Disclaimer: Claim nothing, don't sue, you really wouldn't get anything anyway…AJ

I didn't say anything. God, I wanted to. I assumed that I was biting off more than I could chew with this whole situation. I was fourteen. She was twelve. This responsibility was way more than either of us could handle. But, she acted like it was no big deal. Unfortunately, I think she was used to it. She came up with a pretty good lie about the black eye to tell my dad. She told him that she got into a fight with another girl on the first day of school. She made up some story about the girl calling her a name and then the two of them having it out. She was even willing to endure a lecture from him about how fighting never solved problems. Yeah, with Letty, it was a waste of breath.

I don't think she liked lying to my dad. I honestly believed that she felt that she had no other choice. And, when the second day of school rolled around, she made up a very elaborate story for her new teacher. Letty had this uncanny ability to lie to people. And, if you didn't know her and didn't know how to look past her bullshit façade, you would buy it in a heartbeat. Besides, believing a story is a lot easier than dealing with someone's reality. I always wondered if she started to believe these stories that she told everyone. If you say something enough it may not happen but you just may start to believe it.

After a few weeks into the semester Letty started attending all of her classes fairly frequently. She missed about one day a week. But, her reasons for missing were never anything as serious as that first day. Letty did not see the point in going to school. And if there was no one at her house, she would typically stay home. It was when her aunt and whatever 'boyfriend' she happened to pick up that week were home that Letty made it to school. School was another place for her to escape to. But, she didn't really do anything while she was there. I found myself watching out for Letty at school like I did on the block. During class change, I would always scan the halls and try to find her.

There was no point in me trying to convince Letty about the usefulness of school. She could always see right through any lectures I tried to give her on responsibility. I knew there was no way I could talk about it with a straight face either. I, like Letty, didn't see the point of school. But, I saw the point of making my dad happy. So, I kept my grades average. Letty, well Letty was plenty intelligent. She just didn't try. She never did her homework and rarely turned in any assignments. When she would put forth the effort she would make good grades. But, Letty didn't have anyone to make her do her homework so she just didn't. I'm not sure what she did when she wasn't at the garage, but it wasn't academic.

The school was, essentially, divided into wings. She was on the 7th grade wing and I was on the 9th grade wing. But, luckily, shop class was past the 7th grade wing. During the class change, before shop, I would go pick up Letty from her Spanish class and walk her to English. Spanish was the only class Letty enjoyed, because she didn't have to try to get a good grade. So this was an enjoyable time to talk to her. Plus, I knew how much she hated English and was trying to keep her from skipping. We would never talk about anything serious, mainly just shoot the breeze. But, it gave me an opportunity to keep tabs on her. I also wanted to make sure that none of the 7th grade punks were even considering trying anything.

One day just after Thanksgiving break , I was walking to shop class. I made my way to Letty's Spanish class and she wasn't in there. But, there was a large commotion in the hallway. People starting running and cheering. In junior high, this was a sure sign of a fight. So I followed the masses to go watch. Fights were the most exciting part of school. However, the excitement of this particular fight faded quickly after I noticed who was fighting. It was Letty. And, she was fighting some guy. Well, I don't know if you could call it fighting. The guy was essentially getting his ass handed to him. I laughed. That was awesome.

When Letty decided to let the poor guy up he tackled her and hit her square across the face. This was not something I was going to sit back and tolerate. I pushed my way through all the 7th graders, and a couple of random others who had strayed in from the other wings for some amusement. I walked up to the young guy and pulled him off Letty. I threw him up against the wall into the half lockers. His body made a very loud sound as it hit the metal. Letty stood up and wiped the blood away from her nose.

"You don't need to be hitting girls," I said getting up in his face.

"Who the hell are you?" he said trying to push by me, unsuccessfully.

"I may be your worst nightmare if you don't back the hell up off her," I said. I noticed Letty running up, attempting to tackle him again. I grabbed her with my left arm and held her back.

"Dominic!" she yelled.

"We'll talk about this later," I laughed and shook my head.

"Teachers!" someone yelled. I saw a few teachers and the vice principal come walking up. Shit. If I got suspended again for fighting my Dad would have killed me. And, I knew that the situation looked pretty bad, what with me holding Letty back with one arm and pinning the punk against the locker with the other.

"Come with me," I said, grabbing Letty's arm as I tossed the guy back one more time. "Don't say nothing to the teachers," I threatened him.

I pulled Letty to the door leading out to my shop class. But, instead of stopping at class, we just kept walking. If she stuck around, she would have gotten into trouble. If she got into trouble, they were going to tell her aunt. If they told her aunt, well, I didn't want to find out what would happen. So, I did the only thing I knew to do. I took her away from the situation before it got worse.

We walked a couple of blocks in silence.

"What the hell was that back there?" I asked, still walking. I didn't really know where I was going.

"That guy was being a jerk," she said.

"What did he do?" I asked, stopping.

"He was talking shit and he grabbed my ass, twice. So, I decided to kick his," she said shrewdly.

"What did he say?" I said, getting extremely pissed about the ass grabbing behavior but figured I should get all the details and then measure my level of anger.

"He was just saying shit about my family, or lack thereof, and how I ain't going to do nothing but end up on the street and shit," she said, without really elaborating. Clearly there were holes in this story.

"Wow, really? Has this been going on for a while or did this all happen today?" I asked. Rarely do events like this happen all of a sudden.

"For a while. He asked me out earlier in the year and I wouldn't go. So, he's been a jerk ever since," she said. This made me really mad. Not only did someone have the nerve to ask out Letty but he also had the nerve to be a jerk to her. This was something I was going to have to deal with. School was one of Letty's safe places. And, I'd be damned if this asshole was going to screw that up for her.

"What's this punk's name?" I said. I didn't know any of the 7th grade guys. But, I sure wanted to meet this one.

"Why?" she asked suspiciously.

"Just curious," I lied.

"I'm not going to tell you," she said. She knew what I wanted to do.

"Why?' I asked, but knowing the answer already.

"Why do you want to know?" she asked digging deeper.

"I want to go talk to him," I said. This was partially true. I would probably say some things to him.

"No you don't. You want to go fight him," she said, calling me out.

"It's not really a fight if you just get your ass beat," I admitted. I was not at all afraid of this little punk.

"Dominic, I've got it under control. You saw. I can take him," she said, sounding so tough and confident.

"Letty, you shouldn't be fighting," I started but she interrupted me.

"Maybe you should take your own advice," she laughed.

"If you'd let me finish. I was going to say that you shouldn't be fighting at school. And you shouldn't be fighting guys," I said, starting to talk again.

"Why not?" she asked confused.

"Because you're going to get hurt. And, you're going to get in trouble and they're going to tell your aunt," I said, trying not to show as much concern as I felt.

"She'd never find out. I haven't even seen her in two weeks," she said, looking at the ground as we walked.

"Where is she?" I asked. Two weeks, she had been staying by herself for two weeks? That couldn't be right. She had stayed at my house at least four or five times in the past two weeks. But, I didn't want to question her about that.

"I don't know," she said without feeling.

"Are you cool to stay by yourself?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said.

I was skeptical about this. But, she was still coming by my house regardless. I thought about her reasoning for coming by even though she wasn't in danger. Maybe she was just bored. Maybe she was lonely.

"Well if you want to stay at the house till your aunt gets back I doubt Dad would care," I finally said. I wanted to give her the option.

"Dominic, I stay there when my aunt is around. When she's not I'm fine," she said.

"Alright, whatever. I was just saying. So what do you want to do? We can't really go back to school now. And, I don't want to just walk around all day," I said.

"Let's go to the beach," she suggested.

"Alright," I said. It was kind of cold but I hadn't been to the beach in a while.

We made our way down to the beach. The wind was chilly. But the shore was totally isolated. I guess November is not a big beach time for many. Of course, it may have had something to do with the fact that it was 1:00 on a Tuesday. Most normal people were at work, or school. But, I'd much rather have been at the beach than at school.

"I dare you to get in the water," Letty said.

I laughed. That was cute. "No, I don't like to freeze. It's not really my style," I responded. "But if you want to get in the water knock yourself out."

She just sat down in the sand. She started burying her feet deeper and deeper.

"Dominic, why do you care so much? About me, I mean. Why do you do all this?" she said, staring at her feet.

I shrugged. She looked up at me and I avoided her gaze. I was sort of embarrassed by this question. Why did she have to ask this?

"Well, you can think about it. I have plenty of time. I've got no plans today," she said.

Oh goody. Why did I care? Was it guilt? If it had been at the beginning, it wasn't anymore. But I don't know if it was ever guilt. I think it was something deeper but something I couldn't identify. Of course that was no answer that Letty was going to except. Nor was that an answer that I was going to give her. I thought about it. I had never been awesome at expressing my emotions, especially since my Mom died. But, I wanted to answer. I didn't want to pull a Letty and avoid all questions.

"I guess that I just think you're cool, even if you are just a kid. You are good with cars and, I don't know, I've never really met anyone like you," I finally said, quietly.

"What do you mean?" she asked. Damn, did I really have to keep going with this did I? I was getting a little uncomfortable.

"I don't know, Letty. I mean you understand me. And you trust me. I just like helping you. It makes me feel useful, I guess. I like making sure that you are alright. It makes me…happy. Besides, you are pretty much the only person I feel comfortable talking to. Well, not so much right now, but usually," I said, now looking at my feet. Apparently this conversation made feet really interesting.

"Why not now?" she asked.
"Because you asked me why I cared about you," I shook my head.

She punched me in the arm. "Don't be gay," she laughed.

"What? That was what you asked," I said confused. How did that make me gay?

"You're so sentimental," she mocked.

"Yeah, that's me," I said, relieved that we were changing the subject. I'd much rather talk about my heterosexual, not homosexual, preference than my feelings.

"Well, besides my brother, I don't think anyone ever really has, so thanks," she said, quickly.

"So, what was that guys name?" I asked again, keeping the subject diverted away from feelings.

She laughed. "Do you promise me you won't fight him?" she asked.

"No," I responded honestly.

"Come on Dominic!" she said irritated.

"Letty, I promise you to never make a promise to you that I won't keep," I said, somewhat out of nowhere. Then I thought about it, wow, that was a lofty promise. But, I could do it. I didn't want to ever be the one that brought that look into her eyes of despair. I wanted to be the one that made it go away.

"Hm. Okay. Cool," she replied. "Diego Rodriguez."

"He's not in 7th grade," I said. I knew that guy. Well, I didn't know him. But, I had heard of him. He was an all-around jerk to girls. I guess I didn't recognize him with blood on his face.

"I never said he was. He's an 8th grader," she replied.

"Why was he on your wing?" I asked.

"He flunked Spanish last year. He's in my class," she laughed.

"Isn't he…Latino?" I asked, curiously.

"Yeah," she continued to laugh. "His parents immigrated."

"Alright," I said. I shook my head. Diego. He really had it coming from a couple of different directions. I figured I would be doing the world a favor. But, mainly, it would make me feel better. I considered whether or not to take Vince with me, just for emphasis. I decided that if he heard about the fight I would take him. If he hadn't, I would not tell him.

"Don't get in trouble Dominic," she warned.

"Trouble's my middle name," I said with a cocky grin on my face.

"Jackass," she said.

TBC

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AJ