Dante Harris was running. Running from an abusive past. Running from a messy break up. Running from the life he left in the small city of Round Rock Texas.
Somehow this small town boy has found himself in the busy streets of New York City, and in t...
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It took every ounce of strength not to just stare at Sammy.
His words weren't what I expected.
I don't think he was what I expected.
I could feel that familiar sting. The sting that came right before your eyes started to well up with tears, but I pushed all that emotion down.
Sammy
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I wasn't sure why Dante's words had stirred me so much. It wasn't that I took offense to what he'd said about his assumptions of New York... it was more or less about the mystery surrounding why he left Texas. I couldn't put my finger on it before, but I now realized that Dante was picking his words carefully.
I knew the dance all too well because I did the same with my past.
It wasn't my place to pry, but with every word that passed through Dante's lips, my opinion of him kept changing. He was an evolving mystery.
I decided to change the subject. It was difficult to think of what to change it to, because all my questions about him would inadvertently bring up his past. It looks like that was a road he wasn't ready to take with anyone, let alone me.
I asked him about his interests. What he liked to do in his spare time. For the most part, he answers were pretty vague. He spoke about liking to put things together. He liked building furniture and scale planes when he found the time to.
Deciding to give him a little break from my interrogation, I let him ask a few questions of his own.
He wanted to know how I got into fighting. I offered him a small smile when his eyes caught mine from up on the beams. "My past's a bit of a dark one." I spoke honestly. "I tried to get on the straight and narrow after a few fuck ups of my own, even did medical school... but I realized that that just wasn't who I am. This is who I am."
Dante gave me a nod. He was nearly done ripping up the last few pieces of wood concealing the hole. The casual short sleeved shirt he was wearing, was now drenched in sweat. I, myself, could already feel the heat from outside sleeping through the roof, and I couldn't begin to imagine how hot it must have been up there.
