Free Let Go by Heather Allen

a lot faster
than he thought. He walked away with a lot more in tips than he
would have imagined. Maybe tending bar isn’t as bad as he thought.
He rolls over and thinks about Christina. She seems to be a closed
off person like himself. Not that they got a chance to really talk
because it was slammed all night. Every comment out of her mouth
seemed like an innocent dig at his lack of experience. He took each
remark as her way of accepting him. At the end of the night after
all of the drunks left he was quiet and tired. She didn’t pry or
ask anything about him. She just instructed him on how to close the
bar down. He was thankful for that.
    Tonight he has
another shift. But first he needs to make a decision about Jackson.
He climbs out of bed and showers in record time. The warm water
seems even less today than yesterday. When he climbs into the
truck; his phone rings. He pulls it out to see Trinity’s sweet face
flashing across the screen.
    “Hey
Trin.”
    “Greylan, how
are you? How’d your first night at Juno’s go?”
    He chuckles,
“It was good, busy. How are you?”
    “I’m great.
Are you sure you’re okay? I feel like we kicked you out. Like you
didn’t really have a choice about leaving.”
    “Trinity, you
know I couldn’t have stayed there forever. This is your life with
Parker and you don’t need your big brother hovering over your
shoulder at every turn.” He can’t believe he’s saying this. Maybe
it’s to convince himself that it’s alright to move on; more so for
his sister’s sake.
    “I know but
the circumstances that you left on. I just…I don’t want you to hate
Parker. I know he’s not your favorite person and that’s fine but…”
Her voice trails off. Does he really want to have this conversation
with her? No, Parker is unfortunately in her life and he doesn’t
like it. The last thing he wants to do is assure her that he’s okay
with Parker because he’s not.
    “Trinity, it’s
fine. Why don’t you come out to Juno’s one night? It’s a world of
its own.”
    “Way to change
the subject big bro. I’ll check it out one of these nights. Okay, I
better go.”
    “Alright kid,
take care.”
    “You too.”
    He thumbs the
end button needing suddenly to get this anger surging through him,
out. He heads in the direction of Westside Gym. It hits home as he
thinks about it that he is really going to go through with this. In
his mind there are no other options. He is a fighter all the way
through. It also occurs to him that he is an amateur again,
starting at the bottom. At least this time he knows how it all
works. Carlo was right, it won’t happen if he doesn’t want it bad
enough. The bar gig last night was fun but not something he wants
to continue for the rest of his life. Get back to the top, that’s
all he needs to focus on. And once again Parker pops into his head.
There isn’t room up there for both of them. If he pursues this,
will his sister forgive him if he knocks Parker down? He shakes it
away, one thing at a time.
    The truck
angles into a spot across the sparse lot from the broad warehouse.
He takes a deep breath before opening the door. The wide space
greets him along with loud heavy rock music. It reminds him of the
bar last night. The band that played was definitely hard rock. It
seeps into him as he sets his mind to what he’s about to do.
    A whistle
louder than the music, rings through the building. Greylan looks up
and spots Jackson exactly in the same place as yesterday. This time
though there are no fighters in the ring. Greylan shoulders his bag
and aims for the ring. When he’s ten feet away Jackson exclaims,
“You came back. Does that mean what I think it means?”
    Greylan allows
a small tilt of his lips as his presence calls out that he’s going
to go for it again.
    Jackson
orders, “Well get yourself ready then, I don’t have all day.”
    Greylan heads
to the locker room. He opens a locker to put his bag in but a man
just closing his own calls