Dusk

Chapter 11 -

Right, 3 more hours till the fight. It was currently 4:30 that's enough time to do exactly what I want. As always everything was working out just as I had planned. Some call this kind of life boring, I see what they mean of course. I've never just woken up one morning and been pushed onto a plane and told we'll be visiting a distant or relative or came home one day to find a moving van. That never happens in my life. And I certainly like it that way. I can prepare for everything in my life, and who wouldn't want that?

So as per planned, I ran from one side to the other of the sports hall and then completed 10 press ups, 10 sit ups, 10 press ups, 10 burpees, run from one side of the hall to the other and continued this routine.

I hated running but for some reason when I ran in the hall, I never wore my earphones. The sound of my thumping footsteps through my trainers echoed from corner to corner; and I liked it. I can't say it's soothing or relaxing or the sound of the world's greatest song, it was just nice to listen to.

All of a sudden after taking a deep breath during a water break, the ache crashed down on me. My arms felt like sacks of sands and my stomach hurt all over; it was times like this that I could actually compare period pains to muscle pain. Girls would hit us if they found out.

*

The crowd that surrounded the two-foot raised flooring had almost bored expressions on their faces and their arms folded in front of their chest as their anticipation only rose as more time passed.

"It seems we have chicken in our midst." I mutter but still a few on-lookers hear and chuckle. It is then after looking across the crowd that there standing far away so the spotlight shining down on the raised floor couldn't reach onto their faces. Why are they so far away? Not the best view for a fight.

One of shadow masked men stood braver than the others, I bet if I could see him, he'd be smirking. The dark figure began become larger and larger, he was coming closer. My stare on him drew attention of others as they started to look back at the others. The crowd behind him followed in his footsteps coming closer.

The shadowed figure finally walked up the stairs. This put all my non reacting skills to the test as I recognised him as a senior back when I was sophomore. His eyes however didn't show any such thing, and there's no way he'd mastered how to not show his reactions as a memory of him finding out his girlfriend sent nudes to someone else while she was dating him.

He was shocked and angry to the core.

The rubber like floor was covered from corner to corner in dirt footprints. Splotches of blood littered around too, the normal of what you'd expect from fights.

This is the first fight of the night, meaning it wasn't a full room nor were people cheering or shouting at this point. Some just waking up or still tired from their day jobs.

My mind kept repeating the image of Lewis's look of utter anger at his girlfriend, at the time I thought nothing of him in a boxing way, he was tall and lanky. No where near the build he'd need at that time. But now it was clear that he'd done his training, he wasn't as tall anymore only just an inch taller than myself.

Lewis looked eager to start, like he'd just spent the last ten minutes before 'psyching himself up'. This must be one of his firsts. With the look of smugness in his eyes I assumed he knew who I was, he wants to take me down.

That's fine by me. He's probably got tons of bets on himself, and with the smiling group of boys behind him (one of them wearing the colleges name and logo) it was safe to name them his friends. Their smiling lips said they were happy to be here but their weary eyes whispered fear.

All the while I was assessing them, Spencer was shouting me and Lewis's names and the bets at this point; I kept my face blank, not wanting to make him think I was scared of how this fights was or that I thought it would be easy. It was just always best to be emotionless. When Spencer called my opponent's name, his friends wooed and cheered for all they could. Poor them.

His new found muscles didn't scare me, he wasn't that big nor did he look like he weighed much; I was also very grateful that he was definitely an actual fight, nothing like the last one.

With the rush of him bumping his fully coated boxing gloves still proved how 'pumped up' he felt towards this fight. Waiting, just a second before I bumped mine, just to tease him a little, perhaps think I was hesitant about fighting him. Which in no way I am.

His feet stepped towards me before I had a chance to advance on him. Great, he's cocky and smug., everything I hate about humans.

He's going to kick.

And sure enough, before the thought even finished mentally being said, he did. My defence instincts were quick to block back my right forearm just to have his leg swing back to the ground from my side. The corner of my eye caught a glimpse of his left moving to stable his movement, he's bad on balance. That's one weakness down.

If he knew who I was he'd also know I often start with a kick in these types of matches, the smug smile stayed purposely on his lips. I hate it, get rid of it.

With lightning speed my right arm shot out again to hit him straight on his cheekbone, his head knocked back, not by much but it still did. Lewis's eyes went back to similar look of that one memory I have of him, however, his friends didn't seem fazed by the fact that he payed no movement in trying to block a face hit. They should be if they have any common sense.

His muscles finally tensed and it was then I noticed how much of intense training he must do, he wasn't just built in the arms and chest, his legs were huge too, like two separate tree trunks. Another spark of anger gleamed in his eyes when he shifted back into stance, only this time his arms raised higher.

Lewis' height was none much taller than myself. Myself being 5'5 and him an estimated 5'9