Synonym

Chapter 11

That first day was what I feared.

The first day required me to show myself and my deepest secrets to everyone, now I just had to sit there and look put together as everyone around me talked and argued. I thought it was pretty easy to sit there and do nothing.

I hadn't been as cold this morning. Instead I had gotten dressed at a normal speed, eaten without convincing, and even talked a little bit to my family aka the three men that would badger me if I didn't do everything a normal person did.

So sitting in the courtroom listening should have been easy. No effort, no movement, no thought. Just sitting.

Finn took the stand first thing in the morning. If he was nervous, his ever stoic face never showed it. Actually, I knew for a fact he was slightly nervous because he confessed it to me last night but if you asked me, he seemed like the most confident man in the world with his raised chin and squared shoulders. The expensive suit on his body only made him look more intimidating and powerful.

While I didn't necessarily know where my future was going; coaching, pro player, or straight to Biometric Engineering, but one thing was for certain, Finn would end up in some fancy board room by the time he was 35. He was meant for it. Being a corporate lawyer might be his fathers thing, but he was smart and with his Bachelors and probably Masters of Science of Business Administration degree, board rooms were in his future.

Finn wasn't the engineering type like Al or I. He was a straight statistics man, that had been evident in the math class we shared together in highschool. His background knowledge of corporate law would only help his career in finance and I wouldn't be surprised if Finn went for his masters at a near by college if we made it pro. That's what I would be doing.

"Mr. Riley," The sound of Mr. Smith's voice drew me back into reality. "In your testimony you state that you tackled Mr. Green before punching him multiple times. Some may consider that assault unless the victim you were protecting was facing emanate threat. Would you say that Ms. Mason was being eminently threatened?"

Finn's jaw was set in stone as he responded with a hard, "Yes."

"How could you tell?"

Finn looked about ready to burst but he managed to control himself. It might not be obvious to most, but I knew his stoic face and if it meant he was angry or bordering on rage. "I came around the corner to see three larger people extremely close to a woman who was pinned against a wall while screaming and crying. I would say the nature of the situation was rather obvious."

My body tensed when I saw the look on Mr. Smith's face. He was taking this somewhere ugly and I suddenly didn't want to be in here anymore. "You say you heard screams. Is it possible that these were merely just sounds of sexual gratification? Who says it wasn't the sound of consensual sex?"

I saw the muscles in Finn's jaw ripple slightly under his perfectly even toned skin. "The fact that you are insinuating that someone being raped can control anything leaving their mouth other than their screams is disgusting. I think it was rather obvious by the nature of the harsh screams of agony that Ms. Mason was being eminently threatened."

"That is all Mr. Riley." Mr. Smith retired his council. I couldn't help but notice the tenseness in Finn's muscles even as he passed me to get to his seat behind my lawyer. He was angry and there was no doubt about that. In that moment I silently thanked God that Finn wasn't in the room when I was accused to statutory rape.

My scatter brain was all over the place for the next two hours. I didn't hear a word that was said. It was almost as if I was time jumping back and forth, only hearing the important information. Focusing on any one thing was impossible, I was to busy making it look like I knew what I was doing. 'Act like you've been there before'- Vince Lombardi. I loved the Packers but I don't think I've ever related to something they've said more.