Fighting to go on

Epilogue

          When the bell rang, everyone let out a cheer. The bell was the signal that our freedom had officially started. It was the last day of school, and aside from exams, we were done.

Ryan grabbed me around the waist and spun me in a circle. I laughed as I wrapped my arms around his neck. “We’re done high school!”

“I know. Now just college and then we get to go on with our lives.”

“At least you don’t have as much schooling to go through as I do.”

He kissed me and then set me down on my feet. “Not my fault you want to be a teacher. And becoming a carpenter is something I’ve always wanted to do. I get to work with my hands and I don’t have to deal with a large amount of people.”

“I know. You’ll be a great carpenter,” I replied.

He grabbed both of our bags off the ground and we headed to our locker for the final time. We had pretty much cleaned it out already, so all we had to do was grab the last few things out of it.

After we had emptied it out completely, Ryan took my hand and pulled me out of the school. He threw our bags into the backseat of the car and then leaned against the passenger door. He pulled me into him so that my back was against his chest and his arms wound around my waist. We stayed like that while we waited for Charlie.

A commotion near the front of the school caught our attention and I cursed when I saw Charlie in the middle of the ruckus. “Ryan, go drag his stupid ass over here, will you?”

Ryan sighed, but willingly released me and headed in that direction. The shoving match stopped as soon as he got close and everyone except Charlie hightailed it out of there. Ryan grabbed Charlie’s arm and dragged him back to where I was still standing by the car.

Charlie was cursing as he got closer to me. “Sam, keep your damn man under control. He’s ruining all of my fun,” he whined.

            I raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m the one who told him to drag you back here. What the hell were you doing?”

            He shrugged. “Some guys thought that they could push me and get away with it. I was just going to show them the error of their ways.”

            I sighed. “Charlie, you have to stop getting into fights. Ryan didn’t show you how to fight better so you could use it at school. He did it so you can defend yourself better.”

            “But I never start the fights!”

            “I really don’t care. You provoke people and that causes them to want to hit you. Hell, I want to hit you most of the time too, but I’m your sister, so I’m allowed.”

            “It’s not really fair, you know. You can hit me, but if I so much as push you, he,” he pointed to Ryan, “will knock me out.”

            Ryan smiled. “Damn right.” He turned to me. “Sam, he’s just flexing his muscles a little. He never throws the first punch, so technically it is self defense.”

            I glared at him as Charlie chuckled. “So you think violence is okay as long as he doesn’t start it?”

            “Well-”

            “What about when we have kids? Are you going to teach them that too?”

            “I-”

            “Violence is never okay! You,” I pointed to Charlie, “and you,” I pointed at Ryan; “both should know that better then anyone.”