Top Dog

“Did you touch her?” Glen asked me again.

Laura and Jane were tugging her out of the house. Trying to get her out of harm’s way. I felt this argument going down a very dark path, and I wasn’t sure I could find a way out of it.

“Dad? What’s going on?” Hollis asked.

“Get back up to your room,” Glen said.

“No. Now I heard this argument from upstairs, and I can tell you for a fact that Grant’s never laid a finger on Theresa. If he did, he’d be dead. Because I’d kill him,” Hollis said.

“He’s right,” I said. “Your son would kill me for it.”

“I don’t give a damn who’s right and who’s wrong. I can’t have your kind of influence hanging over my daughter the way it is. My wife stood at her door last night and listened to her and Jane giggle about all sorts of things a fifteen-year-old girl should never be contemplating when it comes to an eighteen-year-old boy.”

I stood there stunned by his words. Theresa had been talking about me in a sexual manner?

“I want you out of this house,” Glen said.

The words were like a punch to my chest.

“Dad, you can’t kick him out. He doesn’t have anywhere else to go,” Hollis said.

“You stay out of this. Grant, I want you out of this house now,” Glen said again.

“I told you I never touched her!”

“Dad, stop it,” Hollis said. “You can’t kick Grant out. This is madness.”

“I can, and I will. We both know the potential your sister has. And whatever he’s done to lead her on, stops now,” Glen said.

“Fuck you,” I growled. I was pissed that they thought I would do something to Theresa, and I was tired of trying to defend myself against it.

Glen Peterson could go straight to hell.

I watched Glen march down the hallway as I stalked out of the house. I needed to breathe. I needed to collect myself. Part of me wanted to salvage the situation, but part of me didn’t want to. I was eighteen. I could go and do as I pleased. They’d tried to shove college down my throat, and they had once blamed me for Hollis’ unwillingness to go to school.

It was more than clear that they just thought I was a bad seed, hell-bent on corrupting their kids.

I could hear Theresa’s voice emanating from the driveway as I walked along the sidewalk. I turned around and saw Glen tossing my stuff out the damn door, and for a moment, I saw my father; the anger in his eyes and the harshness of his motions.

I saw my father in Glen’s face, and I knew then, and there I would leave.

I’d leave it all behind to strike out on my own.

Theresa continued to argue and defy her parents. I’d never seen Theresa combative like that, and part of me grinned in pride. She was strong. I always knew she was. Hiding behind those baggy clothes, self-conscious about her body. Stuck behind those glasses and her books and her awkward little walk.

But I knew. I knew she’d grow into a smart, remarkable, beautiful young woman.

Too bad I wasn’t going to be around to see it.

I grabbed a trash bag from the side of the road and emptied it. I went and stuffed in all the clothes Glen had tossed out onto the lawn. I tossed it over my shoulder and headed down the road, making my way for the shed Hollis, and I sometimes hung out in.

I walked through the woods until I reached the abandoned structure. I pried the doors open, taking stock of the truck inside. It was a project Glen and I had taken on when I learned how to drive. They couldn't afford to get me a car, so I told Glen I’d get a part-time job to pay for the parts to fix up an old truck I’d found that I wanted. Five hundred up front plus the cost of all the fixing up, and four thousand dollars later I had a running pickup truck I could call my own.

I tossed my trash bag full of clothes into the back, fished the keys out from on top of the tire, and hopped into the front seat.

I didn’t have much to my name; a few thousand I’d saved up from working summers around town. I wasn’t sure where I was going, but I knew I couldn't stay there. I cranked up the truck, and it sputtered, but after a couple of tries, I got her to rev up. I slowly drove her out of the woods and onto the main road, and I took Main Street out of Bar Harbor and headed south.

For a moment, I smiled. I smiled at the memories I’d made with Glen while trying to fix this damn thing, so it worked. The things he’d done over the past five years that had convinced me he cared. And now he’d just thrown me away like a piece of trash. I hopped onto the highway heading toward Massachusetts, not knowing what my future held for me.