Fight to Stop

She didn’t know why her son came home with a bloody nose.
He was a good kid with a 4.0 and the star of his high school soccer team.

He didn’t say anything about it, only mumbled “I’m fine,” so she assumed that he had fallen or tripped. A month went by and they forgot all about it.

He walked through the door with a black eye. She asked him what had happened but all he told her was “I’m fine.” His eye was puffy for a while but it died a week later.

She watched as her baby boy turned 17 three months later. The day after, she accosted him after he came home with a bloody lip. “Please tell me you are not getting into fights at school,” she pleaded.

Her son looked taken aback, offended by the thought.

“No,” he told her. “I fight to stop them.”