Chapter 6

It was mid-February and life was good.

I had a job I enjoyed as unbelievable as that sounded to my ears. I and my younger self were learning martial arts and already getting better. Chris stopped trying to whine to get out of going every time I showed up. I saw my dad one evening. That felt weird. Katarina Witt did indeed win gold. My student Carrie disagreed with the judges but it was the right call and Witt would prove dominant over the next years showing she was not a fluke. I also was dating and having semi-frequent sex with the school's hot nurse. Amy wanted to see Footloose at the movies and I begrudgingly took her. I would suffer a lot just to spend a night with her.

Life was good.

"Hello, Caroline," I said, surprised to see her in the lunch room this Tuesday. She hadn't had lunch with us since the last incident. "Where's Stephen?"

"He's out today."

"I'm glad you decided to eat with us today." I sat across from her.

"I miss eating with everyone."

"Nothing stopping you," Gloria said coming in with Bill. They sat down.

"You know how Stephen is," she hemmed.

"Exactly," I said. "That's why you should eat here with your friends."

"I don't know."

I looked at Gloria and Bill. They shrugged which expressed the same hopeless feeling I had.

The conversation turned casual. Alice came in late.

After lunch, we were about to head out when Caroline stopped me. She waited for the room to clear before she spoke.

"John, did you mean what you said?" she asked.

"About what?"

"Would you really let Stephen beat you up just so I could be free of him?"

It wasn't exactly what I said and Caroline said much more between the words. She just said she wanted to end the relationship.

I doubted I would really let Stephen beat me, but I still replied, "That's what friends do. They are there for each other. I'm your friend."

"Thanks, John," she said, looking happy.

"Why don't you end it, Caroline?" She looked apprehensive now. "You're not happy with him."

She didn't answer.

"Only you can do it," I said. "No one can do it for you."

"You're right," she said weakly. "You're so smart."

I was pretty sure I was always smart as an adult Chris Walker but because I fumbled around in fear I looked dumb. It was only as John Coleman that I was able to correctly apply my smartness to life. It was great being someone new.

"Coleman!" Stephen shouted as I checked in at the admin office the next day. "What did you say to Caroline?"

Fucking shit! Caroline must have got the nerve up to tell him yesterday. Good for her!

"Just helped her know how to say what she's wanted to say for a while."

"Our relationship is none of your business!"

"Why? You don't seem to care about her relationship with her husband."

"Caroline doesn't give a damn about him. I'm just telling you to get the fuck out of my life!"

The eyes of the admin staff were on us and Principal Simmons came out of his office.

"I'm her friend," I calmly said but my heart beat a mile a minute. "I was just helping her."

"You're no longer her friend!"

Stephen shoved me against the wall. My back ached.

"Do you fucking understand?" he growled.

"Neither of us can control what Caroline wants to do. If she doesn't want to go out with you then you'll have to manipulate some other woman into fucking you."

In a rage, he punched straight at my face. Something magical happened. It wasn't really magical, but it sure seemed that way. I only had a few martial arts lessons so far, yet I instinctively blocked the punch and followed it up with a hard body blow to his ribs. He groaned out and angrily looked at me. He connected with a punch on my left shoulder. That didn't feel good at all. I stepped in and gave an uppercut to his chin. Ow! I hit Stephen too much with my fingers instead of my knuckles like Master Kenji instructed. I shook my painful hand hoping none of the fingers were broken.

I was wide open and exposed for a punch, but my punch put Stephen on his back. Principal Simmons and others intervened to keep us separated.

"He started it!" Stephen whined like a child.

"I saw what happened," Simmons said.

Amy rushed to me. "Are you okay?" She gripped my hand.

"Ow!" I said, pulling it away.

"You better get it x-rayed."

"I'll be okay."

"Please," she said. "For me."

The hospital x-ray showed no broken bones. I only bruised my fingers.

I was back the next day and Stephen Spangler was suspended. I was pretty sure that never happened between teachers when I was Chris Walker here at school. I wasn't too concerned about the future timeline. I lived here and now. The future would take care of itself.

Word about the fight got out to the students, of course, but when they asked me about the incident it was almost always phrased, "So you beat up Mr. Spangler?" I quickly became tired of explaining that I did not beat him up but only defended myself. A nice side effect was it further increased my esteem in the eyes of the boys and with the girls too.

Spangler never came back. He was transferred to a middle school to teach Life Science.

I was a lunch monitor today. Tommy and Danny gave Chris a hard time again sometimes shoving him. I was very disappointed that Chris didn't try to defend himself.

Before class on Thursday, I talked to Master Kenji about what I saw during lunch. After warm-ups, Kenji had the students spend the whole time on self-defense techniques. I found it very helpful. I hoped Chris picked up something. I would love to see him shove his palm in one of those boy's noses. I didn't necessarily want him to break a nose, but a good nose bleed would send the boys a message.

I returned to my apartment after dropping Chris off and fumbled with my keys at the door. The lighting was bad, so I found the correct key more by feel than by sight.

A woman stepped out of the shadows.

"Caroline!" I said in surprise.

"Hi, John," she said softly.

"Are you okay?" I asked. 8:30 wasn't that late at night but it was late enough to draw my curiosity.

"Can I come in?"

"Sure." I pointed at the sofa. "Would you like something to drink? I have..." I paused. I didn't have anything but tap water. "I have water."