Movin'

"What the hell was that for, you ass?" I stared at Corrie. She had just punched me in the arm rather hard. I went to hit her back but she is a better fighter then me, so she promptly blocked my punch in her fist.

"I was bored, Jess. You know me, when I'm bored I get a bit violent." She looked at me.

I rolled my eyes. "Correction: You're always violent." Being the best fighter in the gang, she never stopped punching people. But when she hit me, it was all fun. Except that time - that one hurt.

"I know, but that how I am, darlin'"

"And that's why I love you!" Sun, Corrie's boyfriend walked into the living room of their apartment (that consisted of a couch and a TV, that's it). We don't have a lot of money so most of us are lucky to have a TV.

-Ring-

The phone rang.

"I'll get it," I said. I walked into the kitchen.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Jess?" It was my brother.

"Shawn, what's up?"

"I need you to come home now, dad's pissed at you for going to Corrie's and he's got some big thing he needs to tell us." My dad doesn't like Corrie 'cause when I'm around her I get into fights. Okay so more fights then I would normally be in. I'm a very energetic person. And 'cause it aint safe here.

"Fine. I'll come now. I've got the truck here." I say in my most monotone voice I could muster.

"Good. Make it snappy, and be safe Jess."

"Yeah yeah. Bye"

"Bye."

I hopped into my red pickup, turned the radio onto my favorite Elvis song and drove home. I took all the back alleys because it's not safe to even drive on the front streets at night in Dollard. There are these train tracks near my house that separate the hoods from the rich kids. And I live on the wrong side of the tracks.

12 minutes later, I pulled into the driveway of the smallest house on the street; mine.

"Pops! I'm home!" I said as I closed the front door behind me.

"Jessica, I thought I told you I didn't want you at Corrie's house after dark!" he yelled. "It aint safe around here."

"I know, but it's only been 20 minutes since sunset," I pleaded

"Well you won't be able to see her or her god-for-saken-boyfriend anymore."

"Excuse me? When did you have a choice in who I get to see or not?" I bursted out.

"What do you mean pops?" Shawn poked his head form around the corner.

"Come in here you two. I need to tell you something."

He looked a bit nervous, and that's never a good thing with pops. "Were movin'"

Shock, shock, anger.

"WHAT?" I screamed. "WHY? NO, WE CAN'T MOVE! MY WHOLE LIFE IS HERE"

"I knew you would react like this," he said lowering his head and rubbing his neck.

"LIKE HOW? PISSED? YEAH, NO SHIT-SHERLOCK!"

Shawn decided to help me out, "Jess' right pop. Movin' aint right. We grew up here. We can't leave."

"Well were movin' weather you like it or not!" he states firmly.

When pops gets firm, there's no more arguing. But I can make as much noise going upstairs, as I want. So I stamp my feet on the stairs, and slam my door shut a few times. But I decide that I should listen to the rest of the conversation downstairs, for my own sake.

"So uh, where are we movin' too?" Shawn asks.

"Tulsa."

"What else can he do to me?" I was on the phone with Corrie. I called her to rant about moving to Tulsa.

"He could beat you and kick you outa the house when you were 13, like my dad did." She said with fake cheer in her voice.

"Oh I'm sorry Cor. I didn't mean it like that. It's just that I love it here. With you and Sun"

"Forget it. I was just joking. I'm totally over that now." she says, but I don't believe her.

I hear the door open and close downstairs. Pops was home from the night shift.

"He's here, I gotta go." I say hurriedly

"Okay, bye love"

"Bye"

I quickly turned off my light because even though we live in a hood, I still have a curfew and a 'bed time' -- I gotta be home by 12:30 and by 2:00 am my light has to be off. But since pops was called in to work tonight, I didn't go to bed on time. I looked at my red glowing alarm clock, 5:02 am. Okay time for sleep.

"So you're goin' first, then me and Shawn will come later. We just need you to look after the house for a while." My dad was trying to explain why I was going to Tulsa tomorrow by myself, instead of later with him and Shawn.

"But I told you, I'm not going!" I argued

"And I told you that you are!" He argues back. I hate when he does that.

"But-"

"No Jess! I'm sick and tiered of hearin' you whine and complain! You're gonna go tomorrow, take the pickup if you want but I need you there! And that's that." He put a stern face on.

He was right. I didn't have a choice.

"Fine, I'll take that pickup tomorrow mornin'." I say, not looking at him in the eyes. I stood up and walked out the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked

"Out" I answer, running off the porch and into my truck. I needed to get away from the house for a while. I'll go home later, I thought, after I get into a fight or something. I had so much steam I needed to blow off.

Jamie's was my favorite 'bar' (actually it was the only one that would let me in). There was usually a good rumble going on that I could get into. Sometimes though, the guys were afraid to hit me, 'cause I'm a girl. I say the hell with it. If I get them in the fight, then by all means they should fight back. I'm not chicken, and I'm a pretty good fighter.

I look over in the corner and see Jim Stevens, Shawn's friend, and some other guy I don't know going at it. Jim didn't look like he was doing to hot. Here's my chance, I thought. So I go over and start wailing on the guy.

"Hey Jess" Jim looks surprised to see me.

"Hey Jim, need a hand?" I ask as I punch the guy right in the nose.

"Sure, you ready?"

"Yep, let's kick his ass" I yell, and we both charge at him.

"Well that was fun" I say. We step out from the smoke filled bar, into the night.

"Sure was" he looks at me. "You got a mighty fine cut there Jess."

I touch my forehead and sure enough, there was a gash on the side. I pull my finger away and look at them. Blood.

"Well what do you know" I smile. Cuts make you look tuff, and because I don't have many, I was sorta proud. "Why were you two fightin' anyway"

"He owes me $120 from a poker game."

"Oh." I'm not surprised "Need a ride home? You know it aint safe to walk all the way to your house from here" I insist.

"Okay."

As I drove him home, we just talked. About everything pretty much. Mostly about moving though.

"Man we sure are gonnna miss you Jess. You and Shawn." he looks at me with a smile. I couldn't help but notice how hot he looked tonight. After the rumble, he got all sweaty and his face was kinda bruised. But he still had his gray eyes and his dark brown hair.

"I'm gonna miss you too Jim." I say. We pulled over so he could get out of the truck.

"So this is goodbye huh?"

"It sure is."

He looked sad. Then he leaned in slowly. What the hell? And our lips touched. Oh, right! I couldn't believe it. 15 years of growing up together, me having a crush on him since I was 11, we were finally kissing. And then it was over. He pulled away, looked at me and said, "I'll never forget you, Jess. Goodbye."