He does, but he's not what you expected.

You graduation went off without a hitch. After your mom's pep talk, you felt like you could conquer the world. When they called your name, you walked up on that stage and strolled across like you owned it. You caught sight of your mother, right where she said she'd be. She was beaming and waving while taking picture after picture on her phone. You accepted your diploma and a few awards. All in all you'd done pretty well in school after Chris went away.

After the ceremony you mingled with your friends outside the school discussing plans for college. Edgar and Molly have been your best friends since daycare. You grew up together. Edgar is a little over six feet tall and pretty big, but pudgy. He's always been physically awkward and a huge geek. On occasion, he's been known to curse in fictional languages. His long, brown hair is messy and unkempt and he's sweating in the late afternoon sun. Molly is more of a computer nerd. She built a rig with her dad when she was twelve and never looked back. Before high school, she was skinny and undefined. A wiry creature hunched over keyboards with a headset that seemed adorably large on her small form. Now she had bloomed into a real queen of the nerds with fiery red hair cut short to maximize cuteness as well as functionality and big, expressive eyes the color of emeralds. Her body is still thin and petite, but fit from her habit of jogging regularly. Her breasts are perfect handfuls, not small but not too big with modest but well formed hips to match. You've always wished something would happen between you and Molly but it just never does. Maybe you're too afraid to jeopardize your friendship. You're shy around girls usually, but Molly has always been different.

"I'm with you Quinton" Edgar says. "I'm taking two years at the community college, save money." You didn't really need to save the money, but you and your mom were frugal to a fault sometimes, out of habit from the old days.

"I got my scholarship!" Molly says with a squeal and a cute little jump.

"Congrats!" You and Edgar reply and she hugs you both. You can smell her hair, like Lilacs you think. You savor the moment as much as you can before she pulls away. Except she doesn't. She seems to tense up and freeze, her arms wrapped tightly around you as her chin rests on your shoulder. You're not gonna complain you suppose, but you realize something is wrong when you see your mother rushing over from the group of parents talking together a little ways off.

"Guy'cha" you hear Edgar mutter. You know what's wrong. It's him, he's behind you, and now everyone you care about is gonna watch you die. Surprisingly, you accept this with a certain zen-like detachment until you hear is voice. The sound of it freezes you and makes your heart skips a beat. You feel numb in places as your blood rushes around your body. Sheer panic descends and you find yourself rooted in place. But the voice isn't angry, it's... diplomatic? Apologetic even?

"Woah guys look, I ain't here to fuck with y'all." You turn in a confused haze. You don't know exactly what you expected, but it's not this. You certainly foresaw a lot of yelling and pain and the almost gentle nature of the voice you'd once heard nothing but sadistic glee in as it taunted you during all those moments of pure helplessness threw you for a rather large loop. You see Chris now. He's tall as ever, with long limbs bursting with tight muscle. He was pretty ripped before he went to prison, now he looks jacked as fuck. But a lot more about him seems to have changed. He's not much older than you or Edgar but you appear as children compared with him. His face is grizzled and manly with a strong jaw. His dark eyes that once held nothing but malevolent aggression are no less fiery but it's controlled now, and sharpened with many rough lessons learnt in the years since you last saw him. He has a black tattoo you're sure he must've got in prison running from his wrist up his left arm and a scar he didn't have before running along his right cheek. Far from making him ugly, this seems only to add to his rugged, capable look.

"What do you want!" Your mother yells as she arrives, placing herself between you and Chris. Her blue eyes shine with anger as she moves to protect you. "If you're going to threaten my son you better think about your parole and fuck off!"

Chris raises his hands a little higher as he says "No! No Ma'am!"

Ma'am?! You think, Since when does he talk like this? He's never had anything but contempt for your mom, always talking about how he'd love to fuck her just like most of the other boys except Edgar who always cared enough about you to keep it to himself.

"Look, I'm not here to cause trouble, I'm here to apologize." You almost faint, having clearly been transported to some kind of fucked up alternate reality.

"What!?" Your mother is evidently just as shocked as you are. She remembers cleaning you up after fights, well more like beatings, after school and long, exasperated conversations with school officials who could never do enough to keep you safe. She hates Chris at least as much as you do.

"I'm here to apologize. I did fucked up shit to your son and his friends, if you'll pardon my language Ma'am."

Seriously who the fuck is this? You scream inside yourself.

"I'm not justifying anything by saying this, but I was young, I had my own issues, and, frankly, a bit of a problem. I say that with no humor now." He says despite a disarming grin which appears on his face in light of the reason for his long absence. "Inside I did a lot of thinking and I hope growing. I'm not in a program or anything anymore but I'm chilled out a lot these days. Got myself a degree while I was in there and I just wanted to look you and your son and all y'all I hurt in the eye and say I'm genuinely sorry for the way I was before. I don't expect forgiveness, you have every right to despise me until the end of your days, but I recognize you deserve at least that much."

The four of you are in complete shock. Chris was always gruff and inarticulate. Relying on brute physical strength and a certain animal charm to get by. Now he stood before you carefully apologizing in the most polite terms possible given the circumstances. Being used to tense moments in court, your mother recovers first.

"Well that's certainly not what I was expecting to hear from you." She says, a little edge still in her voice.

"I understand." Chris said, almost sadly. "The way I was before I bet y'all thought I was just evil all the way down. Just coming by to ruin your day for old time's sake."

"Can hardly blame us!" Molly pipes up from behind you and your mother. You're still rooted in fear, still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"I know. I'm sorry, look" He digs in his pockets, producing a simple business card. "I got a Kinesiology degree inside, and a personal trainer's certificate. It's not much but if any of you can find it in you to forgive me and wanna get healthier and what not, my services are free of charge, it's all I've got to offer. I learned to care how people see me when I was in prison I guess and I just wanted to let you know I've tried to change. I'm staying away from all the bullshit I was in before and my uncle's renting me a little place he owns to meet clients at 'til I can get on my feet and maybe get my own gym going one day." He extends the card but your mother doesn't budge. "Look, I understand if you hate me until the end of time, if you never wanna see me again, lose the card. I just wanna try to make amends and move on with my own life too." Hesitantly still, she takes the card shoving it quickly inside her purse.

"Ok, you've said your peace. Thank you for the apology, I'm sure that took a lot. Now please, leave." She says with finality causing Chris to raise his hands once more.

"Of course, please enjoy your day. I'm sorry again for interrupting you." And with that, he turns and walks away.