His name is Brian Gomez, and he started dating my daughter Sarah almost 2 months ago. He’s a  pretty tall, muscular kid. Apparently, he got the muscles from working in a car shop. Anyways he and my daughter hang out all the time after school. Brian tells me he’s taking her to these nice places, but I don’t trust him. Like how he has these nice clothes, and a 1967 corvette, but he doesn’t even have a job? He must be a drug dealer. One of these days I’ll catch him, and then I’ll have a reason not to let Sarah date him. The first time he came over, I asked him where he found the money to get the car, but he told me it used to be his dad’s, and that they have spent 6 years fixing it up, and now it’s worth like $60,000. It’s like every time I find something off about him he has an explanation to shut me down, but I’m onto him. After about a month of them dating I saw them kiss, and I just about lost my mind. “What does she see in this kid?” I thought.

“The only thing he’s got going for him is that scholarship to mechanic school. Otherwise, he’s a bum,” I thought.  I let the kiss go, but recently they’ve been getting more touchy. About a week ago they were both taking a nap together on the couch, and his hand was on her thigh! I had had enough, I had to prove to my daughter that this guy wasn’t worth her time. The first thing I thought to do was look for his drugs. I walked outside and his car wasn’t there! It was this rundown green Toyota Camry in its place. “Maybe he had to get his corvette fixed or something,” I thought. I headed to his car. “He probably still hides drugs in it” I thought. I unsuccessfully checked his car, but when I checked his glove box I found some overdue bills and eviction notices. They all were addressed to somebody named Sarah Gomez.

“What are you doing!?” Brian’s voice echoed from behind me. My heart dropped.

“Looks like he’s awake,” I thought to myself. “Oh, this thing’s yours?” I answered trying to play it off “what happened to your corvette?”.

He sighed, “I sold it,” he said as he walked towards the car. I scrambled to put everything back in the glove box, and I closed It fast so he wouldn’t see. He got to the car. “what are you looking for?” he asked.

 “Just checking whose car this was,” I said.

“In the glovebox?” he said as he pointed to the paper hanging out.

“Oh, I was just checking for the name on the registration,” I lied. “Why’d you sell the car?”

“Don’t tell Sarah, but I sold it to help my mom out with the bills” he whispered.

 “He probably owes somebody money, and that’s why he did it” I thought. I hopped out of the car and looked at him “Oh wow that’s a nice thing to do, but what did you do with the rest?” I asked.

“I’m putting it towards college for me and my sister” he explained. I never thought he would end up in college, and I have no idea how he keeps his grades up spending all this time with Sarah.

“Where are you thinking about going? If it’s somewhere far it might be better to focus more on school if you know what I mean,” I asked.

His face saddened  “yeah she doesn’t deserve long distance,” he sighed. Then his face lit up “Well good thing I’m going to Evergreen Tech University.”  He shut the door, and started walking into the house “I won’t have to go anywhere” he said happily. E.T.U. is the college about thirty minutes away from our house.

 “Oh, that’s a great dude!” That is what I was trying to say before he shut the door. I grumbled “that little jerk” I had to find another way to get rid of him, and since he was coming over today for breakfast, “What if I set him up for cheating on Sarah?” I thought. I’ll take his phone after breakfast, name myself as a girl on his phone and call him. My plan was set. About an hour later I was downstairs oiling the pan to start cooking, I dumped some in the pan and swirled it around over the heat. As I was, Brian walked in the door.

“Hey Mr. Parker!” he shouted.

“hey um, Sarah’s upstairs,” I said before yelling “Sarah Brian’s here!”. I opened the bottle to pour more oil, and when I looked over at Brian,  he was making out with Sarah “Hey cut that out!” I barked,  but when I did the bottle slipped from my hands and spilled over the burner. Instantly fire erupted. I fell backward in shock, then turned on the faucet from the sink, and sprayed it all over the fire that was now hitting the roof. It was no use the water didn’t do anything, and the flames started to burn me. “Everybody out!!” I screamed as I ran to get the fire extinguisher. Sarah and Brian ran out the front door, and I scurried into the laundry room where we kept our fire extinguisher,  one of the beams fell and knocked me out. The next thing I know I’m outside on the street, and paramedics were hoisting me up onto a stretcher. While half-conscious I looked over and see Brian in another ambulance, and his arms were all scorched and peeling. “What happened?” I quietly asked before coughing.

“That kid saved your life. He called 911 then jumped through that fire to save you. Your daughter is ok, but she’s just very worried about him.” The Paramedic explained.  

I looked over at Sarah, I told her as I dozed off“Maybe I was wrong about him,”