No Regrets

Chapter 7

Nine Years Later

     The crowd cheered, shouted, and clapped. But all I could focus on, all I could see was the brunette girl with a bun, in front of me. She threw a punch at me, and I dodged it carefully. Knowing she already knew my next move, I had to switch it up and move straight down and wait for her arm to move past my head. I stood up, seeing her shocked face, and moved my arm up and towards her face. I uppercut her chin and it sent her head flying upwards. That was enough for her get knocked out and fall to the ground. I rolled my shoulders back as the referee went down next to her and began counting.

     The round was over, she didn't stand back up. The lights which had been shining brightly, hiding the crowd from me during the fight, became dimmer to my eyes. And the crowd moved out of the shadows. The crowd was jumping and cheering loudly. I scanned the room and oriented myself to where mother was sitting. She was clapping and then cupped her hands around her mouth screaming, "Yeah Margaret! That's my child!"

     The referee, once he noticed Samantha was getting up, grabbed both of our hands to announce the winner. My black boxing gloves felt looser now that the sweat had built up. He grabbed my hand and my glove slipped up a bit, exposing my sweaty wrist.

Both of our hands were by the referee's sides. I looked at mother and closed my eyes, hoping I'd be the champion. These were the finals, whoever won this match would take home the trophy. If I won, it meant no more boxing classes and I could add another fighting sport to my list. Right now, I had completed Brazilian Jui Jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts. I wanted to become an expert in each self-defense class and for me, becoming an expert meant going onto the championships and winning. Losing meant I had to wait another year and practice before I could re-enter and win for sure that time. At first, I had joined Brazilian Jui Jitsu per my father's request and my wanting to protect mother from any harm. But then I realized, I enjoyed fighting and competing and I began to take other classes for self-defense. I was still doing this to protect myself and mother from a man who was far in my past. I never thought about Liam and I didn't care where he was today, if he was in jail, homeless, or was living his life like normal. All I cared about was my family, protecting my mother and making sure father stayed at my side.

     The referee's hand shot up in the air announcing the winner. The crowd cheered much louder now that the winner was announced. My hand was up in the air, and I raised the other. Samantha's face dropped as she realized she had lost.

     I began to scan the room quickly; I was not able to do this before from being so busy with mother's support. But now that I had won, I could search for him. And there he was. Father was standing on the third and highest row, perked up straight like always. Wearing his fully black suit, with a stoic look on his face. He saw me staring at him and clapped quietly. I smiled at him and he didn't, instead, his eyes showed a bit of glimmer and that was that. Then looked back at mother who was in full support of me.

     She was now running to me, hands in the air, getting ready to embrace me in a victorious hug. "Congrats Margaret!" She screamed and embraced me tightly and I hugged her back and tightened my grip. 

     "Thank you, mom!" I closed my eyes, then opened them again to tell mother, "I need to pick up my trophy!" I was beyond excited to have won this trophy; two years of hard work and I was getting my due recognition for it. 

     She stopped hugging me, "Of course. Come to the car when you're done. We're going out to eat for this special occasion!" She waved at me and began to walk outside.

      I went over to my coach who handed me my trophy and congratulated me for winning. She knew this would be my last day of boxing as I had expressed to her a month before the competition began, so, she gave me a hug and wished me the best of luck for the next self-defense class I took. I said my goodbyes to her and left her to find father. Father and I, after he told me his goodbye and explained to me how he would be far off in the distance wherever I was, had a lot of changes in our relationship. Ever since I grew a bit older and mother left me to explore the world on my own without her being there, I had begun meeting with father. Normally, it would be at the park, and we would be able to talk and walk around for hours before mother called me and would tell me she was heading over to pick me up. I always used the excuse of being there on my own to sit and walk with my thoughts. I never wanted to lie to her to point I brought others to my lie, so I made up the excuses of liking to be all by lonesome when in reality, was going out to meet my father.