Saving Rodney

Alex strolled out of the bathroom flipping his lush, curly, red hair and blinking his bright green eyes. “God you took long enough,” I gasped jumping off his neat and tidy bed onto the trash covered floor beneath it. “Well I’m sorry I was poopin’ !” he said putting his hands on his hips in a superhero fashion. “Yeah I’m sure that’s all you were doing in there.” I say giving him a mischievous grin. “Hey I don’t need that nasty stuff!” he counteracted giving me a disgusted look, then he smiled., “That’s what having a girlfriend is for,” “Oh sure use your perfect, blonde haired, blue eyed Gabby for s……se……se………stuff” I groaned. Alex shrugged his shoulders and sat down at my feet. “Ok I will” he laughs. “So can you do my hair?”

“Sure as long as you don’t get all Hot Dog on me” I answer as I begin to rub the hair gell into his thick scalp. “Oh Gabby!” he moaned trying to annoy me. I slapped him in the head. “EWW quit” He looked up at me. “Geesh just relax already will Ya, Alley, I was just playing around with you.” I roll my eyes. “Well your almost 19, you need to grow up a bit.” I fluff up his hair a little and declare that he is done. A bang on the door is heard throughout the whole house. Alex and I look at each other and yell in unison, “Gabby!”

We walked out of the house into the back yard to find Gabby dipping her feet into the pool. “Hey babe.” Alex said greeting her kissing her cheek. “Hey Hun,” she replies then she looked over at me. “Hey Alley how’s my favorite freshman doing today?” she asks. “I’m fine you?” I ask. Gabby looked down at her stomach. “I’m not sure yet,” she declared.

Alex and Gabby hopped into Alex’s neon green car and sped away. I peered over to the tree in my yard by my window and notice that one of the thick branches stretch out to the new neighbors yard. AS I began to climb it my curiosity about the new comers grew, then I peeked into the window at their house.

I saw the father and the son yelling at each other red in the face looking like they were gonna explode. Then the father grabbed the son by the hair, slammed his fragile teen body against the wall and after the boy fell to the floor, the dad started to kick him repeatedly until he stopped screaming. The father finally left the room and my heart sank as I saw the boy, the same boy from earlier, lay motionless on the floor. “Alley,” mother called from the kitchen window up to my room, “Come on we’re gonna go visit the new neighbors.”

Mother and I stood on the porch of the new house. The door opened to show the mother, father, baby son and daughter standing there, but no sign of the son. “Welcome to our noble neighborhood.” my mother proudly says. “Thank you ever so much, I’m Sally and this is my husband Tom.” she says holding her evil husbands hand. The little girl walks up to me, “My name’s Claire and that’s Toby” she says pointing up to the baby in her mothers arms. “Our eldest son, Rodney, refused to come down and meet you fine people, I’ll go fetch him now so he can see how pretty of a girl lives next door.” he says looking down at me. I faked a smile. That liar, I know why he’s really not down here.

Moments later, Rodney comes moping over to the porch. “Yeah Rodney here is 17, just turned it actually.” Tom declared as he put his big hands on Rodney’s hurt shoulder. Rodney cringed in the pain but tried to hide it. I stared Rodney in the eyes and mouthed the words ‘I know’ to him. His eyes widened and he quickly turned to his parents and asked, “Can Alley and I go to the park for a little while and hang out?” His father sighed and looked at me with a raised eyebrow, “If the young lady even wants to go?” I quickly nodded and started walking toward the park with Rodney.

Once we got there, Rodney told me of how his father has always hurt him and scared away any girl that ever got close enough to him with fake stories of Rodney killing all his pets and how Tom had told Rodney’s mother that he was popping pills and that’s why he was always knocked out on the floor. I wiped the tear from my eye and looked at the ground under the swings we were sitting in. “I’m so sorry,” he looked at me and smiled. “I feel so close to you now, please tell me a truth about you?”

“When I was little, my incarcerated uncle tried to drown me in the pond, he pushed me down and wouldn’t let me up. Then he took a horse branding rod and burnt a huge burn on my back,” I lifted up my shirt so he could see.

Rodney grabbed me by my side and whispered in my ear, “I’ll never let anyone hurt you again” “What about you?” I asked looking up. “Nothing can harm me when I have you around.” I sighed as I lay my head on his chest. “Then I’ll never leave you,” He looked down at me with his deep blue eyes. “I’d never tell you to go.”

Moments passed and it was soon dark out. “We better get going,” Rodney sighed letting me go. “but your father will just hurt you again!” I cried holding onto his arm. “Then I’ll have to brave it out then,” he sighed looking down at the moss covered ground. “No, Rodney, you’ll stay with me tonight I don’t care what my parents or your parents think, I’m not gonna leave you.” I yelled angrily. He just stared at me and laughed. “What?” I asked furiously. “Nothing it’s just that you’re cute when you’re mad at me.” He held his hand out for mine and we held hands all the way home.

As Rodney and I stood at his door step, Tom opened the door. “Tom, sir, can Rodney stay at my house tonight?” I asked. Rodney gave his father a devilish look. Tom raised his eyebrow. “Well I suppose,” he said quickly shutting the door.

We walked into my house still holding hands and started walking upstairs toward my room. My parents smiled as if to say, “Our baby girl is growing up.” Once we got to my room, Rodney shut the door and gave me a weird smile. He grabbed me and slowly started to kiss me and move toward the bed. “Alley I love you to death,” he whispered. “Rodney, if you really loved me you would wait for me to be ready for you this way,” I replied looking shocked. Rodney rolled over and laid beside me. “See Alley, I do love you, even though I just met you I feel like I’ve loved you all my life. Can I just lay here with you tonight?” he asked peering into my eyes. “Alright Rodney, but promise me that you’ll still love me tomorrow?” “I’ll never stop, baby, I never will stop.” Then we cuddled up to each other and fell asleep.

Once morning came, I snuck over to the phone and tipped off the police about Tom. Moments later police sirens fill the cul-de-sac and I watched as they took Tom away. I laid back down in bed with Rodney. Half awake he asked., “What’s going on baby?” I kissed his forehead and held his hand. “I said no one was gonna hurt you, now that one person is gone,” Alex came storming up the stairs and grabbed me and pulled me out of bed. “What the he…” I tried to say but he cut me off. “Gabby’s pregnant!” he exclaimed. I hugged my brother and cried. “Don’t cry I love her and we’re gonna raise this on our own,”

From upstairs we could here my parents and brother screaming at each other from the basement. I started to cry as I heard Gabby’s tears and my brothers screams. I had never heard my brother yell like that before. Rodney held onto me and rocked me like a child. I clung onto his chest and thanked him. Alex once again stormed upstairs making me jump slightly in fear. “Come on you two, get dressed, mom’s gone mad and we just need to get out of here.” he declared. Me and Rodney nodded. Once we all piled into the car, Rodney whispered something in Alex’s ear and Alex’s only reply was, “Ok.”

We pulled into the driveway of my uncle’s old home. I felt sick as I saw the bacteria filled pond he tried to kill me in. Rodney pulled me over to Gabby. “Stay here baby, ok?” he kissed me. Him and Alex went into the trunk of the car and pulled out two gasoline tanks and poured it all over the house, lit a match, and set it on fire. Gabby pulled out a blanket and laid it on the ground so they could sit down. Alex turned up the radio to play a slow song.

Alex, Gabby , Rodney and I started to slow dance and Rodney looked down at me. “This was for you baby.” he whispered. I looked over at Alex who was rubbing Gabby’s pregnant belly. Then I turned toward Rodney and kissed him. “I guess there are such things as happy endings.” he smiled. “Yeah baby, there are.” he said as he kissed me and we all stayed up under the stars.