Page 11 of Hits Different

“Not the right time?” I echo. Wait. Something’s not right. Why isn’t Julius telling me this? Normally, if I’m late, I’d be doing penance push-ups by now. “What’s going on, Frankie?”

“Nothing”. Frankie scuffs his shoe on the floor.

“Are you going to tell me the truth?” I demand, “Or do I have to hear it from your brother?” He doesn’t reply. “Fine”.

I stride towards the manager’s office but Frankie shouts after me, stopping me in my tracks. “He doesn’t want you here anymore, Parker. You’re out”.

I stop. Turn slowly. “What do you mean?”

“I’m sorry, alright?” He nods towards the gym office. “You know things have been tight around here, financially-speaking”.

“What else is new?”

“And we had to make some tough calls”.

“If it’s about money, I can pay you more. If you need it for my training”. I do some quick math in my head. Extra shifts. Sleeping in my car. Sell my stuff. I can do it. I can figure it out. “Just tell me how much”.

“Bigger than you can afford, kid. Things have been difficult for a while. We’ve got big debts. Rent increase. So when we got an offer, we had no choice”.

An offer? What the—oh, no. No. You’ve got to be kidding me.

“The Darwin Family are big investors in local businesses”. Frankie rubs the back of his head. “We weren’t in any position to say no”.

The new equipment. Suddenly it all becomes clear. “They bought you off”. My voice is dangerously low. Not content with getting me kicked out of college, Darwin’s quest for revenge has followed me to my gym. “To kick me out?”

“It’s not like that, Parker”.

“Then what the fuck is it like?” My shoulders curl painfully inward. I should have seen this coming. Frankie looks almost as stricken as I feel.

“Just let me talk to Julius”, I beg, despair seeping from every pore. “Come on Frankie, I’ve been training every single day for months. I’ve worked my whole life for this”.

“I’m sorry”. Frankie sounds like he means it. “You’re done here. At least for now”. It’s then I notice that Tank has appeared behind me. Cracking his knuckles. Just waiting for me to make a scene. “It’s not personal, Parker”.

“Not personal?” I say, a crack threatening to splinter my voice. Part of me wants to storm into the office and tell Julius the price of his blood money. But where would that get me? My eyes land on the quote above the door.

‘A fighter is nothing without his honour’.

Frankie follows my gaze. “You might want to change that”, I say, grabbing my stuff. “Because they’re just fucking words, Frankie. They don’t mean shit”.

It’s only when I get outside that I realise…

Neither do I.

***

I’ve been walking for ten minutes before my phone rings. I know without looking that it’s my mom. I pick up, but carry on walking.

“I suppose you already know”, she begins, without waiting for me to say hello. “That your tutor has made me aware of the mess you’re in. I can’t understand why you’re so determined to throw away your future, Parker. It is not like it was particularly easy for you to get into college in the first place, and now, to not eventrywhen you’re there. It baffles me”.

“I know”. No matter how many times I’ve tried to explain.

“When I think of all the hours wasted applying to every school in the country. The tutors. The college tours. Not to mention the loans you already have!”

“Money that could have been saved if you’d just listened to me when I told you what I really wanted to do”, I cut in, but there’s no point. When Maria Di Rossi gets on a roll, there’s no stopping her. She took over the ‘tough love’ role from my dad after he died. Emphasis on the tough.

My bus is just about to pull off and I jump on right as the doors snap shut behind me. My mom hasn’t stopped.

“I was the first member of my family to go to college. I had tobegmy parents to let me go. I worked three jobs just to pay my tuition, all so that I could build a future for myself where I wasn’t breaking out into a cold sweat every time a bill landed on the mat and to give my kids the kind of life I never had andnow…” she reaches her crescendo. “My first-born son, with the whole world at his feet,decides to throw it all away!”

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