Read All The Glory for Free Online

you eat?”
    “Yes.”
    “Do you have access to bathrooms?”
    Jason finally looked up. “Jesus Christ, Dad, do you really care if I used the toilet or not? Is that your biggest issue right now?”
    Anguished. That’s what he was. It made my heart hurt just to see that expression on his beautiful, beat up face. He was never so emotional before that I could remember. Even when they won State last year, he just smiled when pretty much the rest of the team was crying like a bunch of babies.
    It had nothing to do with me, but I wanted him to have his easy life back. I wanted him to be walking around town with his great, big, blown-up head, knowing he was the shit for every girl who passed by. No kid should have to deal with what he had on his plate right then.
    “I’m just trying to have a conversation. Relax, Son. Relax.” He took Jason’s hands and covered them with his own. It was touching and sad. I’d have bet a million bucks right then that these two men never held hands like this before today. Before the coach was dead. They’d smack each other on the butts and say Good game! but they wouldn’t hold hands. It was blowing my mind how crazy the world was in that moment, and how it seemed like I was the only one who could see it.
    Jason sat that way for a few seconds, but then leaned back in his chair, pulling his hands off the table and resting them in his lap. He looked over at me.
    “I know why he’s here. Why are you here?”
    I tried to smile, but my face wouldn’t cooperate. I gave up and tried to answer in a way that wouldn’t make me sound like a psycho.
    “I just … wanted to show you some support. See if I can do anything for you.”
    His smile was bitter. “I think Brittney had the better idea.”
    “What’s that?” I asked, wishing immediately after that I hadn’t.
    “Get lost. Stay gone. Don’t let my shit mess up your life too.”
    “Jason …”
    “Dad, shut the hell up, okay?” Jason’s attention shifted lightning quick to his father. “I did it, okay? I fucking killed the guy. It’s over for me and you too if you get all caught up in it.” He looked at me and scowled. “You should go.”
    “Listen, Son …,” Mr. Bradley’s volume went up and sternness came in, “… I’m your father. I’m not going anywhere, and this young lady deserves your thanks and your respect, at the very least. She risked a lot coming in here and that’s not nothing.”
    I watched shamelessly as Jason’s face underwent a transformation. I could literally see the emotions battling inside him. The storm cloud that had surrounded him went darker, then his face went red, and finally when it seemed like he was going to blow, he lost all his mojo. His shoulders sagged and his head dropped, chin to chest.
    “I’m sorry,” he whispered, lifting his head after a few seconds to look at me. There were tears in his red-rimmed eyes. “I shouldn’t have said that. Thanks for coming.”
    I nodded, the only thing I could do and hold back my own tears at the same time. My heart felt like it was collapsing in on itself with the pain. I wanted this to be all over for him, to be just a bad dream, but no matter how many times I pinched my wrist, it just wouldn’t work. We were all three really here. In the jailhouse. Listening to the sounds of Jason’s chains clinking together.
    The door opened again before anything else could be said, and a police officer in plain clothes told us we had to leave. Jason was pulled to his feet by his upper arm, and he shuffled out of the room in front of us, the chains on his body making clanking sounds all the way down the hall until he disappeared behind a heavy metal door.
    It seemed so final when it banged closed. It crossed my mind that I might never see him again after that moment. I hated myself for not saying more when I’d had the chance. For not telling him that I believed in him.
    And then I laughed at myself. What does that even mean, to believe in someone? It was