Alex (Cold Fury Hockey #1)(77)

Garrett is in the dining room wiping down the table and as I dry my hands on a towel, I look over to Glenn, who just put the last container in the fridge.

"How's school going?"

Shoving his hands in his pockets and looking at the floor, Glenn shrugs his shoulders. "Okay, I guess."

I recognize the move … it's one I did repeatedly when teachers would ask how things were at home. I was a pro at averting my gaze so no one would see the truth in my eyes.

"Hey, man," I say as I walk up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. He finally looks up at me, so I continue. "If you need to talk about something … something that you can't talk to your parents or even Sutton about, you can talk to me."

I'm not quite sure why I offer this, because honestly, what type of sage advice could I give him? I have no realistic idea of what a normal childhood looks like, and God help me if he wants to talk about girls. Until Sutton, I never treated a woman decently in my life. Still, I give him a reassuring smile so he knows I mean the offer is good.

Shooting a quick glance in the living room, and satisfied no one is listening because Sutton, Jim and Penny are all sound asleep as a football game plays on TV, he says, "There's this kid at school, who everyone picks on. When he comes to school, he's always dirty, and smells bad. I think he and his mom may be homeless."

My heart lurches when Glenn sneaks another glance at the living room, then turns back to me in a whisper. "Anyway, the other day some kids were pushing him around and I told them to stop … "

Glenn pauses and looks down with a shamed look on his face. "Hey, bud, it's all right. You can tell me."

He looks back up and a hard glint is in his eyes. He whispers again while leaning toward me, "They wouldn't stop … and I just … I got so angry I got in a fight with the other kids."

Of all the things I thought Glenn was going to say, I didn't think that was it. My brain goes into overdrive, trying to think what an adult piece of advice would sound like, but Glenn doesn't even give me a chance. "I ended up hitting one kid really hard and cut his lip."

"Did you get in trouble?" I ask, fascinated over the prospect that Glenn was involved in a schoolyard brawl.



       
         
       
        

Shaking his head, he says in a low voice, "No … it broke up when the bell rang and the kid didn't rat me out. I guess he was afraid he'd get in trouble for pushing the other kid around."

"So what's the problem?" I ask, genuinely not knowing why this should upset Glenn. To my way of thinking, he was a little hero. He stood up for someone weaker.

One more glance into the living room, and I notice that he's looking directly at Sutton. Then his eyes come back to me, filled with regret. "Because … Sutton says violence is never the way. She says violence begets violence."

I blink at Glenn hard, absorbing the almost biblical tone to his voice as he quotes his sister. He's feeling shame over hitting another kid.

"But surely she'd understand," I say, but Glenn is shaking his head, cutting me off.

"No … she lived in a violent household when she and Mom were with Cosmo. She's been through things much worse, and she's told me to always turn the other cheek."

I almost rear backward over this revelation. I'm surprised first that Glenn would even know any such details of Sutton's life before Jim rescued her and her mother, and second, I'm stunned that violence was part of the fucked-up existence that Sutton lived in with her drugged-out father. Suddenly, I'm wishing I had punched Cosmo Price rather than shook his hand last week.

"What exactly did Sutton tell you about when she lived with her-with Cosmo?"

"No real details because she thinks I'm just a kid, but just generally things like hitting another person doesn't solve a problem. She told me that she had been hit a lot and sometimes she wanted to react the same way, but she always told herself to be the bigger person. I want to be a bigger person like Sutton, but maybe I'm just as bad as Cosmo."

Holy fuck, but that's a messed-up thought for any kid to have running through his head. Bending down into a squat so I can look Glenn in the eye, I tell him. "Look, Sutton's right about what she's saying. Violence shouldn't be the answer. But sometimes … we all do things in a moment of passion. Sometimes we make decisions based on pure emotion, and sometimes they are wrong. Now, I don't know if it was right or wrong that you hit that kid. Part of me wants to pat you on the back for it, because it was wonderful that you stood up for someone weaker than yourself. But all that really matters is that if you think it was wrong, then you are remorseful for it. It seems to me that you are."