• Fighting never solves anything and neither does crying. She pushed through the crowd angrily. She won’t fight and she won’t cry anymore. There’s nothing she can do. She kicked the tire on her car before she opened the door and climbed in. She pounded the wheel with her fist.
    “Ash! Come on, you can’t leave like this!” Mike came running down the path, the referee of all the matches, yet he couldn’t stop it from getting as far as it had that night. She never started or ended the “matches” and no one ever won.

    Her shirt was torn down the back and she was bruised and cut on her arms. Her jeans were just as dirty and beaten. “What do you want Mike?” she sat back in her seat and winced from the pain. “I came to the party and this happens.” She gestured to her condition.
    “He didn’t mean it really!”
    “What is he blaming it on his emotional problems again? Please Mike, he almost killed me!” She said glaring at him for saying the same thing again as the other nights. “I deserve a restraining order on him after this one.” She started the truck.
    “He said he’s sorry.”
    “And it’s the same old story. How many times has he said that before?” She counted the tally marks cut into the dashboard, “twenty-three times and that’s since I started counting! I aint coming back.” she turned the radio down so she could talk to him better. “Listen Mike, he’s not gonna change and you know it.”
    “He does love you, Ash; he just doesn’t show it right yet.”
    “If he aint gonna show it right, then I don’t need him. I deserve not getting thrown into a ravine when he gets mad at me. I don’t need tough love, Mike; I’ve had my fill of that.” She pushed the gear shift into reverse, but held down the brake. “I’d tell his next girl if I were you, about that temper.”
    Mike looked down at the dirt. She pitied him for being such a good friend to him. “Mike…My mother went through the same problems, only I’m not like her. I’m not gonna take it. You can’t blame me for wanting better can you?”
    He shook his head.
    “I wish you luck, Mike, keep your head in the big game on Friday… I’m not sorry for what I’m doing.”
    She lifted her foot off the brake and watched in the rearview mirror as she turned out of the hunters’ path that led to the party campgrounds and went home. There was no reason to hold onto the fight anymore and she wasn’t gonna cry about it.