in the first place. You’re done with this AJ boy too. Tell him that you changed your mind again or something. It’s not like that’s not what’s gonna happen in a week or two anyway. Just do whatever you have to do to get rid of him before I get rid of him for you.”
“Now wait a minute, James,” Mom stepped in. “Don’t you think that’s a little extreme? The girl just fell in love. That’s hardly worthy of a prison sentence.”