Chapter 12
Scarlett
Paint is everywhere. It’s on the walls, on the ceiling, on the floor, in my hair.
I’m not sure how I got here but the sunny color brightens the walls of the tiny kitchen and my mood.
Earlier this morning I went to the thrift store in town and found all the furniture I need, which will be delivered tomorrow afternoon and then I hopped over to the hardware store and picked out some new paint.
I’ve already painted the first coat of a pale lavender in the bathroom, I’m finishing up the yellow in the kitchen and next is a deep blue in the living room.
After doing some cleaning last night and now adding some paint, this little cottage feels more like mine.
There’s just something about taking a new space and transforming it however you envision.
I lived in my apartment in Denver for over a decade and sure, it was mine.
But this house feels different. I’m not renting, I don’t have to approve any changes I want to make with anyone.
If I feel like painting the outside of the house lime green, I can!
I stop and think about that for a second but I don’t actually want to paint it lime green, but maybe some shade of green would be nice.
I step out onto the porch and look at the outside of the little house.
It definitely needs paint, the thing I need to decide is what color?
Should I stick with the classic farmhouse white?
Should I join some of the houses in town and paint it a bright color?
I wonder how Grumpy would feel about that over there.
He obviously doesn’t like that I’m here in the first place.
How much would it bother him if I painted this house Barbie pink?
I smile to myself because I can almost hear the growl in his voice as he chastises my color choice.
Should I paint my house an obnoxious color just to piss off my neighbor? Probably not. Am I tempted to do it anyway? Absolutely.
Speaking of Grumpy, he pulls into his driveway as I’m studying the outside of my house.
He steps out of the vehicle and slams the door, obviously he’s in a lovely mood.
What surprises me is that a girl steps out of the other side.
She doesn’t slam her door from what I can tell but her mood isn’t a happy one either.
They disappear into the house and within seconds the girl comes back out of the house into the backyard.
She runs to the fenced area with the goat.
When she gets inside the fence I hear her cry out a name, give the goat a hug and begin to sob on the neck of the goat.
Her shoulders shake with the force of her cry and the longer I watch the more it seems she could be close to hyperventilating.
Before I can think whether it’s a good idea or not my feet move into a jog towards her direction.
I don’t know who this girl is, I don’t know what’s happened but if I had to guess, I’d say Grumpy has something to do with it.
There is zero reason for me to feel protective of this girl I don’t know but for some reason I do.
She looks young, maybe early high school and I remember how tough that age was.
Especially for me and my parents. My parents were very strict and they just never seemed to understand anything I was going through.
Our relationship suffered greatly because of it.
My mom was always famous for saying things like, “Once you’re an adult you’ll understand.
” Well Cheryl, here I am, an adult, and I still don’t understand.
“Hey,” I call out softly. I stand at the fence gate, not wanting to go inside with her and the goat unless she asks me to.
“Are you okay?” I ask. I know it’s a stupid question, the girl is sobbing into the neck of a farm animal.
She’s clearly not okay. The girl looks up at me and at least her shock takes her mind off of her crying for a second and she takes a deep breath.
“Who are you?” Her face crinkles up in disgust and she wipes her nose on her sleeve. I look down at myself and remember all the paint I’m covered in.
“Sorry, hi, I’m Scarlett, I’m the new next door neighbor. Did your dad do something to hurt you?”
Somehow her brows come even closer together in confusion. “Why would you think that?” Her voice is defensive and I’m beginning to think that coming over here was a huge mistake.
“I just, well, I saw your dad get out of the truck and slam the door and now you’re crying so, I’m just checking to make sure you’re alright.”
Her confusion dissolves and she begins to chuckle. That chuckle turns into a giggle and then a full on belly laugh. I have no idea what I said that made her laugh but nothing I said was intentionally funny. To my knowledge anyway.
“That’s my uncle, not my dad,” she says. “And he’s probably the best guy in the world, so no, he didn’t do anything to hurt me.”
I feel like that’s debatable but I bite my tongue.
“But someone did?” I ask. Her face turns serious again and I can practically see her internal debate about telling me.
I put my hands up and say, “you don’t have to tell me anything.
I just saw you crying and I thought maybe something happened with your dad–uncle–and I knew I just couldn’t stand by and not check on you. ”
She seems to relax and I hold my breath, waiting for her to decide.
“There’s this boy at school,” she says.
I sigh, “Isn’t there always.” I shake my head, feeling like I might already know where this is going but I stay quiet in case she wants to go on.
“He just did a few things I didn’t want him to. Like kissed me and started to touch me when I didn’t want him too, it’s not a big deal really, but now I’m suspended and my uncle practically assaulted the principal for punishing me and not the boy,” she rambles.
Well Grumpy gets a few points for that but let’s back up.
“Hold up, don’t you dare say it isn’t a big deal.
That’s just as bad as the principal giving a boys will be boys response to sexual assault.
Don’t you dare let him off the hook like that.
It is a big deal. Anything that makes you feel the way you are right now, is a very big deal. And why did you get suspended?”
“I slapped him.” A small smirk of pride spreads across her face.
“Atta girl,” I say. I don’t even know this girl’s name but I already love her feisty spirit.
“Have you ever been taught self defense?” I ask.
When I was in college I had a run in with a loser that sounds similar to this boy.
The only difference was that he was a particularly nasty drunk and had no idea what the word no was.
After one really awful experience with him I took a few self defense classes.
After the first few, I talked all the girls into taking them with me.
It’s been several years since college but I’ve been taking different self defense and martial arts classes off and on for years to stay fresh and safe.
“No, but my mom always told me that if a boy comes at me like that to shove with all my might and if I can’t shove them then slap them, punch them, pinch them or bite them, whatever I can do to get away. Which helped. It got me in trouble but it also got him off of me.”
“And that’s great advice but without the proper preparation sometimes we can go into freeze mode. If you’re ever interested, I could show you a few moves and with practice you could even take your grumpy uncle down if you needed to.” She smiles and her eyes move to a spot behind me.
“Why am I getting taken down?” A gravelly voice comes from behind me and I stiffen slightly.
“Oh, hey Grumpy,” I say as I spin around. He’s closer than I thought he would be and I’m looking up at his broad frame. He’s in his usual lumberjack uniform and I try not to notice the way his biceps bulge inside his flannel.
“Grumpy?” He asks, his brows furrowing.
“Yeah, it’s your nickname. Anyway, I was telling…” I look at the girl, who at the moment doesn’t have a nickname, and wait for her to fill in the blank.
She smiles, her face almost dry from her tears and says, “Cami.”
“Cami,” I say with a nod, “that’s a beautiful name. I was telling Cami that if she needs to learn some self defense moves to beat the asshole who touched her I can show her.”
“Oh yeah?” Grumpy says. “And you think you can take me down?” His face is smug and full of confidence. I’m going to love putting his ass on the ground.
“I absolutely do,” I say with the utmost confidence.
“Let’s see it then little girl.” He brings his large callused hands up to his chest and makes a come on motion.
I don’t need the extra motivation of being called a little girl but I use it nonetheless.
I position my body in front of his and I turn to Cami.
“Nothing is more satisfying than when you can catch someone off guard.” I grab Grumpy’s arm, place it over my shoulder and then I place my hip up against his.
I make sure my foot is in the right spot to use the most leverage to my advantage.
“See how I’ve got my hip here, and my foot here?
” I ask Cami. She nods. “Once you’re here you just,” I take a deep breath in and expel it all quickly as I pick up his dead weight just enough to toss him onto his back.
“See how I did that?” I ask, my breath a little short.
Grumpy looks up at me from the ground, “What the fuck was that?”
“To be fair, I did tell you exactly what was going to happen.” I shrug my shoulders.
Cami bites her lip to keep from laughing. When that doesn’t work she covers her mouth with her hand. Too bad her shaking shoulders give her silent laughter away.
“Well, I gotta run. Losing daylight!” I say as I turn towards my home. Over my shoulder I call out, “Cami, if you ever need some more moves just come on over.”
I try not to notice that my sweatshirt now smells like cedar and ash. I also try not to notice that I like the way it smells.