Free Shattered Chances: A Breaking Black Companion Novel by Addison Kline Page B

play Mommy! Cook your own damn dinner. I’m done! OW! Get your hands off of me!”
    My calm evaporated into thin air. Breaking into a run, I pounded the pavement with his feet, ran up the front steps and walked right through the front door that was left unlocked. My sanity threatened to abandon me entirely when I saw Dave crouching over Cheyenne with his hands around her neck. He had her lying down on the couch. Her legs flailed as she tried to break free of his grasp, but it did no good. Her face was turning purple from the lack of oxygen. I could hear her struggle under the weight of Dave’s choke hold.
    Darting across the room, my eyes saw red. Grabbing Dave by his long, straggly black hair, I pulled him off of Cheyenne and turned Dave around to face me. Before Dave could get a single word in, I sent a fist flying straight towards his face. Dave crashed to the floor, scrambling to get up, but mid-ascent, I grabbed the Louisville slugger that was leaning against the door and hit a homerun alongside Cheyenne’s step-father’s face.
    Throwing the bat down, I rushed to Cheyenne’s side where she was struggling to breathe.
    “Chey, are you okay?” I asked as I inspected the handprints on Cheyenne’s neck. Tears flooded from Cheyenne’s eyes as she looked at me. Grabbing my hand she coughed before saying, “Get me the hell outta here…”
    ***
    “We don’t have to go if you don’t want to… We can just go for a drive or something…” I suggested with a dark look in my eyes.
     
    Cheyenne sat in continued silence in the dark of my truck. If anyone was sensitive to Cheyenne’s plight, it was me. While both of my parents were ripped from me in the grisliest of ways, I had a good home life when they were alive. Cheyenne, on the other hand, had a mother who still drew breath and a step father who stepped up to raise a child that wasn’t his own. On paper it looked great. In reality, it was a nightmare. Dave would rather use his fists to get a point across and Gina, she was in another solar system. Cheyenne was on her own. She had me and I had her and that’s all that matters.
     
    Cheyenne glanced over at me and gave my hand a squeeze.
     
    “Since when have you ever been one to skip a party?” Cheyenne asked as a smile began to form on her tear-streaked face.
     
    I smirked, “Well, never… but if you’re not for it…”
     
    Cheyenne peered out her window, then glanced back at me.
     
    “I could use a beer.”
     
    “Then let’s go…” I said as I put the truck in first gear.
     
    Cheyenne cranked up the radio as the Drive-By-Truckers wailed out the speakers. I hit the gas, but almost immediately, I had to come to a break neck stop. Trent Myers had jumped right in front of my truck.
     
    “This asshole!” I screamed as I laid on the horn. If looks could kill, Trent would be dead on the spot.
     
    Trent laughed at my reaction but winked at Cheyenne when he saw her. Although my head was turned, I saw him out of the corner of my eye.
     
    “Jerk off!” I screamed at Trent.
     
    “Yeah… there’s a lot of them ‘round here,” Cheyenne declared as she lit up a cigarette and blew her first puff out the window.
     
    ***
    We pulled up to the party at half past nine. We bypassed the house completely, not even bothering to say hi to Shelly and just went straight for the keg that was propped up in the flatbed of another pick-up truck. I slapped hands with my friends Ricky and Torian while Cheyenne immediately poured two beers. She passed one off to me and chugged one back hoping to drown her worries for just one night.
     
    As I slammed back my drink, I put on my party face and I said to my buddy Luke, “Let’s see what kind of mayhem we can stir up tonight!”
     
    ***
    “What the hell is going on over there?” I asked, three sheets to the wind drunk.
     
    “Looks like Colt and Trent are getting arrested… Oh, shit…”
     
    “What?” I asked as I looked up, but I knew what Cheyenne’s