Southern Secrets Society: The Grooming | #Suspense | RomePi™

͋ 5 ͋ No Longer Strangers (BWWM)

BEN

"My name is Stephen Benjamin Collier, but everyone calls me Ben. What's your name?"

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From my observation, I imagined the girl was between sixteen and seventeen years of age which meant she probably wasn't trying to con me.

If I judged by the way she looked, her age might have been a bit of a mystery to me, but I couldn't shake the feeling that there was a youthful innocence about her.

Spending years in college learning about the law, interning, and then working for a few more years in the Fayetteville Arkansas District Attorney's Office taught me to look for the truth even when I knew someone was probably lying.

If I sensed she was pulling my leg, I would never support anyone who might be guilty of scamming others. But, unfortunately, groups of people roamed from house to house, offering services with no plans of finishing the work. Instead, these scammers were skilled at convincing their marks to pay them a portion of the money to start the job they never intended to begin. Because people like this operated all around Arkansas, I refused to be taken in by any of them.

Just because she was a minor didn't preclude her from being a con artist. But I was sure my instincts were dead on that she wasn't trying to deceive me.

Luckily, I also read the newspaper every day.

Since I had a terrible habit of collecting them until there was a mountain of papers stacked along my wall waiting to be recycled, two months of the Loveall Hometown News and the Arkansas Gazette lined my den's walls over in the corner in nice neat piles. I never throw papers in the trash because I have no desire to contribute to the destruction of my state.

Paper products came from the beautiful trees that covered most of "The Natural State," otherwise known as Arkansas, and I always aimed to do my part to protect it by not being so careless with how I dispose of my paper and plastic products.

It took me no time to locate the special editions that featured the three art students creating such a big buzz around town.

Seeing their bright shining faces in the paper reminded me of my team's articles featured many times for our numerous local games and state wins. But in truth, I never recalled a time when the art department won anything, so her story was quite fascinating.

Because I was a quarterback, I understood what it was like to be in the limelight. So when I went off to college, my first objective was to make my mark as a hardcore Razorback. I played in every game and enjoyed my status as a football hero. That was, of course, until I broke my right leg at the end of my sophomore year.

The changes in my life were hard to take, but they helped me see that my degree plan as a health teacher wasn't really what I wanted. I decided to change my degree to pre-law, and I have never regretted it.

During my recovery, the broken leg helped me realize that a football career was unreliable, and therefore, I altogether nixed it out of my future. Instead, I refocused my attention on more studying and less partying.

After some deep soul-searching and career research, I realized changing my degree would give me a better chance at a successful life. Deciding to buckle down and complete law school was an incredible adventure and I'm still pretty proud of myself for choosing that path.

It was thoughts of those decisions from my college days that helped me to understand what the youngster was trying to accomplish as I scanned the paper. My little trip down memory lane was what encouraged me to consider helping her reach her goal.