Part 2
Chapter 4: Growin' Up
"What do you want from life?"
John drew his gaze away from the stars that stretched out above them and planted a kiss on her cheek. "You, Jessie."
She'd borrowed her cousin's Pontiac convertible and they'd driven out to Alder Lake and had been laying in the grass beside the car with the radio on. To the east of them the lake stretched out deep and black, and beyond that Mount Rainier loomed in the distance.
She snuggled into him, her head resting on his shoulder, but looked at him seriously. "I mean it John. We only have a few months before we graduate. I want to know what you're going to do next."
John turned his attention back to the night sky. "I don't know. I want to get out of Puyallup, that's for sure. But why do I get the feeling this is more about what you want?"
"You know I've applied to a few colleges. I have the letters in the glove box."
"So?" John sat up, more interested. "Where did you get into?"
Jessica smiled at his excitement on her behalf. They'd been together for two years now, and told each other everything. But she'd purposely avoided any talk of their future. John knew this was because she could have her pick of places to go and she was worried about what that meant for them. John had applied for community college and had started working at the farm on the weekends to pay for it, but it had been a halfhearted effort. The more he thought about three further years of schooling, the less enthusiastic he was.
"I didn't look yet." She admitted.
"Well why not? I'm sure you got into everywhere." He jumped up and searched in the car. There were six pristine letters inside. John was suddenly nervous, whatever was inside would change everything, but he swallowed it down and took the letters back to Jessica, sitting beside her and watching with earnest.
"John." She paused, about to tear into the first envelope. "You know Seattle has a perfectly good nursing program. I could go there..."
John frowned and rolled his eyes. "Just open them." He urged.
The music from the car radio filled the silence while Jessica opened the first envelope. She opened the letter up and stared at it a moment in the dim light, a smile slowly spreading across her face as the news sunk in.
"So?" John said, taking the letter from her and reading it for himself. "Berkeley? You got into Berkeley?" His grin stretched from ear to ear as he leaned in and kissed her. "I told you, you could get in anywhere."
"California is a long way though." She pointed out, unsure.
"So?" John shrugged. "It's Berkeley. You can't turn it down. It's what you want. And you can finally get away from this house." He reached out and stroked her thigh gently, where he knew there was another bruise darkening there. He knew the violence had been more frequent lately, but Jessica had refused to let him tell anyone about it.
"Yeah but what about you? What about us?"
"I'll wait for you." John said firmly. "And then we can go anywhere we want. Do anything you want."
"Are you sure?"
John kissed her again. "I promise."
It was only then that Jessica seemed to get fully excited. "I need to go home and tell my parents." She said, rushing to her feet.
They got back into the car and Jessica drove back with the top down and the radio turned up loud. John sat in the passenger seat and watched his girlfriend as she belted out the song and knew he was truly happy for her, even if it did feel a little like he was being left behind.
Jessica was going to drop John off home but she had to drive passed her own house first. As they did there was the sound of a door slam so loudly that it made them jump, even over the sound of the music. Jessica stopped the car and John turned down the radio. They exchanged concerned looks and then there was a loud shout.
"Dad's drunk again." Jessica said sadly.
"Don't go home." John pleaded.
"I have to."
They were interrupted again, by another crash and a cry.
"Mom!" Jessica exclaimed. John was out of the car and racing up the drive by the time Jessica had managed to get the key out of the ignition with shaking hands.
There was another crash and then John burst through the door, with Jessica a few steps behind him. The teens froze in the doorway and took in the scene before them. Sharon Matherson was stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the lounge, a vase of flowers was smashed at her feet. But the water from the vase had left a telltale wet splatter on the wallpaper, inches from her head and Brad Matherson was stood on the other side of the sofa with his hands clenched, his face reddened with anger. Sharon was trying to look unconcerned but she was holding her arm close to her body and her shoulder appeared to be sitting awkwardly under her lilac shirt.
The two adults stared at the intrusion, and John could feel Jessica shrinking behind him under the look of fury that her father was giving them.
"Mrs Matherson are you alright?" John asked, determined to stand his ground.
"I'm fine thank you John." Sharon stuttered out. "I just dropped the vase."
John's gaze moved to the stain on the wall and raised an eyebrow, letting them both know that he wasn't buying it.
Jessica rushed over and crouched at her mother's feet as she started to pick the scattered flowers and larger pieces of vase up from the carpet, but Brad stormed over and grabbed her wrist. "Stop! It's your mother's mess. Let her clean it up."
In a few long strides, John strode over and put himself between the irate man and the two women. He could see the way his grip dug into Jessica's arm, and could smell whiskey on the man's breath.
"What are you still doing here boy? Get out of my house!"
John shook his head. "Let Jessica go."
When Brad yanked Jessica towards him, John grabbed the hand that was round her wrist and twisted the man's thumb until he broke the hold and Jessica could slip free.
Brad sent a punch into John's face, shattering his nose and causing blood to spray. John pulled his arms up to his face to protect himself from further attack and yelled, "Jessie, get your mom and run!"
Jessica grabbed her mother and ran for the front door but couldn't go through it. John was being pummelled, the blows glancing off his raised arms, trying his best to block the frenzied attack. He was being edged back until he slammed into the wall and had nowhere else to turn.
"Go!" He yelled again, trying to get a punch in of his own but failing.
"I'm not leaving you!" Jessica screamed and ran at her father, slipping free of her mother who was now crying and trying to hold her back.
A punch got through his defences and landed on John's temple, causing his vision to grey and for him to slide down the wall and land on his ass. He tried to shake out the pain and control his vision as he saw Jessica throw herself at her father and pull him back. But the large man turned and punched her in the face just as viciously as he had John, causing her to spin as she fell and land face first across the sofa.
John roared with rage as he got to his feet. He picked up the small table that the vase had been on and cracked it over the back of Brad's head, sending large splinters flying. The man turned round and ran at John, football tackling him through the doorway into the kitchen. John's body slammed into the linoleum and they slid along the smooth floor, crashing into the kitchen island, the wooden cabinets putting an abrupt halt to their motion.
Brad grabbed the slight 17 year old and slammed him against the floor, pining him there with his huge body. He grabbed John up by the shirt and then slammed him back down, making his head ring and knocking the wind out of him. Then John was picked up again and the next thing he knew he was being thrown across the kitchen island. He rolled across the Formica, scattering everything that had been on it as he attempted to stop his momentum before crashing onto his back on the other side of it.
He'd landed on something, shattered glass maybe, which dug through his thin tee shirt and bit into his skin but he didn't have time to check as Brad was striding round to get to him again. John scrabbled on the floor looking for anything to use as a weapon when he felt the sharp pain of a blade on his fingertips. A knife block had come off the work surface with him and now it's contents were scattered across the floor. He adjusted his grip and found the handle, bringing it up without thinking as Brad descended on him again.
He drove it upwards on instinct, just as Mr Matherson came down to grab him, and the sharpened blade slid cleanly into his shoulder. There was a brief moment when both man and boy looked at each other in disbelief at what had happened and the thick red blood that was now oozing down the knife and soaking John's hand. Brad roared as he wrenched himself free of the blade, and swung a fist to knock it from John's grip, but in a panic, John stabbed upwards again, catching his arm.
The second wound sent Brad even more berserk and he grabbed John's knife wielding left hand and punched the boy repeatedly. "I'm going to kill you, boy!" He snarled and John could see him his eyes it was true, so he held onto the blade with a white knuckled grip and used it again, and again, and again.
He only stopped when Matherson's body slumped on top of him, staring at what he'd done in horror. The kitchen was silent for a second and then there was a horrific wail as Jessica's mom raced forward and sank to her knees beside her husband, pulling him into her lap. This gave the chance for John to scramble out from under him, the knife still firm in his petrified grip, his hands slipping on the bloodied Lino as he tried to extricate himself from the gory scene.
The slap that Mrs Matherson gave him round his already battered face caused him to drop the knife, and brought tears to his eyes in the way that killing a man hadn't. "You killed him!" The woman screamed, sobbing over the body of her dead husband. "Get out of here! Murderer!"
John stared with blurred vision at the blood-soaked room, trying to make sense of what just happened, when a hand rested on his shoulder and a gentle but urgent voice whispered in his ear, "John! We have to go!"