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She bit her lip, then said, "Claire, what do you wantto do for him, whatever it is your conscience tells you that youI said spoke to the huin to beat out of my chest when she said, "I need to talk to your dad about this I can’t make a decision like this without hi her tightly "When will Dad be home?"

"He told me he would be home for dinner, so I suspect within the hour, but you kno an hour can turn into two or three with your dad"

I spent the next two hours pacing the floor waiting on h the door, I propelledmy arms around him "Well, what have I done to provoke a reception like that?"

I looked up with tears in my eyes and he said, "What is it, Claire?"

My et in the door and we’ll discuss everything over dinner"

I backed off h I was dying to tell hi, I didn’t say a word because my mother had told me to wait

I anxiously helpedroom table "Well, the two of you haveon"

My s about Jessie toto let her tell you the whole story"

I started at the beginning and toldI knew about Jessie since my mother was still bound to not talk about him or his situation I started with his childhood and the incident that killed hiskilled I told him about Harley and Ozzy and hoonderful they were thanks to the raising they had by Jessie I concluded the story of Jessie’s life with his current situation and hoould be dead before graduation if we didn’t do sorandmother

My dad looked shocked by the details of Jessie’s horrific life "Claire, your mother and I need to talk about this without you Go upstairs and we’ll call you down after we’ve made a decision

I went to my room and paced the floor Five minutes turned into twenty and twenty turned into sixty Before I knew it, I stood in the middle of my bedroom floor ready to have a full blown panic attack when my mom came to my door and said, "You can coht I ht be ready to pass out, but I followed my mom down the stairs and sat in the chair across fro of my heart in my ears and it aled to hear, "This was a hard one for us to edy, but we see so ent and athletically gifted and we have no doubt he will go on to do great things if he is given half an opportunity Now, here comes the hard part"

I felt my heart stumble as I waited to hear the part I didn’t want to hear-the part where they toldto help him

"There is no debate about the need for hirandmother and it needs to be as soon as possible The debate co hiht answer because we have some concerns about how passionately you feel about hio see hi to happen because we know you love hiuidance could be setting you both up for a situation you aren’t ready to handle You’re not adults, even if you think you are, and you’re not ready tosex and we know that’s where it would lead if you were given the freedom

I felt myself turn every shade of red as I listened tothe decision to have sex This was soooo not what I was expecting to hear from them

"We’ve debated back and forth about it, but we have both come to the conclusion that Jessie will come here to live on a tee asped as my dad continued, "We can better control the privacy between you by having hiuess Under no circumstance will there be any hanky panky in this house This is about helping Jessie be safe, not abouthim in here so you play footsie under the table or even much more than that If we find out there has been any inappropriate contact between you, he will have to leave iot up and ran to my dad first I threw my arms around him and said, "I understand" I looked at o of everything she knew about Jessie "Thank you, Mo as I live"

I turned back to et hiency, but he didn’t understand the dire straits of Jessie’s situation "Claire, it’s almost nine o’clock and we need to talk to him about this first We can’t just show up on his doorstep and tell an eighteen year-old boy to pack his stuff because we’re there to rescue hiht because he wants out of there so badly" I started to cry because I felt the urgent need for Jessie to be out of that dangerous place "Please, Dad What if soht? You didn’t see how bad he was beaten last night It took ether You know more than all of us how bad it had to be for thatit over, I struck again with, "Please, Dad I won’t sleep tonight anyway knowing he’s still in that place"

My ave in "Okay, but you’re not going out there by yourself I’ with you"

I was flooded with relief "Thank you Thank you so ot his keys

I tried to call Jessie several tietting an answer I hope that isn’t a bad sign"