The Lonely Girl Pt. 01

"You can't protect me Kyle, not from this."

She was right. The realization felt like a momentary stab to his heart. Kyle resolved to do what he could. He would do what he always did, show her that she was loved and safe at home. It was all he could do. Charlie fell asleep and Kyle went back to his room to do the same.

*****

Charlie was suspended from school on Friday due to her part in the "fight." Kyle offered to stay home with her and his parents agreed it was a good idea. She stayed in her shell throughout Friday and part of Saturday. By Saturday afternoon Kyle convinced Charlie to watch a movie they both loved, and she even laughed a little. Sunday, after a lot of cajoling, Kyle got her to agree to go for a hike with him. They hadn't hiked together in a while, with Kyle's social, academic and sports schedules filling up most of his time. But this weekend he cleared everything to spend time with Charlie.

When they first got to the park, Charlie seemed nervous. Like she expected the pack of girls to be hiding behind every tree. After about fifteen minutes of hiking though, he could almost see her visibly relax. Another half-hour in and she was almost back to her old self. Bubbly, chatty and endlessly endearing.

They ate dinner that evening as a family and Kyle could see the dark cloud start to descend on her. She had to go back to school tomorrow and the dread was starting to eat at her.

Kyle did what he could. He spent the rest of the evening trying to engage her in conversation, even trying to get her to do some homework. Anything to get her mind off tomorrow. Eventually she went to sleep and after a while, so did Kyle. He made sure to visit her and give her a quick kiss on the top of her head before he left for school.

*****

Kyle's family would find out just before the funeral that a bunch of the witnesses to Charlie's beating had filmed it... and it was a beating. A group of three or four girls - it was hard to tell with the shaky camera footage - punching and kicking at Charlie. One of the girls grabbed her by the hair and swung her into a locker. Kyle only watched the footage once... and even then, not all the way through. It was all he could do to not vomit.

The kids that took the video shared it amongst each other of course. Then, on Sunday evening, it started being posted to social media. By the time Charlie got off the bus on Monday morning, the whole school knew about the incident. The taunting was merciless. She wanted Kyle or her parents to protect her... but she knew they couldn't... not here. Here she was alone. Her innocent soul didn't know how to deal with the hate. She had only ever been shown love by those closest to her. When the hate and the cruelty descended on her, she didn't know how to process it. She just knew that one day was enough. She could not go through another.

Statistics show that many marriages do not last though the death of a child, and Kyle's parents' marriage was no different. It did not survive the year. His mother had become withdrawn and almost emotionless. His father turned to drinking.

They sold the house and split the proceeds, neither of his parents wanting to live there anymore due to the memories. Kyle went with his mother, as he didn't like how his father's drinking was affecting him.

Kyle's mother had worked from home since COVID, so she could pretty much work anywhere. But she wasn't spiteful, and wanted to make sure Kyle's father was close enough to be in his life. They moved about an hour away from their old life. Kyle never asked, but he felt like his mother had almost chosen the town they lived in at random. Given the way his mother appeared to sleepwalk through life at that point, it was probably true.

They moved just before Kyle started his senior year. His size and athleticism immediately drew the attention of the football coach, but Kyle politely declined. He had played on the varsity team as a sophomore at his old school, but any joy in the sport died with Charlie. He did use the school's gym regularly. His quiet focus, dedication and strength impressed and even slightly frightened those that saw his workouts, which were often discussed in hushed tones amongst those that had witnessed them.

Kyle eventually became acquaintances with some of his classmates. They couldn't be called friends. You shared with friends, even confided in some of them. He wasn't ready for that.

He mostly kept to himself and concentrated on his studies. Until the bullying incident of course. After the charges were dropped against him, he was suspended for a further week, but was allowed to collect and complete his assignments while he was out. He graduated on time and went to a small state college.

*****

It was during college that he was finally able to start healing. He occasionally tried to date, and some of the girls were genuinely sweet. But given how he looked, he generally attracted the cheerleader type of girls to him. While the girls he dated may have been sweet, the social circles they moved in always contained some of the same cruel people he saw in the popular cliques back in high school. The same type of clique that turned on Charlie. He would inevitably end the relationships before he found himself in a situation that would only lead to trouble.

He was glad to find that his parents were healing too. His mother started returning to her emotive self. His father stopped drinking. Kyle was thankful his father didn't have to hit rock bottom before he realized what it was doing. They never talked about it, but Kyle assumed his father realized the alcohol did nothing to remove the pain.

There was no reconciliation to look forward to between his parents. While they were healing, they emerged as changed people. His father eventually started dating a nice woman with whom Kyle got along well. Then one day, his mother decided to quit her job and pour her savings into a failing deli in the town center. Kyle helped her renovate it when he was on break from college. His mother invested in the industrial sized equipment she would need to make pasta like she used to at home. She found suppliers that could provide the quality of ingredients she needed.

It didn't happen overnight, and of course the first year was hard. But through word of mouth, great online reviews and finally a few writeups in some influential food blogs, the business started to take off.

*****

Kyle graduated college and decided to move back in with his mother and help her at the deli. She was shorthanded and found that most employees these days weren't interested in putting in the months of work it took to be proficient in pasta making. This meant she did it all herself while still having to do all the work a small business required, and it was taking a toll on her. Kyle needed little training as he'd been making pasta with his mother since he was a small boy. It was actually his mother, Charlotte and himself that would make it together, but he would always push that thought from his mind.

Besides already having the skillset for making pasta, Kyle had something most employees lacked... he cared. This was his mother's business, and he remembered the love she put into the pasta they made for their family dinners. Kyle tried to put that same love and caring into the pasta he made for her deli, albeit on a much larger scale.

Kyle was finishing up the last tray of tortellini when his mind started drifting toward Claire and his earlier discussion with John. He went into the walk-in and put the last tray on the rack. Exiting the walk-in, he paused and reached into his pocket. He pulled Clair's shopping list and examined it. He liked the way she wrote her Ps and Rs with exaggerated bubbles. He liked how neat and orderly it was. It appeared she had written her list by aisle so she did not have to hunt up and down the list to ensure she had everything she needed.

It wasn't quite closing time yet, but Kyle took off his apron and stuck his head out front.

"Hey mom, I finished everything back here. I have an errand to run, would you mind if I cut out a few minutes early?"

"What do you have to do?" His mother asked. It was not in an accusatory tone; she knew how hard Kyle worked to help make her business a success. It was more out of curiosity. While he had seemed much better after college than when he started - she was as well - he was still somewhat reserved compared to the happy teenager he had been before that horrible incident. As such, he had a schedule from which he rarely deviated. Except for the occasional trip to the local bar on a Friday night, he rarely went anywhere except to work and the gym.

"I just have to pick something up at the store."

It was an answer without any information, which was what she was asking for... but he was a good son and she never worried about him getting in trouble. If he wanted to tell her, he would have, and if he didn't want to, he probably had his reasons, so she let it drop.

"Ok, well, be careful."

"I will mom, thanks."

He went out back toward his truck, hopped in and headed towards the market.

Not for the first time today, and definitely not the last, he wondered what the hell he was doing. He stared up at the shelves of jarred pasta sauce. With an Italian mother, the idea of eating pasta sauce out of jar was out of the question. He skipped the pasta sauce on the list and headed for the next item. He chuckled as he saw Arborio rice on the list.

"Someone is making risotto," he thought to himself. After gathering everything on the list, he headed back to the fruit and vegetable aisle to grab some shallots.

After paying, he hopped back into his truck and headed back to his mother's deli. She had closed by this point, so Kyle used his key to get in. Punching in the alarm code, he headed toward the shelves in the back of the store and grabbed two jars of his mother's homemade sauce... and it is sauce. Don't ever call it gravy. Gravy goes on your Thanksgiving turkey.

Making sure to turn the alarm back on, he locked up and headed out. Fifteen minutes later he was heading down 513 about to pass the junction with 14.

"What the hell are you doing, Kyle," he muttered to himself.

What if she didn't live here? What if the people that did live here were armed? This was a really stupid idea, he thought.

Still trying to talk himself out of the endeavor, he passed the intersection with 14 and started to slow down. He vaguely remembered a driveway somewhere up on the right. He started slowing further just as he noticed a mailbox and then a gravel drive. Kyle stopped on the road and looked at the mailbox. 5600 County Rt 513 it said. No name on the box though. Would that have even helped? What was her last name? He thought it started with a K.

"Well, you came all this way," Kyle thought to himself and turned down the drive. The driveway turned left, then went up an incline. It then turned right as it crested the hill and Kyle could see a house through the trees.

"Please don't shoot me, please don't shoot me," Kyle repeated to himself under his breath.

He came out of the trees and into a clearing that had to be several acres in size... much of it overgrown. The house was a nice size, with two stories fashioned in a colonial style. The house was white with black shutters and a red door. The door held his attention for a moment until the driveway meandered around the right side of the house where the garages were.

That's when he saw the silver Honda CUV. The same car he remembered seeing her get in and dart out of the parking lot with this morning. This was the place. He parked his truck and walked toward the front of the house. Still praying that no one inside was armed, he knocked solidly on the front door and took a couple steps back off the porch, trying to look non-threatening. At least as non-threatening as someone who is six-foot-three, two-hundred-thirty pounds and built like an NFL linebacker could look.

He waited a few moments and casually tried to look through the window to see if there was any movement. Nothing. He then noticed the doorbell. Duh, should have used that first, he thought. He rang the bell and assumed his nonchalant position again. Still nothing.

He walked around the side of the house and took a peek toward the backyard. The lawn in the back was mowed in a strip that went out to the woods. He noticed some fencing out along the tree line which he assumed was a garden. He still didn't see anyone but decided it might be prudent to leave in case there was someone inside and they had called the police.

Heading back toward his truck, he paused. He went to the passenger door, opened it and fished through his glovebox for the pen he always kept in there. He turned the shopping list over and wrote a note. He put the list in one of the grocery totes he had bought and headed back toward the house. He thought about putting the groceries on the front porch, but what if she didn't use that entrance? He peeked around back again and noticed the walkway led directly from her car to an entrance that looked like it was just past the garage. He walked over and took a peek into what looked like a mudroom. He saw some small sneakers and boots near the door and figured this was as good a spot as any. Not knowing how long it would be before she returned, he removed the ground beef from one of the bags so it would not attract any critters and headed back to his truck.

Kyle started his truck and headed back toward home. It was not lost on him that this was definitely one of the dumber endeavors he had undertaken.

*****

It took Claire almost an hour to calm down after she reached her spot. Memories it had taken five years to bury had come flooding back, and it took her that much time to go through them all. Why did she have to see him? Why did he have to be there on a Tuesday morning? She'd have to find a new market to go to. That alone filled her with anxiety. It had taken the better part of six months after her parents passed to find her routine and feel comfortable shopping there. She would just have to order online again. Her garden would start producing vegetables soon. Maybe she could try one of those online meal services. One where you chose the recipes and they sent the ingredients to you. She had read reviews for some of them on one of the food blogs she occasionally read. She'd have to try and find that article again when she got back to the house.

She gently shook her head. Thinking about groceries and meal plans was not going to help her get past this. She wondered if it would have been better to have run into one of her tormenters instead. At least she was already used to the name-calling and cruel practical jokes.

She thought back to the time in eighth grade when someone had smeared ketchup on the back of her skirt. She hadn't even known it was there, having learned to just ignore the snickering and laughing in her presence. It went on for several classes when one of the teachers finally whisked her off to the nurse's office. The nurse led her to one of the beds and pulled the curtain around them. She told Claire to take her skirt off. Being shy, Claire didn't feel comfortable taking her skirt off, and quietly protested. The nurse insisted, and while Claire slowly unzipped her skirt went into a halting description of the birds and the bees. Once her skirt was removed, Claire understood what had happened. They had put ketchup on her skirt and told everyone she had gotten her period for the first time at school.

Claire explained to the nurse that she had been having her period for a few months now and her parents had told her all about reproduction and a woman's menstrual cycle. They tried to wash the ketchup out of her skirt, but it had stained and left a red smear on the white material. Her mother was called to pick her up and take her home. When some of her classmates saw Claire being led out of the school by her mother, it just solidified the rumor was true.

Her mother went to the office to again protest the treatment of her daughter. The administration said nothing could be done since they didn't know who had put the ketchup on her. They assured her they would continue to look for the culprit and punish them accordingly. Claire's mother had heard this same story a dozen times at this point and knew nothing would come of it. While this didn't sit well with her, neither did confrontation.

*****

It was a little colder today. Not so many insects out. No ripples in her pond to grab her attention. There were more squirrels, though. Their frantic scurrying through the underbrush did not lend to the peaceful, relaxing atmosphere Claire needed at this moment.

Reliving the cruelties her classmates had imposed on her didn't really bother her anymore. It was all she knew. It was her normal. But seeing Kyle had stabbed at her. A sharp pain in her heart she had only ever felt twice before. The first, involved him as well and she tamped that thought down. The second was when her parents passed.

The pain didn't come all at once, it slowly built to a crescendo. It was months later when Claire realized they were the only love she had in her life. It took more than a few trips to her spot to work out what was going on. A slowly opening hole in her soul. It was so slight at first that she barely noticed it. But as time went on, as she tried to find routine to her life without her parents in it, she felt the maw opening wider. That's when she realized: she was truly, utterly, completely, alone. The only people who had ever loved her were gone forever. She spent most of that day at her spot bawling, crying and sniffling. It took several weeks to come to terms with the realization. She lost weight that she couldn't afford to lose and spent more time in bed than any person should.

Slowly, over a period of months, Claire began to recover. Starting her garden and cooking were welcome distractions that provided the routine she desperately needed. She got to a point with her routine where she was comfortable. She was still lonely, but she had always been, and knew she could deal with it.

At least that's what she thought. Bumping into Kyle had once again upended that notion, and not for the first time.

*****

Claire remembered waiting patiently. Her blank expression and lack of reaction usually made them bored and and they moved on. Later she remembered feeling a little bad for Sam, the classmate who stood over her. He was tall, but also overweight, which caused his classmates to pick on him as well. She could almost understand Sam's frustration. The need to lash out at someone. Unfortunately, he didn't lash out at those that bullied him. He lashed out at Claire... and he did it just as Kyle was coming down the hallway.

She was annoyed when Sam knocked the books from her hand. Except for a shove on occasion from one of the girls, they almost never got physical with her. She hoped her term paper didn't get trampled by the sea of students circling and egging him on.

Annoyance turned to shock when there was a blur and a sickening crunching noise. She turned to her right to follow the motion. She saw Kyle grab the front of Sam's shirt with his right hand. She then noticed all the blood dripping on Kyle's hand and her eyes followed it to its source. Sam's nose bent in a sickly direction, blood pouring from it. Kyle pulled back slowly with his left hand. Then with a quickness she had never seen before, his fist lashed out and caught him high on his cheek, next to his eye. His head snapped around so fast that some of the blood was flung from his face, landing on to Claire and a few other students in the immediate vicinity.

A teacher grabbed Claire's arm and pulled her out of the way, then tried unsuccessfully to pull Kyle off the now unconscious and slumping student. The teacher screamed for help and other teachers and students came to help pull Kyle off of Sam.