“Because of Brandon?”
“It’s not just him.”
Mia pushed the card away.
“Everyone thinks I’m some kind of freak now.”
Rachel sat across from her.
“You know what your father would say.”
“Please don’t.”
Rachel stopped.
Mia immediately felt guilty.
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not.”
Rachel reached across the table.
Mia let her take her hand.
“You don’t have to be strong every minute,” Rachel said.
“I’m tired of everyone saying strong.”
“Then don’t be strong.”
Mia looked up.
“Be seventeen.”
For the first time that evening, Mia laughed softly.
Rachel smiled.
“You’re allowed to hate this. You’re allowed to be embarrassed. You’re allowed to walk away from that gym. But make sure you’re walking away because you want something else, not because some idiot decided you didn’t belong there.”
Mia looked at the membership card again.
The next afternoon, she returned.
The room went quiet when she entered.
Frank immediately shouted:
“If everybody suddenly forgot how to train, I can refund your memberships.”
People turned back to their drills.
Mia almost smiled.
Brandon was not there.
For three days, he stayed away.
When he returned Thursday evening, he seemed different.
Less loud.
Less playful.
More defensive.
Several students avoided him.
Others stared.
He blamed Mia.
Not openly.
Not yet.
But resentment showed in his face every time she entered.
That Saturday, Frank called Brandon into his office.
“You embarrassed this gym.”
Brandon crossed his arms.
“She wasn’t hurt.”
“That isn’t the point.”
“She embarrassed me too.”
Frank looked at him incredulously.
“How?”
“Now everybody thinks she could beat me.”
“Did she say that?”
“No.”
“Did she challenge you?”
“No.”
“Did she touch you after you swept her?”
“No.”
“Then she didn’t embarrass you. You did that by yourself.”
Brandon looked away.
Frank continued.
“You want to stay here?”
“Yes.”
“Then apologize.”
Brandon’s jaw tightened.
“To her?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not doing some public humiliation thing.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
Frank leaned forward.
“Private. Direct. Sincere.”
Brandon laughed bitterly.
“She gets to stand there like some mysterious action hero and I’m supposed to apologize?”
Frank’s expression hardened.
“No. You’re supposed to apologize because you told a seventeen-year-old girl she belonged in a kitchen, then deliberately used more force than necessary because people were watching.”
Brandon said nothing.
Frank pointed toward the door.
“You’ve got one week.”
Mia’s life outside the gym was less dramatic.
School.
Homework.
Helping her mother.
Working Saturday mornings at a neighborhood bakery.
Visiting her grandmother.
Trying to decide where she wanted to apply for college.
But grief had followed her from Tennessee.
Daniel Lawson was present in the smallest moments.
A green pickup truck at an intersection.
A country song playing quietly in a grocery store.
Someone tying work boots.
The smell of black coffee.
Sometimes Mia remembered him laughing.
Sometimes she remembered the hospital waiting room after the crash, when a state trooper placed Daniel’s wallet and watch into her mother’s shaking hands.
The worst memories came without warning.
One evening, Mia arrived early at the gym and found Frank replacing tape on an old punching bag.
“You need help?”
Frank looked up.
“You know how to hold a ladder?”
“Yes.”
“You’re hired.”
Mia steadied the ladder while he worked.
After several minutes, Frank asked:
“Your dad ever talk about fear?”
Mia looked up.
“All the time.”
“What did he say?”
“That fear isn’t the problem.”
Frank waited.
“Pretending you’re not afraid is.”
Frank nodded.