I'm Your Who-Now?

"poor bag" ~20

I didn't answer Gray as I gave him a small smile. I think he could see the hurt in my eyes but he didn't say anything which I was honestly thankful for. I didn't want to talk about it right now, I just wanted to punch something. I turned to face Gray, "Do you know where there's a gym close by?" He looked at me questioningly, but nodded nonetheless. 

We didn't speak the entire ride, besides when Gray would tell me where to turn. About 15 minutes later we arrived at a local gym. I didn't bother to look at the name of it as I quickly unbuckled and went into the building, I knew Gray was following me so I kept walking. I went up to the receptionist person at the entrance. When she looked up,  I immediately asked her if they had any punching bags. She gestured to the side, showing me a small corner dedication to punching bags, gloves, and other sparring wear. I thanked her and made my way towards the corner.

"Rosie, are you ok?" I jumped at how close he suddenly was. I glanced at him and gave a small, tight nod. Clearly showing I was not. "I know this isn't my place, but give Nate sometime. He'll tell you when he's ready. I promise he's not trying to hurt you." I looked at him when I noticed the gentle and caring tone in his voice. Then my eyes widened as I fully processed the words.

"Do you mean to tell me you know what he's keeping from me?!" I asked him in a deadly calm manner. He visibly gulped and glanced around. After a few more seconds of uneasiness he looked back at me with a new found confidence, even though it was clearly a facade. "I do know what he's keeping from you. I accidentally found out when we were getting off the plane a few weeks ago." I nodded slightly, as I remembered the intense conversation they were having when I entered the bathroom of doom. I looked at him again and debated on whether or not I should ask the question I'm dying to ask.

"Can you tell me what he's hiding?" I mumbled quietly as I was glaring down at the floor mats of the gym. 

"I'm sorry Love. He needs to tell you, it's not my place. I do know he never meant to hurt you, he's just nervous and scared." I looked back up to meet his warm, comforting eyes. I huffed but nodded anyway.

"Ok." I turned to the box that contained all the sparring gloves. I put a pair on and turned to the punching bag hanging down from a hook on the ceiling. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, willing myself to just let everything go and focus on punching the stuffing out of this bag. When I opened my eyes, I got into my fighting stance and thought about what combination to throw. My kicks were more powerful than my punches, so I wanted to do more of a kick combo to release more anger. I thought about it for a few more seconds before decided on a front roundhouse kick, then a rear one, followed by a front hook punch and a rear straight punch, then throwing in a few back kicks or turning roundhouse kicks. I took another deep breath and did the first kick in my self made combo. When the bag began swaying, I was proud of myself for not losing my touch, even though I quit self defense years ago. I continued on with my combo, kick, kick, hook, punch, kick, kick. Adding a few extra punches or kicks along the way. As I kept going with my routine, my moves became more powerful as I let my muscle memory take over. After I did the combo a good amount of times, I decided to take a breather and go get some water. I still had anger left within me, but I felt a lot better after hitting the bag a few times. When I turned to walk to the water fountain, a hand abruptly grabbed me and pulled me back into a hug. Out of instinct, and the adrenaline I still felt coursing through my veins, I prepared to fight back. Until the amazing smell of trees after it rains invaded my senses. I relaxed into Grayson, allowing him to comfort me as my thirst for water increasingly grew. After a few minutes I freed myself from his embrace and went to the water fountain, gulping down as much water as I could to fulfill my quench.

"Damn Love. I didn't know you knew how to fight." I looked back at Gray after wiping my mouth. I chuckled and answered back. "It's not fighting. It's self defense." His mouth formed into an o shape. I chuckled again. Since I was still in my school clothes, I was getting hot pretty quickly, but I didn't want to leave cause I was enjoying getting back into my self defense routine. I told Gray I'd be back and ran to grab my volleyball bag from the car. I went inside the gym's bathroom to change into my volleyball spandex and sports bra, not bothering with a shirt since it was too hot. I was just thankful that other women also had similar workout wear as me, or I would've felt insanely awkward. I walked back towards Gray after I dropped my bag back inside my car. I resumed my fighting stance and began another combination of punches and kicks, fully aware of Gray checking me out. I blushed a bit but ultimately decided to ignore him since I didn't really care. I was more focused on making sure my technique was correct. I was so engrossed with my self-training that I didn't realize someone was walking over to me.