Valuable Lesson: Day 10

Word Count: 60,045

Summary of Events:

Kingston struck out on both rides at the next rodeo, in spite of the fact that Blair had kissed him, which had previously correlated with every time he'd gotten points. The following weekend Kingston was able to have a conversation with Blair's uncle, Kerry, who didn't like him and didn't think he was a good companion for Blair because Kerry had heard he was prone to random bursts of violence, but Kingston made it clear that they were only against Quinn, whom he felt his father had never done a good job of disciplining . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

“You mean to say you don’t think he’s parented you and your siblings well?” Kerry asked.

“Outside of my first five years I wasn’t parented by him,” Kingston replied. “I stayed with my mother or my paternal grandparents. They’re the people who parented me, otherwise I wouldn’t trust me as far as I could throw me either. But Quinn spent a lot more time with Dad and by the time Quinn was in high school he was living with Dad. There are people who have told me they can’t believe I’m a half brother to Quinn. The way Dad spoils him they thought he was an only child.”

“Really,” Kerry said. “I don’t typically stay up for the bulldogging, and I typically spend my time with the ropers, so as much as I’ve heard their names floated about I haven’t really seen them all that much.”

“Quinn is a total brat,” Kingston said. “And Dad just doesn’t see it. He’s convinced that I’m some out-of-control violent maniac and tells me to stop attacking Quinn for no reason when Quinn has been attacking me for years. He doesn’t physically attack me as much as he used to anymore, but verbally. He is constantly calling me names and I just can’t stand it so I reflexively punch him.”

Kerry nodded. Kingston thought he looked a little more convinced, but he couldn’t be altogether sure.

“I show violence against Quinn because I am determined to protect myself,” Kingston said. “Dad forsook the whole idea of protecting me when he went and jilted Mom, so now I have to defend myself from all of the threats that Quinn poses to me, and a lot of people see it as random violence because they don’t know the whole story. They don’t know how mean Quinn is to me, and that I have no other recourse than to defend myself.”

There was a long silence. Kingston didn’t know what to say without repeating himself.

“You know, I didn’t expect you to convince me that you might be better than I’d  been told you are,” Kerry said. “But I am actually willing to give you a chance. I will be watching you over the next while, and if I think that you’ve told me the truth and people truly don’t understand you as you’ve suggested that I might be able to reconsider the judgement that I’d levied against you.”

“Thank you,” Kingston said. “I promise you the main issue is that people don’t see enough of my interactions with Quinn to understand the reasons for what they do see.”

Kerry nodded. “Time will tell.”

Kingston nodded as Kerry got up and gathered the chair. He hoped that he’d be able to prove to Kerry that he was nicer than a good number of people thought he was, and thus would be a trustworthy boyfriend for Blair.