Chapter 35: Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

"Did you sleep well?" Tamsin asks her son's overnight guest, "What can I get you for breakfast?" The worried mother has pinned her hopes on seeing Sheridan settled down as soon as possible, believing that a wife and children might be the only way to keep the boy from running wild, so she wants to make his girlfriend feel as welcome here as possible.

Sheridan doesn't have much time after breakfast to hang around; he's starting work for Demond today, even though it's Saturday.

"I thought we'd spend the day together," Chanda says, disappointed to be saying goodbye so soon.

"I have an interview at Doo Peas," Sheridan lies.

"Business?" Chanda asks, surprised, "I would think life in a suit would be too stuffy for you..."

"Yeah," Sheridan agrees, "But, you know, exploring my options." He hates having to lie to her, he's not very good at it and fears the consequences when he inevitably gets caught.

"All right," Chanda says reluctantly, "Good luck, then, and call me later."

Sheridan drives off, making a show of heading toward Roth Square, and then turning off when he's out of sight, cutting around toward the abandoned factory near the Hills Discards that Demond uses as his criminal headquarters.

Duane Kendall is new in town and the school asked Dulce to tutor him to get him caught up with the rest of the class.

After she's gotten him up to date on the lesson plans, she stays to hang out for awhile. More than needing academic help, he'll need friends in town. Dulce quickly learns that Duane is a budding artist and author.

He's also cute and prom is coming up fast. Dulce hasn't got a date yet, though all her friends do. After talking about their favorite books and paintings, she brings up the upcoming prom issue.

"I know this is kind of sudden, but prom is this Monday. If you wanted, you could go with me," Dulce offers. He blushes and looks away, and Dulce wonders if he's shy.

"A girl as pretty and nice as you doesn't have a prom date already?" he asks when he turns back to face her. Now it's Dulce's turn to blush and look away.

"I don't," she says.

"Are the guys in this town all stupid?" Duane asks, "Or crazy?"

What they are is afraid of her brother, but Dulce doesn't want to say that and potentially scare off Duane as well. So she laughs and says, "I was just waiting for the right one. So it's lucky for me your family moved here before prom. That is, if you'll go with me?"

"I don't know," he says, crushing her, "I think we should go on a date before we commit to the prom."

"But, the prom is on Monday," she protests.

"And tomorrow is Sunday," he laughs, "I was just teasing. Of course I'll go to prom with you. And I'll take that date tomorrow, too, if I can get it."

After work, Sheridan goes straight to his friend Demarcus' party. If you can call this lame affair a party.

"Dude, Chanda called me today asking if I'd seen you at work," Demarcus tells him. Demarcus works for DooPeas, the company Sheridan claimed he was interviewing with today. "Did you, like, get a job?"

"Hell, no, I did not," Sheridan says, "Please tell me you covered for me."

"It would help if you gave me some advance notice about what I'm supposed to say to cover you with," Demarcus answers, "I had no idea if I supposed to be seeing you or not, so I told her I was stuck in the mailroom all day and so no one at all."

"I may need you to tell her I work with you," Sheridan says. "I'll let you know."

"Dude, have you got something on the side?" Demarcus asks, incredulous.

"No, that's not my style," Sheridan answers, "I love Chanda, she's the one. But I don't want her to know what I'm doing."

"What are you doing?" Demarcus asks.

Sheridan hesitates. "It's probably better you don't know either."

Demarcus shrugs, "Whatever, dude."

Demarcus' party is too dull for words, so after an hour, Sheridan slips out and heads over to Red Shed. When he gets there, the only other patron is Sedrick Moldonado. Sheridan greets his nemesis with hostility.

"C'mon, back that up with some fight," Sedrick taunts, shoving Sheridan.

It's a normal Saturday night at work for mixologist Antwon Fong. With no entertainment at Red Shed besides drinks and the very occasional band, brawling is really the only thing to do here.

Sheridan remains the top fighter in Riverblossom Hills.

Fighting is thirsty work, so Sheridan throws back a few drinks in the empty bar before heading home. He tries calling Chanda, but it's past 1am, and she hangs up on him angrily.

Demond sends Sheridan out on Sunday to do some pick pocketing. It's small time stuff, but Demond insists that it builds stealth skills necessary for bigger jobs. Unfortunately for Sheridan, he's not stealthy enough yet to get away with it, and he gets nabbed by the police.

Unlike his juvenile arrests, Sheridan doesn't get dropped at home with a warning and a lecture from his father. Now he's going to jail. Needless to say, Chanda is enraged when she's her boyfriend being brought in for a felony. She doesn't say a word to him, avoiding even looking at him, and while she works to keep her face an emotionless mask for her fellow officers, Sheridan can tell how hurt she is by this. When he gets out, he's going to have hard time getting her to forgive him.

Dulce meets Duane at the park late Sunday afternoon for their promised date.

She's worried about her brother in jail, and she's worried about what her brother's reputation could do to ruin hers, and she's doing everything she can to not look worried.

"You know, if I didn't already have a date for the prom, I'd totally ask you to go with me," Duane teases her.

Dulce giggles nervously, wishing she could just be normal right now.

Holding in all the worry finally becomes too much for. "My brother got arrested today," she says quietly, "He's in jail."

Duane stops swinging to hold her, "I'm really sorry," he says, though words are usually useless in these kind of situations.

"He'll be okay," Dulce says, "I think. And I understand," she sighs reluctantly,"If you don't want to date me now."

"Whatever your brother has done has nothing to do with my wanting to date you," Duane answers.

"All the other boys in town are afraid of him," Dulce explains, coming clean. He deserves to know all this before he gets involved.

"Is he like some ultra violent psycho?" Duane asks.

"Not...really, no," Dulce answers, "He's not psycho. And only a little violent, sometimes. Mostly to Sedrick. His arch-enemy."

"Well, even if he is psycho, I'm taking my chances with you."

Demond posts bail for Sheridan, and he's out by midnight. Sheridan can't get out of there fast enough.

When he gets back to his house, he's greeted not by his angry father, but by a furious Chanda. It's actually good news that she's here, it means there's a good possibility of being forgiven. If she hadn't come at all, it would be an indication that she was ready to dump him.

"Do you have any idea how mortifying it is to have your boyfriend hauled in for pick-pocketing?" she asks, seething, "And why the hell were you picking pockets, anyway?"

"I know, it was stupid," Sheridan admits, "I was doing it for thrills. It will never, ever happen again, I promise." What he means is he's going to improve his game so he never gets caught again, not that he's going to give up his new life of crime. "Please, Chanda, forgive me."

Chanda sighs, and relents.

She's too crazy about him not to forgive him. She's been boiling over with anger for him all day, and that heat has spilled over to passion once she let the fury go.

And after that passion is spent, Chanda is left with doubts.

"Don't go, Chanda," he says as she gets out of bed, "Stay the night."

"Sheridan, I've loved you since high school. But high school is over now. I'm grown up, and you should be grown up. But you haven't changed at all since we were teens."

"It was just a few days ago, Chanda," Sheridan says, "I promise, I'm going to change. I'll be the man you want me to be. Give me that chance."

The doubts linger, but Chanda loves him enough to believe his promises, to believe he's going to try to change for her.

She watches him for a moment before rejoining him in his bed. She always encouraged his rebellious behavior as a teen, egged him on to fight, thrilled in the trouble he created, loving him for his bad boy nature. Now that rebelliousness is the thing she seeks to change. If she can't succeed, will she still love him? It's not a question she's ready to face.


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Challenge Notes:
Duane Kendall's family are recent immigrants to the neighborhood. He looks so muck like Foster Enmity, it almost creeps me out. SP obviously took his genetics from my bin. But, he's no relation to anyone in town, it's just a creepy resemblance, lol.

Sheridan got in his first fight for the Fighter requirement. I'm shooting for Saturday as fight day. Ideally he'll find other adversaries than just Sedrick. But Sedrick is his nemesis and therefore an easy target.