Chapter 29

“What do you mean you have plans?” Rhonda asked.

Rhonda had met me out by the parking lot and we were trying to work out plans for our next date. She’d suggested Sunday, which was already a pretty busy day for me but really the only day that weekend we could make it work. Saturday she had a family thing that looked like it was going late and Saturday I’d be in Asheville with Willie. Since Mom wouldn’t be okay with me going out after my set at the Blue Ridge when I had school the next day, the only option left to us was Sunday afternoon before my training session with Chef.

“Kat has a swim meet and asked me if I wanted to go.”

“And you said yes?”

“Yeah. We’re friends and you and I hadn’t made plans. I hadn’t really thought about how busy the weekend was going to be and I didn’t know you were going out of town on Friday.”

“So tell her you can’t go.”

“No. I get that it’s annoying and I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you about our plans for this weekend before now. Had I known you were out of town on Friday I would have checked with you first, but we’ve never gone out Sunday afternoons before, so I didn’t think that we’d be doing anything.”

“I don’t care. I’m your girlfriend and she’s not. You can cancel with her and go out with me. I don’t even see why you’re friends with her. She’s so terrified of everything if you bump into her she might just break in half.”

“Now you’re just being mean. She’s my friend Rhonda and I already told her I’d go. I’m sorry you’re angry, but you could have let me know about your Friday plans too. We both failed to communicate, but that’s not her fault. We can work out a different time to go out or just miss one weekend. This is my last gig with Willie, so we’ll have more options next weekend anyways.”

“So you’re picking her over me, is that it? I didn’t think you were that kind of guy Charlie. I guess you’re not a one-woman man after all.”

Her face was flushed and her nostrils flared. She was furious. Unfortunately for her, she’d pushed the wrong buttons, and so was I.

“Pump the brakes right fucking now. Do you really want to get into this? How about we talk about who called Aaron and told him about the theatre party and their leftover booze. Who kept trying to get us to go to Karen Brooks’ party even though I made it clear I didn’t have any interest in spending any time with those people? Or why don’t we talk about what you and Aaron were discussing when they did show up at Cameron’s party?”

“Charlie, I...” she said, suddenly looking nervous.

“No. You wanted to have it out and play the martyr, so get back up on your cross princess. I’ve never been anything but honest with you. Kat’s my friend, and I agreed to go and support her at her swim meet. I keep my word and stay true to my friends. Several people have warned me about dating you and I’ve told all of ‘em to go pound sand, because you’ve never been anything but good to me. I wouldn’t drop you just because someone else told me to and I won’t let my other friends down just because you want me to. It’s who I am, so you need to decide right now if you can deal with that.”

Rhonda looked on the verge of tears, all the anger gone.

“Charlie, I’m sorry. I didn’t actually mean any of it. I was just angry ‘cause I really wanted to go out this weekend. I didn’t actually mean you were ... I didn’t think you should...”

“Yes you did, Rhonda,” I said before taking a deep breath and collecting myself. “I apologize for how hard I was on you just then and I apologize for the cross thing. You need to understand, though, that I’m serious. I take my word and my friends seriously. As long as we’re together, I’ll never cheat on you, not in real life and not in my head. I’m a one-woman man. What I’m not going to do is abandon my friends or let you make my decisions for me. I’ll discuss important things with you if I can, but I’m not going to let you dictate who I’m friends with or what I do. Is that clear?”

“Yes,” she said in a softer voice, almost like the one Kat used when she was nervous or scared.

“Hey, you’re still my girlfriend and you still come first. I’ll try to talk to you about our schedule sooner in the week and make sure we’re on the same page. Okay?” I said, stepping towards her and taking her in my arms.

“Okay. I’m sorry I accused you of ... whatever,” she said, putting her head against my shoulder.

“It’s okay,” I said, kissing the top of her head. “I get it. It’s tough not getting to spend every moment with me.”

“Shut up,” she said, with a sniffled laugh.

“Don’t you two look cute?” Hanna said as she came up, having missed everything leading up to that moment.

At training that afternoon, I convinced Chef to let me stop early.

“Why? You’re making good progress, but this isn’t a time to start slacking off.”

“I know, and I promise I’m not. Knowing you, you’ll make me work twice as hard as possible to make up for it.”

“Probably, so this better be good.”

“Well, I have a problem with a friend of mine. She told me some stuff today and ... I don’t know how to deal with it. I know you’re not a shrink or anything, but you’ve dealt with a bunch of screwed-up kids over the years, so maybe you could give me an idea of how to deal with this.”

We went up to his apartment and sat down, since it was more quite there than just outside the kitchens. I broke down everything Kat said to me, leaving out names, except for Aaron. Her dating him and his animosity to me, as well as just the level of douchebag he was, complicated everything.

“Can I ask some questions?”

“Yes. She didn’t say this was a secret or anything, but I didn’t get her permission to share this with anyone either, so I’m kind of out on a ledge here. I might not be able to answer all of it.”

“Just answer what you can. My first question is, what is it you’re hoping to accomplish?”

“I’m not sure, really. All I know is this girl is letting herself get walked all over and taken serious advantage of. She wasn’t super specific, but I got the impression she’s done some things she isn’t very happy about, and she doesn’t feel like she has many other options other than to keep doing them. She’s my friend and I’d like to help her learn to stick up for herself.”

“You understand that might not be possible. I’m not a psychologist, but I’ve spoken to several in the past about some of the kids that end up working here, and we’ve dealt with some stuff like this before. Some people aren’t able to ever get over this. It really depends if it’s a neurological thing or something behavioral. If it is behavioral, maybe some kind of trauma in her past, it might be possible to mitigate it some, but there’s most likely no way to cure it. This kind of thing is managed, not cured. If it’s something neurological, it might be treatable. The best thing you can do is try and get her to talk to a professional.”

“I’ll try. She didn’t say it specifically, but I got the impression that she really hasn’t told very many people about this. I’m not even sure she understands why she does it herself. She knows she does it, but it’s like she’s accepted that’s the way it is.”

“If she opened up to you, that usually means she feels comfortable with you. That’s a good thing.”

“Yeah, but I’m worried if I start pushing her to do something, she’ll close off again. She took a chance telling me, and the last thing she needs is someone else telling her what she should do.”

“That’s a point. Do you think you could get her to come see me? I might be able to arrange for a friend of mine better qualified in this area to sit with us. That way you’re not the one asking her for anything specifically.”

“I’ll do that. Thanks, Chef. I’m really out of my depth here.”

“You did the right thing, Charlie. The worst thing you can do is take on something beyond your ability to deal with, even if it’s with the best intentions. It’s why I’m going to have an actual expert here with me and not try to do anything myself either.”

“I’m just glad you know the people to call.”

“You have a good heart, Charlie. It’s the thing I saw in you when you first walked through my door, and you’re showing me how right I was. You just keep following your instincts. Don’t think that’ll keep me from pushing you tomorrow to make up for the time you missed today.”

“I had no doubt you would.”

By Friday I hadn’t spoken to Kat yet about coming to see Chef. I was honestly not sure how to approach it, so I’d kept putting it off. We’d finished our tutoring sessions for the week, so the next time I was going to see her was on Sunday. She’d probably have family or other friends there, which meant I wouldn’t be able to ask her until some point next time. While it was good I had some time to think about it, I also was worried about putting it off for too long. Every time I saw her with Aaron in the halls, I got worried about her. He clearly knew how pliant she was, and from what I’d seen in the halls that one day, I knew he took advantage of it.

Chef asked me about it when I got to training, but I put him off. It occurred to me that he might realize I was procrastinating too, since he stepped up my conditioning by several notches. By the time he let me stop so I could begin fight training, I was dripping in sweat.

“Okay, now that you’re warmed up, we can get started.”

It was all I could do to keep from offering a few choice words in between gasps for air. I was able to hold back partly because I didn’t want the extra exercise that would have come with those words, but mostly because I couldn’t get enough oxygen to actually form words.

“Today we’re going to work on sweeps and redirects. ‘Sweeps’ is actually a broad term, and not really the right one, but I group most moves that accomplish taking your opponent to the ground while you’re still standing in the same category. Sweeps come in several forms. First, you have your leg sweeps, which also have multiple forms, such as back sweeps and forward sweeps. Next, you have your kicks aimed at the back of the knees and the shins, the latter usually paired with a push. Finally, you have your hooks, again paired with a push. First, we’ll start with sweeps. Stand back and come at me. You can pick your attack.”

I knew I was about to spend the day with my butt smashing into the ground, but I figured I’d try my best to get in a few licks of my own. Maybe I could surprise him.

That notion quickly went out the window. The first attack I tried was a sidestep punch, hoping the move to the side would put me out of the way of whatever he was going to try. I rushed forward and made my move when suddenly he wasn’t in front of me. He’d dropped down under my fist, which swung harmlessly over his head. The next thing I knew his leg smashed into the back of mine, taking my feet out from under me.

“Okay,” he said, helping me up. “That was a forward sweep. You’ll notice how I pivoted on one leg, with the other outstretched and, right before I made contact, I planted my hands flat on the ground. This has two functions. One is to offer additional power before I connected, and the other was to give me a more stable base and some leverage. Pivoting on one foot by itself isn’t enough of a foundation for contact without you also losing balance. Let’s have you try it.”

My first couple of attempts were a complete failure. On the first one, my knee hit the ground before I ever made contact, which caused me to lose all momentum and fall over without ever touching him. He managed to work through my form until I could spin around without hurting myself.

When we tried again, I had my second failure. He was holding a pretty solid stance and I more or less bounced off of him. It actually hurt like hell when my leg impacted against his. This was his way of teaching. He’d show me how something was done, let me try and fail, and then coach me through that failure. We’d continue to repeat the failure and teaching until I managed to perform the assigned technique successfully. He’d then add variations to what he did, at which point we’d restart the fail and teaching cycle again.

We finished the front sweep and went on to back sweep, shin kick, and knee kick. Some of them, like a sidekick delivered to the back of the knee, were pretty obvious in their applications. Others required some explanation to understand how to use them properly.

“There’s something I was wondering,” I said as we finished up. “How do I know when to use these, or really anything else you’ve been teaching me? If I stop and think about what to use here or there, wouldn’t I slow down and open myself up?”

“If you stopped to think about it then yes, you would. That’s why we do so much repetition of these moves and I do the call and response. The more you practice a move the more muscle memory you’ll build up, until you see the correct opening and just do it, without thinking about it consciously. Afterward, you’ll realize what you saw and why you took the shot you did, but in the moment you should already be going to the next move. It’s also why it’s important to tape practice fights and review them, to learn where you’re not reacting fast enough or missing opportunities, so you know where you need to keep working.”