Chapter 16: Jackson

                                    

                                          

I follow her watching as she enters a cute homey house, something that I feel is the polar opposite of her. Her huge sectional sofa is grey suede, white pillows placed everywhere. The pillows don't look stiff though like she bought the pillows to actually serve a purpose. A dark grey rug under the couch, a child's bookshelf and bean bag sits off in a corner, the bookshelf a nice color blue. The kitchen island is to my left beautiful tan marble, dark hardwood under my feet, a light shade of grey on the walls. A very modest place she walks to the island where Lucas is waiting with the plates. Sure, the shades are of greys and blacks but it has a homey air to it, it's modest. 
"I am going to go take this off." She turns to her son saying who laughs as she walks off. She leaves me and him alone and I pull out a stool sitting down in front of setting the boxes in front of me. 
"Jackson, do you know about my dad?" Lucas asks his hands folded on the counter. 
"Yes, I do. I only know what your mom told me." I tell him and he looks lost in thought before speaking. 
"Is he hurting her?" He asks and I shake my head. 
"No Lucas, your dad isn't hurting her." I answer honestly. 
"I don't want him to be my dad." He says gruffly folding his arms on the table. 
"Why not?" I ask. Of course, I know why, I just want to hear it from him.
"He hurts her, and me. I don't want her to be hurt." He answers as I hear footsteps, I see her with her heavy makeup off. 
"You ready to eat little man?" She asks and he yawns once more before nodding. "You're really tired so I am going to give one piece, okay?" She tells him and he nods. She puts a piece of pepperoni on his plate before he picks it up digging in. 
She takes two pieces and I settle in with mine as we start eating. Quinn asks him about his day and he goes on about his friend Faith. Quinn's eyes light up the more he talks about him and when he talks about how she tried kissing him me and her laugh. 
"It's not funny! It was disgusting!" He exclaims making her bite back a laugh. 
"Honey, maybe that just means that she likes you." She says and he scrunches up his nose shaking his head. 
"I sure hope it doesn't." He mutters and I laugh. Her eyes widen when I do and I don't forget the look on her face that lets me know that she was affected. 
"Lucas, sometimes girls they show that they like you in funny ways." I tell him and he looks up at me like he is really thinking about. 
"Like kissing?" He blurts he blurted and I smile nodding. 
"Sometimes." I answer. 
"Well can they pick out other ways please?" He asks making Quinn laughs so hard I stop watching her cheeks turn a pink shade. It makes my heart stop in my chest a minute before I look back over at Lucas. "I'm tired and full. I'm going to bed." He gives up shaking his head. 
"Goodnight Lucas." I say as he pushes off the stool.
"Night. Goodnight momma, love you." He speaks standing beside her. She bends down slightly letting him hug her before kissing him on the forehead. 
"Love you too bug." She whispers before letting him walk down the hall. She leans back looking at her feet fumbling. "I didn't expect him to go to bed so soon." She whispers. 
"How did you get into wrestling, fighting or whatever?" I ask and she shrugs putting her arms on the table before running her fingers through her hair. 
"Right around the time when I met Damien he asked if I wanted to make some quick money. I'm not sure how he found out about it." She explains. 
"Damien is your ex-husband, isn't it?" I ask and she nods. She stands up turning to the cabinets. 
"Would you like some wine?" She asks and I nod. 
"Sure." I say she pure two glasses of white wine before turning to me. 
"Come on." She instructs she walks over to the couch grabbing a blanket that was over the side pulling it on. I sit down beside her and she settles in beside me, she stays quiet for a little while before speaking. "You're wondering why I fight, right?" She asks and I shrug. 
"I try not to think anything of one." I take a sip of the wine glass setting it on the coffee table. She does the same before turning to me. 
"He's blackmailing me. He makes more than enough money off me to not work so he doesn't fight. He wants me to give him money and says if I don't, he'll turn me in for fighting." She explains and I try to process all of this information. "You look pissed." She whispers. 
"Not at you." I say almost gritting my teeth. I could almost kill this fucker for doing this. Before a situation pops into my head. Why is she still fighting? She could just stop then his money would stop, it would still be stopped if she was turned in. "Why don't you stop?" I ask and she sighs. 
"If I stop, he turns me in I go to jail he gets Lucas." She looks down at her lap as she says this. Then everything starts to click into place. She sets back as I do but this time, she's closer her back pushing against my shoulder slightly. I put my arm on her thigh and she rests her head against my chest.